Challenges arise as renewable energy gathers speed in country NSW (2024)

A wind farm that was proposed for north-west New South Wales is one of many that may never be operational, according to an energy expert.

Ark Energy, which was behind a bid to build a 55-turbine Doughboy Wind Farm, 50 kilometres east of Armidale, said in a statement last month the decision to withdraw the project was made "following a change of mind" from some of the nine landowners whose properties took in the project's boundaries.

"Ark Energy maintains that the site, located within the NSW New England Renewable Energy Zone, is an excellent location for wind energy generation, and may reconsider the project with a different design at a later date, and pending further consultation," the statement read.

It was an unusual situation, according to Clean Energy Council director of energy generation, Nicholas Aberle.

"I haven't heard of too many instances where landholders have changed their minds," he said.

According to a guide for landholders produced by the NSW Farmers Association, there were requirements for developers to protect good farming land and sensitive habitat for wildlife.

Dr Aberle said there were many projects that did not come to fruition.

"Only 60 per cent of those [renewable projects] that do get approved by the government go through to construction," he said.

Scale of development worries farmers

The project withdrawal came as rural communities in the five Renewable Energy Zones (REZ) in New South Wales grappled with a wave of wind and solar developments.

The topic dominated the NSW Farmers conference in Sydney last month, where Conservation and Resource Management Committee chair Bronwyn Petrie highlighted the number of wind and solar proposals in her region.

"The Mid Western Council mayor has got 40 developments across his desk at the moment … and there are already 11 approved," Ms Petrie said.

Commercial arrangements were confidential, but energy analyst David Leitch said the industry standard for payments to landholders was about $35,000 per year, per turbine.

That would equate to about $1.9 million annually across the nine landholders for the proposed Doughboy project.

Mr Leitch said projects in other parts of NSW were proceeding with much less opposition, and communities that opposed them could miss out.

"Residents in areas where renewables are proposed need to think long and hard about what they're throwing away," he said.

Sharing the spoils

There have been calls from farmers for neighbouring landholders and communities to receive a bigger share of the payments.

Councils have been able to set up voluntary planning agreements where developers of large-scale renewable energy projects could disperse funds to the community.

In Dubbo, Squadron Energy and Dubbo Regional Council have agreed to a public-private partnership to build a new wastewater treatment facility that would benefit the wider community.

New South Wales planning minister Paul Scully said the government was charging renewable energy companies an access fee to establish a community benefits fund, the operation of which would be finalised later this year.

Big impact on small towns

Population growth and the ability of some communities to cope was highlighted at the conference by Coolah farmer Will Arnott, who said there were more than 300 proposed turbines within 5km of his western NSW town.

"And then you go down the road to Dunedoo and there's a whole lot of wind farms and solar farms and associated infrastructure down there as well," he said.

"In the construction phase alone they're anticipating there will be 5,000 employees to build this infrastructure."

Mr Arnott said that would more than double the area's population.

"Coolah has one doctor, Merriwa has one doctor, and we've got an extra 5,000 people," he said.

Mr Arnott said he wanted the NSW government to assess the cumulative impact of all the developments.

"It's the impact on roads, on medical services, fire services, the environmental impact and the social dislocation and divide that is caused by these projects," he said.

"How is that going to be handled?"

Renewables on farmland

Merriwa farmer Jane Heggarty said there was a lack of maps to show how much farming land was being used for renewables.

"Communities cannot make evidence-based decisions because they do not know all the impacts across all aspects of the development," she said.

Mr Scully said mapping was being developed by the NSW Department of Primary Industry and Regional Development but was yet to be finalised.

He said based on figures from the Australian Energy Market Operator, NSW would need about 20,000 megawatts of power by 2050.

He said the amount of farming land that would require for renewables developments was not significant.

"That's about 40,000ha of land, or just 0.6 per cent of rural land in NSW," Mr Scully said.

Projects must be viable

Dr Aberle was concerned changes to government policies would increase the amount project developers had to pay to councils, landholders and communities.

"You're talking several hundreds of millions of dollars over the life of these projects and there's not too many industries making that kind of cash injection into regional communities," he said.

Dr Aberle said renewable projects were not the money spinners that many people thought, and rising costs would affect viability.

"It can be quite difficult to get a renewable energy project to stack up, and if you start overlaying additional requirements then that can tip a project over the edge from being viable to being not viable," he said.