Communities & the Wind Energy Industry

Grant for guidelines to site wind farms & assess landcsape values

The siting of wind farms is a national issue facing many communities yet there are no national guidelines on how to assess landscape values or the potential landscape impacts of wind farms says Simon Molesworth, Chairman of the Australian Council of National Trusts (ACNT), in the August 06 ‘Trust News’.

Currently
Mandatory assessments generally take into account only environmental impacts and Indigenous values. In some states landscape values can be considered, but the ‘difficult to assess’ intangible heritage values – social and aesthetic – are generally not required to be considered and assessed.

ACNT & the Australian Wind Energy Association (Auswind) to jointly develop guidelines
The Commonwealth Government and the Australian Greenhouse Office are supporting further work in this sensitive area with a ‘major grant’ which is intended to provide a sound, transparent, nationally applicable framework for:

• assessing landscape values;
• site impact assessment and mitigation;
• community consultation procedures.

This year long work will involve intensive and extensive consultation with communities, landscape experts and local governments across Australia to determine a methodology that will work in any landscape.

The guidelines will be based on the internationally recognised principles laid down in the Burra Charter, which defines the basic principles and procedures to be followed in the conservation of heritage places which can be applied to:

• a monument;
• a courthouse;
• a garden;
• a shell midden;
• a rock art site;
• a cottage;
• a road;
• a mining or archaeological site;
• a whole district or a region.

Simon Molesworth concludes his article in Trust News saying:
“It is in Australia’s long-term environmental interest to ensure that renewable energy generation is supported, and this project will facilitate the sensitive and appropriate siting of wind energy development.

The immediate focus of the project is to strengthen current Auswind Best Practice Guidelines, the very guidelines state and territory environment ministers recently endorsed. So, while it may appear that this project will commence within a climate of controversy, following the state and territory ministers’ rejection of the federal minister’s call for a national code for wind farms, we hope there will be strong cooperation from state and territory agencies for the project’s work.

It will be beholden on us all to convince others, especially the state and territory governments, that this project has real merit and deserves support. The National Trust supports the use of renewable energy such as wind farms and I look forward to keeping you updated on our progress as this project unfolds.”

What are your experiences? Do you want to contribute to the guidelines?