Feature Story & Update
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Transcript of Feature Story & Update
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7/27/2019 Feature Story & Update
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new england
Tell us about the New Eng-
land Wind Committee ...
New England Wind is led
by a consortium of partners
and professionals. Developing
a community windfarm has
quite a broad range of requirements ~ wind
power, engineering, finance, capital raising,
business management, research, planning,
education and more! The consortium is a multi-
person-party approach to better achieve this
range of requirements for the project.
Stephen Gow has recently joined the consor-
tium. The other members are Dr Chris Blanksby,
Elizabeth Gardiner, Patsy Asch, Andy Cavanagh-
Downs, Bar Finch, Paul Cruickshank and Adam
Blakester.
How will the New England benefit from a
wind farm?
There truly are big benefits both for
ndividual shareholders, as well as the wider
community. Looking at HepburnWind, which
s Australia's first community wind farm, helps
show this.
Hepburn's two wind turbines generated
10,000,000 kWH of clean and renewable
electricity in their first year. This is about as
much used by 1,300 - 1,500 homes! They are
now providing community grants, which topped
$40,000 this year. The project employs four staff
and has trained up three dozen core volunteers
in areas like project management, finance, com-
munications and engagement. Plus, by owning
their electricity infrastructure, they keep tens
of millions of dollars circulating in their local
economy instead of being paid in electricity bills
to national and international companies.
New England Wind is likely to be about
three-times the size of HepburnWind equal to
about half the residential electricity use in the
Tablelands.
Has there been any further development
on the proposed location?
Readers may recall that we found out earlier
this year that our proposed location of Wood-
ville East proved to be unviable due to the cost
of connecting to the current electricity grid.
This was very disappointing, to say the least
especially after several years of work by quite a
lot of people.
However, New England Wind has always
had back-up sites. We are in negotiation on a
new site right now, which is looking promis-
ing; however, these negotiations are sensitive
and confidential until a successful agreement is
reached.
What is the timeline looking like from
2013 to date of completion?
Our priority right now is to finalise the
site negotiations. The next step will be wind
monitoring and analysis, which in turn will en-
able us to start building the wind power and
financial models.
Once we get to this point we will start fund-
raising to complete a full technical feasibility
study in readiness for planning approvals.
In broad terms, and all going really well, we
could be starting this study in 1-2 years time
and then raising funds to build the wind farm
in 3 - 4 years from today.
As you can see, it is a very big job. We've
done more than $300,000 worth of work on
the project to date. While most of this has
been done by pro-bono and volunteer contri-
butions, we are very grateful for the funding
received from the NSW Office of Environment
and Heritage, NSW Office of Fair Trading, The
Earth Welfare Foundation, New England Mu-
tual, Sustainable Living Armidale and Starfish
Enterprises.
Where to from here?
It is really important that we keep build-
ing community interest, understanding and
support. A community wind farm requires this
focus at the same time as doing the technical
side of things really well.
New England Wind has 848 supporters and
had more than 50,000 connections last yearthough its website, newsletters, Facebook
and media. We of course welcome more! So
please sign up via our website or Facebook
Page.
Also, we're negotiating pro-bono legal
support to incorporate the Cooperative for
the project. Once this is in place, we will be
inviting membership.
How can the community get involved and
support the project?
We have seats available on our Wind Farms
Tour from Armidale to Canberra by coach
from 7 - 10 November. This is a great
tunity to learn first hand about mode
farms, plus do some sight seeing and
some fun.
We are also seeking interest from vo
teers to help out with our new Comm
Wind Power information centre. This
professional mobile exhibit for events,
and the like. The volunteers will make
difference to the project and learn a g
about wind power, renewable energy
community education and engageme
Lastly, New England Wind is registe
New England Mutual's Community Pa
ship program. We would really apprec
being nominated by current or new m
to be their 'community partner'.
How can the community find out m
about New England Wind?
More details about everything we h
spoken about can be found on our w
at www.newenglandwind.coop this
where people can subscribe to our ne
and become a supporter.
Our Facebook Page at www.facebo
NewEnglandWind is where we post m
frequent news and people can ask qu
and comment on the project.
Lastly, we can of course be contacte
our website or by emailing info@newe
wind.coop
Is there anything else you would ladd?
Only that we are incredibly excited,
sometimes exhausted, by this opportu
create our very own New England win
There are several commercial wind
already approved to be built in the Ne
land, and several more in the pipeline
However the difference about New
Wind is we are the ones creating it, in
that most benefits the community, an
will be us who owns those benefits!
Thanks Adam.
focusinterview.
n e w e n g l a n d
New England Wind are incredibly excited, and sometimes
exhausted, by this opportunity to create our very own New Englan
wind farm. FOCUS caught up with the committee to learn more ...
a d a m b l a k e s t e r
Infigen | Woodlawn Win dfarm