7/27/2019 Feature Story & Update

1/1

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