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: Cooma CEFE

Safety fears delay school wind farm plan

Posted Thu Nov 27, 2008 2:07pm AEDT

ABC web site

A Monaro school will have to wait a little longer before it can install its own mini-wind farm.

The Nimmitabel Public School has received a $9,000 community grant and a further $4,000 in fund-raising for the project, estimated to cost about $17,000.

But the Education Department says it is worried about the structure's safety.

The company given the job of installing the wind turbine, Pyramid Power, says the department's backflip has come as a surprise.

Company spokesman Steve Garret says safety is not an issue.

"Those reasons I think are varied reasons, but the questions of safety, I think, are stalling questions because of all the equipment that needs to go into schools needs to come under the engineering, they have to come under the licensing, they have to come under complete Australian standards. It has as much risk as a flag pole in a school or a light post," he said.

Where's our turbine?

SONIA BYRNES COOMA-MONARO EXPRESS

25/11/2008 11:00:00 AM

NIMMITABEL Public School's hopes of joining the ever-growing number of schools across Australia to have a functioning wind turbine have been all but dashed after the NSW Department of Education said it would not allow the project to go ahead at this time because of safety concerns.

The six metre high wind turbine was to be the parting gift of school principal Jo-Anne Jones, who is set to retire at the end of the year.

"The school is only open 202 days of the year," Ms Jones said.

"The rest of the time the turbine could be pumping electricity back into the grid at a huge reduction in power costs to the department."

The school received an ANZ Seeds of Renewal grant of close to $9,000 to kick-start the project and raised a further $4,000 of the estimated $17,000 total for the project.

Managing director of the Pambula-based installer, Pyramid Power Company, Stephen Garrett said he had received about half a dozen requests from schools in the south east region that wanted to put up wind turbines.

"We were ready to lay the foundations for Nimmitabel last week," Mr Garrett said.

"Tathra has put an application in, but we were hoping Nimmitabel would be the first for our region."

The NSW Department of Education and Training responded on Friday saying that a final decision regarding the installation of a wind turbine at Nimmitabel Public School had not been made.

"The Department has asked the school to obtain further information about the safety aspects of the wind turbine from the manufacturer," a department spokesperson said.

"Once this has been obtained, the department's assets management unit will be in a better position to make a decision regarding the installation of the wind turbine.

The spokesperson said the department supported local initiatives to make schools more environmentally sustainable however, the safety of staff, students and the school community was an overriding concern.

Central coast manufacturer of the proposed wind turbine, David Bartley of Soma Power has been manufacturing wind turbines since 1995 and said he had never heard of any one being killed or seriously injured by any brand of wind generator in Australia.

We have the solutions

One of the strong messages highlighted by Dr Mark Diesendorf (Uni of NSW) at the Monaro/ Snowy Mountains Renewable Energy Forum held in Berridale on Nov 6 08 was that we do have the necessary technologies available right now to reduce Australia’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 50% within just a few decades given social and political will to make it happen. Dr Mike Kelly (Federal Member for Eden-Monaro) agreed that action on climate change was necessary and praised his electorate for its forward thinking and action on the issue so far.

This praise is well justified as illustrated by Philippa Rowland who informed the forum that our region has procured $100,000 in Green Precinct funding for Clean Energy For Eternity to conduct a feasibility study to establish Australia’s first community owned 2MW solar farm in the Bega Valley. This farm will not only move the Bega Valley shire towards achieving a 50% reduction in GHG emissions, but also provide an investment opportunity in the SE region by prospective investors from all over Australia.

The forum also heard that wind power has the potential to provide great ecological and economic benefits for our region due to the availability of this resource on Monaro. As an example, CEFE’s founder Dr Matthew Nott pointed out that the proposed Boco Rock windfarm would generate a total investment of $20 million over 25 years as well as contribute significantly to our region’s ability to meet a 50/50 by 2020 target.

But the possibilities don’t end there, as David Shapiro (Future Energy) illustrated with his presentation about the (smaller scale) Hepburn Community Wind-farm in Victoria which has now launched its prospectus and is accepting investment by shareholders, thanks to the commitment and vision of a regional community willing to take leadership and create local solutions. As an electricity producer, rather than consumer this will be one rural community that has turned the tables on rising electricity costs.

Real solutions that reduce GHG emissions and safeguard our children’s future ecologically, socially and economically are needed to tackle climate change, and the forum demonstrated that we are well placed to do so. Look out in future CEFE columns for more detailed information on Community Renewable Energy Farms.

Antia Brademanns

Money for jam

: Dr Matthew Nott, Hon Mike Kelly and Dr Mark Diesendorf at the Berridale forum 6/11/08

At the Berridale climate change forum on 6/11/08, it was pointed out that the proposed Bocco wind farm would inject $20 million into the local economy over its 25 year lifespan.

A strong objection was made, stating that the majority of that money would be going to only 10 farmers.

Wind Prospects, the company planning to develop the 75 turbine wind farm at Bocco will put $75 000 into local community projects each year. This money goes into a trust account, and is administered by local trusties. The Cooma community decides where that money goes.

Next year CEFE are hoping to form a partnership with the Rural Fire Service, and start getting fire stations set up with solar panels. I’m confident that the RFS would be happy to help fundraise, and if you were able to inject an additional $75 000 into that effort, I reckon we could easily get 5 or 6 fire stations set up with solar panels each year.

That’s just an example of the sort of thing that could be done with $75 000 coming into the community each year.

The objection made at Berridale was correct. In addition to the $75 000 going directly to the community each year, land owners with wind turbines on their property will be paid $10 000 per year per turbine. For a 75 turbine wind farm, that amounts to $750 000 a year, and that money would go to the 10 farmers in the Bocco region.

Matthew Nott

Cooma Monaro Targets

On 8 August 07, a public meeting was held at the Monaro High School in Cooma, to discuss climate change, and a strategic approach to facing the challenges that it will bring.

The meeting was organised

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Cooma-Monaro Council response to 50/50 by 2020

On Monday 13/8/07, the Cooma-Monaro Council discussed the 50/50 by 2020 targets that had been voted on by a large majority at the public meeting on 8/8. The Council are clearly concerned about the cost to rate payers, and want further information before considering the targets.
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