BREAZE

The approval of the Chepstowe Wind Farm development is a fantastic win for BREAZE, Friends of the Earth and other environmental groups who campaigned hard for it to go ahead.

Well done to all those BREAZE members who joined in on this action and wrote letters in support of this proposal. By joining in with hundreds of other Victorians, we've really made a difference!

Planning Minister Matthew Guy announced that the development would go ahead after an investigation run by Planning Department staff. As it contravened none of the state government's proposed new guidelines for wind farms we can only surmise there weren't any reasons for him to turn the proposal down.

The fact that a steady stream of correspondence continued to pour into his office would certainly have also been a factor.

It's a great result for our area and will further establish Ballarat as a hub for wind energy in the region.

Oddly, Guy states "This approval responds to concerns raised about potential impacts to local Brolga populations and proposes to locate all potentially hazardous power cables associated with the turbines underground.''

As it turns out, the powerlines were planned to be underground long before he called in the application so it's not clear quite why he is taking credit for this.

Anyway, all's well that ends well. The big questions now are how Mr. Guy plans to implement his government's new planning guidelines around wind farms. Will residents within 2km have a veto? (I'm guessing he's not planning to allow residents with 2km of the proposed Anglesea coal mine expansion the same veto...) Will he kill off community wind farms by sticking to no-go areas in the Macedon Ranges and elsewhere?

While Mr. Guy has clearly done the right thing in this instance, the Baillieu government will have to do alot more than approve a 3 turbine proposal to reassure the community that wind energy continues to have a future in Victoria.