Blot on the landscape or genuine energy?

A COMMUNITY group of concerned citizens has formed in the wake of Snowy River Shire Council approving a development application for a 16-turbine wind farm at Snowy Plain.

The Brothers and the area between Cooma and Nimmitabel have been named as potential sites for wind farms.

The group is called Renewable Energy and Landscape for the Monaro, or REAL Monaro.

Jim Litchfield, from REAL Monaro, said wind farms could be the most significant change to this landscape since white settlement.

"The fundamental issue is they don't make a mark on the greenhouse and they ruin the landscape," Mr Litchfield said.

Mr Litchfield said wind farms do not reduce greenhouse emissions because, due to the erratic and unpredictable nature of the wind, you need back-up power at all times and you cannot turn coal fired power stations on and off.

Tim Le Roy, who has been fighting wind farms in Victoria for years, said that it takes four to eight hours to "ramp up" coal fired generators and wind can fluctuate by 50 per cent within 60 seconds.

Electricity generated by wind turbines can't be stored, so coal power stations need to be kept running in case the wind stops blowing.

The wind farm companies say a single turbine can power so many houses and is equivalent to taking so many cars off the road, but they never mention the need for back-up power, Libby Litchfield, Jim Litchfield's wife, said.

Snowy River Shire mayor, Richard Wallace, said he doesn't think wind farms are efficient in providing energy, but that's not for council to decide.

He said that council not supporting wind farms on that basis would be like council deciding not to support a business because they didn't think it was going to be profitable.

The Litchfields are worried that wind farms will cause irreversible damage to the Monaro landscape.

"Once it's ruined it's gone forever," Mrs Litchfield said.

"Mostly when you look at development, when it starts it doesn't stop.

"I don't want to tell my grandchildren how beautiful the Monaro was, I want them to see it."

Mr Litchfield said that once a few wind farms start to go up, the precedent is set.

"The best chance to stop them is before any go up," he said.

Cr Wallace said that whether wind farms are an eyesore or not is "in the eye of the beholder".

Cr Wallace said he has seen several wind farms and the one in Crookwell doesn't look nice but the one in Blayney "looks spectacular" and Blayney Council actually uses it as their shire emblem.

Mrs Litchfield said she was concerned the approval of wind farms at Snowy Plains goes against Snowy River Shire's current Local Environment Plan (LEP), which is so strict on development in the area that people at Snowy Plain are told what colour their houses and roofs must be so they blend in with the landscape.

Cr Wallace said one of the main reasons he voted for the wind farm development application is he doesn't agree with that aspect of the LEP and believes it will be reviewed in the council's new LEP.

Snowy River Shire councillor, Jim Buckley, was the only councillor to vote against the application.

"With wind farms you either like them or you don't," Cr Buckley said.

"I just decided that I wouldn't like them at my place."

Cr Buckley said he was concerned about a few other aspects of council's decision, such as the fact that the issue was brought up as a mayoral minute, council went against the recommendations of senior staff and council had not, and still has not, developed a wind farm policy.

Cr Buckley said he was also concerned about a payment of $25,000 to council that was part of the wind farm company's offer.

"It's a bit of a concern for me, it's seems like we've been paid off," he said.

Cr Wallace said that as far as he is concerned, that money is like a Section 94 contribution, which all developers pay.

Cr Wallace said he thinks the Taurus Energy contribution will go towards things like road maintenance and weed control.

Council's attitude to wind farms is irrelevant when it comes to big developments.

Cooma-Monaro Shire councillor, Vin Good, expressed concern at a recent council meeting, that a development application for a wind farm of 20 turbines or more will bypass local government and go straight to the State.

The council doesn't even need to be told that the application is being processed.

Mr Litchfield said he originally hesitated to make a stand against wind farms because the money offered to landholders to host the farms is significant.

"That financial component for some people will be a lifeline," Mr Litchfield said.

"But I believe the landscape belongs to everyone.

"We want to preserve what we've got here."