Windfarm full steam ahead

A proposal by Denmark Community Windfarm to erect two wind turbines at Wilson Head was given the go-ahead at a Great Southern Development Assessment Panel meeting last week.

The five-person panel voted unanimously in favour of approving the planning application, subject to 19 conditions.

For the past eight years, not-for-profit organisation Denmark Community Windfarm has been pushing for a small-scale wind farm at the town.

The company has proposed to build two 55m wind turbines with 48m diameter blades at Wilson Head near popular Ocean Beach.

Denmark’s 1.6-megawatt wind farm is expected to provide about 40 per cent of the town’s electricity, preventing more than 6000 tonnes of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere each year.

The proposal attracted criticism from a vocal group of opponents, who raised issues of noise, site selection, a lack of community support and disruption to the town’s coastline.

But Windfarm acting chairman Craig Chappelle said the majority of people in Denmark fully supported the initiative.

“There has been an awful lot of flack put up from a very small vocal minority, but the facts continuously speak for themselves,” he said.

“When they (the Shire) did their biennial customer survey in 2008 … 70 per cent of respondents said they supported the wind farm at the present location.”

The organisation received support from 95 local investors after it went to public for investment support.

“I would say that pretty convincingly shows that more of the community are for it than against it,” Mr Chappelle said.

Mr Chappelle said a Department of Environment and Conservation clearing permit, Department of Regional Development and Lands lease and Shire building permit approvals had been negotiated and were in draft form.

The wind farm is expected to be complete by November.

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