In 2012, businessman Tim Lucas hit on an alternative to a high voltage power line proposal that was angering the Stanthorpe, Queensland, community: he’d build a small wind farm on his property and power the local community instead.
But it turned out some locals objected as much to a then-eight turbine wind project on private land as they did to a state-owned 110kV powerline running between Stanthorpe and Warrick.
And the local council listened, rejecting the wind proposal outright. With state renewable energy approval pathways still in the future, Lucas had to go to court to get his development permit.
Today, the Rabbit Ridge project is still alive, but Lucas is tempering expectations as he seeks a decision from the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) process as to whether the project needs federal approval.
The 2025 project is for a reduced six-turbine wind farm on Lucas’ Dalveen property, which is between the towns of Stanthorpe and Warrick and inland from the Gold Coast. The capacity is yet to be finalised because he is waiting to see what turbines can fit into the planning envelope.
The turbines will be connected to a substation by underground cables and construction is estimated to take two years.
The 885 hectare project area, and 19 hectare footprint, is existing sheep and cattle grazing land. The EPBC referral is due to the potential presence of the threatened grey-headed flying fox which has been seen on site foraging.
Rabbit Ridge no longer includes a diesel generator — that idea of fossil fuel backup for variable renewable power was very 2013 — but the reason for Lucas’ caution is the size of the turbines allowed under the 2016 permit.
The project can install turbines with a tip height of up to 180m, a machine on the smaller end of what is available today.
While turbinemaker Vestas still sells a 6 megawatt (MW) turbine with a 180m tip height for height-restricted locations, Lucas says what is allowed under the eight-year old permit may still rule the project out of financial viability.
Tough going
For the Rabbit Ridge project, the going has not been easy.
In 2013, neighbours opposed the project citing fears of health risks, a key pillar of anti wind farm campaigning at the time, noise from the backup diesel generator and the turbines themselves, and damage to property values and views.
Some 56 submissions and a petition with 205 signatures led the Southern Downs regional council to reject the development application, on the grounds it wasn’t in line with its strategy and would set a precedent for renewable energy development in “comparatively densely settled rural areas”.
In court, Lucas successfully argued that the council’s assessment report found no evidence of health risks or excess noise, and was in the local area’s interest by avoiding the alternative of extra high voltage power lines and providing carbon-free electricity.
“I thought it would be a good little project that the community would be proud of,” Lucas tells Renew Economy.
“I thought well that’s a good idea, I’ll try and do that to help people out who are worried about powerlines going through their properties. But of course the reality was people aren’t happy with any change.”
A permit was issued in 2016 with a new council in place. By 2020, Lucas was reportedly in advanced negotiations for a connection agreement with state-owned network Ergon.
But the time it’s taken to move through regulatory processes may still rule the project out.
“To be honest, in the three years it took with the council in court, events moved on and the turbines that I did settle on… the tip height restriction probably means I’m limited to a 4MW machine which in reality these days is not considered viable,” Lucas says.
And since then, the Southern Downs has become popular with large scale wind, solar and battery developers.
There’s the University of Queensland 65MW solar farm operating at Warrick to the north; the 923MW Macintyre wind farm is generating to the west of the proposed Rabbit Ridge project; and northwards is the 1GW Punch’s Creek solar farm and battery, where developer SkyLab Australia says construction is set to start this quarter.
But Lucas is still hopeful that if he has the right permits in place, he’ll still be well positioned after 14 years to pull the Rabbit Ridge project together.
Not alone in landowner-led
Lucas is one of a handful of private landowners in Australia who have dipped their toe into DIY large scale renewable projects.
Most recently, Tasmanian farmer and longtime renewables proponent Peter Downie is spearheading the 350MW Cellars Hill wind farm and 600MW/2400MWh battery as well as the 250MW Weasel solar farm nearby.
Also in Tasmania, sheep farmer Roderick O’Connor led the effort to plan and build the state’s first large solar farm.
And in Victoria, the 450MW Hazelwood North solar farm and 450MW/1800MWh battery is also being locally led, while the tiny town of Newstead hit the ‘on’ button for its solar farm last year, 16 years after coming up with the idea.
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