Community meetings for proposed Victoria wind farm cancelled due to “safety concerns”

One of the biggest developers of renewable energy projects in Australia, Acen Renewables, has cancelled community information sessions for a proposed wind farm in central Victoria citing unspecified “safety” concerns. 

The developer was supposed to be pitching to communities in the Buloke shire in central Victoria on the benefits of its proposed Corack East wind farm on November 26 and 27, and on December 3. 

In a prepared statement sent to Renew Economy, Acen Renewables said: “Due to safety concerns, our planned Corack East Wind community information sessions on 26-27 November and 3 December have had to be postponed.

“We are working to reschedule and until alternative sessions can be arranged, the community are encouraged to please contact the project team directly via email or phone with any questions or to arrange a meeting to discuss the project.”

The company declined to provide further details or reasons for its safety concerns, but members of the Wimmera Mallee Alliance Facebook group pointed to a group of protesters outside the session in Wycheproof on Tuesday as the potential cause of the developer’s discomfort.

Renewable energy developers have been racing to secure plots of land along the future VNI-West transmission line, in order to tap into the new main trunk lines connecting Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia. 

But with communities along the VNI-West line scared by a badly mishandled consultation on the transmission line, and with opposition fuelled by conservative media and politicians, developers are faceing increasing challenges winning them over.

Acen Renewables is building the second stage of the country’s biggest solar project in northern NSW, what will be the 720 MW New England solar farm and an accompanying battery, and is also building the 420 MW Stubbo solar farm also in NSW.

It is also the proponent of the heavily contested 900 MW Robbins Island and Jim Plains wind projects in north-west Tasmania, which the Bob Brown Foundation and other groups are vigorously opposing.