Fourth federal delay for contested wind project in Tasmania highlands

In what will now be a familiar refrain for wind developer Ark Energy, the federal environment department has delayed a decision under the EBPC ACT on its St Patricks Plains project in Tasmania for the fourth time.

The decision deadline has been pushed out to October 10, according to a notice filed this week. The previous deadline was September 26. 

The federal Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water says the delay was requested by Ark Energy.

The St Patricks Plains wind project, which at one point proposed the installation of 67 turbines, before being pared back to 50, and now 47, is proposed for a site south-east of Milena and 25km north of Bothwell in Tasmania’s Central Highlands.

The 291 megawatt (MW) project was deemed to need federal supervision under the EPBC Act in 2019 when it was still owned by Epuron. 

Ark Energy acquired the developer in 2022, which added to already-lengthy EPBC delays. 

But after a lengthy legal battle with longstanding opponent, the No Turbine Action Group (NTAG), it won both the court challenge and state approval earlier this month. 

St Patricks Plains is the first to be approved in Tasmania under the Environment Protection Agency’s new noise policy for wind projects.

The policy makes explicit how noise will be measured in Tasmania, with requirements including average noise readings over 10 minute blocks to prevent data being skewed by faulty equipment to better compare with background noise. 

The state’s noise policy is now in line with those of South Australia, Queensland and New South Wales, after the total limit was lowered in 2020 to 35 decibels from 40.

Popular spot

St Patricks Plains is inside Tasmania’s proposed Central Highlands renewable energy zone and next to the main north-south transmission line between Hobart and Launceston. 

It’s a popular spot for wind projects.

Also in the area are the operating Cattle Hill wind farm, which pioneered eagle-spotting technology which can switch off turbines when wedge-tailed eagles are in the area, and the Cellars Hill and Bashan projects.

Weasel Solar is also under development, bringing the Central Highlands energy generation potential to almost 1.5 gigawatts (GW).

But while locally-led Weasel and Cellars Hill skipped through planning processes, the St Patricks Plains development struggled to win over locals from the beginning. 

In 2021, NTAG criticised the trimming of the project’s turbine numbers from 67 to 47 as “a token effort” and later accused Ark Energy as having “no social licence” for building a wind farm in what it described as a “biodiversity hotspot.”

NTAG appealed the council development approval, which came in last year, on the grounds that the 231m blade tip height of the turbines is too high but that was defeated earlier this month when the Tasmanian Civil and Administrative Tribunal gave the project the go-ahead.

Tasmania is also a hotspot for contested wind projects. 

Acen Renewables took years and its own legal challenges to win approval for the massive Robbins Island wind project, but even with federal approval in hand it is still bogged down in what the conditions will look like. 

Ark Energy dumped a much smaller project in north-western Tasmania in 2023, with local opponents saying it was the wrong project in the wrong place. 

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