A new 450 megawatt (MW) wind and battery project in central Tasmania is about to work its way through the federal environmental system and will face scrutiny with two of the country’s most threatened species identified as using the site.
China-owned wind turbine maker and project developer Goldwind Australia says it wants to use eagle-spotting lessons from its neighbouring Cattle Hill wind farm to build the new wind-plus-battery Bashan project to the south, next to Lake Echo in the state’s central highlands.
Those lessons will be needed to preserve populations of endangered swift parrots and wedge-tailed eagles, and vulnerable blue-winged parrots and white-throated needletails.
Goldwind is promising to roll out a full coverage IdentiFlight system, a next generation version of that already being used at the 144MW Cattle Hill farm to track eagles and shutdown turbines when one is approaching.
In September, Goldwind said no eagles had been hit by any Cattle Hill turbines in more than a year, despite higher eagle activity, after it installed a new 30 metre high tower to cover a previous blindspot over the tree canopy.
The technology uses tower-mounted optical units to detect flying objects, and then algorithms to identify them as eagles.
If an eagle’s speed and flight trajectory puts it on a collision path with a turbine, the system then sends a signal to shut that turbine down.
The company doesn’t have mitigation processes in place yet for the other three species, yet.
Design may depend on birds
The current proposal for the Bashan wind farm would include 56 turbines, three substations and a 200-400 MWh battery hooked into TasNetworks’ 220 kV overhead powerlines which criss-cross the area.
But with 55 species of bird observed over the three year avian study, the company acknowledges in its referral to the federal environmental process that the whole design could change.
The four birds of particular interest include the swift parrot which currently numbers about 750 and which was seen during its breeding season, the wedge-tailed eagle which has an adult population of about 440, blue-winged parrot which is healthier at some 10,000 in the wild, and the white-throated needletail whose population is unknown.
Wedge-tailed eagles were seen 84 times and the vulnerable blue-winged parrot was seen seven times and both were seen flying at rotor-strike height, wrote Wildspot environmental consultants Gabrielle Malley and Simon Plowright in their bird survey report for Goldwind.
The developer acknowledged up front that building the wind farm will see native and plantation trees be cleared, and in retained native vegetation habitats might be affected by light, noise and other construction work.
The bird survey hinted this could be a problem for white-throated needletails and critically endangered swift parrots.
“The presence of threatened species highlights the ecological significance of the area,” the consultants wrote.
“The presence of these migratory species, particularly during their breeding or migratory seasons, underscores the ecological significance of the proposed Bashan Wind Farm area.
The study site’s diverse vegetation, including flowering eucalyptus and hollow-bearing trees, supports a variety of bird species, providing essential resources for both resident and migratory birds.”
Hot opposition to Tasmanian wind
There is precedent in Tasmania for approving wind farms in environmentally tricky locations, provided the developer puts in the effort to mitigate the risks, but also precedent for project-halting restrictions.
In July 2024, the Tasmania Environmental Protection Authority okayed the St Patrick wind farm in the central highlands, south-west of the proposed Bashan project, despite significant public opposition.
That 300 MW wind farm is also in a “diversity hotspot”, according to the No Turbine Action Group.
The Ark Energy-owned wind farm pared back the turbine numbers from 67 to 47 and promised to install the same turbine curtailing and eagle identification technology to manage the risk of hitting the big birds.
But to the north the Robbins Island was first approved on the condition it is shut down for five months a year to protect the migration route of orange-bellied parrots and remains mired in court battles as local and environmental groups continue to oppose the project.
An EPBC decision was delayed until March this year over concerns this time about Tasmanian devils.
Federally, environment minister Tanya Plibersek has some form in rejecting renewable energy project, including Ark Energy’s Wooroora – formerly Chalumbin – wind farm next to the wet tropics world heritage area in north Queensland.
The rejection was based on the threat to spectacled flying-fox habitat.
More with less
The Bashan project will sit over almost 10,000 hectares across five properties.
Goldwind notes that compared to the neighbouring Cattle Hill wind farm, the rapid advances in wind technology means it’ll be able to do much more with less.
“The Cattle Hill wind farm generation capacity is 144.5 MW which required 48 turbines of 3 MW and 3.4 MW rated capacity, and 48 associated turbine hardstands.
“To generate the equivalent electricity output using 6 MW turbines (the lower capacity range of the turbines under consideration) would require only 24 turbines and hardstands, or if using 8 MW turbines (the lower capacity range of the turbines under consideration), only 18 turbines and hardstands would be needed,” it said.
