Huge wind farm clears federal green queue on promise of elevated turbine blades to avoid cockatoos

A major wind farm and battery project proposed for construction on farmland in Western Australia has been waved through the federal government’s environmental assessment process.

The Twin Hills wind farm was first mooted several years ago by Australian renewable energy developer Wind Prospect as a 930 megawatt (MW) wind farm proposed for around 30 km north-east of the town of Eneabba in Western Australia.

When Twin Hills finally entered the federal government’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) queue in February of this year, the project’s specifics had been modified somewhat to include “up to 110 wind turbines” and a co-located battery energy storage system (BESS).

The federal environment minister last week published his decision on the 110 turbine project, declaring it a “not controlled action if taken in a particular manner.”

Some of the restraints on the project’s construction include the amount of land that can be cleared with particular respect to local wildlife, including the Carnaby’s Black Cockatoo, black cockatoo, and Western Spiny-tailed Skink.

In particular, to avoid and mitigate harm to Carnaby’s Black Cockatoo, no part of the wind turbine blades can reach below 60 metres above ground level.

This already matches with the project’s original plans, which intended to install wind turbines with a maximum hub height of 200 metres and maximum blade length of up to 100 metres – meaning the lowest tip of the blade will still be 100 metres above ground level.

Once completed, the project will connect into an existing 330 kV transmission line that forms part of Western Australia’s South West Interconnected System (SWIS).

Land for the project is predominantly used for livestock grazing and broad acre cropping, both of which will be able to continue over most of the site during construction, operation, and project decommissioning.

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