“Not financially viable:” State owned water company scraps plan for wind project because of costs

Gippsland Water has abandoned an idea to put a wind project on land it manages just paddocks away from the Longford gas generator, saying that the financial side didn’t add up. 

The water utility company asked locals in 2023 to give their thoughts about putting wind turbines on the Dutson Downs, land it manages as part of water treatment operations that is close to Golden Beach.

But – as many wind developers and potential customers are finding – getting a wind project to come in on budget and provide a return is difficult, and in the end too it was too hard for Gippsland Water. 

“We’re no longer actively investigating the development of a wind farm at Dutson Downs,” the state-owned company said. 

“Our investigations found that right now, a wind farm is not a financially viable way for us to achieve these outcomes, but it’s possible this could change in the future.”

Gippsland Water has been contacted to find out why the idea wasn’t seen as financially viable, but across the industry developers are struggling with budgets.

Onshore wind costs of equipment and construction costs are still rising in single digit percentages every year, in contrast to solar and batteries whose costs are plummeting.

Disrupting supply chains, rocketing construction and labour costs, interest rate and financing cost hikes, and regulatory delays and community opposition are also factors. 

Wind turbines not a cost cutting exercise

The Dutson Downs are a 8,500 hectare piece of land which is mostly nature reserve and part farmland. The idea behind installing wind turbines was to help meet Gippsland Water’s energy targets, reduce operating costs, and put downward pressure on customer bills.

Gippsland Water had a target of using only renewable electricity by this year, and achieved that in September. 

After the early 2023 consultation it said there was “a real appetite for more information” from locals and “about half” of the people living within 25 kilometres of Dutson Downs were keen on the idea. Some 10 per cent said they needed more information before forming a view.

One of the details locals wanted more information on was surety that it would actually bring down bills. 

But in what could be a case study for the Senate inquiry into climate mis- and disinformation, online rumours swirled well ahead of where the project ever reached. 

An online survey garnered 724 signatures, highlighting community concerns around what it might do to the lifestyle and views of people living in the area, but also citing long-debunked theories around infrasound and fire risks based on a 2017 bushfire near Canberra caused by a crow shorting a power line linking a wind farm to the grid. 

While the Gippsland Water idea didn’t reach the stage where a size or even turbine numbers were floated, another website by the Golden Paradise Beach Community Development Fund was already making claims about where the turbines would be.

“Proposed onshore wind farms at Dutson Downs will be as close as 1km to the closest dwelling and 10 km from the town centre,” it said.

The Downs location is on the edge of the activity zone for Gippsland energy projects, with the proposed 1 gigawatt (GW) Blue Mackerel offshore wind project to the south in the ocean, and land-wards is the Gippsland renewable energy zone (REZ) and where the offshore transmission line is set to come onshore. 

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