Proposed wind farm joins tussle for spot in Victoria’s north, near new transmission line

Another wind farm is being planned near the northern Victoria town of Kerang, third proposed for that area and the state’s fifth wind project to head through the federal environmental approval process in the last 12 months.

Developer WestWind Energy is proposing the up-to 136 megawatt (MW) wind farm, which would see 17 turbines on about 1,718 hectares of farmland near Normanville, to the west of Kerang. 

The plan is to have an operational wind farm by 2028. The up-to 8 MW turbines would have a tip height of 280m and operate for up to 40 years. A 7.2km underground transmission line would connect into the Koorangie terminal station.

WestWind says it’s been investigating the site since 2019, and submitted a state planning permit in December. 

It’s been slow going for wind projects in Victoria, with Normanville being one of only two wind projects to apply for a Victoria planning permit last year. 

The other was the small, six turbine Brewster wind farm in central Victoria, proposed by Australia-owned developer RE Future. 

Under the federal EPBC last year, there were four other Victoria wind projects that either entered the environmental approval process or were still actively working through it. Those were the 35 MW Swanson Land wind farm, Baywa RE’s 52-turbine Wimmera Plains Energy Park, the Cannie wind farm, and the Squadron-owned Moreton Hill wind farm.

Birds and wetlands

Although WestWind’s Normanville site has been used mainly for cereal cropping for decades and will continue to do so once the wind farm is finished, the developer sent the project into the federal EPBC process after finding three vulnerable or endangered bird species in the area, and seven bird, bat and frog species that might live in the area. 

The site also takes in a part of Little Lake Bael Bael which is part of the Kerang Ramsar Wetlands, which is within 5 km of the northernmost corner of the site.

The risk to the wetlands is of contaminated runoff from site works, but WestWind says that’s unlikely given the closest turbine will be 5km away from the lake. 

The company says it doesn’t plan to remove much of the native fauna still on the site the vulnerable birds might use and has avoided a pond which might be suitable for the Growling Grass Frog.

Kerang a new wind Mecca

The Normanville project has generated some disquiet in the community, with neighbours concerned about noise and the emergence of wind turbines in an area that to date has been home mainly to low-profile solar and battery projects.

WestWind’s January update about the project says the location of turbines is being massaged in accordance with environmental concerns and community consultation.

But the Normanville project is not the only wind farm to emerge in Kerang, which is the last stop for the Victorian component of the VNI West transmission upgrade, before it crosses into NSW and connecting to the Transgrid network.

Directly adjacent to Normanville is the proposed 1.3 gigawatt (GW) Cannie wind farm.

Res Australia is slightly further ahead of WestWind, with this project hitting the federal environmental approval queue in July last year. 

Cannie would see 174 turbines sized at 7.4 MW each installed 26km west of Kerang and 25km south of the Murray River and Victoria-New South Wales border, supported by a  200 MW / 800 MWh battery.

To the south of the Normanville project is the mammoth 1.5GW Meering West wind proposal with 1000MWh of batteries, pitched by Australian developer Virya Energy for a start date of 2032. 

Already in the Kerang area are operational or approval plans for six solar farms, and the existing 25MW/50MWh Gannawarra battery.

Battery storage developer Ace Power is building a 103 MW, two hour grid forming big battery  in Kerang and Edify Energy is building a 125MW/250MWh battery at nearby Koorangie.