South Australia wind project gets planning approval after swapping to fewer but taller turbines

A South Australian wind project that was previously stalled over environmental concerns has been given the greenlight thanks to advances in turbine technology.

Tilt Renewables’ Palmer wind project has been given the go ahead by South Australia’s State Commission Assessment Panel (SCAP), thanks to a redesign that will see the project take up less space, with fewer but taller turbines and bigger setbacks from dwellings in the area.

The project, to be located 50 kilometres east of Adelaide between the townships of Palmer and Tungkillo, will be made up of 40 turbines with a maximum tip height of 220 metres.

The now 288 MW project is estimated to avoid 212,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions annually, and is capable of powering the equivalent of 142,000 homes for the next 30 years, according to a statement from Tilt Renewables.

Tilt CEO Anthony Fowler said the farm, initially proposed in 2014, was ideally positioned to harness a strong and abundant wind resource.

“The area surrounding Palmer is a good location for a wind farm with a great wind resource, proximity to the existing electricity grid and a location on cleared farmland where grazing can co-exist,” he said.

In 2024, the project was awarded a contract under the Capacity Investment Scheme (CIS), the Federal Government’s renewable investment underwriting scheme designed to bolster the growth of renewables in the country. The CIS is pitted to deliver an additional 32 GW of generation and storage capacity by 2030.

When the project was initially proposed in 2014, it was for a wind farm comprising up to 114 turbines – significantly more than the 40 now approved – at a maximum height of 165 metres. 

That proposal was unpopular, with 208 representations submitted during the public notification process, 150 of which objected to the farm.

A number of local landowners threw their weight behind a campaign to stop the project – relying in part on unsubstantiated claims that wind farms could cause myriad health problems from cardiac arrhythmia to vivid nightmares. 

The controversy made it to the Supreme Court of South Australia which, in 2019, rejected a case brought against the farm based on these health claims.

Nevertheless, Fowler says the new redesign had made significant improvements to the project, with the Federal Environment Department, which had reviewed the updated project, confident that potential impacts to the environment had been circumvented or minimised.

“This change more than halves the number of turbines required and reduces the project area by over 5,000 hectares,” Fowler said.

Tilt said the project will include a community benefit fund worth more than $7 million, which the company says will go towards energy subsidies for those living closest to the farm, as well as funding for local health services.

The project is located on the land of the Peramangk people, and the project will also establish a separate Peramangk Partnership Fund of undisclosed amount.

Palmer is the second South Australian wind project this week to get the go ahead on a long-ago-proposed wind project with an updated plan involving fewer turbines and larger capacity. 

Earlier this week, Australian coal giant AGL Energy gained new approvals for a South Australian wind project it initially bought in 2009, but sidelined in favour of coal.

The original Barn Hill project had approval for 62 turbines and around 150 MW in capacity, whereas the new design will have up to 50 larger turbines with a vastly increased capacity of up to 360 MW, as well as a big battery sized at up to 270 MW and 1080 MWh.