The Victorian Government is not considering reducing the setback distance between wind turbines and houses.
State Member for Northern Victoria Wendy Lovell said the Victorian Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny told her the government was not currently reviewing the distance within which a wind turbine operator must acquire the written consent of a homeowner before locating a turbine there.
“Labor Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny is completely ignoring the legitimate concerns of rural and regional Victorians, and refusing to consider changing the wind turbine setback distance, because of an ideological obsession with forcing a large-scale energy transition upon the state,” Ms Lovell said.
After winning the 2010 election, the Liberal and Nationals Coalition introduced a wind turbine setback of 2km in Victoria, then in 2015 the Labor Government reduced that setback from 2km to 1km.
Ms Lovell spoke in parliament on July 31 to ask the planning minister to review the distance, after hearing concerns from community members in Nanneella where a wind energy facility is proposed to be built.
“When Labor reduced the setback to 1km, wind turbine heights were typically 150m at the tip,” she said.
“But the new turbines that Fera Australia is proposing to install are larger, closer to 230m at the tip.”
Community members were concerned that these larger and taller turbines will cast noise further than the smaller turbines, and that the current 1km setback from homes is not adequate to protect homes from the noise of larger turbines.
The Australian Energy Infrastructure Commissioner’s 2021 annual report recommended that state governments introduce a default setback of 1.5km for wind turbines with tips above 200m to limit noise effects, and consider a longer setback to minimise impact on visual amenity.