Last week South Burnett and Western Downs councillors and community members participated in a tour of AGL Energy Limited’s (AGL) Macarthur and Oaklands Hill Wind Farms in regional Victoria to experience operational wind farms first hand.

Thirty-eight people toured the two wind farms and met with local turbine hosts, wind farm neighbours, wind farm workers and local businesses and had the opportunity to ask questions and discuss any concerns they had about wind farms.

Potential Coopers Gap Wind Farm host and tour attendee, Cyril Stewart, described the tour as “enlightening”.

“I really enjoyed the tour and found it to be enlightening; I can see no adverse physical effects from being near the wind turbines. In my opinion, the sooner they can build it the better. It’s not just going to be of benefit to participating landholders, but the whole community,” Mr Stewart said.

Similarly, tour attendee, John Maher, said he enjoyed the visit and found it to be very informative.

“As a wind farm neighbour for the Coopers Gap Wind Farm, I don’t think there will be any physical effects from the wind farm on people. I also didn’t see any impacts on farm animals or wildlife either. And I’m keen for all the community to get some benefit from having such a large economic investment in our area,” Mr Maher said.

Coopers Gap Wind Farm project manager, Neil Cooke, said the trip was organised to help answer questions members of the community have had about what a wind farm looks and feels like.

The proposed Coopers Gap Wind Farm project is AGL’s foremost renewable energy project in Queensland. While there is some time to go before a final decision can be made on whether the project proceeds to construction, it is hoped that if it proceeds it would be financed through AGL’s Powering Australian Renewables Fund, which is currently being established.

The Coopers Gap Wind Farm is proposed to have a capacity of up to 350 MW, which would produce approximately 1,100 GWh of renewable energy, powering more than 190,000 average Australian homes. The renewable energy produced would reduce CO₂ emissions by approximately 860,000 tonnes annually, which is the equivalent of taking over 250,000 cars off the road. 

About AGL

AGL is one of Australia’s leading integrated energy companies. It is taking action to responsibly reduce its greenhouse gas emissions while providing secure and affordable energy to its customers. Drawing on over 175 years of experience, AGL serves its customers throughout eastern Australia with meeting their energy requirements, including gas, electricity, solar PV and related products and services. AGL has a diverse power generation portfolio including base, peaking and intermediate generation plants, spread across traditional thermal generation as well as renewable sources including hydro, wind, solar, landfill gas and biomass.