Taurus Energy wishes to thank members of the local community who participated in discussions last month about three proposed wind farms. Three ‘open house’ meetings were held to introduce the proposals to local communities and invite their comments. The open house meetings were advertised in local newspapers, by direct mail and on local radio.

“We have had direct contact with almost two hundred people in the local communities over the last month” said Andrew Durran, executive director of Taurus Energy.

“While many people are supportive of the projects, there are also clearly concerns in the community.These concerns are mainly related to visual impacts, noise and the potential to impact on land values”, said Mr Durran.

Taurus announced that the feedback from the community is having an effect on the original proposals.

“We have relocated the proposed location of a number of turbines, and removed turbines from a prominent ridge on one of the sites” said Mr Durran. “These measures will reduce the visual impact at a sensitive location which the community has identified”.

“We are carrying out extensive background noise monitoring and modelling, and we have commissioned a study by a land valuer of the effect on local Crookwell property values of the original Crookwell wind farm, which was commissioned in 1998” said Martin Poole, executive director of Taurus.

“We will be able to present the results of this work and other specialist studies being carried out at the next open house meetings in February and March, enabling people to make informed views about the proposals” said Mr Poole.

The three sites are: Conroy’s Gap about 17km west of Yass; the Cullerin Range about 12km east of Gunning; and Evandale about 15km west of Goulburn. Approximate locations are shown in the attachment. In a typical year, each of the three proposed wind farms would generate enough green electricity to match the consumption of about 10,000 average homes with pollution-free renewable energy.

Taurus Energy has started preparing environmental assessment reports to be lodged with Development Applications with the NSW Department of Planning in the first quarter of next year. A copy of the feedback form that was available at the November open house meetings is available from the Taurus Energy website.

Taurus Energy will be holding open house meetings for each project in February / March to present the results of the specialist studies currently being carried out. These will be advertised in the local media. Taurus invites anyone who would like to be kept up to date on the progress of the proposals to get in touch so their names can be added to the contact list