An application for a 48-turbine wind farm just north of Naracoorte has been lodged by Acciona Energy.
The 144-megawatt wind power plant would be Acciona’s third Australian project after others in Cathedral Rocks in South Australia, Gunning in New South Wales and Waubra in Victoria.
Naracoorte and Lucindale Mayor Erika Vickery said the Spanish company had been in touch, but she still knew little detail of the proposed development.
“I had a very brief briefing where they said they were in the process of an investigation of the viability of a wind farm north of Naracoorte and checking the environmental impact,” she said.
Acciona has lodged documents with the federal Environment Department for a wind farm at Exmoor just north of Naracoorte, and expects its development application could be submitted by next year.
Acciona managing director Brett Thomas said evaluation of the site was at an early stage.
“It looks as though the wind is reasonably good and suitable for these sorts of projects,” he said.
“We’ve still got a while to go in terms of assessments, working with council and community.”
Acciona is involved in legal action over a proposed wind farm at Allendale East, with an appeal upheld based on visual amenity.
Mr Thomas said no parallels could be drawn between the two projects in the south-east region.
“It is quite a different project to Allendale. Every site is different. They are in very different phases of developments and the land forms are very different,” he said.
