The Hon. Wendy Lovell, Member for Northern Victoria, Media Release, 5 August 2024

Liberal Member for Northern Victoria Wendy Lovell has called on the Minister for Planning to review the windfarm setback distance, after concerns were raised by Nanneella community members in a public meeting with a wind energy facility developer.

Ms Lovell spoke in parliament last week to ask the Minister to review the distance that wind turbines must be set back from homes to limit the impact of noise, and consider extending it in light of increasing turbine heights.

After winning the 2010 election, the Liberal and National Coalition introduced a wind turbine setback of 2km in Victoria, then in 2015 the Labor government reduced that setback from 2km to 1km.

Fera Australia recently hosted a community meeting with locals from Nanneella to discuss a proposal to install 40-50 wind turbines across two farmland sites between Nanneella and Koyuga.

During the meeting, concerned residents noted that when Labor changed the setback from 2km to 1km, wind turbine heights were typically 150m at the tip.

However, the newer turbines that Fera is proposing to install in this location are larger, closer to 230m at the tip, and the meeting heard that these larger and higher turbines will cast noise further than the smaller turbines that the 1km setback was modelled on.

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.

Comments attributable to Member for Northern Victoria Wendy Lovell:

“My constituents have serious and legitimate concerns about the effects of increasingly larger wind turbines, and I urge the Minister to review the current setback distance and consider extending it to 1.5 or 2 kilometres.”