Draft National Wind Farm Development Guidelines - July 2010

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D.4 Task methodologies D.4.1 Site Selection At the earliest stage of selecting a wind farm location a number of potential sites are likely to be evaluated. A high level appraisal of the potential for impacts on biodiversity values, including birds and bats, should form an integral part of these considerations. These are expected to take the form of a desktop review of information available from government fauna databases and liaison with relevant government agencies to provide a regional overview. If this information suggests that a site is of critical importance for key species of birds and/or bats, consideration should be given to excluding the site from further consideration as a wind farm site. D.4.2 Project Feasibility The initial stage for any particular wind farm requires a determination of project feasibility. The three phases of bird and bat assessment outlined below for the Project feasibility stage of a wind farm development are all essential. They offer rapid means to determine whether key bird or bat species are considerations that may influence feasibility of the proposal. These initial ‘screening’ investigations of a potential site have been developed so that, to the extent that is practicable, issues for both birds and bats can be assessed in unison. The questions underlying these three phases provide fundamental pre-requisites to scoping of any further assessment processes for birds and bats. Determine potential for key species to use the site Principal question: Do key species use or have potential to use the site Purpose: To ascertain which, if any, species of birds and bats require assessment for the wind farm proposal. Methods: For this task, the studies will predominately be qualitative and will include: • desktop assessment of general fauna databases • information from local sources • broad identification of likely species based on habitats ascertained from desktop assessment & confirmation by preliminary site visits Species to consider The following criteria must be taken into account in the scoping process to determine bird and bat taxa that require impact assessment. Use of criteria here provides a process that focuses on those taxa that are important for consideration for a particular site. The following categories of taxa are of primary importance for assessment and are subsequently referred to in these Guidelines as ‘key’ taxa: • Taxa listed under any category of threatened conservation status by legislation of any jurisdiction in which the site is located. Page 120 Draft National Wind Farm Development Guidelines – 2 July 2010
• Taxa that meet IUCN 16 criteria for any category of threatened conservation status whether or not yet listed under provisions of legislation in any jurisdiction in which the site is located. • Taxa listed under provisions of relevant legislation that provide protection for particular categories of taxa whether threatened or not (for example species listed under provisions of the EPBC Act that provide specific protection for international migratory and marine fauna and encompass national obligations under international agreements). • Taxa naturally occurring at low densities because of their ecological function high in the trophic order. This will primarily relate to taxa like raptors that are top-order predators. • Taxa that have special cultural significance. • Any other taxa that relevant authorities require to be considered for a particular site such as species not included in the categories above but for which the site is especially significant. Advice to assist the determination of key species relevant to the site should be sought from the relevant authorities at the earliest possible stage of the assessment process. Consideration may be required of the fact that some iconic species that are not covered by categories listed above may rate highly in public perceptions and it thus may be prudent to include such species in assessments of birds and bats. Determining site usage Scoping of the impact assessment process must be informed by taking account of known or potential use of the site by birds and bats. This should be determined from: • Known use of the site by bird and bat taxa based on pre-existing confirmed records. • Inferred or potential use by the taxon based on geographic range and presence of suitable habitat at the site or presence of known or suitable habitat distributed such that the taxon is likely to fly through the site. These may include important and limited breeding, roosting or feeding sites or defined migratory pathways. • Pilot investigations of the site. Known or likely use of a site will be determined from preliminary investigations. These include: • Scrutiny of relevant fauna databases for a prescribed search area, in particular databases managed by government agencies responsible for fauna and professional organisations, such as Birds Australia. • Information canvassed from relevant wildlife agencies. • Information canvassed from local sources. Consultation with the local community, especially with naturalist and bird observer groups should be actively undertaken for this purpose. Speleological societies may have information about cave-dwelling bats. Information should also be sought from relevant landowners. • Care must be taken to evaluate pre-existing data and associated meta-data about the area as many datasets do not have a systematic or coordinated collection protocol. For example, historical information about species of shorebirds may have been collected incidental to annual pre-duck shooting season investigations of waterfowl. This may be the only body of information about presence or numbers of shorebirds in a local area, but is unlikely to be representative of their annual use of the 16 The International Union for Conservation of Nature, Species Survival Commission (IUCN 2001) provides standard criteria for categories of threat status applicable to all species of fauna and flora. Draft National Wind Farm Development Guidelines – 2 July 2010 Page 121
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EPHC National Wind Farm Development
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Acknowledgements These Guidelines h
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A.6.1 Site selection 28 A.6.2 Proje
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E.7 Technical discussion of key con
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The 20/20 target is challenging; ho
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Table 1-1 Elements of a ‘wind far
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2 Principles for responsible wind f
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3 Wind Farm Specific Issues The spe
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Specific noise limits are not provi
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3.5 Shadow flicker The issue Shadow
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Guidance notes Heritage issues are
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Table 4-1 Typical decision process
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The studies and community consultat
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A Community and Stakeholder Consult
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• Responsive There is a comm
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Figure A-1 IAP2 Public Participatio
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Specific components which should be
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Figure A-2 Example of Good Practice
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Recording the occurrence and outcom
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A.6.6 Decommissioning Planning & Co
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Potential Stakeholders Consultation
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B Noise B.1 Introduction This Appen
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the converse. These Guidelines reco
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The Standard should form the basis
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Stage and methodology Construction
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Other noise-sensitive uses such as
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Table B-2 Existing state and territ
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Establish background noise monitori
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As noted in Section 6.3.1 of AS4959
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predicted levels are significantly
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Prepare expert evidence (as require
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Undertake unattended monitoring to
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assessment of wind farm noise emiss
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B.4.5 Decommissioning Noise-related
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If a significant amount of time has
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B.7 Technical discussion of key con
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The HGC Engineering report 10 also
Page 79 and 80: C Landscape C.1 Introduction This A
Page 81 and 82: • Cumulative impacts “Cumulativ
Page 83 and 84: C.2 Overview of Methodologies Figur
Page 85 and 86: C.3 Task Methodologies C.3.1 Projec
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Page 89 and 90: The preliminary landscape character
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Page 97 and 98: C.4.2.4 Assessment of cumulative im
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Page 103 and 104: Table C-4 Mapping of landscape char
Page 105 and 106: C.7.2 Levels of significance What a
Page 107 and 108: Consider ‘Supporting Evidence’
Page 109 and 110: information available for other sit
Page 111 and 112: Figure C-4 Example of viewshed mapp
Page 113 and 114: Figure C-6 Example of photomontages
Page 115 and 116: communicate broad-scale ideas and p
Page 117 and 118: Table C-5 Mapping other wind farms
Page 119 and 120: C.7.9 Glossary & acronyms Australia
Page 121: Viewpoint The point from which a vi
Page 124 and 125: D.1.2 Underlying approach The under
Page 126 and 127: All of the above is generally appli
Page 128 and 129: the operational wind farm is aimed
Page 132 and 133: area as it was not collected accord
Page 134 and 135: used throughout these Guidelines as
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Page 140 and 141: construction phase are identified d
Page 142 and 143: Searches for dead birds and bats ar
Page 144 and 145: D.5 Cumulative impacts D.5.1 Defini
Page 146 and 147: in the absence of any turbine colli
Page 148 and 149: that it was first observed. Where m
Page 150 and 151: e the case that assessment for bats
Page 152 and 153: Department of Primary Industries, W
Page 154 and 155: Percival, S.M. 2003, Birds and wind
Page 157 and 158: E Shadow Flicker E.1 Introduction T
Page 159 and 160: • The use of recreational facilit
Page 161 and 162: • The method is inherently linked
Page 163 and 164: Table E-1 Recommended exposure limi
Page 165 and 166: E.4.4 Construction Assessment of th
Page 167 and 168: E.7 Technical discussion of key con
Page 169 and 170: Figure E-4 Variation in shading wit
Page 171 and 172: common practice varies between one
Page 173: as the actual limit, rather than th
Page 176 and 177: likely to be obstructed. Radiocommu
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Figure F-1 EMI mitigation methodolo
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F.4 Task methodologies F.4.1 Projec
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Expected timeframe for evaluation r
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The near field zone can be calculat
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Develop mitigation strategy As a st
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aseline RF survey which involves th
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G Wind Farm Development Process G.1
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Project Sub-stages Activities to be
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Preliminary Technical Studies Issue
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Planning application (PA2) The plan
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Develop mitigation strategy Finalis
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Environmental Management Plans Issu
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Monitoring: confirmation (O3) Confi
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Decommissioning (D2) Once a decisio
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Draft National Wind Farm Development Guidelines - July 2010

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