Draft National Wind Farm Development Guidelines - July 2010

G
Wind Farm Development Process
G.1 Introduction
This section provides a more detailed description of the typical wind farm development
process and guidance on how and when to address the issues covered by this document.
Proponents should refer to the requirements of the relevant authority and to the
appendices for detailed methodologies that deal with community consultation, noise,
landscapes, birds and bats, shadow flicker and electromagnetic interference. Other
readers are encouraged to read the appendices for a better understanding of each issue.
G.2 Detailed description of the development process
The following overview of the development process by reiterates the purpose of each substage
of the process from and summarises the works to be undertaken in each sub-stage. It
provides a greater level of detail than presented in Section 4 of the Introduction to these
Guidelines and should be reviewed in conjunction with the flowchart presented in that
section.
The works outlined below, and detailed in Appendices A-F, are also consistent with the
best-practice principles detailed in Section 1.9.
G.2.1 Site selection
Regional site selection: (S1)
Regional site selection normally involves a desktop study focussed on the wind resource,
generally by checking national or state/territory wind atlases and proximity to an
adequate electricity network. Locations remote to the grid or requiring major upgrades to
the network and significant funding may make a wind farm project economically
unviable.
Major incompatible land use activities, such as urban areas, national parks and sensitive
ecosystems (among others), are avoided at this stage.
Some states/territory’s and regions have policy initiatives to assist wind farm developments
and a number of state/territory governments have produced wind atlases and guides to
help identify potential areas for wind development. Refer to the relevant state/territory
agency to source these tools.
Local site selection: (S2)
Once the broad area has been selected, consideration turns to property-specific locations
within identified wind resource areas. At this level, factors such as the geographical extent
of the site, the topography, the size of the properties, and the proximity to electrical and
road networks are assessed.
The local site assessment provides an indication of how many wind turbines and of what
size may be possible for the site which will enable a broad economic analysis.
As a number of wind farm sites may have been developed, under construction or
approved in the area it is important to consider the greater potential for cumulative
impacts to increase community interest and add competition for network access.
As for the regional site selection process, local site selection can mostly be done via a
desktop study. A visit to the area to better understand site characteristics, like road quality,
power lines, and the general location of houses is usually done as a final check to decide
whether to proceed to the next stage.
Draft National Wind Farm Development Guidelines – 2 July 2010 Page 183