The Hepburn Wind Project is a

wind farm A wind farm or wind park, also called a wind power station or wind power plant, is a group of wind turbines in the same location used to produce electricity. Wind farms vary in size from a small number of turbines to several hundred wind turb ...

built and owned by Hepburn Wind, a community co-operative, and supported by the

Victorian Government The Victoria State Government, also referred to as just the Victorian Government, is the state-level authority for Victoria, Australia. Like all state governments, it is formed by three independent branches: the executive, the judicial, and th ...

. The location of the project is Leonards Hill, south of

Daylesford, Victoria Daylesford is a spa town located in the foothills of the Great Dividing Range, within the Shire of Hepburn, Victoria, Australia, approximately 108 kilometres north-west of Melbourne. First established in 1852 as a gold-mining town, today Dayle ...

, north-west of

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

. It comprises two individual 2.05 MW

wind turbine A wind turbine is a device that converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. Hundreds of thousands of large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, now generate over 650 gigawatts of power, with 60 GW added each yea ...

s supplied by REpower System AG which are projected to produce enough energy for 2,300 households, almost as many houses are in the twin-towns of Daylesford and

Hepburn Springs The traditional land of the Dja Dja Wurrung, Hepburn Springs is a resort town located in the middle of the largest concentration of mineral springs in Australia, situated in Victoria, 48 km northeast of Ballarat. At the , Hepburn had a ...

.Victorian community goes it alone on wind farm
/ref> The project is the first community-owned wind farm in Australia. The initiative emerged because the community felt that the state and federal governments were not doing enough to address climate change. Hepburn Wind is the first project of the Hepburn Renewable Energy Association, now known a
SHARE
Hepburn Wind Project formally launched their share offer on 25 July 2008, and as of June 2011 over 1700 members had subscribed a total of $9.0 million. The project has secured over $13.1 million in funding with the additional funds being bank debt and Government grants. Shares have been issued with priority to the local residents of Daylesford and Hepburn Springs. As the project is under 30 MW, it was assessed under the local planning guidelines administered through the Hepburn Shire Council. The planning permit was issued by Hepburn Shire in February 2007. The council received 325 submissions in support of the proposal and 18 objections. The permit was subsequently challenged unsuccessfully at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) in June 2007. On 28 April 2010 the project signed a contract with REpower Systems for the turnkey construction of the wind farm. The official ground breaking ceremony was held on 8 October 2010 and was officiated by the Hon Gavin Jennings, the Victorian Minister for the Environment at the time. Construction began in November 2010. The turbines left Germany on 5 December 2010 on th
SE Panthea
and arrived in Melbourne on 22 February 2011. A community picnic day was held to view and celebrate the erection of the first turbine on Saturday, 19 April 2011. The wind farm began generating power into the local electricity network on Wednesday, 22 June 2011.Hepburn Wind generates first power into grid
/ref> Community-owned wind farms are common in

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establish ...

and

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, which have high levels of

wind power Wind power or wind energy is mostly the use of wind turbines to generate electricity. Wind power is a popular, sustainable, renewable energy source that has a much smaller impact on the environment than burning fossil fuels. Historically ...

use. Community wind projects are also emerging in Canada, the Netherlands, the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

and the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. The director of the Hepburn Wind Project, Taryn Lane, recently was awarded "Outstanding Woman of Victoria: Trailblazer".

References

External links

The Hepburn Community Wind Park
{{coord, 37, 25, 19.4, S, 144, 07, 09.4, E, type:landmark_region:AU, display=title Wind farms in Victoria (Australia) Energy cooperatives Cooperatives in Australia

See also

References

External links