The council had argued that the IPC \u2013 an independent body that makes the final planning call on contested projects \u2013 didn\u2019t have enough information to approve the road upgrades needed to move oversized wind turbine parts to the site.<\/p>\n
But the council\u2019s case \u2013 originally prosecuted<\/a> by a local group set up to oppose the project \u2013 started unravelling in the preliminary hearing just a few weeks ago, with the presiding judge frustrated over the \u201cnarrowness of the issues\u201d being fought over.<\/p>\n \u201cCouncil has to make some hard calls here,\u201d Chief Justice Preston said, as Renew Economy reported here<\/a>.\u00a0\u201cIs this a wise use of public resources to be fighting this?\u00a0I know they\u2019ve got a bee in their bonnet about this case but it seems to me that they\u2019ve lost perspective as to what it is they\u2019re doing here.\u201d<\/p>\n In a statement on Friday, Someva described the legal challenge as \u201cdisappointing,\u201d while also noting that this was likely the first time that a NSW council had lodged a legal appeal questioning the merits of an IPC approved renewable energy project.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile it is disappointing that Tamworth Regional Council pursued these lengthy and unnecessary legal proceedings at ratepayers\u2019 expense, we hope this outcome sends a clear message: State Significant Developments \u2026 approved through independent processes, can and should proceed on their merits,\u201d said Someva Renewables director of development, Tim Mead.<\/p>\n The other message from the case, says Mead, is that \u201crenewable energy projects in NSW continue to face unnecessary delays that are costing energy users, local communities and these delays are threatening NSW\u2019s energy security and transition.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201c[The Hills of Gold wind farm] was thoroughly assessed over a seven year period by the NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure before facing further scrutiny, and receiving a final approval, from the NSW Independent Planning Commission (IPC) in September 2024,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have always been confident in the strength of that approval.\u201d<\/p>\n Someva \u2013 which only bought the wind farm<\/a> in September of last year \u2013 will also be hoping that the aborted court challenge will draw a line under the project\u2019s undoubtedly rocky history, that over the years has been the subject of a 4 Corners report and even inspired its own anti-wind slogan<\/a>: \u201cNot in Nundle, Ever!\u201d<\/p>\n Hills of Gold first won a recommendation from the NSW government planning department in late 2023, but for only 47 turbines, and a shrunken capacity of 290 megawatts (MW), down from 64 turbines in its original application.<\/p>\n The then project owner, Engie, initially\u00a0welcomed that decision<\/a>, but a few months later applied for 15 of the 17 turbines that had been removed by the department to be reinstated, arguing that without them the project was not commercially viable.<\/p>\n The IPC, to whom the project was referred because of the number of public objections to the wind farm, found Engie\u2019s argument to be supported by independent research and resumed its assessment based on a revised 62 turbine proposal, and a 100 MW, four hour battery.<\/p>\n The project received a whopping 1122 submissions, of which 747 were against. Nevertheless, the IPC\u00a0approved Hills of Gold in 2024<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 and then the legal challenge followed.<\/p>\n Even that was a shambles. A local group set up to oppose the project called Hills of Gold Preservation Society launched the appeal soon after the IPC decision, and convinced the Tamworth Regional Council to join. <\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A legal battle to overturn the independent state approval of a New South Wales wind farm has ended…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":576825,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[64,63,75,952,128],"class_list":["post-576824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-environment","tag-featured","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=576824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576824\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/576825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=576824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=576824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=576824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}