Changes for developing wind farms in Queensland

In brief

The Queensland Government has released a draft code and guideline that empowers the State to assess and decide any future wind farm projects in Queensland. Partner Bill McCredie and Senior Associate Anna Vella look at the Queensland Government's new role and consider the draft code and guideline.

Wind farm assessment in Queensland

Currently, each local government in Queensland is charged with assessing and approving any development application for a wind farm project made in its local government area. It appears that the assessment of a wind farm development application has been challenging for various local governments, particularly in circumstances where local planning instruments do not include specific codes or measures against which wind farm impacts can be assessed and where internal expertise may not exist to consider complex technical issues (such as tonality and low frequency noise impacts).

In July 2012, the Government announced that it would develop a state-wide approval process for wind farms¹. In April 2013, the Government identified wind farm uses to be a 'State interest' to be assessed by the State Assessment and Referral Agency (SARA)².

This process has culminated in the State's release of the draft Wind Farm State Code and Planning Guideline for public consultation. The Deputy Premier and Minister for State Development, Infrastructure and Planning has stated³ that 'the draft code has been developed to provide a consistent approach to the planning and assessment of wind farms across the State'.

Once the draft code and guideline have been finalised, the code is to be incorporated into the existing State Development Assessment Provisions that set out matters of interest to the State for development assessment and will form part of the assessment framework for development under the Sustainable Planning Act 2009 (Qld).

As previously foreshadowed by the State, SARA will be the assessment manager for wind farm projects in the future. Future wind farm development applications will be code assessable, meaning that third party rights of submission and appeal against an approval will not be available.

Draft Queensland code and guideline

The proposed wind farm code will have broad application and will apply to a project that comprises one or more wind turbines including any existing wind turbines on the site with a generation capacity of more than 500 kilowatts. For a wind farm project that does not achieve 500 kilowatts, the local government will assess and decide the development application.

The code will also apply to the assessment of associated infrastructure and work, such as site access (including internal roads), foundations, buildings and electrical works.

In its current form, the draft code does not resolve a number of issues, including:

• what methodology should be used to enable a consistent assessment of tonality noise impacts from the operation of the wind turbines;
• how the assessment of low frequency noise under the code will be reconciled with the assessment of low frequency noise emissions set out in existing governmental draft guidelines;
• as a matter of practicality and project sequencing, detail as to connection to existing electricity transmission lines is often not known at the time a development application is made. Detail as to what involvement existing electricity network service providers will have in the assessment process is not provided in the draft code or guideline;
• how cumulative visual impacts are to be assessed where a number of wind farm projects in close geographical proximity are being applied for at the same time;
• how an application will be assessed in circumstances where a community (which must be consulted before the lodgement of a development application) is not overwhelmingly in support of the proposal; and
• how the subdivision of land will be treated for a wind farm project. Project feasibility for a wind farm is often achieved by the long-term lease over small areas of land for each wind turbine and electricity connection works frequently, this configuration of land is not consistent with local planning instrument expectations for subdivision in rural or rural residential areas where wind farms are typically located. The draft code and guideline do not reconcile how this aspect will be dealt with by local governments, who will be the assessment manager for the subdivision component of any project.

Submissions about the draft code and guideline can be made until 13 May 2014.