New line powers ahead
Transmission route a winner, says company
THE company behind the proposed Robbins Island wind farm says it has received an overwhelmingly positive response from Tasmanians about the new route of the transmission line needed to import power into the grid.
Putting the power line underground would cost up to $2 billion.
While that option might appease any community concerns about the visual impact of 275 towers built over 115km of forestry, dairy and private property, UPC Renewables said it was too costly and presented its own environmental challenges.
Instead, the company plans to build a $138 million transmission line from Tasmania’s far northwest to Hampshire, near Burnie and is out talking to communities in the three municipalities impacted.
“The current proposed route has endorsement from the land owners who will host this infrastructure and allows us to engage with the wider community,” UPC’s David Pollington said.
“Last night in Smithton we had a small but interested group and overwhelming the reaction was positive.
“We had three people who had concerns about the project but only one with concerns about the transmission line itself.”
Fifty-metre towers are proposed, spaced 400m apart.
UPC Renewables said the owners of land involved would be compensated for the tower footprint – a 60m easement the company said would also serve as firebreaks.
To get power from Robbins Island to the Tasmanian mainland, it would be carried across a new concrete bridge built across Robbins Passage.
From there, the line would run through Britton’s Swamp, behind Edith Creek, up the back of Takone, into Oonah and then Hampshire.
Most of the land involved, 86.5km, is corporate forest. six kilometres is corporate dairies, 11.5km is private land and 8.5km belongs to the Crown.
Another new line, to be built by TasNetworks, will carry the power to a substation at Staverton, near Sheffield.
When constructed, the wind farm would be the biggest in the Southern Hemisphere with between 74 and 163 turbines capturing the Roaring Forties to generate electricity. The size and number of turbines is yet to be determined.
The development application for the transmission line needs to be approved by the Circular Head, WaratahWynyard and Burnie councils and the Federal Government.
UPC said recent polling of 1000 Tasmanian residents, undertaken by EMRS, showed 43 per cent strongly supported the project, 30 per cent somewhat supported it, 11 per cent were undecided, 9 per cent somewhat opposed and 8 per cent were strongly against it.