11th June, 2021
Via Wind Farm Living.
Hi All Wind Farm Living Worldwide Community,
This is a notice of warning to any company considering purchasing the Rangoon Wind Farm.
The Ben Lomond community has spoken – There is NO SOCIAL LICENCE FOR THIS WIND FARM PROPOSAL.
This is a worldwide announcement to warn any prospective buyers to consider the ensuing bad deal surrounding this venture.
Please forward on and/or post all correspondence contained within this email to relevant www websites.
Let’s Get the Word Out… and support the community of Ben Lomond !!
Wind Farm Living,
Moyne Shire, Victoria, Australia
From: xxxx
Sent: Friday, 11 June 2021 4:49 PM
To: xxxx
Subject: RE: Project Update
Dear xxxx, board of directors of Meridian, potential buyers of Meridian, wind farm living community, councils and MPs
I refer to your email below.
Meridian’s proposed Rangoon Wind Farm at Ben Lomond is too close to the township. Meridian’s desire to engage with the community has come too late in the piece. The Ben Lomond community has notified Meridian in writing that it has rejected the proposal and Meridian and that it has no social licence. I attach the correspondence.
What this means for the Rangoon Wind Farm Project?
I will continue to work for my clients at Ben Lomond and to assist the community prepare its submissions in response to Meridian’s insistence that it will submit its EIS between now and November 2021.
What this means for Meridian?
Buyers Beware! My clients and I will ensure that potential purchasers of Meridian’s business are on notice of Meridian’s ongoing, heavy-handed conduct with the Ben Lomond community and that the Rangoon Wind Farm has been rejected by the local community. There will be protests and boycotts of Meridian or any company who purchases Meridian’s business and seeks to develop the Rangoon Wind Farm at Ben Lomond.
For further information, please feel free to contact me. xxxx, could you please send this email out to all Wind Farm Living Community around the world.
Regards
xxxx
———- Forwarded message ———
From: xxxx
Date: Thu, 10 Jun 2021 at 5:02 pm
Subject: Project Update
To: xxxx
Dear Community Consultative Committee, Chair, MPs and Councils,
In addition to our recent email correspondence, I wish to inform you directly that Meridian has announced a strategic review of its Meridian Energy Australia (MEA) business. It is expected the review will take a number of months and will consider all options including partial or full sale of MEA.
What this means for the Rangoon Wind Farm project?
MEA remain committed to the project, and will continue to work closely with EPS and the community towards lodging the EIS between now and November 2021.
What this means for the Rangoon Wind Farm project Meridian contact, xxxx?
xxxx will remain the MEA representative for the project and will continue to provide updates on the process.
For further information, please see the following link to a related media release: https://www.meridianenergy.co.nz/news-and-events/ownership-review-of-meridian-energy-australia
Regards,
xxxx
Meridian Energy Australia
——— Forwarded message ———
From: xxxx
Date: Fri, 4 Jun 2021 at 2:17 pm
Subject: Re: Rangoon Wind Farm CCC Minutes – March 2021 – APPROVED
To: xxxx
Cc: xxxx
Meridian.
xxxx letter captures the sentiments and views of this community very well. The cold hard realities of the inappropriateness of Rangoon to this location. xxxx comments speak for all here in this community, except I imagine the landholders hosting turbines and receiving significant economic benefits.
The community position comes after much research of their own, many discussion, meetings, fact checking, and real on the ground truthing of actual impacts of wind farms.
As part of this process, the community has taken the initiative with Meridian to engage a full exploration of the viability of a different project involving the whole district, larger canvass, mix of technologies, better distances, less concentration, more distributed community landholder benefit, and in so doing seeking the means of a project that can both meet generation capacity required by Meridian for its customers and remove risk of unacceptable impacts to existing residents.
Unfortunately due to the circumstances of Meridian’s customer base, only wind can be considered. It continues to engage only with 5 landholders. It continues in disregard to community concerns, and the immense good will for a community feeling under threat.
The community has now formed its view, in view of all considerations and efforts, appropriately.
Its rejection (no social licence given, considered full rejection of the project) is a fully informed considered view, by a community seeking all avenues to find a way to enable both the project needs and non-detrimental outcomes to the community within which it is to be built.
My only correction to xxxx’s letter, is to say that from on the ground real impacts, for a ridge line or hill peak cluster of 150m wind turbines, the distance for no significant life affecting noise impacts to a residence is likely around 6 km. At that distance, still some noise impacts on occasions under certain weather conditions, but tolerable as not pervasive in the life of the resident.
For same, with 250m turbines, by proportion the distance needs to be about 10 km, not 5 km.
These are distances from existing impacts from existing wind farm. Not the “industry” self interested generated distances that currently are utilised inappropriately.
With the Rangoon project and 250m or 150m turbines, the issue is the total generation capacity in a confined rural area with moderate rural residential density.
Total watts generating capacity of the wind farm is proportional to total noise from pressure air wave generation. They are intimately linked. This is basic physics. Meridian, you know this. Your experts in this field!
So in fair measure the total watts generated by the project 25 x 25GW/Yr (~ 600GW/Yr) is proportional to total noise energy propagated per m^3 and hence noise impacts to residents within said distances, no matter how the project is configured. Choice of turbines makes a small tweaking difference, but blades through air must generate pressure waves and sound in order for them to translate wind energy to electrical generation. You just can not do this energy density and scale of energy harvesting with wind, with villages, schools, and non associated residences within 3 km.
This project, with the scale it seeks to generate with wind, does not fit to this district no matter how it is configured.
Meridian, along with other interested parties in this sector, are quite capable for lobbying State and Federal Governments for better grid connection capacity investment in other regions for this size and scale of wind generation. And in places where there are not the impacts, and land holders would value the project and own the noise and other impacts. As has been fully presented as an option to Meridian.
Good letter xxxx. Well captured.
Hope you do not mind me backing and adding.
xxxx.
Also CCC community rep.
Chairperson, Ben Lomond Landcare Group.
Also acting as Armidale Regional Council Local Area Committee for the Ben Lomond Community.
On 4 Jun 2021, at 12:35 pm, xxxx wrote:
Thanks for acknowledging my email xxxx.
I remain confused by your response ….”reviewing all aspects of the turbine locations with respect to the feedback we have received from the community”. If you are actually genuine with this comment, I question why you continue to invest time and money into the proposal. The community clearly does not want the wind farm. There is a resounding negative response to the proposal. Going back to my original question, unless you are genuinely going to reconsider the locations, 5km away from the Ben Lomond and Glencoe villages, and away from the boundaries of non – associated Holdings (let’s not dismiss the fact that 25% of the turbines are located with 120m of neighbouring boundaries) the proposal is not and will not be accepted. You do not have a social licence.
The sales pitch provided to Meridan that there was a “shelf ready” wind farm approved for Ben Lomond is, at best, a 15 year old myth. The entire proposal has been based on lies (yes I am going to use the word lies). As a recent example, xxxx and xxxx had the audacity to sit in my parents house, yes our family home, look my parents in the eye and inform them of the removal of a turbine 15 from the project due to “community concerns”. Furthermore xxxx backed this statement up at the inaugural CCC meeting. The actual truth – there was never consent to put Turbine 15 on the landholders property!
At the same meeting they spoke of our local MPs support for the project. This was also confirmed a lie some 15 minutes after the meeting finished. I could go on.
Are you genuine with your comments, or simply providing “lip service” while you continue to redesign and attempt to develop further”specialist” reports to “address” the community concerns?
Reducing the size of turbines still means turbines. The proposal is simply in the wrong location. Build it away from schools, hotels, post offices, residential villages and off the boundaries of non-associated Holdings and you will have a higher chance of success. Australia is a big place, largely uninhabited. Why build it on the doorstep and ruin the livelihoods of hundreds of residents.
The ongoing threat of this completely inappropriate proposal is impacting the mental health of a lot of people. Does that concern you? This threat has been hanging over the community for over 12 months. Enough is enough.
Regards,
xxxx
On Thu, 3 Jun 2021 at 8:45 am, xxxx wrote:
Good morning xxxx,
Thanks for your email, and excuse your question being missed. We do our best to address all the community questions, however, sometimes some fall through the cracks, so thanks for bringing to our attention.
In response to your question, we are currently reviewing all aspects of the turbine locations with respect to the feedback we have received from the community, all relevant guidelines and standards, and the advice and feedback from government.
I empathise with your comments and understand your points, please be assured we are taking the time to address, as best we can, all the concerns raised, and will hopefully come back to you and the community with some certainty in the coming months.
On that note, we will be sure to meet in the coming months and look forward to discussing further in person.
Best Regards,
xxxx
Meridian Energy Australia
———- Forwarded message ———
From: xxxx
Date: Thu, 3 Jun 2021 at 6:01 am
Subject: Re: Rangoon Wind Farm CCC Minutes – March 2021 – APPROVED
To: xxxx
Cc: xxxx
xxxx
Maybe you can address my question that has gone ignored for the last month or so? See below.
Regards,
xxxx
On Thu, 6 May 2021 at 7:56 pm, xxxx wrote:
xxxx
As advised in xxxx’ email to direct questions and comments back through yourself.
Question: Can we assume the “review of the turbine locations” includes moving outside the 5km buffer zone of both Ben Lomond and Glencoe villages, as recommended by the National Wind Farm Commissioner and supported by both our State and Federal MPs?
Comment: The ongoing threat and cloud of uncertainty of this proposal hanging over the community is becoming increasingly untenable. We cannot live a normal life whilst this process drags on. It’s impacting on the mental and physical health of a large number of those impacted, and frankly it’s simply unfair and unjust.
Regards,
xxxx
DeFrock 