Renewable Energy Position Statement

wind-farm-stockyard-hill.jpg

Doing Renewable Energy Development Well in Our Shire 

Pyrenees Shire Council is committed to ensuring the long-term vitality and prosperity of our shire. Australia’s shift to renewable energy requires new generation, storage and transmission infrastructure to succeed and Pyrenees Shire is increasingly being asked to be a host to this new infrastructure. The Pyrenees Shire Council and community expect to be active participants in the design of new energy projects, have agency over how benefits are shared locally and be ready to take up jobs and business opportunities in the delivery.

The shire’s strategic location and abundance of wind and solar resources has led to a number of projects being proposed and constructed in recent years. Currently in the Pyrenees Shire there are multiple projects that are both proposed and operational, including:

Proposed projects

  • Western Renewables Link
  • Nyaninyuk Wind Farm
  • Brewster Wind Farm

Operational projects 

  • Stockyard Hill Wind Farm
  • Waubra Wind farm
  • Chepstowe
  • Crowlands
  • Ararat wind farm terminal station

The scale and pace of change that is occurring in our shire has prompted Council to prepare a position statement to clearly articulate the Pyrenees community’s expectations of how to develop new energy infrastructure well in our shire. If the energy shift in the Pyrenees Shire is left to roll out in an uncoordinated manner without excellent participation from our community in its design, we risk further escalating community division and distress as well as missing out on opportunities that have the potential to create legacy benefits for generations to come.

This position statement seeks to help address this risk by proactively advocating for renewables to be done well and by demonstrating what that looks like in our shire through clear expectations and recommendations.

Download the full Position Statement(PDF, 243KB).