French-owned Neoen Energy Australia plans to build the Kentbruck Green Power Hub above pine plantation in the south west of Victoria.

With 105 wind towers of up to 270 metres high, this proposal is larger than any operating windfarm in Australia and is situated within one of the largest and most intact regions of remnant native vegetation in Victoria.
The project area starts just 4 km east of the small coastal town of Nelson, and is sandwiched between the key biodiversity areas of the Glenelg River and Discovery Bay Ramsar site, and the Lower Glenelg, Cobboboonee and Mount Richmond National Parks.
By separating these critical habitat areas with a “wall” of 270-metre wind turbines, the project would create a high risk of turbine strikes to nationally- and internationally-threatened species moving between them, including the critically-endangered Southern Bent-wing Bat, Australasian Bittern, Brolga, and migratory shorebirds and seabirds. These impacts are not adequately addressed in the proposal, and due to the poor choice of project location between these highly sensitive biodiversity areas, they are largely unavoidable.
The impacts on Nelson and its surroundings are highlighted by the project documents and include visual intrusion from turbines, turbine noise in national parks and 19 campgrounds, and dust, traffic, noise and vibration during the long construction phase.

As a whole, the unprecedented size and scale of the project would degrade the natural and landscape values that are an integral part of the region’s own identity and of its tourism industry.
The windfarm is to be built to the edge of huge areas of bushland and coastal scrub in an area with an official bushfire risk of Extreme, and the risk of bushfires caused during both construction and operation of turbines is stated as “Likely” in the proponent’s own documents.

Turbines will pose significant obstacles to aerial firefighting support. Despite the assertation that turbine fires are rare, there have been two nearby turbine fires in the last 18 months (at Portland 29 km away and Yambuk 55 km away). These increased and ongoing fire risks to the community are not justified.
To add to these risks, Neoen has recently sold the Kentbruck project and other windfarm assets to HMC Capital – an asset manager with no known track record in delivering windfarm developments, let alone one of this scale and complexity.

We state that this project is highly inappropriate for the area. It is high risk and detrimental to its surroundings, and we ask that the Victorian and federal governments reject the proposal.