Pacific Hydro’s Keyneton wind farm blocked by Knoll after failing to meet long-held approval

After six years on the drawing board, a $200m wind farm planned and approved for the Barossa has reached a dead end.

A Barossa Valley wind farm project has collapsed after failing to meet its development approval conditions.

The $200 million Keyneton wind farm proposed by Pacific Hydro, approved in 2013, was required to begin construction by November 29.

Planning Minister Stephan Knoll has refused to grant an extension, noting that policies covering the area have changed since 2013.

The wind farm, 10km southeast of Angaston, would mostly fall in the Barossa Valley Character Preservation District and would not meet planning provisions as they now apply.

“Given the change of policy, and the expectation from community that a previously authorised development which seeks a lengthy extension should be consistent with the planning policies of the day, I have made the decision to refuse Pacific Hydro’s extension request,” Mr Knoll said.

The Keyneton wind farm was approved in 2013 and was required to begin construction by November 29, 2019 – but the project will not go ahead.

Pacific Hydro said it regretted not being able to proceed with the 42-turbine, 105MW project.

There had been many changes since the project was first conceived 13 years ago, it said. Fluctuating policy settings created resource, legal and government approval bottlenecks that made meeting construction time frames impossible to meet.

“The shifting policy framework within and between federal and state governments has created time delays, commercial uncertainty, and impacted investor confidence,” chief executive Rachel Watson said.

“Add to that changing grid connection requirements and it has added up to the Keyneton wind farm not being a viable project..”

Pacific Hydro, which is owned by China’s State Power Investment Corporation, remained committed to its other renewable energy projects, Ms Watson said.

Energy and Mining Minister Dan van Holst Pellekaan said Pacific Hydro had an opportunity over six years to begin building the wind farm.

“And to be quite straight forward, I’m not keen on any more wind farms without accompanied grid-scale storage,” he said.

“This did not have storage, so I’m not overly concerned.

“If this was going to be a good project, they would already have started.”