Robbins Island wind farm: Federal government asks developer for more information on devil habitat offsets
The federal government says it hasn’t received ‘adequate’ information from a wind farm developer about how it intends to offset the loss of more than 350ha of Tasmanian devil habitat.
North West Coast
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The developer behind a wind farm project in Tasmania’s North-West is yet to explain to the federal government how it intends to offset the loss of vital Tasmanian devil habitat, prompting the Greens to call for the project to be scrapped entirely.
The proposed 122-turbine Robbins Island Renewable Energy Park would generate up to 900MW of energy upon completion.
The island is home to one of the last devil populations free of devil facial tumour disease (DFTD).
The proposed wind farm was given the green light by the Circular Head Council in February, however, the Environment Protection Authority ruled that it would need to shut down for five months every year to manage impacts to migrating orange-bellied parrots.
Developer ACEN has lodged an appeal against this condition. The company will also face the Tasmanian Civil & Administrative Tribunal after the Bob Brown Foundation lodged an appeal of its own against the council’s decision to approve the project.
The wind farm still needs approvals from the federal Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water.
In a Senate Estimates hearing on Tuesday, the department’s Head of Environment Approvals Division, Bruce Edwards, said “further information” had been requested from the proponent relating to how it planned to offset the loss of devil habitat as a result of the development.
“We’re asking how offsets would work and what a strategy would look like,” he said.
Mr Edwards said the department had not received “adequate information” from ACEN “in relation to the impacts to the devils and how they might offset those”.
The strategy ACEN is being asked to develop would need to outline a plan to compensate for the loss of 366ha of devil habitat.
Tasmanian Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson said the lack of information from the proponent regarding offsets was a red flag and the wind farm should be abandoned.
“Tassie devils are only just clawing their way back from the horrendous DFTD that wiped out 95 per cent of the species’ population, while also battling a myriad of other pressures including land clearing, mining, logging, and becoming roadkill,” he said.
“Needless to say, a massive industrial wind farm on pilitika/Robbins Island is only going to add unacceptable pressure to the plight of the Tasmanian devil.”
ACEN chief operating officer David Pollington said the department’s request for additional information was a normal step in the process of gaining approvals and wasn’t unusual.
“Over the next couple of months, we will prepare information for the variables that go into the offset calculator,” he said.
“ACEN maintains that there is no impact to Tasmanian devils. This is confirmed [from] expert and Tasmanian assessment.”
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