Trustpower abandons wind farm

TrustPower has pulled the plug on a controversial wind farm in South Australia just weeks after a manager confidently predicted work on the project would start early next year.

The state government this week knocked back a modified plan for the 48MW project on Adelaide's southern fringe.

Last month, the Adelaide Advertiser reported a project manager as saying the $140 million wind farm would be finished by late next year and that residents were resigned to the project going ahead.

South Australia's government has pushed up its target for renewable energy but said it would not support a variation to the height, layout and turbine type in the existing planning approval for the Myponga Wind Farm.

The project received planning approval in November 2003 for the construction and operation of up to 20 wind turbines and associated infrastructure.

TrustPower said there were then delays caused by changing energy policies in the state and in the meantime technology improvements would have allowed the company to install four fewer turbines yet increase output.

The units would have been taller, at around 110m, and there had been opposition among a neighbouring coastal community 60km south of central Adelaide.

The state's government says that given the length of time between being granted major development approval and the new plans, it was not appropriate to vary the approval.

TrustPower says it had hoped for a positive response given that it was "not materially different" from the existing approval.

"TrustPower believes that the Myponga project would have been particularly well suited to contributing to the new renewable energy target given its high-quality wind resource and proximity to existing transmission capacity."

Spokesman Graeme Purches said the cost of planning and legal work to date would have been in the "hundreds of thousands of dollars" and the company was disappointed by the South Australian government's stance.

"It's surprising that they are prepared to flag away a small wind farm. When you live in the development game that's life."

TrustPower already has a wind farm at Snowtown in South Australia. The 98MW capacity project opened last November and Purches said there was potential to treble its size.

The company was also carrying out wind tests in two other states.