THE report 'Community Attitudes to Renewable Energy in NSW' reveals that there is overwhelming support for renewable energy in NSW, both for wind farms and solar farms. A significant majority of respondents indicated they support wind farms in the immediate precinct of their homes and farms.
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The overwhelming majority of respondents want to see an orderly transition from a fossil fuel based generation system to a renewable energy generation system.
Comprehensive communication with small regional communities is an essential part of the development process. If communities are involved in the development of wind farms from the earliest stages, particularly with some initiatives for including some form of community ownership of the project, the results of this survey would be even more favourable to renewable energy generation.
The NSW Government commissioned this survey in 2014 during the height of the controversy over the negotiations over the Renewable Energy Target and the Gullen Range Wind Farm. The results are almost identical to a survey taken during 2010, so it has proved a consistency of opinions within the state.
It is now up to the NSW Government to finalise the draft planning guidelines for wind farm developments in NSW and get on with the job of meeting the communities expectations for meeting the targets outlined in the NSW Renewable Energy Action Plan. We just can't continue to dig up good agricultural land for coal, pollute the aquifers with fracking and pollute the atmosphere from the smokestacks of the coal-fired generators when there are better, cleaner and cheaper alternatives available.
Charlie Prell, Crookwell.