Wind farms can boost land values

For landowners interested in wind farms on their property, some of the benefits include:

Land down the north coastal strip of the Mid West is being snapped up for current and future wind farming projects.

There are more than 10 commercial-scale wind farms already established in Western Australia and several companies are understood to be courting farmers heavily to set up more turbines on their properties.

Warradarge farmer Gary Chivers is part of the Bright Energy Investments' Warradarge Wind Farm project that has 20 turbines on his property and 30 turbines and a sub-station on a neighbouring property.

He said Synergy had monitored the wind direction and strength on his 2000 hectare farm for about eight years before the turbines were established in 2020.

"Once they had determined that the wind was very good here, they approached me to set up the turbines," Mr Chivers said.

He said the main incentive for him to agree to the project was the annual lease payment he would receive from the turbines.

"It is a non-rain-related return on the land," he said.

"Where the turbines are situated is arable and productive farm land, but it is not our best growing country.

"We can run our 2500-head sheep flock around the turbines and they camp in the shade there without being disturbed by the turbines."

Mr Chivers said there was some downside in that there had to be a network of gravel roads constructed between the turbines.

"These have broken up paddocks, which can be problematic when you want to crop in long straight lines using GPS systems - and obviously nothing can be grown on the roads," he said.

"On the upside, though, we have good new roads for our machinery."

Noise can be a potential downside to wind farming, but Mr Chivers said there were two turbines within about 500 metres of his sheep yards and these were not too disruptive.

Mr Chivers said the turbines were not an eyesore in his opinion.

"Because you are getting paid for them, they are actually quite beautiful," he said.

Mr Chivers said a big tip for other growers thinking of having wind farms installed on their property was to link the annual lease payments to CPI.

"There is no point locking yourself in for 10 years or more at today's prices," he said.

"Also, I would advise farmers to negotiate on where the access roads will go and beware of paddocks being chopped up."

Mr Chivers said there was quite a bit of traffic accessing the turbines due to maintenance and upkeep, which could be another potential disadvantage.

But he said Bright Energy Investments had been excellent to deal with.

Bright Energy Investments general manager Tom Frood said wind farms set up on farming land had very little impact on that land.

He said the Warradarge Wind Farm located on the two Warradarge properties had a total output of 180 megawatts with a capacity factor of nearly 50 per cent - the equivalent of the average annual electricity needs of 144,000 Western Australian homes.

The turbines are among the largest in this State, with a tip height of 152m and 67m blades.

Construction of this facility also included 55 kilometres of new gravel roads around the 3800ha site and 117km of underground 33kV electrical cabling.

Synergy Renewable Energy Developments Pty Ltd (SynergyRED) provides asset management services to the facility on behalf of Bright Energy Investments.

A 10km transmission line goes from the wind farm sub-station to the existing 330 kilovolt transmission line near Eneabba on the South West Interconnected System (SWIS).

Mr Frood said the site of the Warradarge Wind Farm was recognised as one of the best in the country and, combined with the state-of-the-art turbine technology and its proximity to the 330kV transmission line heading into the northern section of the SWIS, the project was contributing significantly to WA's renewable energy generation future.

He said different wind farms had different lease arrangements with the farmers who owned the land and were typically based on the number of turbines or their capacity.

"The main benefit for farmers is having a climate-proof income year-in and year-out," Mr Frood said.

He said in some specific cases, neighbour agreements were also put in place to compensate nearby farmers who had potential to be impacted by noise or visual pollution.

"There are certain times when the wind is at a particular strength when the neighbours might hear the turbines," he said.

Mr Frood said when considering whether to host wind turbines, farmers were advised to check how long the towers were likely to be there and the rent to be paid.

"Also the location of the towers is important," he said.

"You don't want them right next to a house, which is not such a big issue given the size of WA farms."

Mr Frood said access roads would impact on arable land, but this was really nominal in most cases.

"It is important to negotiate with farmers about where roads will be to minimise their impact," he said.

ICA Partners partner Alistair Craib has been working in the renewables space for 20 years and said the main benefit of wind farms to farmers was the lease payment for the turbines, which at today's prices was worth $40-50,000 per turbine per year (depending on how many megawatts were produced).

He, too, stressed the importance of negotiating with the wind farm developer for this to rise annually in line with the CPI.

Mr Craib said some would argue this annuity revenue stream increased the value of the land used for the turbines.

"Others would argue that having turbines devalues the land," Mr Craib said.

He said farmers considering wind farm development could expect very little interference to their operations from the turbines, except maybe during construction.

But Mr Craib said they could negotiate a disruption payment to be compensated for this period.

He said other advantages of having a wind farm on a farming property were potential payment for gravel, payment for having a substation and getting new roads.

Mr Craib said there were potential pitfalls as well.

"The wind farms can divide communities and create rifts if the development process if not handled well," he said.

"Some developers do it well and others are poor at it.

"Typically, there is a community fund set up that gets an annual contribution to go back into local projects."

Mr Craib said neighbour agreements may be needed and compensation for any noise or visual pollution negotiated.

"It is also important to set up a plan for decommissioning and rehabilitation of the turbine area," he said.

There is a Renewable Energy Landholder Guide at: nswfarmers.org.au/NSWFA/Content/IndustryPolicy/Resource/Renewable_Energy_Landholder_Guide

If approached by a wind farm company, it recommends checking the reputation and track record of the company making the approach and determining if they are a company you wanted to do business with.

"Assess the commercial terms and whether the company understands and respects your community and the local environment," it says.

The guide says the main benefits of having a wind farm on your property are the lease income/financial remuneration, new access roads and environmental benefits from carbon dioxide reduction.

It says the biggest potential pitfalls were fire risks, visual appeal, shadow flicker, dust, soil disturbance, weeds and noise.

Few studies in Australia have specifically assessed the potential impact of renewable energy developments on the value of host land.

But a 2001 Senate inquiry concluded that: the value of properties that are hosts to wind turbines should increase, provided of course that the rights to rentals for the turbines are transferable with the sale of the property.

A Synergy spokesman said there was potential for capital growth in property value where wind farms were placed.

Aside from a small interest in Warradarge, it does not currently have turbines on farm land.

But it has development approval for a wind farm at Kings Rock, near Hyden, that will be on farm land.