ENGIE declares commitment to 'flagship project' Nundle wind farm

ENGIE chief executive for renewables Thierry Kalfon has been in Australia for just three weeks, after leaving the company's Paris headquarters.

He made his first visit out of the company's local offices in Melbourne to Nundle last week.

"It's a token of how important it is for us," he said.

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"ENGIE as a group is fully committed to delivering this project - fully committed."

The company has identified an imminent need to replace hundreds of megawatts of power generation from closing coal fire stations. ENGIE was itself involved in closing one of Australia's dirtiest power stations at Hazlewood in Victoria, in 2017.

ENGIE is France's biggest renewables operator and Mr Kalfon said the company wants to be a "leading player" in Australia.

"The reason why I was appointed here is that ENGIE thinks that Australia is a priority country for renewables and renewables is the strategic area for growth for our company," he said.

"This has been explicitly stated in our last capital statement."

Mr Kalfon said the Nundle wind farm is "one of the most important ones for the group as a whole".

"It is definitely our flagship project in the region," he said.

But the 65 turbine scheme has run into local opposition, including from Tamworth Regional Council. ENGIE has repeatedly sent its general manager of asset development Andrew Kerley to the community to conduct meetings with them and local councils.

Hills of Gold Preservation Inc is the leading group organising opposition to the project.

Member Megan Trousdale said Mr Kerley didn't show up for the community consultative committee meeting on Thursday night, which is the official organisation for consultation on the project. Lower-ranking ENGIE staff did attend the meeting.

She said a majority of Nundle didn't want the project, as indicated by the fact that most near-neighbours of the project hadn't signed up to neighbour agreements.

"After four years of negotiation, the majority of residences within five kilometres of the project do not accept the impacts and have not signed agreed," she said.

"They're the people who are living closest to the project, and they are the people who will be most impacted by visual, noise, and they don't accept the impacts."

Mr Kerley said he believes most people in Nundle either support the project or don't have a view.

"The meetings that we've had in Nundle and Hanging Rock in particular over the last few days has really demonstrated there's a significant level of support for the project," he said.

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"Those that support the project are becoming increasingly vocal on their support to counter some of commentary made by those that oppose it."

Mr Kalfon said "we cannot now, in the current environment, develop any renewable project without the strong support of the community".

He said he was confident of getting it, by being "pedagogical" and informing people of the benefits of the scheme.

Editors note:

This story has been edited to clarify that there were ENGIE staff at the consultative committee meeting.

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