DAYS after the federal government shelved its Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme until the end of 2012, the Daylesford community is going it alone.Hepburn Wind has signed the major contract to build Australia's first community-owned wind farm at Leonards Hill.Construction of the two-turbine wind farm is scheduled to begin in October.Hepburn Wind chairman Simon Holmes a Court said Daylesford was not waiting for renewable energy targets and its project had strong community support."We've moved past the dream and hopes - this will go ahead," he said.REpower Systems will build the wind farm, which has been five years in the pipeline.More than 1100 co-operative members have invested $7.5 million so far.Along with finance from Bendigo Bank and a $975,000 state government grant, Hepburn Wind has pushed ahead with the $12.9 million project.Last night , the company released its final offer of 1.8 million shares, the amount the project still needs to raise.While Mr Holmes a Court said there were enough funds to get construction going, there were quite a few months left to raise those funds and there was a fallback if that did not happen."Everyone who has invested to date has invested money on a promise ... to start with, we didn't know who would build it, when or how much," he said."But this (last offer) is the easiest money to date to raise."Mr Holmes a Court said communities and councils across the country had approached Hepburn Wind for ideas on how to implement the community wind-farm model in their own area."It's interesting times for wind in this region, some communities are still unsure about this," he said."But our community has a sense of ownership and understanding."The wind farm is expected to start producing power in the second quarter of next year.
Daylesford wind farm goes alone
