Yet the power company which residents say is threatening their tranquillity advertises itself as green, friendly and environment-conscious.

TrustPower is a New Zealand generator which wants to build a wind farm on the hills behind Mt Terrible and around Heatherdale Hill close to Myponga, on two ridgelines some 8km long.

The company is predominantly owned by Infratil Ltd, which has electricity interests in NZ and Australia and which owns airports in Wellington NZ, Glasgow and Kent in the UK, and Lubeck on the Baltic Sea.

Since TrustPower’s first application to build a Myponga wind farm around 2002, its proposal has changed many times in many ways. At the moment the company has approval for 20 two-megawatt machines.

It now wants that changed to 16 bigger turbines. “Since approving the project against the advice of PlanningSA, the State Government has granted every variation requested by the developer,” local councillor Barry Webb said.

“This includes increasing turbine capacity from 1.75 MW to 2 MW for a total of 40 MW, which necessitated noise mitigation measures by the developer to meet Environment Protection Agency noise guidelines for wind farms.”

The Yankalilla Council met last night to discuss varying the project yet again from 40 MW to 48 MW. The nearest residence is less than 1km away. “Interstate and overseas buffer distances of 1.5 to 2km are being introduced and enforced,” Mr Webb said.

“This government is permitting TrustPower to build turbines as close as 700m from homes and trusting the developer’s noise mitigation measures. Local residents are petrified they are about to be subjected to many sleepless nights.”