The developer, Neoen, has conducted an extremely poor and deliberately limited community consultation process. Consequently, many residents do not understand the project, and have not had time to consider its impacts. Some of the direct neighbours to the development have never been contacted or consulted by Neoen.

In two very poor community consultations conducted in Sept. 2021 via Zoom between community members and Neoen staff and their consultants, Neoen had designed the Zoom sessions so that community members were permanently muted. Thus, community members were only able to ask questions by typing into a chat box. Consequently, only Neoen staff and their consultants were able to speak. And of course, there was no discussion allowed, because the community members, were muted. This was a deliberate attempt by Neoen to silence the local community.

This development area is of high environmental value. This development will destroy the local habitat ,and local animal populations such as Koala and Bell's Turtle will be severely imapacted upon. The only valid reason why the developer has chosen this area for a windfarm is because it is close to the high voltage power lines.

This is beautiful area with high visual amenity and high environmental values. It also is a rural residential area with a relatively high population density, that is completely unsuited to industrial windfarm development. Many people move to this area because of its beautiful natural values, and the windfarm will damage all this.
Also the windfarm developer Neoen has not properly consulted with the local community, and has deliberately ignored their frequent requests to hold a public meeting, because Neoen believes that the NSW State Government will let them get away with this poor behaviour that contravenes the requirements of the NSW planning legislation.

I am objecting to this development due to the total lack of Social Licence on this project. As seems to be the norm in NSW at the moment the residents of Kentucky have been walked over by the State Government and Developers in their electricity panic. In the rush to close coal fired power stations rural people are being treated as second class citizens.(No surprises there) The Community Consultative Committees are just box tickers for the developers. The State Government puts no value on food production in what is a highly productive area. This is a disgrace.
Yours Sincerely , Matt Macarthur Onslow

My submission is for all the young people in our district. I feel they are not being heard in this process.

To Whom it may concern, Thunderbolt Wind Farm
(SSD-10807896)
Bev Jeff Cameron
6290 New England High Way Kentucky
My family and I wish to object to the proposed Thunderbolt wind farm,
The location of the towers is considerably close to our home.
It will be very close to the highway and will cause a lot of disruption as they will have used the highway to deliver these turbines to their location’s
The New England Highway has already had lots of fatalities and accidents .
It is proposed that 32 turbines will be built on ‘Kyabra’ to the west of the New England Highway (Stage 1), and another 33 on various properties to the east of New England Highway (Stage 2) later.
The turbines will be the largest turbines ever installed on land in Australia, reaching 270 m at the blade tip. This is the same size as the tallest high-rise building in Sydney.
Each of these turbines will have a red light on its hub that will activate and flash at night. That’s 70 red flashing lights at approximately 180m above ground level, impacting the night sky in the Kentucky district. The reflection will be exaggerated in low cloud conditions.
A substantial gravel road network (55 km for Stage 1 of the project) will be constructed within the catchment to transport the concrete and the huge metal components of the turbines.
The installation of each turbine involves the construction of massive steel and concrete footings, requiring granite rock blasting to install. Each turbine will require approximately 2,990 tonnes of concrete (1,300 m³ x 2.3 t/m³) plus approximately 900 tonnes of steel reinforcing as ballast.
- Inability to undertake aerial firefighting increasing bushfire risk as we have had a bush fire on our property in 2019 it came very close to our house if it was not fixed wing aircraft we would of lots our house.

The area proposed for the wind farm is rated as being of high fire risk. Fire seasons like 2019/2020 are forecast to become more frequent.
Aerial support from fixed wing aircraft and helicopters was critical in a number of instances for the control of fires, with the helicopters flying over the proposed wind turbine area to fill their buckets from our dam to put out the bush fire .
Bushfires are becoming more severe and more challenging. Rural Fire Service volunteers are not getting any younger. This is at a time when a windfarm would be considered an additional valuable asset needing defence by local RFS brigades.
Given this outlook and the horrendous season we went through, the proposed windfarm site is unsuitable from a bushfire hazard and firefighting perspective.
Many buyers seeking attractive rural lifestyle blocks will avoid of areas with wind turbines making sale of the rural lifestyle properties in the district much more difficult, especially for those properties that will be surrounded by both Stage 1 and 2 of the proposal.
Negative impacts on rural and rural-lifestyle landscape beauty and amenity
Local amenity will be significantly impacted by the high visibility of these massive turbines. They will be 6 times higher than, and tower over, the high voltage 330 KV power lines that already traverse the area. The beautiful local landscape that attracted many of the residents will now be dominated by these structures.
Local residents will be impacted by turbine noise, including infrasound, with some residents surrounded on all sides, therefore affected no matter which direction the wind blows from.
Shadow flicker from the spinning blades will affect many residents in the Kentucky area, especially as the sun rises and sets.
The proposed industrial development in a rural and rural-lifestyle district adjacent to the New England Highway halfway between Sydney and Brisbane is inappropriate.

Hi
Just wanting to object to the Thunderbolt wind farm proposal, I am a direct neighbour to this project and I am unhappy with the lack of consultation that Neoen have had with the community,
2- the noise levels on my property on there testing was at the maximum level of 35 decibels
3- property prices will be affected and Neoen hasn’t offered any sort of compensation
4- Kentucky is a heavy populated area with lots of life style properties , noise flashing red lights and shadow flicker
5- Koala habitat , shake trees until Koala falls into a net and then what ? Relocate to another area where different habitats and predators live ,aren’t KOALAS endangered?
6- roads and infrastructure
I have lived here for 20 years and been in the earth moving and road transport for also 20 years , this country is Granite country and has not got a lot of top soil so is prone to erosion very easily so with the proposed roads it will change all the eco dynamics of the area this causing silting of creeks and natural water courses affecting Marine habitat

I am not against renewable energy , but there are places where it will work , but here in Kentucky I think it’s the wrong location
Thank You Steven Rhodes

As a farmer and conservationist, it saddens me greatly to be confronted with the cumulative impact from large scale wind and solar projects such as the Thunderbolt Energy Hub Development. And as such I wish to register my objection in the strongest possible terms for a variety of reasons, namely:

Groundwater - Surely the huge foundations needed to support each tower will cause irreversible damage to this vital reserve. Without a reliable source of groundwater, many of us would not have survived the last drought.

Noise and Infrasound - Meaningful consideration has not been given to the mental health of not only humans, but to farm animals and native fauna.

Food Security - Loss of valuable rural land put out of production and loss of farm production due noise and infrasound is too greater price to pay for the little energy that this and other wind farms will generate. Cities must pull their weight by proportionally hosting their own infrastructure for alternate power generation.

Visual Impact - The visual impact of these massive structures will dwarf and deface both the natural and rural landscapes, rendering it an industrial wasteland.

Weed Management - No long term management practices appear to be in place to control the weeds that will inevitably prosper under acres of solar panels.

Waste Management - How on earth will the tiny waste management facility in Walcha be able to handle the waste during the construction period and the waste once the carbine fiber blades have reached their used by date.

Stranded Assets - I am not convinced that when the wind and solar farm developers have long gone, that it will be they who will be footing the bill to decommission these structures, pay the land fill costs for the blades etc. and decontaminate the soil, so vital for future generations of farmers to produce food.

I believe that the windfarms are ecologically positive for our environment.

Any objections raised by Steve Johnson from the fire brigade, are of one member and it must be considered as one member's view only! Confirmation is necessary from the RFS to confirm that what has been said is true and this has not occurred.

I have been a local within the area for a long time and I am 100% in favour of renewable energy happening here.