Rural
15 October, 2025
Renewable push raises fire risk concerns in Yass Valley
A firefighter with almost 40 years’ experience has expressed serious concerns over the impact renewable energy projects will have on fire-fighting efforts in the Yass Valley.
A firefighter with almost 40 years’ experience has expressed serious concerns over the impact renewable energy projects will have on fire-fighting efforts in the Yass Valley.
Michael Gray – who spent 37 years with the Rural Fire Service, 27 of them in the Yass Valley – has outlined his concerns in a submission to Yass Valley Council. He also addressed council prior to its September 25 meeting.
Mr Gray said the Yass Valley had a history of major fires and a number of large fires had occurred in locations where wind farms are now being built. Those locations include Bowning – site of the proposed Bendenine Wind Farm.
Mr Gray said most of the approved and proposed wind farms in the Yass Valley would be located within undulating granite country with a mixture of open grassland and scattered areas of eucalypt forest.
“This combination of fuel and slope has historically resulted in very fast-moving fires during adverse fire conditions,” he wrote in his submission.
He said the terrain made fire suppression by ground crews “very difficult” and air support was vital in carrying out a direct attack on the head of a fire.
However Mr Gray said wind turbines presented a number of challenges for pilots and the possible loss of an air attack around wind farms could have a “vital impact” on fire suppression.
In particular he said the ‘cluster’ design of wind farms in the Yass Valley – as opposed to a single file design – made flying between turbines extremely dangerous.
He fears the huge mass of wind turbines across the LGA – combined with power lines associated with the Hume Link – will make air attacks difficult and dangerous, allowing fires to spread quickly and grow rapidly in size on days where the Fire Behaviour Index (FBI) is at 40 or above or when there is a Total Fire Ban in place.
Mr Gray said wind farms were a ‘no-go zone’ for fire bombers (such as AT802s) and while helicopters have a better capacity to work within turbines because they can fly more slowly, they can’t be relied upon in high winds – or may be fighting fires elsewhere.
Fires within solar farms can’t be effectively controlled by ground crews because of safety issues and crews would have to wait for a fire to pass through before attempting to suppress it – allowing the fire to increase in size on a bad fire day.
Mr Gray said the unprecedented scale of renewable energy projects in the Yass Valley – including the combination of wind turbines in a cluster formation, the Hume Link project, Broad Casting Masts (BCMs) and solar farms all within historically high bushfire prone areas – “potentially present very serious fire management concerns for the Yass Valley Council, its residents, volunteer firefighters and the Southern Tablelands Zone Rural Fire Service”.
Mr Gray told council that bushfires in and around clustered turbines could be potentially catastrophic.
He said when the turbines were in single file firefighters had “half a chance of doing something”.
Read More: Southern Tablelands, Yass