LAUNCESTON City Council has decided installing wind turbines on the top of the city's North Bank wool store and old silos would be too expensive.
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City architect Matthew Skirving advised the council that the significant capital requirements of such a proposal and the predicted return on the investment did not justify the development.
Alderman Jeremy Ball had proposed the wind turbines and called for the $4800 feasibility study after the council acquired the former Tasmanian Grain Elevators site with the silos and the former Roberts Wool Stores site as part of land acquisition for the flood levee project.
Mr Skirving said that both sites would require a new three-phase point of connection to the electricity grid, which would cost $30,000.
Both the former wool stores showed extensive deterioration, severe weathering and vandalism.
Total rebuilding costs for the wool stores was estimated at more than $1.1 million.
Mr Skirving said that a major concern was the lack of any significant power consumption at the host site, which meant that the energy generated would need to be sold back into the grid for distribution and consumption elsewhere making it uneconomical.
