Environmental authorities will assess a big new Tasmanian wind farm proposed for an area which has extensive records of endangered wedge-tailed eagles.
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Epuron's proposed wind farm at St Patricks Plains in the Central Highlights would have up to 67 wind turbines with tower height of 150 metres, blade length of 90 metres and maximum total height of 240 metres.
It would generate up to 300 megawatts of electricity, which would be slightly more than double the output expected from Goldwind's Cattle Hill Wind Farm, which is being constructed nearby.
The federal Environment Department decided the Epuron proposal was a controlled action under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act due to listed "threatened species and communities".
The assessment would be done by the state Environment Protection Authority.
Any environmental conditions the EPA imposed would have to be included in any subsequent project approval by the Central Highlands Council.
Epuron, which also has potential wind farm projects at Hampshire and Guildford south of Burnie and one north-west of Stanley, said it would place turbines at St Patricks Plains to decrease risk of them being struck by wedge-tailed eagles.
It said it would map wedge-tailed eagle activity in the area over 24 months.
"If this plan identifies a conflict between flight paths and turbine locations, the configuration of turbines will be amended to avoid any significant risk of eagle strike," Sydney-based Epuron said in documentation lodged with the department.
It said a nest survey across the proposed turbine locations and a 1 kilometre buffer zone in February confirmed five registered nests and three new nests within the project area.
Other nests were near the site boundary.
Epuron said there were extensive records of the species in the project area and the wider locality.
Without mitigation measures, it said, the development would have potential to have a significant impact on the species within the project area.
It said its assessment showed 6 per cent of the project site provided optimum nesting habitat and 20 per cent provided secondary nesting habitat.
The rest was "degraded and unlikely to be used as nesting habitat".
