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Then came climate change and the 'end of oil' and mankind is having to 'kick the habbit' of cheap energy. It is not easy.

The largest turbines built in Australia – by date

The first public electricity supply (or utility-scale; not household or farm supply) wind turbines in Australia were the 60 kW units built at Salmon Beach, Esperance, Western Australia. From that time wind turbines have tended to become steadily larger, up to the present (March 2011) when the most common sizes constructed are 2.1 or 3.0 MW. Smaller turbines have also been constructed in particular cases and for particular purposes.

The graph on the right shows some of the larger turbines built in Australia in particular years. Note that the size increase has tended to be exponential rather than linear, with the turbines increasing in size by about 20% each year. The Australian record in the evolution of turbine sizes very much follows that world-wide.

Some of the larger turbines built in Australia in particular years Place Year kW Salmon Beach, Esperance, WA 1987 60 Coober Pedy, SA 1990 150 Ten Mile Lagoon, Esperance, WA 1993 225 Denham, WA 1998 230 Codrington, Vic. 2001 1300 Albany, WA 2001 1800 Canunda, SA 2005 2000 Snowtown, SA 2008 2100 Lake Bonney #2, SA 2008 3000

Unlike in the USA, where public supply turbines were developed much earlier, tubular steel, rather than steel lattice towers, have always been used in Australia. Elsewhere in the world some down-wind turbines (with the blades on the down-wind side of the tower) have been built in the past; only the up-wind type has ever been built in Australia. All utility scale wind turbines are of the horizontal axis type.

The turbines listed in the table on the right (the same as those graphed above) were among the largest constructed in Australia in the given years.

Limits to turbine size

• Size and cost of the cranes that are used for turbine erection. Already crane hire fees (I've heard a figure of $30 000 per day) is a major cost in wind farm construction and maintenance. Off-shore turbines up to 6 MW have recently been built in Europe; it is easier to move a huge floating crane from one turbine to another than a similar crane on hill-tops.
• Size and weight of components that must be transported by road.
• Potential for aviation and radar interference.
• Material fatigue issues.
• Local opposition to siting (the bigger the turbines the more conspicuous they are and the greater the area from which they can be seen).

The future of wind power in Australia

Wind turbine at Starfish Hill, Fleurieu Peninsula

Wind, at the present, is the only economically competitive form of sustainable energy ready to take a significant part of the load. (Australia's wind power potential is dealt with on another page on this site.) Using biological waste and methane from land-fill to generate electricity is feasible and is being done, but its capacity is limited. It is looking like solar thermal and 'hot dry rock' geothermal is close to being competitive, but these are not ready yet and will take many years to 'scale-up' to the point where they are major sources of energy. Photovoltaic and solar thermal power are promising, but are a long way behind wind in capacity at the present (the amount of solar power generated in Australia is about one hundredth that of wind power). Wave-power, harnessing algae to produce fuels, and other alternatives seem further away. A decade or two could change that picture.

Limits to growth of the wind industry

1. The lack of electricity transmission lines where they are needed (Governments seem willing to build transmission lines to new mines, but unwilling to build them for the large-scale development of wind farms);
2. The artificially low price of Renewable Energy Certificates which is at least partly due to the Rudd Government's dodgy solar credits incentive scheme for small solar power installations;
3. A growing level of opposition to the building of wind farms, which seems based mainly on questionable claims that wind turbines cause ill-health, and the NIMBY principle.

Certainly wind power is not 'the answer' to climate change. Only a naïve person would believe that there is a single answer, and only a naïve or dishonest person would object to wind power because it is not 'the answer'. It is a part of 'the answer'. Other parts are energy conservation, technological innovation, development of other forms of sustainable energy, and education. (I have listed some suggestions in What should be done.)

Off-shore wind power installations This is also an option. Turbines can either be set in the seabed in shallow water or they can float and be tethered to the seabed in deap water. Off-shore developments could at least double Australia's wind power potential. The greatest Australian potential for off-shore wind power is near Tasmania, but all the southern coast of Australia could be used. Unfortuneatly both the capital cost and operational and management costs of off-shore wind power is about twice that of on-shore. The former is due to the considerable costs of foundations, submarine transmission cables and installation facilities, while the latter reflects the remote and harsh sea environment in which they operate. (Also see Australia's wind power potential.)

If the logic in the few sentences above is correct, then wind power must be developed to the maximum reasonable degree and as quickly as possible.

In Australia's wind power potential I argue that the potential installed wind power in Australia is more than 91 GW, and the amount of generation then would be more than 241 TWhr p.a. (Total electrical generation in Australia in 2010 was around 300 TWhr.)

Some of us will get sick of the site of wind turbines; some already are. (I love the things; they are elegant, graceful, and do no harm to most views. Of course there are some places where I would not want to see them built.) The alternatives to building wind turbines are to either throw caution and sanity to the wind and continue with fossil fuels, or to totally change our life-styles and enormously cut down on the amount of energy that we use, in our personal lives and in industry. We may well do the former, I cannot imagine our society being ready or willing to do the latter.

The wind farms that were under construction include:

State	Name	Expected completion
NSW	Crookwell-2	No information available!
Tasmania	Musselroe	Unknown
Victoria	Oaklands Hill	March 2012
	Macarthur	Early 2013
	Morton's Lane	Early 2013?
WA	Grasmere	Early 2012

The figures below were calculated from AEMO data downloaded via the Australian Landscape Guardians (ALG) Net page. Graphs of average power generation, on a month-by-month basis, for each of the wind farms in the table below are given on the state wind farm pages. This can be reached via the menu at the top of this page or the Wind farm index.

The capacity factors and average power outputs were calculated for data recorded in the given periods (inclusive of the starting and ending months). Internationally, I believe, a capacity factor of anything above 30% is considered very good.

To understand the table below requires an understanding of power and energy and the difference between them; an explanation is in the glossary.

As a resident of Mid-North SA I am pleased to see that Hallett and Snowtown wind farms have the highest capacity factors of the big farms and that the Hallett group is now generating more electricity than any other wind farm in Australia (and probably the Southern Hemisphere). Waubra and Woolnorth are the only big wind farms not in Mid-North SA to come close to the capacity factors of Hallett and Snowtown.

Australia has been slow to move into sustainable energy in general and wind power in particular.

Germany has one twenty-first the land area of Australia, yet has about 14 times as much wind power (and hugely more solar power). Spain has about twice the population of Australia, a fifteenth the land area, yet about 11 times as much wind power. Little Denmark, with a quarter our population and 0.6% of our land area has about twice our wind power (Denmark has a higher percentage of wind power than any other country). Even the USA, a nation whose federal administration has, until the recent past, been notoriously against doing anything about greenhouse/climate change, has about 21 times as much wind power as Australia.

It is interesting to look at wind power in terms of megawatts per billion dollars of gross domestic product (forth column and ranking in fifth column). In this Demark is ahead of Australia by a factor of eight, Portugal ahead by a factor of seven, and Australia comes 21st (fifth column) in the world. Every nation on the table other than Japan is ahead of Australia in MW/$b GDP. New Zealand (not on the table), with 4224 MW/$b GDP, ranks eighth in the world and even countries like Greece, Bulgaria, Costa Rica and India are ahead of Australia. China has twice the investment in wind power per dollar GDP that Australia has. It is interesting that China installed 8 GW of wind power in the first half of 2011 alone – almost four times the total installed wind power in Australia in just six months!

The sixth column shows Watts of installed wind power per capita in the listed countries, with the world ranking shown in the seventh column. In this too, Australia comes a poor 16th.

Australia has huge potential for developing wind power, but has been notably slow in doing so.

The proportion of electricity that can be generated by wind before problems relating to variability of supply become intolerable has been debated for years. The magazine Wind Power Monthly reported that Denmark generated 31.5% of its power by wind in January 2008 (apparently January is its windiest month) and had generated even more in January 2007 (35.5%). Even more important, the article stated that there had been no need to constrain production from the turbines at any time. (I believe that Denmark has the advantage of power-sharing with neaby Norway which has a large hydro-power resource.)

The southern hemisphere

Twenty percent by 2020

Australia's target of 20% renewable power by the year 2020

Old sustainable energy In the year to 2011/09/30 about 19 685 GWh of hydro-electricity was generated in Australia; this was up from previous years because of higher rainfalls (Clean Energy Council 2011 report). The Snowy Mountain Authority (SMA) and Hydro Tasmania (HT) generate about 15 TWhr per year. Installed capacity of all other hydro-generators in Australia is about one third of that owned by SMA and HT, (DEWHA figures) so it is reasonable to assume that generation from them would be about 5 TWh/yr; giving a total for Australian hydro-power generation of about 20 TWh/yr. (This may be declining because of climate change, reducing rainfall, and hence less run-off and less water to run through turbines.)

The Rudd Government's stated target of 20% renewable energy by 2020 involved adding 20% new renewable energy above the baseline at the time the MRET was promised. If Australia is to reach the target then we will require about 42 TWhr/yr of new renewable energy and a total of 62 TWh/yr of renewable generation by 2020.

Little new hydro capacity is being built, so we can figure on hydro making up no more than 20 TWhr (see the box on the right) of the 62 TWh/yr required by 2020. This leaves a deficit of 42 TWhr to be generated by technologies other than hydro.

Installed wind power in Australia in April 2011 was 2.01 GW. I have not been able to obtain any figures for actual wind power generation for the whole of Australia, but using a capacity factor of 34% we can calculate about 6.0 TWhr per year from the installed capacity.

It seems unlikely that forms of sustainable energy other than hydro and wind can make up more than 5 TWh/yr by 2020, see Sustainable Energy – Overview. Wind currently makes up just over 90% of new renewable energy, so it seems that if we are to reach the target, wind power will have to fill most of the gap. So, if we are to have 62 TWh/yr of renewable energy by 2020 it is likely to be made up of about 20 TWhr (old) hydro, wind at least 37 TWh, and other probably less than 5 TWhr (20+37+5=62).

In Australia's wind power potential I argue that the potential installed wind power in Australia is more than 91 GW, and the amount of generation then would be more than 241 TWhr p.a.

Will Australia reach 20% by 2020?

In April 2011 there were nine wind farms under construction in Australia. It takes about eighteen months to build a wind farm and there were 413 wind turbines (with an average capacity of 2.3 MW each) in the farms under construction; so this equals a contruction rate of three turbines every four days, well short of what is needed (although the rate has picked up substantially from a year or so ealier). Puting the figures in MW, we need 3.2 MW of turbines constructed each day, and the present rate of construction is 1.7 MW/day.

Year GWh   Year GWh 2011 10 500   2016 22 500 2012 12 500   2017 27 000 2013 14 000   2018 32 000 2014 16 500   2019 36 500 2015 17 500   2020 41 000

The approximate legislated annual renewable energy targets are shown in the table on the left. So most of the work needs to be done in the last five of the twenty year period. As of October 2011 it is looking like a Liberal Party dominated federal government will be back in power in the next few years and that they will not be wanting to take any serious actions to slow climate change. My opinion, based on evidence given in another page on this site is that a Liberal government will cancel the 20% by 2020 renewable energy target soon after they get into power.

Small wind disadvantaged against solar

This produces an unfair discrimination against the small-scale wind industry. Why would you pay full price for a small wind turbine when you can get thousands of dollars from the government to install solar?

Wind turbines and sailing ships

Wattle Point Wind Farm in the early morning

Both sailing ships and wind turbines are graceful and are works of art, while steam ships and fossil fuel power stations are simply practical and are means-to-an-end.

Both sailing ships and wind turbines are sustainable; steam ships and conventional power stations are not, because of the finite reserves of fossil fuels they burn and the damaging carbon dioxide they dump into the atmosphere.

To anyone who says that a wind turbine is not a work of art I would say go and stand in the middle of a modern wind farm and watch while the sun sets. If you go with an open mind you cannot help seeing their beauty and grace: quietly powering our energy-hungry life styles while doing very little harm to the environment. I don't mind admitting that they fascinate me.

Ironically, steam ships replaced sailing ships, yet wind turbines are, to some extent, replacing fossil fuel fired power stations. With greenhouse and the approaching end of oil, will we one day see the return of sail?

How many homes do various companies equate to one installed MW of wind farm?

Company	No. homes per MW	Wind farm
AGL	570	Brown Hill Range (Hallett)
Acciona	740	Waubra (Ballarat)
Epuron	400	Silverton (Broken Hill)
Pacific Hydro	500	Challicum Hills (Ararat)
Roaring 40s	500	Woolnorth (NW Tasmania)
Verve	700	Albany
WestWind	571	Lal Lal (Ballarat again)

Why the variation? Perhaps it is due to the perceived quality of the local wind resource, perhaps it depends on how much power households use in different regions, perhaps it is only due to variations in the estimations of company public relations people?

The numbers above vary from 400 to 740 homes per installed megawatt. If we assume a 35% capacity factor we can calculate that an installed megawatt will generate 350 kW on average. If 350 kW will supply 400 homes (at Broken Hill) then the assumption is 875 Watts per home; if it will supply 740 homes (at Ballarat) then the assumption is 470 Watts per home.

How big can wind turbines get?

As of September 2010 the largest wind turbines in Australia were the 3 MW (3000 kW) units in use at Lake Bonney and Waterloo wind farms. These have steel towers about 80m high and fibre glass blades about 44m long.

Roaring 40s are considering 3.3 MW turbines for their proposed Stoney Gap and Robertstown wind farms.

The technical challenges of lifting loads of nearly 100 tonnes (the Nacelle, including gearbox, dynamo, cooling system, etc.) to heights of around 80m are considerable.

In some European off-shore wind farms, turbines of 6 MW are now being used. They have blades of up to about 65m long (the wingspan of a Boeing 747-400 aircraft is 64.67m – that's the length from wingtip to wingtip). When assembling these turbines, instead of raising the whole of the nacelle and its contents in one lift, as has generally been done in Australian wind farms, I believe that the main components of the nacelle are raised in separate lifts.

One limit to the size of a wind turbine seems to be in the size and perhaps more importantly, the cost, of the crane needed and the difficulty of lifting very heavy loads to great heights.

Energy return on investment (EROI)

Energy Return On Investment for a number of energy sources Image credit: Meta-analysis of net energy return for wind power systems (2010, Elsevier, Renewable Energy); Ida Kubiszewski, Cutler J. Cleveland, Peter K. Endres EROI for power generation systems. Nuclear (2) omits the extreme outliers from the group of Nuclear (1), and thus represents a better assessment of what the EROI for nuclear is likely to be. See the original paper for more information.

Importantly the EROI for petroleum is declining as more wells have to be drilled, more pumping done, more high-tech processes used, to obtain the same amount of oil.

It has been suggested that if EROI for our most important energy sources gets down to 10:1 it will begin to have a heavy impact on the modern way of life.

Studies on EROI for many of the energy industries have been reported on The Oil Drum and in particular Dr. Cutler Cleveland and Ida Kubiszewski posted an article describing a meta-analysis on the EROI of wind power on The Oil Drum.

From Cleveland and Kubiszewski's data the following can be extracted;

Energy return on investment for wind power
Country	Number of values recorded in each country	Average EROI
Belgium	2	29
Denmark	12	28
Germany	28	17
Japan	9	10
Switzerland	2	4
USA	4	20
Overall average		18

It should be noted that there is a huge range of EROI values, indicating that the industry is not mature. As the industry matures businesses will learn to develop wind power in areas and using methods that maximise the EROI value.

Cleveland and Kubiszewski calculated an overall average EROI of 18.1, placing "wind energy in a favourable position relative to conventional power generation".

Unfortunately, Cleveland and Kubiszewski's data did not include any information on Australian wind farms. ESIPC (SA Electricity Supply Industry Planning Council) does not record EROI figures for South Australian wind farms.

Kurt Cobb has posted on EROI in the Energy Bulletin. Some of his figures for energy sources other than wind are in the table below (I added wind):

Energy return on investment
Energy source	EROI or Range	Comment
Wind	Around 18	See above
Crude oil	Around 20	Conventional
Tar sands	1 to 7	Figures vary greatly
Coal	80	but falling
Nuclear	2 to 11	Figures vary greatly
Solar	?	Figures vary greatly
Hydro-electric	very high

EROI x Scale for fossil and renewable energy sources

EROI against total energy

The original of the figure was posted on the Oil Drum. It relates primarily to US data.

The distance the balloons are from the bottom shows increasing energy return on energy invested. The distance from the left shows increasing power obtained from that source.

Click on the image for a larger, clearer, view.

Denmark successfully produces some 20% of its electricity by wind farms and plans to increase this to 40% in the future. The Danish Wind Energy Association has confirmed (pers. com.) the need for detailed wind forecasting if a large component of wind power is to be used. Denmark has the advantage of being part of a large European power grid. Australia, on the other hand, has the advantage of being much bigger than Denmark; a wind change on the west coast of Eyre Peninsula will take a long time to affect wind farms in Victoria or eastern NSW.

The rise of the world-wide wind industry has caused a very competative wind forecasting industry to follow. At present, I believe, wind forecasting in Australia is produced by a single organisation and the forecasts are distributed to all interested parties. It has been suggested that "this discourages competition by being centrally produced and a better solution is a central forecast that is NOT distributed to participants. That way the system operator gets a forecast and they should also require operating schedules from the wind plants – not ones that are as strict as fossil fuel operating schedules, but something none-the-less. This is good for everyone – except maybe the incumbents.

1. Competition will force down prices (if the prices are inflated too much) – we bring our same pricing structure as we use in the very competitive US market.
2. Competition will force the forecasters to continue to improve.
3. The system operator will get a system wide forecast (very useful) but will also get project specific forecasts that are tuned to each wind farm and will likely be more accurate for that wind farm (which in turn helps scheduling transmission).
4. It helps get more wind onto the system as it will be better forecast and easier to control (i.e. there will be an expectation to meet schedules to some extent). This will allow for higher wind penetration."

In regard to the way that wind forecasts are produced, I am informed that: "In a VERY high level overview, good forecasts are created using numerical weather prediction [NWP] models which use global models as inputs (e.g. Global Forecast System) which are derived from observations all around the world. This is the best method 6 hours to almost a week ahead. Shorter time frames use some kind of local observation-based system. This approach is best up to around 6 hour out – primarily because the NWP models take so long to run that they are out of date by the time that have finished operating (and you can get better information by using local observations). The exact overlap of usefulness depends strongly on the location."

Much of the above couple of paragraphs were from a person in the wind forecasting industry who didn't want his/her name published. If others in the industry can add more, I'd be please to hear from them.

Estimated costs of generation for Brown Hill Range Wind Farm Capital cost $233m Annual cost of capital at 7.5% $17.5m Annual cost of operations $6.75m Total annual costs $24.2m Annual generation 327 000 MWh Cost of producing electricity $74/MWh This figure is similar to estimates by Scientific American, listed on my Sustainabe energy page. The cost of power is very dependent on the cost of capital.

Cost of power from Hallett #1, based on SKM report

The estimated costs of generation for Brown Hill Range given in the table at the right are based on the SKM report and on my own calculation of generation from the AEMO data, as explained in power generation of wind farms. Estimates for the cost of power from all the Hallett Wind Farms are at Generation costs at Hallett.

Cost of power from some other wind farms, using a relationship stated in an EWEA report

Note that this estimate for the power from Hallett #1 is very close to the figure calculated from the SKM report for AGL above.

Costs of vareous forms of power from a US Congressional report

The costs are similar to those I have calculated above; a little lower, perhaps because they were calculated a few years earlier. It is interesting to note that even though the authors placed a fairly low cost on carbon pollution they still decided that wind power was the cheapest form of those that they tabled.

Capital costs of wind power

In the table I give the capital costs per Watt, as well as I can calculate them, for several wind farms. Please note that the table gives the cost of building a wind farm divided by the maximum number of Watts that wind farm is capable of generating (cost per installed Watt) and the number of Watts it has generated on average (cost per generated Watt).

In dollar terms, the cost of building wind farms has increased in the last few years, at least partly due to substantial increases in the price of steel. Against this is a longer-term trend for the cost of wind turbines, per MW, to decrease. Factors such as these cause variations in the capital costs of wind farms with time. At least some of the variation in the costs per installed Watt would be due to the time of construction; a significant factor in the cost per generated Watt is the capacity factor achieved by the farm.

Unlike fossil-fuelled, or nuclear, power stations, once the wind farm is built there are, of course, no further costs for fuel; the capital cost is by far the greatest cost of wind power.

In the first column is the capital cost per installed Watt and the second column gives the cost per generated Watt. The prices per generated Watt are calculated from the capacity factors that I calculated in January 2011.

Compared to nuclear

In some cases the amount is based on the number of turbines, for example $1666 per turbine per year for Gullen Range in NSW, in other cases it is simply a figure for the whole wind farm, for example $50 000 per year for Clements Gap. At least some of the funds are linked to the CPI (and will not be erroded by inflation in future years).

Compulsory funding?

"There has been discussion recently in Victoria and NSW by the bureaucrats to make the sustainable community fund compulsory. We are quite concerned about this. The wind industry came to this voluntarily as a way to establish our ethical compass. By making it compulsory, the bureaucrats would destroy the purpose and value of the fund. If Council is used as the fund administrator, it would become a Council budget line, with the State government then reducing their support to Council to compensate. So making the community fund would have the perverse effect of reducing overall funding into the community."

Community investment in wind energy

40% of local residents have invested in the Galmsbüll "Citizens' Wind Farm"

Community investment has helped Germany to become the most successful nation for wind power in Europe. At Marienkoog in the North Friesland region, dozens of local people have taken a share in their local wind farm and watched the turbines being constructed for the benefit of the neighbourhood.

When the older wind turbines at Marienkoog were replaced by fewer more powerful models, the local community was offered a third of the shares in the 'repowering' project. Altogether, in the Galmsbüll Bürgerwindpark (Citizens' wind farm), of which Marienkoog is part, a total of 240 residents invested 5 million euros. This represented 40% of the district's adult population.

One result has been general acceptance of the new taller wind turbines in the landscape of this mainly farming region close to the North Sea coast. The local council also receives income from the business tax paid by the wind farm.

There are at least two community funded wind farms proposed in Australia. Hepburn (Vic) is under construction and Denmark (WA) is in limbo.

Payments to land-owners

Land lease payments in the USA A report by the Congressional Research Service, titled "Wind Power in the United States: Technology, Economics, and Policy Issues", dated 2008/06/20 and written by Jeffrey Logan and Stan Mark Kaplan gave the following: "Farmers and ranchers typically receive from project developers $2,000-5,000 per year for each turbine on their land".

There may be a once-off payment for access, and there usually is an annual payment per turbine. Some years ago I heard that a typical payment for one turbine was $4000 per year. More recently I had a confirmed figure of $7000 per turbine per year for one wind farm (the company didn't want it to be commonly known, most of these deals are confidential). I have recently (July 2009) heard, second hand, unconfirmed, that some wind farmers are paying $12 000 to $14 000. Sometimes the payments are fixed as a proportion of the gross income from the sale of the electricity generated by the turbines.

Farmers should, for their own protection, make sure that the agreement that they sign does not leave them liable for decommissioning the turbines at the end of their useful life. Depending on how the decommissioning is done, it could be very expensive, especially if nearby native vegetation has to be protected in the decommissioning process.

Most wind farmers also donate money for community development projects.

Wind power in territories

Australian Antarctic Territory Wind Farm

Two 300 kW wind turbines were installed at Mawson in 2003 and now make a significant contribution to the station's power requirements.

The Mawson wind turbine system ranks among the world's most innovative, and is capable of providing 600 kW of renewable power. Australia is the first country to obtain a significant electricity supply for its Antarctic stations fuelled by the most powerful winds on the planet.

Studies in the early 1990s revealed that the constant katabatic winds blowing from the inland of the continent make Mawson ideally situated to generate the bulk of its energy requirements with wind turbines.

The AAD worked closely with a German turbine manufacturer (Enercon) and an Australian company (Powercorp Pty Ltd) to install the turbines and the associated computerised powerhouse control system in early 2003.

I thank Lee Sice for allerting me to the AAD net page on the Mawson wind farm.

Cocos Island Wind Farm

These acknowledgements are arranged in alphabetical order. I am indebted to a number of others who have provided information but have requested that their names not be mentioned (a pity, because I like to ascribe information sources to allow readers to judge credibility). My apologies to any informants who have helped but I have missed acknowledging.

• Ahern, Rodney – TrustPower
• Blair Donaldson – Gippsland Friends of Future Generations
• Bradshaw, Josh – Roaring 40s
• Brennan, Frank – Wattle Range Council (SE SA)
• Brooks, Roger – District Council of Yorke Peninsula
• Burke, Dr Susie – Board Member, Climate and Health Alliance; and Senior Psychologist, Public Interest, Environment and Disaster Response, Aust. Psychological Soc. Nat. Office
• Carter, Craig – Verve Energy
• Chapman, Professor Simon – Expert Adviser, Climate and Health Alliance; and Professor, Public Health, University of Sydney
• Clark, Nick – Millars Transport and Logistics PL.
• Coombe, Steve – EHAMP Catchment Group
• Courtrice, Ben – Friends of the Earth, Victoria; blogger
• Davey, Simon – Epuron
• Delmarter, Clayton – TrustPower
• Durran, Andrew – Epuron/Taurus Energy
• Ecuyer, Danielle – Pamada (Kyoto Energy Park)
• Edelman, Dr Sarah – Information on likely causes of symptoms commonly ascribed to 'wind turbine syndrome'
• Engelmann, Mark – Information on the interactions between wind farms and weather
• He, Tao Tao – Monadelphous Engineering Pty Ltd
• George, Miles – Infigen Energy, previously Babcock and Brown, Wind Partners
• Gilmore, Joel – ROAM Consulting Pty Ltd
• Henderson, Geoff
• Holmes à Court, Simon – Hepburn Wind
• Jack, Ken – Originally of Stanwell Corp, more recently of Transfield?
• Jevremov, Dijana – Roaring 40s
• Keane, Sandi – Has exposed shonky practices from several parties
• Knight, Steve – Vestas
• Knill, Tim – AGL
• Laurie, Dr Sarah – for her opinions on alleged harmful effects of wind turbine noise
• Law, Julian – Macquarie Generation
• Mackett, Adam – AGL
• Marcheson, Doreen – Wind Prospect
• Miskelly, Andrew – Australian Landscape Guardians
• Mounter, David – Roaring 40s
• Nun, Richard – private citizen
• Osmond, David – Windlab
• Reed, Peter – Suzlon
• Ryan, Brendan – Suzlon
• Scheidegger, Oliver
• Sice, Lee – Information on Mawson Base, Antarctica
• Sweatman, Chris – RES
• Teoh, Terry – Pacific Hydro
• Thompson, Daniel – Verve Energy
• Trompf, Jeffry – AGL
• Weaver, Elizabeth – Origin
• Walker, Cam – Friends of the Earth, Victoria
• Wallis, Kad – AGL
• Whorral, David – Hatch
• Wheatley, Megan – Suzlon
• Wittert, Professor Gary – Mortlock Professor and Head, Disipline of Medicine, University of Adelaide.
• Woodroffe, Andrew – Mount Barker Wind Farm

Photo credits

• Argyle County Council – Crookwell Wind Farm
• Bassett, Dave – Blayney Wind Farm
• Rockenbauer, Klaus – Wind turbine art
• Roddom, Wayne – Windy Hill Wind Farm
• Rose, Sara – Emu Downs Wind Farm
• Ryan, Brendan – Brown Hill Range, Coral Bay and Emu Downs wind farms

Wind turbine art

Photo by Klaus Rockenbauer. More of his photos are on Flickr.

Klaus Rockenbauer placed a copy of the photo on the right on Flickr. It is of an Enercon turbine in Munich, Germany. Klaus said:

"On the blades of this wind turbine were placed about 9000 LED's. They draw motives in the night sky every day for about 7 hours. This art-object should be a sign to the energy problem worldwide and also is the biggest Christmas-star of the world."

The Osram Net site has a page on the turbine:

"Right on time for the first Advent Sunday it is obvious to all: But still it moves! Siemens – together with multimedia artist Michael Pendry – has lighted up the world's biggest revolving Christmas star. The lighting installation can be seen throughout December [2009] at the northern gateway to Munich – beginning at dusk every evening."

The entire installation uses only as much electricity as a hair dryer or a water kettle, yet in good weather it can be seen for 30 kilometres.

A similar thing could be done in Australia. It could have the potential to make turbines more of an attraction than they are at present.

Towers

Rotation

Downwind, upwind

Rotating blades or blade-tips

Gear-box or not

Wind speeds

Construction

Footings

Order of assembly

Community wind farms

• Hepburn, Vic.;
• Mount Barker, WA;
• There is a proposal to build a community owned wind farm at Denmark, WA;
• There is a proposal to build a community owned wind farm in the New England area, NSW;
• Infigen Energy intend to have one turbine of Flyers Creek Wind Farm (NSW) community owned.

Community owned wind farm, or not?

Any Victorian can buy shares in Hepburn Wind Farm, there is no need for them to be local people. I am informed that there are only 13 share holders in Mount Barker Wind Farm, that one person has a 51% controlling interest and that it is 70% owned by the Great Southern Community. Would these truly qualify as community wind farms? You tell me.

The Senate inquiry into the Social and Economic Impact of Rural Wind Farms: Some notes

• Introduction Section 1.7. Installed capacities seems to have been confused with actual generation in the discussion of SA.
• Noise and health Section 2.11 seismic waves have been confused with infrasound. See Seismic waves.
• Noise and health Section 2.22 contains a quote from a person "who has 30 wind turbines within two kilometres of his home". It seems to me that the turbines at Waubra are too scattered for there to be 30 within 2km of any point. There would be 30 turbines within a 2km radius at Wattle Point, but no houses at any such point! I cannot think of any wind farm in Australia where this situation would be possible.
• Property values Section 4.8; the quote is meaningless. The "last offer we received" could be the lowest offer received. How many offers were received? What was their range?
• Property values Section 4.10; "it had been reported that properties had been devalued by 30 percent". (It has been reported, by ABC reporter Bronwyn Herbert, that most of Australia's wind farms are in Victoria! Actually more than 50% of wind power is in SA.) Many fallacies are reported; this is hearsay without any value.

Pacific Hydro, November 2011

• Nationally – 83% support, 14% opposed, 3% undecided;
• NSW – 77% support;
• SA – 90% support;
• Vic. – 84% support;

"The ... survey polled 1000 residents across 10 electorates in NSW, SA and Victoria that are in wind farming regions. The Victorian five electorates were also polled (by QDos) in 2010 as part of a similar sized survey (ten electorates in wind farming regions) which yielded very consistent results on wind farm attitudes as we saw from this year's survey.

Results at a macro-level (total survey results) are consistent with the results in each area. While not [every] electorate is statistically significant, the results are consistent across the regions and yield a reliable total result (to within a fairly small margin of error)."

CSIRO, November 2011

• There is strong community support for wind farms;
• There is more support than suggested by media reports;
• Wind farmers might improve acceptance by developing a 'Social licence to Operate' approach.

Clean Energy Council, December 2011

Market Media survey, January 2012

Councils and wind farm

Council income and wind farms

Motivation

I have followed climate change science for thirty years or more; I have been reading and subscibing to Scientific American for about 35 years. Climate change and ocean acidification, both caused largely by the greenhouse gasses that humanity is puting into the atmosphere, will be disasters of a magnitude that few people even grasp. They will result in thousands or, more likely, millions of species becoming extinct; extensive changes to almost all of the world's environments; and the displacement and possibly the deaths of billions of people.

The development of renewable energy will slow the impact of climate change and ocean acidification. Wind power happens to be the most market-ready form of renewable energy available to us in the early part of the 21st century.

The greater good? It could be claimed that I am willing to lie in support of wind power, and justify that to myself by the belief that the lying is a small wrong that is more than made up for by 'the greater good' of delaying climate change. Not so. Apart from the ethical objection to lying, lies are usually detected in time and when that happens the liar is discredited. Lying would, in the long run, be counterproductive.

I have no desire to see anyone harmed, but if we can significantly slow the onset of climate change at the cost of some thousands or tens of thousands of people world-wide being inconvenienced by hearing and seeing wind turbines, I see that as a price well worth paying.

So, I want renewable energy to be developed as quickly as possible for the good of the planet and the best way in which that can be achieved is for people to be able to understand the facts of wind power, rather than the lies and delusions that seem common in those who are opposed to wind turbines.

Facts and errors

My aim is that everything on these pages that is not plainly an opinion should be true and also verifiable. I'm not there yet, but I'm working on it.

Images

Why not in Wikipedia?

• Political comment seems inappropriate in Wikipedia pages on sustainable energy, but I believe criticism of governments is important if Australia is ever to substantially replace its fossil-fuel-based electrical generating systems with sustainable energy systems.
• Any work that I do on a Wikipedia page can be altered or deleted by somebody else.
• I have full control over the format of these pages.
• I can request and receive feedback from readers.
• I can work on the pages without being connected to the Net.
• I have an ego; having put many hundreds of hours of work into these pages, I want my name on them.

What relative importance is placed on aspects of wind power on these pages?

My affiliations

• Moderator, Yes to Renewables – Australia;
• Member, Community Liaison Group for Waterloo and Stony Gap wind farms;
• Life member Trees For Life, South Australia;
• I have financially supported the Australian Greens and was for many years a member of the Australian Democrats;
• I have given donations to, and continue to support, various environmental conservation groups as well as general charities;
• I am a supporter of 'Death with dignity';

Adjungbilly Wind Farm
Albany Wind Farm
Alinta Wind Farm
Allendale Wind Farm
Ararat Wind Farm
Archer Point Wind Farm
Arriga Wind Farm
Augusta Wind Farm
Badangora Wind Farm
Badgingarra Wind Farm
Bald Hills Wind Farm
Bannister Wind Farm
Barn Hill Wind Farm
Baynton Wind Farm
Ben Lomond Wind Farm
Ben More Wind Farm
Berridale Wind Farm
Berrimal Wind Farm
Berrybank Wind Farm
Birrema Wind Farm
Black Rock Community Wind Farm
Black Springs Wind Farm
Blayney Wind Farm
Bluff Range Wind Farm
Boco Rock Wind Farm
Bremer Bay Wind Farm
Broken Hill Wind Farm
Brown Hill Range Wind Farm
Bungendore Wind Farm
Bungulla Wind Farm
Canunda Wind Farm
Cape Bridgewater Wind Farm
Cape Nelson Wind Farm
Cape Sir William Grant Wind Farm
Capital Wind Farm
Carcoar Wind Farm
Carmodys Hill Wind Farm
Carnarvon Wind Farm
Carrajung and Blackwarry Wind Farm
Carrolls Ridge Wind Farm
Cathedral Rocks Wind Farm
Cattle Hill Wind Farm
Challicum Hills Wind Farm
Chepstowe Wind Farm
Cherry Tree Wind Farm
Clements Gap Wind Farm
Coconut Island Wind Farm
Cocos Island Wind Farm
Codrington Wind Farm
Collector Wind Farm
Collgar Wind Farm
Conroys Gap Wind Farm
Cooktown Wind Farm
Coopers Gap Wind Farm
Coowonga Wind Farm
Coppabella Hills Wind Farm
Coral Bay Wind Farm
Crediton Wind Farm
Crookwell 2 Wind Farm
Crookwell 3 Wind Farm
Crookwell Wind Farm
Crowlands Wind Farm
Crows Nest Wind Farm
Crystal Brook Wind Farm
Cullerin Range Wind Farm
Dalby Wind Farm
Dandaragan Wind Farm
Darlington Wind Farm
Dean Wind Farm
Denham Wind Farm
Denmark Wind Farm
Devon North Wind Farm
Discovery Bay Wind Farm
Dollar Wind Farm
Drysdale Wind Farm
Eden Wind Farm
Elliston Stage 1 Wind Farm
Elliston Stage 2 Wind Farm
Emu Downs Wind Farm
Evandale-Goulburn Wind Farm
Exmoor Wind Farm
Flat Rocks Wind Farm
Flinders Island Wind Farm
Flyers Creek Wind Farm
Glen Innes Wind Farm
Goulburn District Wind Farm
Grasmere Wind Farm
Green Point Wind Farm
Gullen Range Wind Farm
Gulnare Wind Farm
Gunning Wind Farm
Gurrundah Wind Farm
Hallett Hill Wind Farm
Hampton Park Wind Farm
Hargraves Wind Farm
Hawkesdale Wind Farm
Hepburn Wind Farm
High Road Wind Farm
Hopetoun Wind Farm
Hughenden Wind Farm
Huxley Hill Wind Farm
Inverleigh Wind Farm
Kalbarri Wind Farm
Kemmis Hill Wind Farm
Kennedy Wind Farm
Keyneton Wind Farm
King Island Wind Farm
Kongorong Wind Farm
Kooragang Wind Farm
Korumburra Wind Farm
Kulpara Wind Farm
Kyoto Energy Park Wind Farm
Lake Bonney Stage 1 Wind Farm
Lake Bonney Stage 2 Wind Farm
Lake Bonney Stage 3 Wind Farm
Lake George Wind Farm
Lake Gillear Wind Farm
Lake Hamilton-Sheringa Wind Farm
Lal Lal Wind Farm
Leonards Hill Wind Farm
Lerida Wind Farm
Lexton Wind Farm
Lincoln Gap Wind Farm
Liverpool Range Wind Farm
Logans Beach Wind Farm
Lord Howe Island Wind Farm
Macarthur Wind Farm
Marcus Hill Wind Farm
Mareeba Wind Farm
Marilba Hills Wind Farm
Merredin Wind Farm
Milyeannup Wind Farm
Molonglo Wind Farm
Moorabool Wind Farm
Mortlake Wind Farm
Mortons Lane Wind Farm
Mount Alexander Wind Farm
Mount Barker Wind Farm
Mount Benson Wind Farm
Mount Bryan Wind Farm
Mount Emerald Wind Farm
Mount Gellibrand Wind Farm
Mount Hill Wind Farm
Mount Mercer Wind Farm
Mount Millar Wind Farm
Mount Spring Wind Farm
Mumbida Wind Farm
Murrurundi Wind Farm
Musselroe Wind Farm
Myponga-Sellicks Hill Wind Farm
Naroghid Wind Farm
Newfield Wind Farm
Nilgen Wind Farm
Nine Mile Beach Wind Farm
Nirranda South Wind Farm
Nirranda Wind Farm
North Brown Hill Wind Farm
North Stradbroke Island Wind Farm
Oaklands Hill Wind Farm
Orange Wind Farm
Orford Wind Farm
Paling Yards Wind Farm
Penshurst Wind Farm
Phillips River Wind Farm
Point Lonsdale Wind Farm
Port Augusta Wind Farm
Port Kembla Wind Farm
Purnim Wind Farm
Pykes Hill Wind Farm
Pyrenees Wind Farm
Robe Wind Farm
Robertstown Wind Farm
Rock Road Wind Farm
Rosedale Wind Farm
Rottnest Island Wind Farm
Rugby Wind Farm
Ryan Corner Wind Farm
Rye Park Wind Farm
Salmon Beach Wind Farm
Salt Creek Wind Farm
Sapphire Wind Farm
Scienceworks Wind Farm
Shannons Flat Wind Farm
Sheoak Flat Wind Farm
Sheringa Beach Wind Farm
Sidonia Hills Wind Farm
Silverton Wind Farm
Sisters Wind Farm
Skillogalee Wind Farm
Smeaton Wind Farm
Snowtown Wind Farm
Snowy Plains Wind Farm
Southern Highlands Wind Farm
Spotswood Wind Farm
Spring Hill Wind Farm
St Clair Wind Farm
Starfish Hill Wind Farm
Stockyard Hill Wind Farm
Stony Gap Wind Farm
Taralga Wind Farm
Tarrone Wind Farm
Ten Mile Lagoon Wind Farm
Thompson Beach Wind Farm
Thursday Island Wind Farm
Tolga Wind Farm
Toora Wind Farm
Troubridge Point Wind Farm
Tuki Wind Farm
Twofold Bay Wind Farm
Uley Wind Farm
Vincent North Wind Farm
Waddi Wind Farm
Waitpinga Wind Farm
Walkaway 2 Wind Farm
Walkaway Wind Farm
Walwa Wind Farm
Waterloo Wind Farm
Wattle Point Stage 2 Wind Farm
Wattle Point Wind Farm
Waubra North Wind Farm
Waubra Wind Farm
Welshpool Wind Farm
Weymouth Hill Wind Farm
White Rock Wind Farm
Willatook Wind Farm
Willogoleche Hill Wind Farm
Winchelsea Wind Farm
Windy Hill Wind Farm
Woakwine Range Wind Farm
Wonthaggi Wind Farm
Woodhouse Wind Farm
Woodlawn Wind Farm
Woolnorth Wind Farm
Woolsthorpe Wind Farm
Woorndoo Wind Farm
Worlds End Wind Farm
Yaloak South Wind Farm
Yaloak Wind Farm
Yambuk Wind Farm
Yandin Wind Farm
Yarram Wind Farm

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The number of entries does not give an indication of the number of (proposed and operating) wind farms in Australia because several farms have two names, both of which are listed in the index.

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