CEC response to Miranda Devine article

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Daily Telegraph columnist Miranda Devine published an opinion piece about wind power on 15 September 2011 that appeared in both the Daily Telegraph and the Herald Sun [You can access the original article by clicking here].

While Ms Devine is absolutely entitled to her opinion – indeed, she is paid to share it with the public – she is not entitled to publish things that are factually incorrect to suit her line of argument. The following is a short list of where the Clean Energy Council believes she got it wrong.

"A high-cost 'clean energy' resource that promises so much and delivers so little"

  • A single wind turbine in Australia typically delivers enough energy to power the equivalent of approximately 2000 average households over the course of a year.
  • It is the lowest cost form of renewable energy. It has fallen in price by approximately 80 per cent over the last decade and this is expected to continue (source: Sustainability Victoria)
  • Wind power in the national electricity grid (doesn’t include WA data) produced 2574 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of electricity in the first six months of 2011. This is the equivalent of powering more than 725,000 average Australian households over the same period.
  • South Australia produces the most wind power in Australia, sourcing approximately 21 per cent of its electricity from wind.
  • Wind power employed over 2200 people across the country in 2010 (source: SKM MMA analysis).

"The idea of clean green wind power sounds great in theory, but the problem is that wind is intermittent. When it doesn’t blow there is no electricity, so you need fossil-fuelled power ready on stand-by to provide the base-load electricity at peak times or on still days."

  • This is an over-simplification of the way the national electricity grid works. All forms of power, including coal and gas plants, are backed up by the grid and fossil fuel plants are not on standby waiting for wind power to fall over.
  • Wind power can be predicted ahead of time through a wind forecasting system with greater than 90 per cent accuracy – so if other forms of generation are needed they can be scheduled in advance. They are not kept idling away in case the wind suddenly stops blowing.
  • Fluctuations in the demand and supply of the grid happen all the time for many different reasons and the Australian Electricity Market Operator has systems to manage them are well established and effective.
  • The amount of power generated by peaking plants nationwide has actually fallen from 501 gigawatthours (GWh) to 325 GWh annually over the last five years (source: Windlab, Australian Electricity Market Operator).
  • Hydro power is one of the most responsive forms of energy and is often used to generate clean electricity at times of peak demand.

"With names like Collector, Boorowa, Rugby, Nimmitabel, in NSW, in Ararat, Mortlake, Beaufort, Moorabool and Ballarat, in Victoria, in Nilgen, Walkaway, and Emu Downs, in WA, thousands of wind turbines have been springing up, with minimal consultation and measurable health effects. Families are being driven from their home by the strobe-like sun shadows and infrasound throbbing of the turbines, which sufferers claim causes headaches, high blood pressure and nausea."

  • Miranda's statement that 'thousands' of wind turbines have been 'springing up' around the nation is a false exaggeration. There are currently 1188 wind turbines that have been installed in Australia, most of which were constructed over the last decade.
      - Of the 12 projects Miranda has named above, only two have been constructed (Emu Downs and Walkaway)
      - of the remaining 10, only five (Nilgen, Nimmitabel, Ararat, Mortlake, Moorabool) have planning approval
      - of the remaining five, two are still only proposals without a draft proposal on exhibition to the community (Rugby and Collector)
      - The two constructed projects amount to 102 turbines installed in total.
  • Wind turbines do not 'spring up'. The application process for wind farms is lengthy, involves thousands of hours of community consultation, and typically takes years from start to finish.
  • In regards to 'measurable health effects', there has been no link demonstrated between wind turbines and negative health effects. The Chair of the federal Senate Committee investigating wind farms earlier in the year was careful to point out that they found no evidence that linked the two in their investigations.
  • Australia's National Health and Medical Research Council made a similar statement to this effect in the middle of 2010 and are currently reviewing their finding.

"If the government allows more turbines to be built, Arnott says, 'they've done it deliberately with that knowledge they're knowingly harming people."

  • This is inflammatory rubbish. Hundreds of thousands of people live near wind turbines in Europe with no ill effects. Many have done for decades.
  • There are well over 100,000 turbines that have been installed around the world over the last 20 years. This is an established technology, not some mass science experiment.
  • It is disappointing that wealthy landholders such as Charlie Arnott and Tony Hodgson continue to look after their own interests at the expense of jobs and investment for other people in rural NSW. There is nothing more than self-interest at the core of their well-funded campaign.

"For all the pain, the reduction in carbon dioxide emissions from wind turbines is negligible. If anything, their manufacture, transport and running causes pollution."

  • Recent analysis of the electricity market in South Australia found that it has reduced its carbon emissions by 18 per cent – more than a million tonnes –over the last five years and most of this could be attributed to wind (sources: Windlab, Australian Electricity Market Operator).
  • The Renewable Energy Target is currently the largest carbon abatement program in Australia and will lead to the reduction in approximately 380 million tonnes of carbon emissions over its lifespan.
  • UK wind turbines deliver carbon savings of approximately 6.5 million tonnes a year – although the backyard turbine mentioned in Miranda's article obviously wasn’t one of them.
  • A large wind turbine typically recovers all the energy invested in its manufacture, shipping, installation, operation and decommissioning within six to nine months of installation. This means that Australian wind turbines generate between 37 and 50 times their embodied energy. (E. Martenez et al, Life cycle assessment of a multi-megawatt wind turbine, Renewable Energy, 2009)
  • European countries like Germany, Spain, Portugal, Denmark, and Ireland now obtain more than 10% of their electricity from wind energy.
  • Earlier this year wind demonstrated its important contribution to grid reliability by keeping the lights on for millions of Texans while over 50 coal and natural gas plants experienced unexpected outages due to unusually cold weather (http://www.awea.org/blog/index.cfm?customel_dataPageID_1699=5106).

"...the sharks of Big Wind, drawn by billions of easy taxpayer dollars"

  • Wind power is supported by the Renewable Energy Target, which is not funded by tax dollars. It is subsidised by the electricity market.

 

For more information contact Clean Energy Council Media Manager Mark Bretherton on +61 3 9929 4111.