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The author of these pages has no financial connection to either side of the wind power 'debate' and is entirely independent. |
The event that induced me to start this page was a very biased segment about
the proposed Palmer Wind Farm on Channel 7's Today Tonight, 2014/01/21.
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As with so many groups who oppose a wind farm or wind power, they seem little concerned with fact-checking and seem willing to repeat anything that places wind turbines in a bad light. Typically they repeat the baseless health claims. As another example of their carelessness with fact-checking, they repeated the thoroughly discredited claim about the energy-payback time for a wind turbine. It has been shown to be around five to six months. If it really was similar to the life of a wind turbine would nations like China be building many more wind turbines each year than there are in the whole of Australia? They seem also to have chosen to deny climate science; perhaps because by doing so they can further their case against the wind farm. If anthropogenic climate change was false, there would be less need for renewable energy. |
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It is normal for wind farm operators to provide community funding when they
build a wind farm.
The average rate of community funding is around $1000 per turbine per year.
So far as I know, Trust Power provide only $313/turbine/year at Snowtown; a
total of $15 000 per year.
This is less than any other wind farm I know of, other than Canunda and
Wattle Point,
and far less than the nearby Clements Gap Wind Farm for which Pacific
Hydro donate $50 000 per year ($1852/turbine) .
(See Cummunity funding)
I am told (by a representative of TP) that their will be a community fund, but that the amount has not been settled and will not until later, and it will depend on the number of turbines. I would have thought that TP could at least have suggested a likely amount per turbine at this stage. The fact that those opposed to the Palmer Wind Farm seem to not care about whether there will be a community fund, or how much will be in any community fund, suggests to me that they don't care much for their own community; they are thinking more of themselves. This, obviously, is only my opinion. |
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Climatologists tell us that we must expect more exceptionally hot days and seriously increasing fire danger if nothing is done about anthropogenic climate change.
Of course there will be many other problems if we do not give up buring
fossil fuels and change to renewables.
Catchy, simplistic, but true"A wind turbine operating for three hours reduces CO2 emissions as much as taking one car off the roads for a year." The above statements apply to utility scale wind turbines (about 3MW) operating in mainland Australia. |
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The need for action on reducing
greenhouse gas emissions
is obvious to any well informed person with an ounce of intelligence.
Per capita, Australia is among the worst greenhouse polluters on the planet,
so we have an ethical obligation to act.
There is no convincing evidence that wind turbines cause health problems. People can live perfectly happily near wind turbines as shown by the people of Snowtown (near the 138-turbine Snowtown WF), Edithburgh (near the 55-turbine Wattle Point WF) and my own home town of Crystal Brook (near the 27-turbine Clements Gap WF). Wind turbines do not make much noise (audible or infrasound). Wind farms do not significantly impact property values. Wind farms do not cause social conflict. People who oppose wind farms and either invent or repeat unfounded complaints about wind power – producing anxiety and fear in the community – do. There are many benifits to having a nearby wind farm. So why do some of the people of the Palmer area oppose the proposed wind farm?
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