Tick for city turbines - Support for green measures

Hobart Mercury
Friday 19/6/2009 Page: 7

A PROPOSAL to erect wind turbines on two Hobart buildings has been greeted as a sign of things to come. Architects and sustainability experts have generally welcomed the proposal as an example of increasing environmental awareness. Developer Robert Rockefeller has applied to put 11m-high power generation turbines on top of the Marine Board building in Sullivans Cove and the ANZ building in Elizabeth St.

Sustainable Living Tasmania executive officer Margaret Steadman said it was good to see business leading while governments were slow to act. "It's really exciting," she said. "I'd rather see wind turbines than carparks. "One of the issues is about whether people think they're aesthetic but the buildings in Hobart are sneaking up higher and higher and I'd rattier see wind turbines than more or higher buildings. "If we don't, we're in deep trouble."

University of Tasmania school of architecture associate professor Gregory Nolan said the proposal reflected developments in Europe. "There is lots of potential around Hobart to put up wind energy generation capability." he said. "The concept of having windmills of quite a large scale in parts of the city is something we should consider. "We should be putting them in as many locations as we can, that's what the Europeans do."

Mr Nolan said there were less noticeable things to consider for making a commercial building less reliant on nonrenewable energy sources. "There are far more efficient solutions than putting a windmill on it," he said. "You'd be looking to generate your own hot water ft from solar sources." Architect Garry Forward said the city was likely to have more such proposals. "To get the first ones right is important because there's going to be a lot of them," he said. "If you'd asked me 10 years ago what my predictions were, I would have thought the paneltype photovoltaic collection was the technology that was going to get there first because it can be built into roofs and walls, but it's still very low in its efficiency.

"Wind turbines won't eventually be the way to go. They will be a passing phase. "They need to be considered as part of the building, not as an add-on. I don't see any reason they shouldn't look good if they're part of the architecture." Heritage Council spokesman Michael Lynch said the council was considering the application for the ANZ building but had not seen one for the Marine Board building.

"We have been going through an exercise in which we can best allow for things like turbines and more, particularly solar panels, on heritage-listed places because this is going to become an important issue for the owners. So we need to have a pretty good handle on these sorts of things," he said. Clean Energy Council policy manager Rob Jackson said turbines were on a few buildings in Melbourne and fitted the urban environment.