It's an ill wind ...

Sydney Morning Herald, Page: 14
Friday, 19 May 2006

Enemies in high places and activists with nuclear links have taken the puff out of clean energy, writes Wendy Frew.

IT WAS May 2004 and John Howard was looking for an exit clause. A Federal Government scheme to kick-start Australia's renewable energy industry had proved successful beyond anybody's expectations. Wind, the cheapest and most viable source of renewable energy,was one of the biggest beneficiaries of the mandatory renewable energy target. Giant wind turbines were sprouting all over the country, turbine blade and engine manufacturers were setting up shop, and cash was pouring in from foreign and domestic investors.

It seemed Australia was finally tackling its greenhouse gas emissions by getting some clean electricity. But not everyone was happy with the mandatory target. Leaked minutes from a meeting in the chilly confines of Canberra's political corridors show the Prime Minister had called on some of Australia's biggest contributors to global warming – including the coal and uranium miners Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton – to help the Government devise away to pull the rug from under the wind industry, but still be seen to be tackling climate change.

Two years on, it has become clear just how deadly that meeting was for windpower. The Government's refusal to extend the mandatory target has left hundreds of renewable energy projects unable to secure contracts. One developer last week cancelled two wind farm proposals worth $550 million, while the future of another $250 million project is in doubt. The Australian Wind Energy Association says as much as $12 billion worth of proposed wind farms is at risk. On top of that, the Government has tried to kill wind farm projects in Victoria and Western Australia and has called on state governments to sign a development code that would give local councils the power to veto wind projects because of community opposition – something that does not apply to new coalmining ventures.

The political bun fight over wind is matched by what appears to be a grassroots battle to stop giant wind turbines being built in rural areas. Resident groups are fighting their case in the media and on the internet. At a time of near unanimous scientific agreement that large greenhouse gas cuts must be made soon to avoid dangerous changes in world weather patterns, how is it that wind has become a dirty word? Environment groups say it is all tied up with Federal Government reluctance to impose any kind of cost on fossil fuel industries and its desire to sell more uranium to nuclear weapons states such as China and India. They say it is no coincidence that wind –which could in time be a strong, clean competitor to fossil fuels – is being demonised while nuclear power is being promoted as a solution to global warming.

But nuclear energy is no solution to climate change, says Greenpeace Australia Pacific's chief executive, Steve Shallhorn. "The Federal Government and nuclear industry are trying to force a false choice: polluting coal or expensive nuclear power. Yet safe, clean alternatives exist," Shallhorn says. "Even if there was a doubling of global nuclear energy output by 2050 it would only reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 5 per cent."

In the increasingly politicised realm of energy policy, the decision by the federal Environment Minister, Ian Campbell, last month to scuttle a wind farm proposed for Bald Hills in Victoria's South Gippsland looks highly unusual. Campbell said a consultant's report on risks to the endangered orange-bellied parrot had forced him to reject the development. "I understand that this will be a disappointing outcome for the proponents of the wind farm but it is very clear tome from reading this report that every precaution should be taken to help prevent the extinction of this rare bird," he said.

But research by The Age found the bird had rarely flown near the Bald Hills site and the Government's consultant concluded banning the wind farm would do little to save it. Those who oppose the project are happy with Campbell's intervention. Among them is the discredited British environmentalist David Bellamy. In late 2004, at the height of the campaign against the Bald Hills project, Bellamy visited the area to support the antiwind cause. "It's the last place on earth you'd contemplate building them," he said during a visit to the South Gippsland town of Foster, paid for and organised by Channel Nine's 60 Minutes. "Think of the damage they are doing, and for no return at all," he said.

Not long before his visit to Australia, Bellamy said man-made global warming was a myth and wind power was not a renewable source of energy. It is misleading claims such as these and connections with anti-wind campaigners overseas that have raised suspicions about Australia's anti-wind activists. The Australia Institute's Clive Hamilton believes the sprouting of local opposition groups is not entirely spontaneous. "I believe there is a network of anti-wind activists associated with climate change sceptics who are fuelling the fires of local opposition," he says.

Research by the Herald shows that a loose association of anti-wind farm groups that goes by the names of Landscape Guardians or Coastal Guardians relies heavily for its information and campaign tactics on overseas groups that have been linked to the nuclear power industry. The forerunner of the anti-wind farm pressure group was Britain's Country Guardians, established by Sir Bernard Ingham, a spin doctor for former the British prime minister Margaret Thatcher.

He is a director of Supporters of Nuclear Energy. He was also a paid consultant to the British nuclear group BNFL. Two British groups, Stop Windfarms in Moray and No Whinash Windfarm, have been caught out by Britain's Advertising Standards Authority for making misleading and unsubstantiated claims about wind power. Similar inaccurate statements can be found on Australian in NSW websites. The latest anti-wind hot spot in NSW is Lake George,where a company called Capital Wind wants to build 63 massive turbines. William Hoorweg and his partner, Julie Gray,who own a property about 2.1 kilometres from the nearest proposed turbine, are worried about the prospect of having Australia's biggest wind farm nearby. They will not be able to see the 125-metre turbines from their home but they do not accept the developer's assurances they will not be able to hear them, and they believe the turbines could cause bush fires.

They told the Herald the project was a "sham" because when the wind did not blow the developer would have to buy electricity from the grid. Gray also says the turbines will leak electricity. Neither statement is correct. Like many others, Hoorweg and Gray believed Bellamy's spin about wind energy. They also listened to Paul Miskelly, a member of Taralga Landscape Guardians, a group based near Goulburn. Miskelly says wind farms are inefficient and will destabilise the electricity grid because of fluctuations in wind. He is also upset by "the sure knowledge that wind turbines will do nothing for the environment". Miskelly,who says he is worried about what the proposed wind farm at Taralga will do to the value of the vineyard he owns nearby,worked for the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation for 32 years and has given lectures to community groups about nuclear power.

The dubious scientific and environmental claims made by some anti-wind campaigners do not mean there are not valid reasons to object to wind farms. Towering at heights equivalent to 30-storey buildings, and requiring major roadworks and construction, it is no surprise they are not always welcome in scenic rural areas. The secrecy that often surrounds offers made by developers to some landowners has also caused deep rifts in some rural communities. The NSW Greens' renewable energy spokesman, John Kaye, says wind power can make significant cuts to Australia's greenhouse gas emissions. "But that doesn't mean every project is good or that every developer is good," he says. "These people are in it to make a buck, like everyone else, and sometimes they ride roughshod over community concerns." Kaye says the key is ensuring everyone in a community benefits, not just property owners who sell or lease land to wind farm operators.



****

BUSTING THE MYTHS
MYTH: Wind power is inefficient and has to be backed by base load power.
TRUTH: Wind turbines convert as much as 45 per cent of the kinetic energy in wind into useable electricity. In contrast, coal-fired power stations convert only 30-40 per cent of the energy in coal into useable electricity. The electricity grid in Australia has back-up capacity. Wind power could supply as much as 20 per cent of the country’s electricity without the need to build additional back-up.
MYTH: Wind turbines are fans that dry the atmosphere, break up clouds and chase rain away.
TRUTH: There is no scientific evidence for this. Wind farms only capture energy from existing winds; they do not create wind like a fan.
MYTH: There is no point trying to replace fossil fuel energy with wind energy. Instead,we should cut our energy demand.
TRUTH: We should use less energy. But even with very large reductions in energy use to tackle climate change we would still need to replace some proportion of fossil fuel energy with renewable energy. It is not an either/or situation.
MYTH: Wind power is unreliable and can’t be stored. Fossil fuels must take up the slack.
TRUTH: There is no effective way to store large amounts of electricity, regardless of whether it comes from coal or wind. All energy technologies have periods when they are not available. These periods are built into the pricing for the technology. If we locate wind farms in different places and don’t see them as the total solution, we can manage fluctuations in wind.
MYTH: Wind power becomes less cost-effective the higher its contribution to overall energy demand. Beyond 10 per cent it is uneconomical.
TRUTH: Denmark gets 20 per cent of its electricity from wind power and doesn’t seem to have any problems.

Source: Dr Chris Riedy, Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology, Sydney.