Denmark to Crookwell: The wind farm experience

Cooma Monaro Express
Thursday 14/9/2006, Page: 5

MANY people strongly believe that religion and power do not mix. But a local Uniting Church pastor doesn't share that viewpoint, and is the latest local to get involved in the 'Should Monaro have wind farms?' debate.

Pastor Richard Pedersen has called on the Monaro community to embrace wind farms, believing they will play a vital part in the world's future. But Pastor Pedersen isn't a novice on the subject, and grew up less than 500 metres away from the first wind farm in the world which was located 20km out of Copenhagen, Denmark.

"I could see the four of them from my house," Pastor Pedersen said. "They were used to power a nuclear research station that was used for medical purposes and is still being used for that today."

Pastor Pedersen was 12-years-old when the wind turbines were established near his home and said during that time no one from the surrounding community had a problem with them.

"I have never heard anybody in Denmark ever talk against wind farms,' he said. Pastor Pedersen believes most of the theories against wind farms are farcical. "People use the killing-of-birds example as one of the arguments against wind farms. "I grew up next to these things and I can tell you now that more birds die as a result of running into the church tower then dying as a result of wind mills.

"People also use the landscape argument, but these days they put them in places where they are hardly visible from the road. It shouldn't be an issue. "We need to work towards the better use of natural (renewable) power," he said.

"There is an initial cost, but in the long term it will be free, so why aren't we using it? It also doesn't pollute the world. If we don't do something soon it could be too late. "I think we have too few of them and they are grossly under used," he said.

"Solar is grossly under used as well and should be looked at closely. We have to stop being scared and embrace those things. Denmark previously bought all its power from Sweden, but it took a stand and stopped buying coal power from them and now wind energy supplies most of Denmark's energy."