![wind-turbine[1]](https://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/wind-turbine1.jpg?quality=83)
Guest essay by Eric Worrall
The Australian Renewables industry has reacted with fury to a leaked suggestion that a new “wind commissioner” will be appointed, to handle complaints about turbine noise.
According to The Guardian;
The Abbott government’s proposed “wind commissioner” represents a “new low in its relentless anti-renewables campaign”, the wind industry says, suggesting the Coalition might do better to appoint a “coal commissioner”.
Guardian Australia revealed on Thursday the Abbott government has agreed to appoint a “windfarm commissioner” to handle complaints about turbine noise, and a new scientific committee to investigate, again, their alleged impacts on human health, in a deal with anti-wind senators to win amendments to renewable energy legislation.
…
“This is a blatant attempt by the Abbott government to use taxpayer cash to appoint a propaganda agent for the anti-wind brigade,” said Andrew Bray, coordinator of the Australian Wind Alliance.
My personal impression is the wind industry might be frightened of the possibility of close scrutiny. Up until now, in my opinion, they have had a free ride – their status as a “green” industry has to some extent allowed them to shrug off worrying reports of adverse health effects from the infrasonic industrial noise pollution produced by wind turbines, and an embarrassing rain of bird carcasses and bats killed by blade strikes.
It looks like, in Australia at least, that free ride is about to come to an end. If there is nothing to reports of adverse health effects and slaughtered birds and bats, the wind industry surely have nothing to fear from a little scrutiny. But if there is any truth to these accusations, it would be better for the wind industry to come clean, to admit the problems and welcome scrutiny, otherwise they may in the future face accusations of having used tobacco industry style dirty tricks, to conceal significant health and environmental problems associated with wind turbines.
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The Australian government is going to need help and allies soon. It can’t brave this thing without outside support. They have all the world leaning on them.
Abbott is his own man, Australia is our country. Rather the wavering countries can learn and follow the leader.
Australia is the nation that began on the dawn of the Enlightenment and we’re still leading the pack. Hopefully the rest will catch up with the wisdom of us mob, the spawn of unruly iconoclastic ex-convicts.
“They have all the world leaning on them.”
Not really, just what a small group of eco-zealots would have you believe. If you look at neighbouring countries such as the Philippines, Indonesia and China, they all rely on coal and oil-fired power, renewaburbles are nowhere to be seen. All the smaller islands rely on diesel generators.
Australia has 1 billion near neighbours who will continue to use fossil fuels for power, whatever Australia does with wind turbines is TOTALLY insignificant.
Like who,Greece?
I know of no other country who is quite so advanced in this area of ‘renewals reformation’ as is Australia. Certainly Greece is not.
Wish the hell we could get Abbott on a transfer to the UK and sort our climate clowns out
Black Pearl, perhaps a small reason to hope. From The Scotsman this morning.
http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/top-stories/snp-threatens-tories-over-wind-farm-subsidy-plans-1-3805672
just to amplify Marlenes link, the article concerns the likely cessation of the UK Renewables Obligation (subsidy) for onshore wind from April 2016 which has upset the Scottish Nationalists.
Wind and solar have had a free ride in the UK for many years and it is high time they earned their keep.
At present they are over subsidised, highly expensive and due to the lack of a storage system-supply power in an unreliable fashion. Their potential unsightliness and noise will hopefully also be addressed in a more robust and sceptical fashion than has happened in the past. However, when it matures the renewables industry-especially wind and solar- will undoubtedly have a valuable part to play in supplying green energy.
It is the lack of the ability to store the power they generate that is their Achilles heel and it is to be hoped this will be addressed urgently, perhaps by way of a focused international research programme.
tonyb
TonyB, storage is technically possible now. Pumped hydro. Even where there are no hills/mountains, it is possible to excavate an underground cavern for the lower reservoir.
The problem is cost. Adding conventional pumped hydro storage more than doubles the cost of wind. Adding underground lower reservoir pumped hydro would roughly quintuple it. When wind is not economic without subsidies in the first place. The onshore wind LCOE is about 2-2.2x natural gas fired CCGT in the US.
Regrettably, wind has multiple ‘Achilles heels’.
– Health threats to near residents, subsonic and pressure wave disturbances to living tissue.
– Deadly threats to flying critters; and may be implicated in sudden population declines.
– Short equipment lifespan versus long payback periods exacerbated by high maintenance costs.
– Intermittent highly unpredictable power generation levels.
– Disruptive impacts to power grids requiring intensive backup designs.
Lack of ability to store excess generated power is way down the list of issues with wind, solar and tidal power generation plans.
Wind power’s lack of power storage getting trotted out as a weakness is diversionary. There are far greater issues with wind power; the greatest and least mentioned wind power failure is the complete failure requiring that technology is proven, independently self supportable and fully responsible for all human and environmental impacts.
Instead our leaders love to throw money at phantasmal solutions to very real problems.
Subsidies and grants for implementation of any technology should be considered temporary loans for infrastructure that will result in immense long term citizen paybacks and benefits.
@climatereason
I have a brilliant idea. Why dont the SNP table for a ‘Scottish Wind-Farm tax’ and let the Scottish people pay the Generation companies instead of all UK citizens?
Yes, but at least the onshore wind industry is dying a death in the UK. The squeals from the renewable industry troughers are very loud.
Rud
I should have used the words ‘ practical and cost effective’ means of storing energy from renewable sources.
The methods you describe seem anything but. 🙂
Tonyb
I and many other Australians also wish we could ship Tony Abbott back to England, for good!
So long as your plan is to replace him with nobody and to dismantle the entire federal bureaucratic system then I’m with you. But if you’re just going to replace him with some other politician then I don’t see the point.
Well, you lot have mellowed through the years; the wish used to be to ship such a character part way back to England.
The grammar is appalling; you do not put yourself first, you put others first and yourself last. Perhaps we could start with shipping the also appalling Ms There Will Never be a Carbon Tax Liar Gillard back to Wales. Then Gillian Triggs.
However, despite your wish, I and man other Australians don’t want anyone else as Prime Minister and think he is doing a good job. That’s the problem with a democracy, not everyone agrees in lockstep with you.
Yes , your lot filled pages of newspapers and hours of internet time because he looked at his watch. Shows how feeble you are.
‘I and many other Australians also wish we could ship Tony Abbott back to England, for good!’
Good job your’e in a minority then,isn’t it?
The majority of people want the the economy brought under control,no more billions,yes billions,wasted on illeagal immigrants,an end to union thuggery and a stop to green nutcases who were running the country under the previous Labor clowns.Oh yeah,and a stop to the windmill con job.
Someone is finally appointed to handle the problems experienced by the victims of their bloody scam, and they have the audacity to complain?? The windweasels should be in prison for their negligence, concerning residents near the wind turbines, and they know it!
said Andrew Bray, coordinator of the Australian Wind Alliance. the paid propaganda agent much of whose pay comes from tax payer funded subsides
The left are always furious when someone tries to get between them and your money.
Mark
“The left are always furious when someone tries to get between them and your money.”
+ several, for sure.
Much appreciated.
Deserves a wide audience.
I don’t Twit or whatever the new things are . . .
Perhaps someone more at home with the Flashquote [?] era may be able to popularize this.
Thanks – an increasingly creased Auto
Great comment auto. Thank you.
Credit M&2C.
==========
+1!
A Commissioner decried, a De-commissioner required!
We need a wind commissioner to deal with windy blowhard politicians.
Too bad they can’t call him a Czar, in keeping with the total affront to individual sensibilities that is the new postmodern fashion. Just to rub their noses in same stuff they rub our lowly commoner noses in.
noise?…what noise?…let’s just ignore the noise
“….So in years to come,
When these follies stand still,
And every countryside scene
Their rusting hulks fill,
We can tell our children
An incredulous tale,
Of when you tilt at windmills
And let common sense fail.
From: http://rhymeafterrhyme.net/tilting-at-windmills-its-time-to-stop/
Damn! Where’s that Like button when you actually need it?
Like.
Yeah!, reminds me of ‘War of the Worlds’ films but with windmills instead of the giant tripods.
Why would the renewables industry prefer a government that did not investigate the concerns of the voters who put them in office? The question is not rhetorical and needs to be answered by the renewables industry.
Your too kind, the way I read,
is they consider the revealing of the truth to be an attack.
The greens sure love to regulate everyone and everything, but when it comes to them being regulated it doesn’t go over so well. Hypocrites.
I heard the windmills, and the sung me a brown note.
Why fear a wind commissioner? If you honestly think there’s nothing to worry about, why fear?
Sure, let’s have coal and gas and nuclear commissioners too.
Let’s check this out.
Every dog and his/her owner are the commissioners for the oil/gas industry – including Hollywood, that den of high school drops outs.
Dear BLACK PEARL June 19, 2015 at 1:09 pm
You say ”Wish the hell we could get Abbott on a transfer to the UK and sort our climate clowns out” . I have to ask you this sir or madam, Transfer to the UK? what has Mr Abbott ever done to you to wish that upon him?
Tear every one of them down, everyplace on the planet. Build new coal plants and Nuke plants. Let’s get back to reality.
Are you crazy?
Renewables are the only chance we earhians have got and we’re running out of time and tipping points at an alarming rate.We can’t use nuclear power because …erm..anyway so what if it will take a wind farm 3 times the size of Italy just to keep up with the growth in demand for power.Phil Nye the science guy has warned us plenty,and he wears a dickie bow!
That would be Bill Nye, not Phil.
Those who have something to hide, always object to any kind of scrutiny.
This is especially true for those who have their snouts so obviously in the trough.
“This is a blatant attempt by the Abbott government to use taxpayer cash to appoint a propaganda agent for the anti-wind brigade,” said Andrew Bray, coordinator of the Australian Wind Alliance.”
Anyone else see the rich irony in that? A proponent of wind energy, which lives off diverted tax-payer money, decrying diversion of tax-payer money. It’s like a thief decrying a burglar.
Let’s make a relevant paraphrase: There are none so blind as they whose eyes are stopped with free money.
Oh, the irony is as thick as it can be.
It tells all subsidies dependent wind people are scared because they do cause trouble and the commissioner will have work to do.
It would appear some of the wind industry have not yet fully read the recommendations of the Senate Select Committee on Wind Turbines, which is driving this proposal.
The committee has recommended their other recommendations be funded by a levy on wind farm operators. No taxpayer cash involved.
The Abbott government abolished the Climate Commission(Tim Flannery and various other muppetts) saving the taxpayer $1.6m per year with the very sage comment ‘I don’t see why we should be paying for something which we are going to be getting for free anyway’ Looks like he is putting some of that money to good use.
<strike<Renewables Unreliables industry fury at new Wind commissioner appointment
RenewablesUnreliables industry fury at new Wind commissioner appointmentI cannot stand Tony Abbott or many of his Ministers. Just a vile bunch of hate encouraging extremists. This government has also done nothing to stop the global warming gravy train nor said anything to cast doubt on the assertions of future catastrophe. They repealed the Carbon Tax only to raise the fuel tax.
You sound like a sore loser.
Goodness wickedwnchfan,
So tell me what did the opposition Labour do while they were in government. ? Yes they introduced a carbon tax they (she the PM at the time) said they never would. A bunch of warmaholics who encouraged the gravy train and maintained global warming will be catastrophic. They love the ‘Unreliables’ industry. They were also willing to send billions to the UN. Who exactly are the extremists I ask? I think you have hold of the wrong end of the stick my friend.
You could add the plethora of supposedly highly educated labor ministers who continually ranted on and on about carbon pollution. That, alone was enough to lose my respect for these people.
‘A vile bunch of hate encouraging extremists’
How old are you?
Seems like you are full of hate too, Wickedwenchfan. Bully for you!
From a Yank (Red Sox fan ; ) go Australia!!!!
+1
THE REAL RENEWABLE POWER;
Bolivian Vice-President: Let Us Dare to Leave The Cave & Use The Sacred Fire of Nuclear Power
August 22, 2014 • 4:40PM
“Let us break the mental and colonial chains; break them! Let us dare to leave the cave, as our ancestors did 20,000 years ago. Let us dare to assume our responsibility before the world, before our history and our society. Knowledge of nuclear energy is knowledge of the ABC’s of nature….
“[Bolivia has] the technical, scientific and moral obligation to take responsibility for the knowledge, use, understanding and beneficial development of this fundamental force of Nature.
“It doesn’t matter how long it takes us. We are going to do it, because we are convinced that that is how we cement the conditions for the technological development of Bolivians for the next 400 to 500 years.”
What a joy it is to witness the squirming. More popcorn, anyone?
Speaking of new lows in campaigns….. oh where do I start?
How about the word “Deniers”?
[Deniers of what? .mod]
Glad to see some good news for the unhypnotized, Eric.
My poem on renewable reality:
If you like your energy sustainable,
You must first make the climate trainable.
With sun day and night,
And the wind always right-
I think it just might be attainable!
Solar and wind are renewable,
But have proven to just not be doable!
They’re killing the birds
And displacing the herds
(But the public is highly snafu-able).
It appears to employ better vision
To subsidize nuclear fission.
(The Thorium kind,
For our peace of mind)
And global electric transmission.
Transportation and power, to the poor
Truly are keys to open the door-
To an affluent life,
A job and a wife
With less offspring (than folks made before).
So, curtailing overpopulation
Is not about “limiting nations
On what they can do
Which emits CO2”…
It depends on industrialization!