Message-ID: <01BC2BC8.2A8BF480@ala-ca19-23.ix.netcom.com> Date: Sat, 8 Mar 1997 13:30:51 -0800 From: "Ms. Aikya Param" <mailto:aikya@IX.NETCOM.COM> Subject: Re: --Australian Windfarm Plans To: mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU
We have wind generators along the Altamount Pass between Livermore and Stockton, CA. They are on hills which were not densely populated but for the folks who lived there, noise was definitely a problem. Similarly, the energy output was not great and so the towers were bought and sold several times because profits were not very high. Maintenance also was a problem there where, similarly, owners did not live anywhere nearby. Since I usually saw them from a great distance, I thought they were great but then I began hearing how folks near the things felt. There are problems there.Aikya Param Publisher Women and Money 1405 Carleton Street, A Berkeley, CA 94702 510-486-0663 http://www2.netcom.com/~aikya/womenandmoney.html
---------- From: cherbert[SMTP:mailto:cherbert@ENTEBBE.DEMON.CO.UK] Sent: Saturday, March 08, 1997 1:50 AM To: mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU Subject: Re: --Australian Windfarm Plans
>PACIFIC POWER PLANS 5-MW
>WIND PLANT IN NEW SOUTH WALES
>
Before being entirely carried away by enthusiasm over this project, it might be worth finding materials on evaluations of the implications for the environment of this project. Here in old Mid Wales, it has not been joyfully received, as acres and miles of glorious scenery have now disappeared into a welter of giant cranes and their accompanying houses. They are very ugly, and cover a huge amount of territory for very small returns in power. The one you are talking about must be enormous if it is planning to give so much power. Nobody has even begun PPP talks on who picks up the tab as these things degrade.Farmers receive an annual payment for having the giant windmills on their properties, but there is no other incentive for local people who are not landowners. As farming in Mid Wales was in serious financial trouble, and people generally are keen on ecodevelopment, there was great enthusiasm about this project.
However, once they were up, people became a whole lot less happy about living with them. They are apparently very noisy to live with on windy nights and days, even with double glazing. And there is no return but loss for the local people whose income is from the only other industry in this area, tourism.
I think there would be a more positive response here, if each of these giants gave a better return in energy. Once local people realised how much they lost, and saw how small the return was, they felt even more disconsolate.
Perhaps in great big Aus you can spare the land for putting up eyesores - here in little Wales we couldn't.
Sorry I don't have any answers, but felt it might not be a bad idea for you to hear another side to the wind power generation story. We might have been much better to have pursued more hydro-electric power for which we have lots of capacity. You might find solar power a better option. Whatever, we felt conned by the hype of the generating companies, and hence my attention was drawn to your mail which contained lots of it. In Wales we found they were just like any other industrial interloper to deal with, and of course, they don't live here. They wouldn't accept the machines were noisy for ages, and when a couple blew down, they weren't particularly cooperative in dealing with the resultant mess. For the amount of power being generated, cutting our consumption would definitely have been a better and more sustainable option.
All wind generation is fought hard against here now. It may just force the companies to go back and develop their technology to be more environmentally friendly and to generate more power per machine. Don't forget these things are bigger than Pylons, have to have an attached machine house, and march in every direction across the hillsides in formations that would never be accepted for pylons.
-- cherbert