August 4, 2011
Australia

Alderman continues wind turbine fight

ABC News, www.abc.net.au 4 August 2011

A Hobart alderman has vowed to continue his fight against wind turbines on buildings.

Alderman Ron Christie is concerned the wind-damaged turbines on the Marine Board Building are soon to be replaced.

The original turbines failed in strong wind after the braking mechanism wasn’t reset, but the project manager says new automated brakes will overcome this problem.

But Alderman Christie is not convinced and says turbines do not belong on city buildings.

“No-one can guarantee against the elements of nature and this concerns me,” he said.

“As an Alderman of this city, I have a responsibility to the citizens of this city, particularly the workers.

“I’ll oppose any wind turbine that goes on any of our heritage buildings, or any buildings around the waterfront.

“As I said before, and I’ll say again, they are not appropriate on city buildings, particularly our buildings here in Hobart.

We all support renewable energy but in the right place,” he said.

Project manager, Keith Drew, says even when the turbines did fail last year there was no public safety threat.

“The turbines, while they were damaged, did not break or fall apart they actually hung together in the way that they were designed to do,” he said.

“So in those very adverse conditions, and you could consider them worst case scenario, the wind turbines were not a threat to anybody adjacent to the building.

“We just don’t want that sort of thing to happen again.”

The new turbines are due to be installed in the next fortnight.


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2011/08/04/alderman-continues-wind-turbine-fight/