Wind farm dismay
Bega District Letters to the Editor, May 15 | Bega District News | www.begadistrictnews.com.au
Bega District Letters to the Editor, May 15 | Bega District News | www.begadistrictnews.com.au
I was dismayed to hear about the proposed Brown Mountain wind turbine project. As is now well know these are useless, money-making scams for wealthy business people.
The output capacity as quoted is an often told total exaggeration as this is theoretical for if the wind continuously blows at the correct speed! The actual output is only 20 per cent of that at maximum, but we still pay in our bills for when the wind doesn’t blow. My computer has a theoretical download speed of hundreds of Mbps but it will never reach that.
They cannot produce a reliable, non fluctuating, energy supply, so destabilises the grid causing fossil fuel generation to be kept running as backup.
Victoria has a large number of wind turbines yet imports most of its electricity via inter-connectors to NSW!
In this post-COVID state of economic turmoil the last thing we need as a country is more useless, unreliable so-called renewables. We need cheap, reliable energy to get our manufacturing base back.
Stephen Robinson, Bemboka
Reality is not pretty
Twenty-two households will be living in close proximity to Granite Hills’ 23 x 230m (not 220m) high wind turbine towers, perched on the crest of the Brown Mountain. Another ‘Elysian Wind Farm’ is being proposed for the Kybean-Tuross area, continuing the “daisy-chain” effect.
Three major river system catchments for the Maclaughlin, Bemboka and Bombala Rivers, are potentially extremely vulnerable to the introduction of such huge industrial structures, from the impacts of road widening and straightening allowing access for transporting 85m long blades etc to site, then all other installation and commissioning requirements.
These projects will continue to “daisy-chain” across the Monaro and down into our valley. Both SA and Victoria are rapidly becoming vast prickly blankets of “Infrasound and Low Frequency Noise” emitting turbines, with consequences of sleep deprivation causing countless homes to be abandoned. The taller the turbine, the further the intensity and travel of ILFN. Australian acoustician Steven Cooper has identified the elements that are causing people to leave their homes to achieve sleep, research acknowledged worldwide.
Calculate the epidemiological consequences of this and other similar projects on bird migratory zones, eagles and bats, for massively altered wind patterns on sensitive ecosystems. Consider the size of fans employed to disperse frost from grape vines, then consider the speed at the blade tips of 85m blades at 300kmh.
Some people think distant wind turbines are elegant, but the reality of living within a few kilometres of them is far from pretty or comfortable.
Michaela Samman, Bemboka
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2020/05/15/wind-farm-dismay/