Welcome to Victoria, no wind farms allowed

Welcome to Victoria, no wind farms allowed
Posted by Alexander White

Welcome to my home state of Victoria, Australia's hub of art and culture, lane-way cafes and wonderful coffee, Aussie Rules football, themiraculous leadbeater's possum, and magnificent forests.

And also, after law changes in 2011, one of the most difficult places in the world to build a wind farm.

Back in 2011, the then-premier of Victoria, Ted Baillieu, enacted lawsthat, according to The Conversation website, effectively imposes a blanket ban on wind farms in many parts of the state:

They effectively give the owners of any dwelling within 2km of a proposed wind farm the power to decide whether or not the development should proceed.

The laws were part of the conservative Liberal-National coalition's 2010 election platform to "restore fairness and certainty to the planning process for wind farms". The laws have definitely provided certainty.

A recent report commissioned by the opposition planning spokesperson Brian Tee, demonstrates the kind of certainty that banning wind farms can bring:

While the Baillieu Government's reforms were targeted at new wind farms, they have had a major impact on those who already had permission to develop wind farms, prohibiting the extension of permits and making it harder for developers to make small changes to their planning approvals to incorporate state of the art technology and improve efficiency.

If a wind farm company wants to amend their permit or get an extension, they have to apply under the new constraints. The impact of the laws has been to not only stop the development of new wind farms but to also hinder the development of farms already approved.

Andrew Bray, state coordinator of non-profit pro-wind farm community group VicWind noted that many developments that were approved under the earlier laws now would have no chance under the new regime. "Technology has moved on substantially since granting of permits 3-5 years ago", said Bray, "so developers want to alter key aspects such as number of turbines, often using higher capacity turbines to decrease the total number of turbines, turbine placement, or blade tip height to improve viability of the project."

The chilling effect of these planning laws is plain. Only one application to build a new wind farm has been made since the new laws came into effect.

For Full Article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/southern-crossroads/2013/may/29/1

Comment by Anumakonda Jagadeesh

These are all unfounded. How many wind turbines are installed and going to be installed in the next 20 years? How much area they occupy in relation to Total Geographic area of Victoria? Are not Houses in Vitoria State air conditioned? Won't people stay inside the house during nights? If all these questions and many more are answered then criticism on wind turbines in the victoria region is justified.

Wind power is a rapidly expanding mode of renewable energy production in Australia with an average annual rate of growth in installed capacity of 35% over the five years up to 2011. As of 2011, there is 2224 megawatts (MW) of installed capacity, with another 15284 MW either being planned or under construction. In the year to October 2011, wind power generated 6432 gigawatt hours (GWh) of electricity accounting for 2.4% of Australia's total electricity demand and 21.9% of total renewable energy supply. As of October 2010, there were 52 wind farms in Australia, most of which had turbines of from 1.5 to 3 MW.

South Australia has close to half of the nation's wind power capacity, accounting for almost twenty percent of that state's electricity needs of as October 2010. Victoria also had a substantial system, with about a quarter of the nation's capacity, and projects under construction forecast to more than double that capacity by the end of 2013.

Australia has excellent wind resources by world standards. The southern coastline lies in the roaring forties and hundreds of sites have average wind speeds above 8 or even 9 m/s at 50 m above ground (the hub height of a modern wind generator). The southwest of Western Australia, southern South Australia, western Victoria, northern Tasmania and elevated areas of New South Wales and Queensland have good wind resources. Several states engaged in systematic wind speed monitoring in the 1980s and 1990s, the results of which are publicly available.[6] Australian wind farms produce on average capacity factors of 30–35%, making wind an attractive option.

As of October 2010, wind power accounted for approximately 5 TWh out of a total of 251 TWh of electricity used per year, enough electricity to power more than 700,000 homes, and amounting to about two percent of Australia's total electricity consumption. This came from 52 operating wind farms with greater than 100 kW capacity, consisting of a total of 1,052 turbines. This figure represented approximately a 30% increase in wind power generation each year over the previous decade, or a total increase of more than 1,000% over that time. The total installed capacity at October 2010 was 1,880 MW (1.88 GW), counting only projects over 100 kW, with a further 1,043 MW under construction.

Wind farms

As of October 2010, there were 52 wind farms of greater than 100 kW capacity operating in Australia. The Waubra Wind Farm near Ballarat, Victoria, completed in 2009, was the largest wind farm in the southern hemisphere, consisting of 128 turbines spread over 173 km2and rated at 192 MW, however in terms of generating capacity Lake Bonney Wind Farm near Millicent, South Australia was the largest with 239.5 MW, despite only having 99 turbines. These figures were set to be surpassed by the Macarthur Wind Farm at Macarthur, Victoria, scheduled to open in 2013 with a capacity of 420 MW.
Installed and proposed capacity by state

The following figures were based on capacity as of October 2010, and included only projects larger than 100 kW. In world terms, South Australia's market penetration of 19.4%placed it on par the world's leading nation, Denmark, which provided approximately 19% of its total electricity from wind.

#	State / Territory	Wind Power Capacity				Proposed Projects' Publicly Announced Status (MW)
		Installed capacity				Feasibility	Seeking approval	Planning approved	Under tender	Abandoned or suspended	Under construction
		Projects	Turbines	Total MW	Penetration (%)
1	SA	14	435	907	19.4	890	—	725	—	117	296
2	Vic	9	267	428	4.3	846	275	1,369	165	120	487
3	WA	14	142	202	1.2	99	2	142	—	—	—
4	NSW	7	116	187	1.0	525	269	1,315	—	80	92
5	Tas	6	68	143	4.7	190	—	130	—	160	168
6	Qld	2	22	12	0.1	52	—	624	—	—	—
7	AAT	1	2	1	—	—	—	0.3	—	—	—
8	NT	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
9	ACT	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
10	Australia	52	1,052	1,880	—	2,602	545	4,304	165	477	1,043