Wind generated power might appeal to inner city-dwellers, but regional Australians have additional concerns that must be met, WAFarmers CEO Trevor Whittington says
Like the view from the top of your farm over the surrounding countryside?
Then let’s hope you are not near the coast or near major power lines in a windy area! In Western Australia, the State and Federal governments and their consultants are currently quietly poring over maps looking for land that will be tomorrow’s wind farms.
With the planned closure of Western Australia’s two state-owned coal fired power stations by 2030, the WA Government has put aside $3.8 billion to build 800MW of new wind generation and 1,100 MW of battery storage as a replacement for the loss of 1,100MW of reliable coal produced energy.
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Exactly where the wind farms that are going to replace coal-fired power stations in WA are going to be built remains a mystery
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What I want to talk about is the impact of the replacement windfarms on the state – specifically on the households that must look at them.
While the Premier was keen for all the positive accolades from his move to shut the two power stations, he did not dwell on where the replacement wind farms would be situated.
The deafening silence makes me suspicious. Politically, the government knows that everyone is looking forward to the reduction of their power bills that have been promised by the federal government from all the free sun and wind we are about to tap.
But no one is expecting to have to share their landscape with a 200m tall tower or watch the glare of a hill covered in hundreds of hectares of solar panels.
I suspect this is because the government knows there is likely to be howls of outrage from those who get to share their space with these industrial eyesores.
This begs the question: how important is the image of the great Australian outdoors to us, as a people, if we think the pursuit of expensive free wind power merits the spoiling of it all by the construction of massive wind turbines?
Do neighbouring farmers get a say? Answer: No.
Just like you don’t get a say over the location of the power poles, you can’t say no to a wind farm.
The only restriction is the setbacks. Once they are set back enough to hopefully avoid the noise then they become your new neighbours.
In WA the set back distance is 1.5km but the push is to drop it to 1km. Victoria has just dropped its distance from 2km to 1km.
At 1.5km between towers the coverage can be enormous. The Collgar wind farm 25km southeast of Merredin has 111 towers covering a land envelope of 18,000 ha; generating 222MW (when the wind is blowing). The visual impact is far larger.
The challenge for wind farm developers is to find sufficient space between farmhouses and remain close to a heavy-duty power line.
The latest plan is for one 35km northeast of Hyden, generating 150MW of energy and connecting to the grid via the 132 kV Kondinin to Bounty Line – and that follows the opening last year of the 51 turbine Yandin Wind Farm outside Dandaragan.
Farmers in windy areas are being doorknocked by people with white shoes, sign here and we will give you enough to cover the annual repayment on a new ute or two for 10 square metres of your land.
This might be good for them but not so good for the neighbours.
The world’s biggest tower at 7MW cost upward of $10m each would command a fee of up to $50,000 a year but most in the 1MW-2MW towers paying around $6000-10,000pa.
Good for the long skinny farm sitting on top of the escarpment running Perth to Geraldton, not so good for the neighbours who don’t have a turbine paying the school feeds for the kids and grandkids.
One hopes that some form of bond scheme is in place for pulling them down, when we get sick of the rising power bills that come with free wind energy and get smart and build a nuclear power station.
In the meantime, I think we are set to have between 140 mega 200m towers or – if they go for the more common smaller ones – 400 to cover the replacement of the two coal fired power stations (plus the gas and battery backups).
This means Western Australia’s beautiful landscape is going to be a lot less appealing to locals and internationals alike in the future.