SENATE INQUIRY INTO WIND TURBINES IMPACT My Name Is
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SENATE INQUIRY INTO WIND TURBINES IMPACT My name is Kim Forde and I live in north Queensland. I am an environmental professional with more than 25 years’ experience in my field, and with 15 years’ worth of direct experience working in the energy generation sector. I now run my own consulting firm, The Missing Link, providing environmental and systems advice across the region. I was the Environmental Manager - Renewables for Stanwell Corporation for 8 years based in its hydro assets in North Queensland and supervised the environmental and community elements of the approval, construction and operation of Windy Hill Wind Farm for 7 years, and with Toora Wind Farm operations for 2 years. After Windy Hill Wind Farm commenced operations, I stayed in the house, less than 200m from the closest turbine, twice per week for almost two years, with no impacts on my ability to sleep (and I am a light sleeper) or my health. I experienced no anxiety or heart palpitations or any of the other ‘symptoms’ that are falsely propagated by opponents of the industry. Nor did any of my colleagues or any of the other visitors (more than 50) to the site report any ill-effects. I have maintained an involvement with Windy Hill Wind Farm as a consultant to Ratch Australia in its approval process for the Mt Emerald Wind Farm. I regularly (approx 5 times per year) access Windy Hill Wind Farm to provide members of the public opportunities to experience an operating wind farm up close and see for themselves that there are no impacts in terms of noise or safety or health or birds or any other fallacy that is propagated by the anti-wind lobby, based on generating a culture of fear. On regular occasions I host an Open Day at the site and have present on site to answer questions the landowners and their now grown-up children and grandchildren; employees and their families; near neighbours and members of the community. The number of visitors to each Open Day for the past three years have been more than 60 each day. The consensus from all visitors is a balanced, positive and educational experience. The noise from the Windy Hill turbines can only just be heard in the car park that is less than 100m from the nearest turbine. You can carry on a normal conversation in the viewing area – have done it 100’s of times, with visitors ranging from school groups, to formal tour groups, to grey nomads who stop for a look and a chat. Almost to a ‘person’ they go away with their questions answered and any misunderstandings clarified. Their comments paraphrased ask ‘what is all the fuss about?’; ‘there is almost no noise’; ‘the wind is louder’; ‘the cows are grazing happily right underneath them’; ‘the noise is less than the passing trucks’; ‘aren’t they beautiful/ majestic/ stately’ to look at. In 2013, 6 members of the anti-wind group associated with Mt Emerald Wind farm also attended the Open day at Windy Hill. For 5 of those 6 members, it was their FIRST VISIT to an operating wind farm. They had based all of their protests to that point, and since, on mis-information provided by other anti-wind groups and sourced from the internet. Despite being able to speak without difficulty at the base of the towers, this group promoted the lie that turbines produce noise similar to a jet aircraft. Despite speaking to people who had lived, or worked, safely on the same farm as the turbines for 15 years, they still insist in their rantings that there are ‘health impacts’ with no medical evidence of what that really means. Despite there being no evidence of any significant bird or bat death at this site, attributable to the operations of the wind turbines, they still raise false and unvalidated claims of fauna impact, standing up at one public meeting to claim more than 20 bird deaths per day for two years. When asked to provide evidence of this, none was forthcoming, because it simply wasn’t true. They relied on not being ‘called out’ to provide real evidence to back their claims, particularly from members of the media focussed on a 7 second controversial ‘grab’. Despite evidence from across the country and the world that wind farms have no negative impact on land values, they still incite fear by promoting this as a consequence. It is my conclusion there are none so blind as those who will not see, and deaf as those who do not wish to hear anything than their own view. I would like these people investigated to determine how much fear, illness and lost opportunity is the result of their self-interested fear mongering and them held accountable for the damage that they cause. If you spoke to the Ravenshoe community, as I regularly do, who have had this wind farm in their front yard (within 5km and very visible from the centre of town) for 15 years now, you would find more than 95% satisfaction with the wind farm, the turbines and their operations, and no negatives in terms of health or viability of surrounding dairy farms or the community. In fact, the community has reaped significant benefit from having the wind farm as a tourist destination. Ravenshoe suffered significantly as a result of the closure of their timber industry when the surrounding forests were World Heritage listed in 1988. The dairy industry de-regulation in the mid-1990’s hit them hard. The coming of the wind farm reinvigorated the town, with local jobs created – a few at the farm, but more in the ‘support’ and ‘tourism’ industries. There is a ‘buzz’ in the town that has resulted since construction and operation commenced. In 1999, there was only one place in town to buy very bad coffee, now there are three very good coffee shops to cater for the tourists and locals alike. The Visitor Centre has a display with includes the wind farm and information about it, as does the tourism branding for the town, especially on the internet. Tea towel, t-shirt and postcard sales all feature the turbines in a positive manner. They see it as an asset. It is, and would be for any rural community. To address your specific criteria, my comments are below. 1. The application of regulatory governance and economic impact of wind turbines, with particular reference to: a. the effect on household power prices, particularly households which receive no benefit from rooftop solar panels, and the merits of consumer subsidies for operators; All the evidence that I have reviewed suggests that the price of energy for householders will be significantly lower when generating our energy needs from renewable energy, from all sources, by 2020 than from the ‘business as usual’ model of mainly coal. This makes sense purely in the following terms: the increasing cost of coal as the world factors into the ‘real’ environmental and health costs of coal extraction, transport, generation, pollution protection and rehabilitation of mining sites the comparison with choosing a renewable energy source that has NO ongoing cost of the power source – be that wind or solar. The localisation of generation, particularly in regional areas where reliability and the reduction in the length of transmission lines, and the subsequent reduction in transmission losses. As someone who lives in a cyclone prone area, and who has worked in the energy industry for more than 15 years, it is my professional opinion that having generators closer to their users allows regional communities to be more resilient, and recovery much quicker from the significant impacts of these sorts of natural disasters. With all the evidence suggesting more and more intense cyclones in northern Australia as a consequence of climate change, then strategic planning to locate smaller, renewable energy sourced, generation assets adjacent to regional centres, makes sense. b. how effective the Clean Energy Regulator is in performing its legislative responsibilities and whether there is a need to broaden those responsibilities; The Clean Energy Regulator has, in my opinion, done an excellent job in delivering it legislative responsibilities, and the use of its visionary staff to help identify a future for the delivery of energy in an equitable and economically viable method for Australia is essential. The lack of vision from this and previous Australian governments in working with industry for a gradual transition from a coal-dominated generation focus to a renewably sourced generation sources for all of Australia has been a sad indictment of their short-sightedness and focus on the next electoral cycle and short term profit. The process of transition has been identified in the Zero Carbon 2020 Reports, and represented opportunity for everyone and for Australia be a world leader instead of a laggard, as we are now. Use our expertise in the CER, the CEC and the Climate Council. c. the role and capacity of the National Health and Medical Research Council in providing guidance to state and territory authorities; This is our leading agency for providing guidance on Health and Medical issues in Australia, and to my mind, deserves immense respect for the authenticity and integrity of their reports on a range of issues. How can you challenge their integrity and the accuracy of their reports on the non-health impacts of wind farms and not discredit their reports on the health impacts of not immunising children or smoking or other significant issues? As a professional in my field, I know how much I value my integrity and reputation and that I would not compromise that for any reason.