No Answer in the Wind

Sponsors of wind power are keen to promote it as not only clean and green but the modern way to meet our electricity requirements.  Governments, businesses and trendy unionists are all dazzled by the development, profits, and jobs that wind generators seem to offer.  And every week brings new proposals -- the latest being two in South Australia and one in NSW.

Over the four years to the end of last year, some 330 Megawatts of wind generation was installed in Australia and five times this amount is on the drawing boards.

This is a rapid growth from a standing start.  But it needs to be put in perspective -- the total installed power is less than one twentieth of that in the Latrobe Valley.  Moreover, windmills can only operate when the wind actually blows -- 25 per cent of the time.

Under scrutiny, the promises from wind development disappear.

All the employment (several thousand jobs) tends to be in Germany and Denmark where three firms dominate world manufacturing.

Profits from wind power are even more will o' the wisp.  They are entirely dependent on government subsidies.  These subsidies involve the consumer being forced to pay wind generators over twice the normal electricity price.

Moreover, the subsidies do not end there.  Because of its inherent unpredictability, wind power needs a great deal of back-up support if it is to be fed into power grids.  This plays havoc with fundamentally coal-based systems like those in most of Australia, where there is relatively little fast-starting hydro electricity.

It might be said, however, that wind is on a fast improving efficiency curve.  And so it is but so too are other power systems.  Hence the cost gap is unlikely to narrow appreciably.  And there are strict laws of physics which limit any future possible gains in efficiency.

Wind generators face another difficulty, a green backlash.  Having played the green card to win political support for the subsidies that wind generators require, their sponsors hardly expected this.  But, in Victoria at least, the generators are besieged by a determined and vociferous environmental lobby.  This has emerged because the best sites for windmills tend to be exposed promontories which are often in areas of great scenic value.  Even the mildest mannered nature lover tends to be irritated by a windfarm of a score or more 110 meter high behemoths emitting a steady thump-thump-thump in the wilderness or in picturesque spots.

Wind generation is indelibly linked to greenhouse and global warming:  does this exist;  if so, will it be harmful;  how can it be fixed and at what cost?  Under the Kyoto treaty, developed countries agreed to limit their emissions of carbon dioxide and other "greenhouse gases".  Australia and the US have refused to join the treaty but intend to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in line with its provisions.  But whatever the long term solutions may be, wind can never offer much help.

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