Wind Power   - Myth Buster

There's a lot of debate about wind power in the media and the broader community. Unfortunately misinformation and myths about wind power are often spread by people who want to oppose wind farms such as those with investment in the non-renewable energy sector. Here are some of these myths, and arguments to counter them.

Wind Turbines will spoil our coastal landscape

Being visible is not necessarily the same as being intrusive. Although some people express concern about the effect wind turbines have on the beauty of our landscape, others see them as elegant and beautiful, or symbols of a better, less polluted future.

We are used to seeing power lines running across the landscape and accept them as necessary to meet our need for electricity. Wind farms are usually placed on agricultural land, which is free of trees. They use less than 1% of this land, leaving the farmer free to carry on with crops or grazing live-stock and provide a valuable additional income.

There is no argument that there are some areas where we simply should not develop wind farms - areas of special significance for environmental or cultural reasons, National Parks or World Heritage Areas.

However we believe that we will have to accept wind farms at some points on our coastline. Australia has the largest ice-free coastline in the world (30,000km) and 85% of our population live in the coastal zone. To be most effective wind turbines need to be in area of high wind such as our coasts. Because so much electricity is lost in transmission on the electricity grid wind turbines they also need to be in close proximity to populated areas, which means that they need to be near the coast to be near where people live. The argument is simple, if you want to live on the coast, then you should accept that to reduce the level of greenhouse emissions some of the coast must have wind turbines to support your electricity needs.

The increased use of renewable energy and wind power will mean that we will have more of these structures visible in our landscape in the future. But we believe that wind energy is one of the most environmentally safe ways of producing the electricity we need to power our daily lives.

Wind turbines kill birds

International studies particularly in the UK suggest that wind farms have no adverse effect on bird populations. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds in the UK (RSPB) has said that from its own studies at three wind farms in Wales, "the scale of bird strike does not seem to be of serious concern", and that wind turbines will have little effect on birds outside their main migration routes. However a thorough analysis of the risk to bird life should be a compulsory part of the environmental impact assessment of any wind farm proposal.

Wind Turbines are noisy

Wind turbines do generate some noise with the rotation of blades in high wind but the noise is quiet enough that a person can have a perfectly normal conversation right underneath it.

Wind Energy is not reliable

It is true that we could never rely on wind turbines alone to provide for all our electricity needs. Friends of the Earth suggest that wind energy is only one step in the vital path to a renewable energy future.

A single turbine can produce up to 2 megawatts of power. Standing up to 100m high it is the result of three decades of technical development. In just 6 months a turbine will pay back the energy used to make it and for the next 25 years it will quietly convert free energy from nature to run 1000 houses.

Wind turbines could be providing energy enough to power 2.5 million homes by 2010 with your help.

Wind farms deter tourists

There is no evidence to suggest that wind farms deter tourists, indeed many wind farms are themselves tourist attractions. An independent study in 2002 found that 91% of Victorians stated that the presence of a wind farm in a coastal area would either make them more likely to visit or make no difference to their decision to visit that location.