Brad Watt’s article Tarago winds of change win approval reveals many exaggerations and distortions of facts from politicians, from the community and most distressingly from the Renewable Energy Industry regarding the proposed Capital Wind Farm project east of Lake George.

Mr Watt’s subtitle Habitat to be protected would in be far more appropriately titled Habitat to be destroyed.

Let us begin with CEO of Renewable Power Ventures David Griffin’s misleading declaration that the yellow box woodlands in the vicinity of the proposed industrial site (they are, in fact, remnant woodlands) will be protected by fencing. He fails to mention the destruction of 1.5 hectares of this important and endangered habitat for the construction of roads (which his company calls tracks).

The Capital Wind Farm Project will require roads as strong as airstrips to convey the mammoth transport vehicles to install 63 turbines that are 125 metres tall, 4.5 metres wide at the base (set in concrete surrounds) with turbines at 44 metres long, which is almost as long as an Olympic swimming pool. There is no mention from Mr Griffin, nor from Palerang Shire Council as to where the water will be supplied from to create the 33 kilometres of roads, or the enormous concrete surrounds required to support the towers. 

The sites for the turbines on the hilltops of Groses Hill and Hammonds Hill are designated and mapped salinity recharge points. For those people who have declared that this project’s development application is environmentally thorough, nothing could be further from the truth. If Canberra’s Conservation Council Director Trish Harrup is willing to approve such an application on its environmental merits, one has profound doubts about the health of that ACT institution and governance.

Palerang Shire Council have the audacity to brag that they will receive $2,000,000 from Renewable Power Ventures for the bitumen sealing of Taylors Creek Road. Why has there been no public declaration that this bears a striking resemblance to what is commonly called a bribe? Most tellingly, Palerang Shire Council have stated that the sealing of Taylors Creek Road will not be undertaken until after the installation of these massive turbines – a testament to the size of the massive transport vehicles that will travel to an fro to install the enormous parts of the turbines.

Does David Griffin really expect anyone to believe that his company has dealt extensively with the bird kill problem at the Lake George site  when it is a well documented problem endemic to wind farms all around the globe? How can Mr Griffin truly expect the local landowners, who have for decades been observing the habitat of birds of prey, and the migration of many species of waterbirds between Lakes George and Bathurst, to believe that the introduction of 125 metre high turbines with 44 metre long blades will NOT decimate the bird and other connected species populations? 

I invite Mr Griffin explain to myself and a journalist who met with Messrs Paul Weiner and Neville Osborne of the NSW Planning Department in August 2006 at the home of Sue Corrigan how his proposed turbine industrial site will not kill the Wedge tailed eagle we saw that lifted out of the grass no more than five metres from  us on Taylor’s Creek Road with a rabbit in its talons? Can Mr Griffin’s industrial site protect the Black Shouldered Kite that has returned to the ancient Snow Gum on Ms Corrigan’s property after a two year absence? How long will the Grey Falcon survive that uses that same tree every day of the year? What of the White bellied sea eagles, the flocks of pelicans, black swans, rare and endangered duck species, internationally protected Snipes and numerous other bird species, nationally and internationally endangered, Ramsar Treaties et al, who have been documented by local landowners as riding the high currents to migrate between the two lakes George and Bathurst, as they have done for a millenia. (Mr Griffin’s development application outrageously states that this is rare.)

How can Mr Griffin explain that his company has dealt with the bird problem, when his report didn’t even supply a comprehensive bird list? How could his company supply one, if they were to know that the NSW and Commonwealth Government websites for species at lake George are out of date?

I invite David Griffin to explain specifically how the project will not  impact on endangered species of birdlife, when his report actually acknowledges that the birds most at risk are large birds of prey, waterbirds, and large flocks of migratory birds.

What does it actually mean in relation to the Capital Wind Farm that Lake George was gazetted as a Bird and Animal Sanctuary by the NSW Government as long ago as 1919? That it is listed as a Nationally Significant Wetlands on the ICOMOS register, that the Lake George Quarternary Site was listed by the National Trust of NSW in 1986?

Regarding Morris Iemma’s totally unsubstantiated statement that the Capital Wind Farm Project will provide enough electricity for 52,000 homes, The Canberra Times should make it a top priority to investigate thoroughly and openly this outrageous exaggeration, including a clear breakdown of the total megawatts of the proposed “farm”, versus the actual amount of electricity able to be accepted by the electrical grid, and this figure in relation to the average home’s energy usage. This survey should refer to our past winter climate records, when we have had several days at a time without a breath of wind. It is commonly known that during winter, in windless weather the mist that descends on Lake George is magnificent. It just sits and mutates very very slowly. During these days and nights, not one home will receive energy from these turbines. Not one.

During the past 6 months I have received a plethora of information regarding the inefficiency of wind technology. This information has been provided by electrical engineers, who deal with facts and figures. I have also received information from a person who has worked as a consultant to the wind industry. Why is it that there is such a distortion of the productivity of the wind industry by our politicians, bureaucrats and renewable energy salespeople? Why are scientists so religious, and not objective or scientific in their willingness to embrace the wind industry as clean energy when there is information available for them to read that proves this kind of energy is impossible to produce without coal, that it is just not efficient enough, and never will be? Are they so locked in the jaws of the global warming scenario that they are willing to embrace wind energy as the answer to reducing greenhouse gas emissions? Where are the transparent figures, graphs, results published in the media to substantiate this claim?

Some of Canberra’s scientific community are impressed by wind farms. It is easy to understand why. They look impressive, to some people even beautiful.  Energy Australia’s full page ads in most of our national weekend newspapers throughout winter showed a woman employee holding a small turbine in one hand. The turbines when moving make a lot of noise (actually described by Codrington Wind Farm land owners as being as loud as peak hour traffic) and this suggests that a lot of energy must be being collected. Ask electrical engineers exactly what is the real scenario. Australia’s electrical engineering community must be interviewed regarding the technical efficiency, or lack of it, of wind farms in inland Australian situations.

David Griffin’s comprehensive consultation with local landowners was similarly questionable. He failed to interview some residents from Mount Fairy about the project. With other residents, Mr Griffin’s technique upon entering the home of Ruth and Rod Corrigan two years ago was to say to them directly and bluntly that he was constructing a wind farm across the road. No negotiation, no room for objection. Just arrogance.

The Capital Wind Farm project will seriously diminish biodiversity from its initiation and this degradation will not cease. It is totally hypocritical for the scientific community, the so called environmental community, and the renewable energy businesses to promote an inefficient and invasive technology which has decimated bird populations globally. The inefficiency of wind technology must be thoroughly researched and published by our media as a matter of the utmost urgency. For those sanctimonious bureaucrats and scientists who reply that we should be looking at the bigger picture, that global warming is killing off species anyway, this is all the more reason to lobby our governments to develop a clean and efficient technology immediately. There is no room for scientific arrogance or ignorance with regard to the technology (not just the scientific concept) of energy production.