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Sections in this issue outline (in order):
1. What they said. 2 The issue at a glance. 3 Background. 4 Internet information links. 5 and 6 Arguments for / against. 7 Further implications on this issue. 8 Newspaper items used in the compilation of the outline.
2004/07: Should there be moratorium on wind farms along the Victorian coast?
What they said ...
'[Wind farms] are ... ugly and loathsome because they symbolise modern idiocy - our frantic desire to prove our goodness to Mother Earth by wasting heaps of money to "fix" a problem that doesn't actually exist ...'
Andrew Bolt, Herald Sun commentator
'A few towers on a coast seems a small price to pay to ensure that coast is still above water and pristine in decades to come. For if we keep warming the planet and polluting it at the present rate, the Prom will not remain unaffected - and the consequences of not acting now will be far worse'
Belinda Pimm, in a letter published in The Age
The issue at a glance
On 17 September 2003 the Liberal and National parties called for a 12-month moratorium on wind energy development in Victoria. Though the Liberal and National parties called for a state-wide moratorium, most of the public pressure has been for a halt to wind farm development along the Victorian coast.
On August 31 2003 some 400 protesters gathered at Parliament House to demand a moratorium on wind farms affecting coastal Victoria. Others said to have called for such a halt are Diane James, chairwoman of the Victorian Coastal Council; Great Ocean Road Marketing; John Button, head of the Victorian Tourism Industry Council; the Victorian Coastal Guardians and the shires of Moyne and South Gippsland.
In an article published in The Age on September 1, 2003, it was claimed there are some 60 wind turbines along the Victorian coast with plans lodged for another 1000 to be operating between 2005 and 2006.
(Please note: this figure for current coastal turbines is 35 above that given by the member for Gippsland, Peter Hall, in a speech given in the Victorian Legislative Council on September 17, 2003.)
Background
Britain and Europe, including Germany, Denmark, Spain, and the Netherlands, produce 65 per cent of the world's wind-generated electricity. North America produces 22 per cent of the world's wind-generated electricity, and Asia (including Australia) produces 12 per cent. Wind electricity-generating farms are now being established worldwide.
Denmark produces 13 per cent of its electricity from 6,000 wind turbines. This country is also one of the main manufacturers of wind turbines for world use with more than 15,000 people employed in this industry.
Wind turbine installations worldwide grew by 45% or 6.5 gigawatt (GW) in 2001, bringing global total wind power capacity to 24 GW, according to the European, American and Indian wind energy associations, in a joint statement issued in the run-up to the World Wind Conference in Paris in April 2002.
Europe, by far the most active wind region, increased its capacity by more than 35% or 4.5 GW MW in 2001 while the United States installed nearly 1.7GW and total capacity increased by more than 60%. India, the third largest market after Europe and the United States installed around 240 megawatt and exceeded 1.5GW of total installed capacity.
In the past 20 years Australia has been increasing its wind-generating capacity; however, compared to other Asian countries Australia generates a small amount of electricity from wind.
Since 1987, 25 wind energy projects have been installed around Australia generating about 196MW(megawatts), enough electricity to power about 113,000 homes. A further forty-five have been proposed that would generate 2700MW.
The wind industry claims that by 2010 Australia could be generating 5000MW of electricity with 3000 turbines. This would be enough energy for 3 million homes, or the equivalent in C02 reduction of planting 30 million trees.
Victoria currently has 62 operating turbines: 14 at Codrington near Warrnambool, one on the Bellarine Peninsula, 12 at Toora in South Gippsland, near Wilson's Promontory and 35 at an inland location near Ararat. These 62 towers have a collective generation capacity of 92MW.
The Victorian Government's current targets for wind energy production have been disputed, but they fall somewhere between 1000 and 2000MW. Opponents claim that the 2000MW figure would require the installation of between 1200 and 1500 additional turbines. Supporters of the development claim that with the increased efficiency of turbine design the number would be significantly less.
Internet information
ActewAGL is an electricity, natural gas, water and sewerage services utility that is based in the Australian Capital Territory. Outside its home base, ActewAGL sells electricity in the south-east Australian market and provides services elsewhere in Australia and overseas.
ActewAGL is involved in electricity generation through wind power in Australia. It has produced a useful information brochure, outlining how electricity is generated by wind turbines and the extent of the 'wind industry' worldwide.
Though the brochure is obviously intended to promote wind generated electricity the information it presents is clear and apparently accurate.
The brochure can be found at http://www.actewagl.com.au/education/electricity/generation/wind.cfm#overview
The Victorian Government's 'Policy and planning guidelines for development of wind energy facilities in Victoria' can be found at http://www.seav.vic.gov.au/news/media_releases/15082002_wind_guidelines.htm
The guidelines were released on August 15, 2002.
The document is published as a pdf file and requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.
This issue has been substantially debated within the Victorian Parliament and a search of the Victorian Hansard for references to 'wind farms' is productive. The entries for September 17, 2003, are particularly useful as this was the day the Liberal and National parties moved a statewide moratorium on wide farms.
Part of this debate can be found at http://tex.parliament.vic.gov.au/bin/texhtmlt?form=VicHansard.dumpall&db=hansard91&dodraft=0&house=COUNCIL&speech=26144&activity=NULL&title=WIND+FARMS:+GOVERNMENT+POLICY&date1=17&date2=September&date3=2003&query=true%0a%09and+%28+data+contains+'wind'%0a%09and+data+contains+'farms'%0a%09and+data+contains+'moratorium'+%29
Prom Coast Guardians is a community based organisation with a charter 'to protect, preserve and enhance the natural landscape, economic future and cultural heritage of the Prom Coast (from Welshpool to Cape Liptrap, the surrounding coastal hills and including Fish Creek) for future generations.'
In December 2002 the organisation wrote a response to the Federal Government's draft policy statement, 'Towards a truly national and efficient energy market'.
Coast Guardians presents a detailed statement of what it believes are the inadequacies of wind-generated power and promotes a number of other solutions to the energy problem including reduced consumption and greater encouragement of solar power.
Coast Guardians' submission can be found at http://www.energymarketreview.org/DraftReportSubmissions/PCG.pdf
The Australian Wind Energy Association (AWEA) has produced a brochure attempting to correct what it claims are popular myths or misconceptions about wind generated electricity.
The document is titled 'Wind power myths and facts'
It can be found at http://www.auswea.com.au/about/myths.htm
Country Guardian is a British conservation group concerned about the environmental and social damage caused by commercial wind farms. It is not opposed to wind energy as such, but argues that in practice all sites that are windy enough for wind farms are environmentally sensitive in one way or another.
The group have produced a detailed series of arguments against wind farms titled, 'What's wrong with wind farms? - The Case Against Wind "Farms"'.
The full text of these arguments can be found at http://www.countryguardian.net/case.htm
The British Wind Energy Association (BWEA) has produced a detailed series of arguments attempting to answer each claim made in Country Guardian's 'The case Against Wind "Farms"'.
The BWEA document can be found at http://www.bwea.com/ref/cgcase.html
Arguments in favour of a moratorium on coastal wind farms in Victoria
1. Wind farms mar the landscape
British naturalist and television presenter, Professor David Bellamy, a long-time opponent of wind farms, has criticised wind farms for their visual impact.
'If I wanted to build an executive home in an area of outstanding natural beauty I wouldn't be allowed. And yet these turbines are 22 storeys high and put on hills where everyone can see them ... [They] need 1,000 tonnes of concrete as well as a road infrastructure. It beggars belief that some environmental groups can say they are "green",' Professor Bellamy has said.
Ted Baillieu, the State Opposition spokesperson for planning has described the turbines similarly. 'Each turbine stands between 100 and 130 metres. That's the equivalent of a 35 to 40-storey building. They're big, these turbines. Very big. Much bigger, even, than a jumbo jet. And the next generation promises to be bigger still.'
Referring specifically to the situation in Victoria, Professor Bellamy has said, 'If you want to ruin the best bits of your landscape for the sake of technology that is not sustainable and doesn't work, then they must be a pretty mad government ... Why put them [wind turbines] in the most beautiful places when you can put them inland.'
Tom Harley, chairman of the Australian Heritage Commission, has warned 'There is a profound danger that in the haste to embrace wind farms as a source of renewable energy the claimed benefits will not be set off against the costs to landscape ... As a nation we see our landscapes more as a touchstone of national identity than other nations - respecting their fragility requires great care.'
2. Coastal wind farms may harm the Victorian tourism industry
The Victorian Opposition spokesperson for planning, Ted Baillieu, has warned of the damaging effect wind farms could have if placed along the coast in areas popular with tourists, what he refers to as 'our most treasured landscapes'.
Mr Baillieu further claimed, 'The visual impact of hundreds of huge steel turbines is set to destroy the very wild, natural landscape values that make Victoria's coastline one of our greatest treasures and one of our great tourism drawcards.'
Mr Baillieu has listed areas at risk - 'Wilson's Promontory. The Great Ocean Road at Nirranda. The Bay of Islands. Discovery Bay. Cape Bridgewater. Logans Beach. Corner Inlet. Bald Hills. Kilcunda.'
John Button, chairman of the Victorian Tourism Council, has called on the Victorian Government to stop building wind farms along the Victorian coast.
Similar concerns have been expressed in other parts of the world.
Plans for an offshore wind farm to generate electricity in Northern Ireland by 2005 have received a cool reception on the north coast. Mr Don Wilmot who manages the Causeway Coast and Glens Regional Tourism Organisation has claimed research had shown the outstanding natural beauty of the north coast was the prime reason for visitors. 'Any development, not just this proposal for a wind farm, which poses a threat on the environment would give us some concern, he said.
Mr Wilmot, whose organisation represents eight local councils, has viewed offshore wind farms near Copenhagen. He claimed to have heard reports that tourism had dropped by 40% in an area of Denmark with a lot of windmill development. 'Tourism is a major earner for the (north coast) region and generates some S100m of revenue,' Mr Wilmot noted. He the reiterated, 'Anything that would impact on us would give us serious cause for concern.'
3. Wind farms can harm wildlife
It has been claimed that wind farms can have adverse effects on wildlife, especially birds and bats. Some wind farms have had problems with birds' being killed by whirling rotors that spin too fast for birds to see them. For example, researchers counted 182 dead birds in two years from the 6,500 wind turbines in Altamont Pass, California. A five-year study in the same region found that the Altamont Pass wind farm kills an average of 40 to 60 golden eagles a year, along with 'several hundred' hawks, falcons and other birds of prey.
In Spain, a report commissioned by the regional government of Navarra concluded that 368 turbines at ten sites had killed nearly 7,000 wild birds in a single year, including 409 vultures, 24 eagles and 650 bats.
The Humane Society of the United States, the International Fund for Animal Welfare and the International Wildlife Coalition have all expressed concern about wind farms. They point out that large marine wind turbine projects 'may fragment vital bird habitat and alter migratory pathways'.
4. Wind farms reduce real estate values
South Gippsland resident, Mr Terry Hurst, has complained at a public meeting called to protest about wind farms in his area, that he had recently sold his property for less than market value after the noise from nearby wind turbines became 'unbearable'.
It has recently been proposed to build one of the United States first offshore wind farms in Nantucket Sound. A survey, conducted by Suffolk University's Beacon Hill Institute, concluded that the wind farm was likely to reduce real estate values in the area. It included interviews with nearly 1,000 property owners.
On average, homeowners believed that the windmill project would reduce property values by 4.0%. Households with waterfront property believed that their property would lose 10.9% of its value. If borne out, these expectations indicate that property values would fall by $1.35 billion and that tax collections would fall by $8 million annually.
The survey showed that 70% of homeowners believed that the windmills would worsen the view 'slightly' or 'a lot'. This belief was behind their concern that the value of their properties would decline.
5. Wind farms are not an efficient technology
Country Guardian is a British conservation group concerned about the environmental and social damage caused by commercial wind farms. The group has been researching the effectiveness of wind farms since 1992. In its publication, 'The Case Against Wind Farms' it makes the following points about their efficiency.
'Wind is an intermittent source of power and the only form of energy generation that we cannot control. If there is no wind, there is no generation; if there is too much wind the turbines must be shut down or they will be blown over. At the moment UK turbines generate only an insignificant trickle - less than 100 MW on average from nearly 50 wind "farms", towards an average demand of about 43,000 MW, so that their intermittent supply causes no problems for consumers - indeed those who manage supply simply ignore their existence.'
Tim Le Roy, the spokesperson for Victorian Coastal Guardians, a group opposed to wind farms along the state's coastline, has made similar claims about the efficiency of wind farms in Victoria. Mr Le Roy has stated, '[Wind farms] only generate electricity when the wind is blowing, and the wind fluctuates violently, so it needs backup at all times by other means. In Victoria it doesn't work very well at displacing brown coal generation, because you cannot fire up a brown coal generator very quickly'.
Institute of Public Affairs economist Alan Moran has claimed that currently wind supplies a trivial amount of the world's energy, is comparatively costly, is likely to remain dependent on taxpayer subsidies and is intrinsically less efficient than coal, or oil, or what he calls 'the politically incorrect nuclear option'.
Mr Moran has stated, 'It is akin to harnessing a hundred cats to achieve the same pulling power as a horse. In theory it could be done but the logistics in terms of harnessing the cats to pull in the same direction would be colossal. And those means of organising the cats themselves use up an awful amount of energy.'
The cost of using wind to generate electricity is estimated at 7.5-8.5 cents/kWh (kilowatt-hour) against 4 cents for conventional brown coal or gas, and more than 10 cents for solar.
6. The Victorian Government's planning provisions and environment protection measures are inadequate
The Victorian Opposition spokesperson for planning, Ted Baillieu, has claimed that such guidelines as exist in Victoria for the placing of wind farms are either inadequate or have been ignored.
In an article published in The Age on September 20, 2003, Mr Baillieu claimed, 'The Government introduced guidelines for the location of wind farms. Those guidelines have allowed applications across a string of coastal locations.
Indeed, Planning Minister Mary Delahunty approved 120 turbines on the capes at Portland against the recommendations of a Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal hearing and of a government-appointed panel.
The minister did so without even bothering to visit and, to the amazement of all concerned, without ever having even seen a wind farm - as she admitted to Parliament.'
Critics have noted that a large wind farm to be built between Bacchus Marsh and Ballan in central Victoria will not be investigated for its environmental impact after Planning Minister Mary Delahunty gave the project an exemption.
Arguments against a moratorium on coastal wind farms in Victoria
1. Clean, renewable energy is vital to preserve the environment, including the Victorian coastline
According to figures submitted to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC) in 1999, Australia is among the highest per capita greenhouse emitters in the world. Per capita emissions are almost twice the industrialised country average of 13.4 tonnes.
The primary attraction of wind-generated electricity is that it produces power without the greenhouse gas emissions associated with coal or gas driven turbines. Concern about global warming and the impact this could have on the environment is one of the main arguments offered by the Victorian Government for its development of wind farms.
The introduction to the Victorian Government's 'Policy and planning guidelines for development of wind energy facilities in Victoria' included the following statements, 'The Bracks Government is committed to facilitating the development of a sustainable secure and affordable energy supply for all Victorians.
Renewable energy, and wind energy in particular, will be critical in achieving our goals for this sustainable future. The wind in Victoria is a very valuable resource, and one that will help us to meet our future energy needs without producing the greenhouse gas emissions that threaten some of Victoria's most precious areas, such as our Alpine ecosystems, National Parks and wetlands. We owe it to current and future generations of Victorians to ensure that we utilise this resource ...'
This position was put more forcefully in a letter published in The Age on July 9, 2002. The writer, Belinda Pimm, states, 'A few towers on a coast seems a small price to pay to ensure that coast is still above water and pristine in decades to come.
For if we keep warming the planet and polluting it at the present rate, the Prom will not remain unaffected - and the consequences of not acting now will be far worse.'
2. Wind farms do not have an adverse effect on tourism
It has begun to be claimed that rather than discourage tourism, wind farms can actually be a tourist attraction in their own right. At the very least, their supporters claim, they have a neutral impact upon tourism.
The world's largest offshore wind farm is off the west coast of Denmark in the North Sea. Danish tourism promoter, Jan Toftdal, has stated that the region adjacent to the wind farm is an area where 'Ninety percent of the people depend upon tourism. It is very important we maintain the product we have - nature'
Mr Toftdal has claimed that rather than turn tourists away, the wind farm development has encouraged them to come. He maintains that the number of visits to Blavandshuk was higher in the first year of the wind farm's operation than in previous years.
It has also been claimed that wind farms have acted as a tourist attraction in some areas of Australia.
The Australian Wind Energy Association (AWEA) has produced a brochure outlining the impact of wind farms on tourism in Western Australia. Referring to the Esperance wind farms, the brochure claims 'Both the Salmon Beach and Ten Mile Lagoon wind farms are adjacent to the Great Ocean Drive (formerly known as the Tourist Loop), a well-promoted tourist drive. The wind farms are highlighted as one of the attractions for visitors. The Esperance region attracts 150,000 visitors a year and a large percentage of these will visit the turbines. The Tourist Bureau directs visitors to the wind farms and includes them in their information and visitors guides.'
3. Wind farms have a negligible effect on wildlife
The Australian Wind Energy Association (AUSWEA) has stated, 'Any tall structure presents a risk to birds, but the threat from wind turbines is not only very, very small compared to other impacts, it is also one of the most intensively studied of all risks to birds.
To put this risk into perspective, US bird experts Curry and Kerlinger have estimated that 100 million bird deaths a year can be attributed to domestic cats, compared to an estimated 5 to 10 thousand killed by turbines - meaning cats' risk to birds is at least 10,000 times greater than that posed by wind turbines in the US. The Exxon Valdez oil spill alone is estimated to have killed up to 500,000 birds.
New research at several operational Australian wind farms indicates that risk to birds may be even less than first expected, and well below the predicted levels from models that were run as part of the approvals process. The research found not a single mortality for rare or significant bird species. All wind farm developments are accountable under the Commonwealth Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC).'
AUSWEA also claims, 'The (British) Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Europe's largest wildlife conservation charity with over a million members, takes the view that although wind turbines do present a risk to birds, it is site-specific and very small compared to other human activities and the risks presented by climate change.'
4. Wind farms do not reduce real estate values
The Australian Wind Energy Association has claimed, 'An in-depth, government-funded study completed in the USA in 2003 shows that a view of a wind farm does not decrease, but may actually increase the value of a property. The study did a total of 30 analyses on ten projects and found that in twenty six of these analyses, property values in the affected view shed (defined as within 5 miles of the turbines) performed better than in the comparable community.
The only Australian study is an informal one on the Esperance wind farm at Salmon Beach, a premier Western Australia residential area. The residential area was built after the wind farm but still showed a strong trend of increasing house prices throughout the estate over the ensuing years. In fact, local residents complained at the proposal to decommission the wind farm at the end of its design life.'
It has also been claimed that in Denmark, in Blavandshuk, a resort community within sight of what is currently the world's largest offshore wind farm, property values are rising, not falling as was originally feared.
5. Wind power electricity generation is becoming increasingly more efficient
The Australian Wind Energy Association (AUSWEA) has argued against claims that fluctuations or variations in available wind will make wind power unreliable as a source of electricity. Rather, AUSWEA argues, as the number of wind turbines connected to the national grid increases any fluctuations will be compensated for.
The Association explains its position in this way, 'No weather pattern hits the whole of the Australian continent at the same time, but rather a mix of weather patterns cover the country at any given time. Therefore, as more and more wind energy is connected to the grid there will be an increase in site diversity so there will be a smoothing effect on the input into the national electricity grid from wind farms.
As grid interconnections between states become stronger, the overall input from wind farms to the grid will become increasingly steady, making it more and more comparable to other base load generators.'
AUSWEA also argues that in terms of potential power lost in the conversion process, wind generated electricity is actually very efficient. The Association claims, 'Modern wind generators' efficiency of converting energy to electricity is about 45% - this is the ratio of converting wind kinetic energy into electrical energy. By contrast, the efficiency of black coal plant is about 35%, and brown coal plant about 29%. Thus most of the energy stored in coal is lost in the generation and distribution process. Wind farms provide distributed generation, with the clean electricity consumed close to where it is generated. Furthermore, a wind turbine replaces all the energy used in its construction and installation (termed "embedded energy") in less than 6 months, and then generates clean energy for over 20 years.'
It has also been noted that the generating capacity of turbines has been constantly improved. The Victorian Energy Minister, Mr Theo Theophanous, has claimed, '[The] wind turbines at a two-year-old development at Codrington [have a] 1.2-megawatt capacity ... Most wind energy turbines now have a capacity of at least 1.75 megawatts, and the best practice for the industry in Victoria is currently two megawatts. It is reasonable to think that this will continue to improve.'
6. The Victorian Government has effective guidelines to regulate the placement of wind farms
The Victorian Government has claimed that its 'Policy and planning guidelines for development of wind energy facilities in Victoria' are sufficient to ensure that landscape values are protected in the siting of wind farms. The guidelines a requirement that the Minister for Planning be the responsible authority for wind energy proposals greater than 30 megawatts and an assessment approach that includes appropriate standards to protect environmental vales and recognise local issues.
The guidelines exclude National Parks and all land reserved under the National Parks Act from commercial wind energy facilities which equates to 43 per cent of the length of Victoria's coastline and 32 per cent of the area within one kilometre of the coast.
It has further been claimed that there are sufficient regulations to protect local interests even when a wind farm development has been exempted from the guidelines. When a proposed wind farm was recently exempted from the guidelines in November 2003, a spokesperson for the Minister for Planning, Ms Mary Delahunty said environmental issues were not 'prominent in this case' and people would be able to object to the project through submissions. Ms Delahunty exempted the project from an environmental effects statement on advice from the Department of Sustainability and Environment, which said the 'environmental and landscape issues can be dealt with through the normal planning process'.
Further implications
Britain's Prime Minister, Tony Blair, announced in 2003 that his Government had set a target of providing wind power to one in six British households by 2010. Though this target may never be achieved, there is nothing like this clarity of purpose in Australia's response to 'reducing' greenhouse gas emissions.
Australia has yet to sign the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, despite the fact that it successfully argued that it be allowed to increase its greenhouse gas emissions by 8% above 1990 levels by 2012. The protocol's general requirement was that industrialised countries reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 8% of the 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012.
Australia has been criticised by environmental groups for the supposedly half-hearted way it has gone about trying to keep a lid on its greenhouse gas emissions.
The Australian Greens Party has rejected Federal government claims that it will have been able to hold greenhouse gas emissions to 108% of what they were in 1990 by 2012. The Greens leader, Senator Bob Brown, has claimed, 'The fact is that greenhouse gas emissions from burning coal, oil and petrol in Australia have gone through the roof.'
The Greens' claims have been supported by a joint publication produced by Greenpeace Australia, Friends of the Earth and the Australian Conservation Foundation titled 'Faking It'. This report, produced in 2000, claims 'Australia's emissions in 1998 were 16.9% above 1990 levels. Taking into account all measures introduced, the government expects emissions to be 18-20% above 1990 levels by the first commitment period [2012].'
In this context a committed and unified approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions seems vital. Unfortunately, what seems to be happening is that even among dedicated conservationists there are those who are arguing that one approach should be preferred over another.
This divisive attitude is apparent among many of those who are opposed to wind farms, at least in part because of the 'visual pollution' they represent. For example, the Prom Coast Guardians have argued for 'an increase in support for the solar industry so that increased volume of sales can make them more affordable'. They have also argued for 'mandatory installation of solar hot water heaters in new buildings with phasing in of replacement units over the next ten years'. In addition they have called for the development of 'positive incentive programs' to encourage the Australian community to modify its energy consumption behaviour.
While these initiatives are fine in themselves, it is regrettable that Coast Guardians want them implemented instead of further wind farms being established. Surely Australia has sufficient of a greenhouse gas emission problem to make a multifaceted approach desirable. One would imagine that encouraging reduced energy consumption together with the development of solar and wind generated power should all be on the agenda.
Sources
The Age
1/9/03 page 5, news item by Larissa Dubecki, 'Coastal wind farms blot on landscape, protestors say'
20/9/03 page 11, comment by Ted Baillieu, 'Don't ruin our coast with wind farms'
22/9/03 page 12, letter from Trixy Allott, 'Time for a rethink on wind power'
23/9/03 page 10, letter from Peter Pickering, 'Whistling in the wind'
24/9/03 page 13, comment by Theo Theophanous, 'Renewable energy? We're not whistling in the wind'
25/9/03 page 14, letter from Clyde Scaife, 'Spinning in the wind'
26/9/03 page 13, letter from Theo Theophanous, 'Wind facts 1'
26/9/03 page 13, letter from Ted Baillieu, 'Wind facts 2'
22/11/03 page 11, news item by Chee Chee Leung, 'Landscape test for wind farms'
1/12/03 page 8, news item by Melissa Fyfe, 'Huge new wind farm gets exemption'
The Australian
15/12/03 page 8, analysis by Stuart Rintoul, 'Tilting at windmills'
The Herald Sun
25/9/03 page 19, comment by Andrew Bolt, 'Sense blown away'
20/10/03 page 19, comment by Andrew Bolt, 'Time we found the balance of power'
2/12/03 14, page news item by Danny Buttler, 'Blast for wind farms'
2/12/03 page 18, editorial, 'An ill wind?'
19/12/03 page 2, news item by Danny Buttler, 'Cloud over wind farm'