Right: a new offshore wind farm in Denmark. The Danes use coal to generate half of their electricity needs, but they are also a world leader in the use of wind power.
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Background information
(The 'international comparisons' data is drawn from a Wikipedia entry titled, 'Wind power in Australia'. The full text of this article can be read at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power_in_Australia)
Wind farms and wind power in Australia
In April 2011 a Senate Community Affairs Committee report included the following overview of wind farms in Australia.
In 2009 there were 85 Australian wind farms, 57 of which were in Victoria, and 19 in each of South Australia and Western Australia. The capacity of all these installations amounted to 1703 MW. Production in South Australia is 48 percent of Australia's total wind-generated capacity. More wind farm developments have been approved by the various state authorities since 2009 and many more are planned.
According to an Australian Government study the wind energy industry has been the fastest growing renewable energy source, largely because it is a proven technology, and has relatively low operating costs and environmental impacts. Turbines are increasing in size and may be up to 150 metres in diameter or, as one witness expressed it, 'as high as from the flag on top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge to the waterline'. Bigger turbines increase the swept area of the blades and proportionally increase the wind energy captured. These turbines need to be further from each other, with implications for the area needed for each farm. It has also been suggested that the increased size of modern wind turbines could potentially intensify any health problems related to noise and vibrations.
Planning and compliance issues for wind farms are matters for the state governments, although the states have devolved some of these responsibilities to local governments. Generally, proposals for wind farms of more than 30 MW capacity are dealt with by the responsible state government minister.
International comparisons
Australia's total wind generation capacity of 1,880 MW in 2010 is relatively low when compared to many other developed and developing nations. Australia ranks 15th globally behind leaders such as China with 44,733 MW, the US with 40,180 MW, Germany with 27,215 MW, Spain with 20,676 MW, and India with 13,066 MW.
In terms of installed capacity per head of population, Australia ranked 18th in the world in 2010, with 0.086 kW per person. This was only around one eighth of the capacity of world leader Denmark, which had 0.675 kW per person. Other leading nations were Spain with 0.442 kW per person, Portugal with 0.344 kW per person, and Germany with 0.334 kW per person. The top two countries in terms of total capacity, China and the US, only ranked 27th and 9th in terms of capacity per head, with 0.033 kW per person and 0.128 kW per person respectively.
While Australia produced almost 2% of its electricity from wind power, this is again relatively low in comparison to other countries. Denmark again topped this list, accounting for approximately 19% of electricity production, with Portugal at 18%, Spain at 16%, and Germany at 9%. Global leaders in terms of total capacity, China and the US, had contributions as a percentage of total electricity supply closer to that of Australia, with 1.2% and 2% respectively.