Right: Research into better battery technology. Is more efficient electricity storage technology a possible casualty of Victorian and NSW wind farm policy?. Found a word you're not familiar with? Double-click that word to bring up a dictionary reference to it. The dictionary page includes an audio sound file with which to actually hear the word said. |
Further implications
Whatever the intentions of the Victorian and New South Wales governments, it seems likely that their new planning regulations for wind farms will seriously, if not completely, undermine the development of future wind farm projects in their states. The situation is slightly worse in Victoria, where the new regulations allow the objection of one resident within the two kilometre buffer zone to prevent the development of a project.
The regulations governing wind farm projects are more stringent than those applied to any other form of power generation. It is therefore understandable that wind farm companies appear to have interpreted them as a virtual denial of entry to the two most populous states in Australia. This comes at a time when an Australian company has designed and tested a wind turbine which it claims is virtually silent. (Details of this development can be found at http://theangle.org/2011/10/30/radically-designed-whisper-quiet-wind-turbine-targets-small-scale-production/) The development of this product may well occur overseas as the Victorian and New South Wales planning regulations will dramatically reduce the market for it in this country. Thus Australians may never experience on any scale a product developed to address some of the concerns which have fuelled popular disquiet about wind farms.
This is part of the issue raised by these new regulations. They effectively close much of Australia out of the development loop for wind farm technology. If, for example, better battery technology serves to make wind-energy an all-year proposition, neither Victoria nor New South Wales will be able to take optimum advantage of that development.
The regulations operating in Victoria and likely soon to operate in New South Wales will substantially undermine the federal targets set as part of Australia's carbon emissions trading scheme. The actions of Victorian and New South Wales governments may ensure that whatever the carbon tax costs Australians financially, they will see little benefit from it in terms of reduced carbon emissions.