Wind Farms
Over the weekend, I had a chance to view one of Victoria’s seven working wind farms. The Toora wind farm is located 170km south-east of Melbourne perched atop a very tall hill.
- 21 megawatts of generating capacity
- 12 wind turbines
- 6600 equivalent homes powered anually
- 67 metres tall
- Turbines can adjust for wind direction.
Two major reasons for opposition against wind farms are its “uglying” of the landscape and its noise. I can’t speak for all wind farms but Toora is perched on top of hill with a great view of the sea in the distance. Most people will be looking down rather then up. In this author’s opinion, wind turbines look quite funky and I wouldn’t mind living near them.
The noise from the turbines is very minute. Wind farms are generally located in windy areas, so its noise would have to be heard over the wind. I attempted to capture the noise from the turbine but all I heard when I played it back was the wind blowing into the camera’s microphone.
Looking up at the turbine incited flashbacks to the movie Contact where Jody Foster rides a turbine looking machine that is supposed to make contact with aliens. Even the sounds were very similar to the movie.
Currently, Australia gets 1% of its electricity from wind power. Victoria has 134 MW of wind generating capacity which when all proposed projects have been installed will reach 2,010 MW of wind generating capacity.
Wikipedia: Wind Power in Australia
Environment Victoria: Pros and Cons of Wind Power
Youtube: A funky Toora wind farm video with a guy dancing (not me)
Technorati Tags: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, Wind Farm, Toora, Toora Wind Farm, Wind Power
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Funny that Neil, but I just had a conversation with a farmer several weekends ago.
Was in Echuca visiting some friends, and one of them has an uncle who is a wheat farmer.
We sat and chatted over lamb skewers and beer about the benefits of wind power, the cost and what it would take for the Victorian Government to implement something of this magnitude state-wide.
Clearly a fan of energy that produces no emissions, he admitted that it would take someone with a great deal of foresight to put something of this magnitude into work.
The conversation also involved a rather scathing attack on Victoria’s water situation, and the need for a motion to pass rainwater tanks as a Victorian standard.
But I digress.