REVIEW OF THE RENEWABLE ENERGY TARGET
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SUBMISSION
The Renewable Energy Target, and with it the system of Renewable Energy Certificates, has
lead over particularly recent years, to the downfall of the lives of rural Australians, and as a
consequence, the ability for rural Australia to survive, and thrive, as the great primary
producer it is. This is due to the impact of the rapid construction of wind farms in particular
Victoria, South Australia and New South Wales.
This collapse of the social and economic values in areas with a proliferation of already
constructed and operating wind farms, in addition to the hundreds proposed, particularly in
south-west Victoria, where we live, will only gain momentum should the Federal
Government continue with the lunacy of heavily subsidising forms of power, particularly
wind and solar, which are UNABLE TO OPERATE financially by themselves.
Rural Australia is the backbone of this once magnificent country, and should the RET/REC be
allowed continue in its present form, the social, physical and economic impact will be
allowed to “creep like a cancer” throughout rural Australia at a more rapid pace than has
been experienced thus far.
Put simply, it’s MONEY FOR JAM to coin a phrase..... and it’s being paid for by the
UNSUSPECTING TAXPAYERS of AUSTRALIA, to often, international companies, with little
benefit in Australia.
I intend to concentrate on Wind Power, as this inefficient, unreliable and expensive form of
power generation, during the last few years, has ruined my family’s highly successful ultrafine shedded wool-growing enterprise.,
We live on a small property adjoining the Macarthur wind farm in south-west Victoria. We
have been fine wool growers for many, many years and in September 2011, we were
awarded second prize in the highly coveted Ermenegildo Zegna of Italy competition, thus
recognising us as the second best ultra-fine wool growers in the world.
In May 2012, we were sadly forced to close this highly successful enterprise due merely to
construction of the enormous Macarthur wind farm, right next door to our property. During
construction, a rock crushing plant was located very close to our boundary fence, and with
constant southerly winds, DUST billowed into our property and into our purpose built
shedded sheep enterprise, infrastructure alone for which is valued at around $200,000, and
NOW LIES IDLE.
The dust CONTAMINATED the wool of the 400 specifically bred sheep, but more seriously
also CONTAMINATED the sheep’s DRINKING WATER, literally causing them to die ....
We were forced to abruptly stop this operation, save what sheep we could, after losing
several hundred, and send these superior bred, incredibly valuable sheep off to the
BUTCHER ...... what a disaster !!!!
As it took us thirty years to breed these sheep (and only a handful of others are able to
breed them in Australia) we have been unable to replace these sheep, thus this has
constituted a loss of approximately $150,000 annual income for my family.
All of this caused by AGL’s Macarthur Wind Farm, with NO compensation whatsoever ....
Apart from the incredible economic loss suffered by my family ( work out that loss over the
next 20 years ) WIND POWER FAILS IN A WHOLE LIST OF ECONOMIC CRITERIA.
1.
It cannot provide BASE LOAD POWER.
2.
Due to inability to provide “power on demand”, Wind Power requires 100% back up
from either coal fired or gas power. The need for constant backup power has been largely
ignored in carbon accounting, and should this have been the case, the economics JUST
WOULD NOT STACK UP.
3.
In order for Wind Power to be an attractive investment for multinationals
unprecedented and UNSUSTAINABLE subsidies have been made. THIS CANNOT BE
ALLOWED TO CONTINUE.
4.
The massive government subsidies have lead to an extraordinary culture of BULLYING,
LYING and in some cases FRAUD and CORRUPTION within government and wind power
developing companies. The extent to which large companies, both Australian and
international have been prepared to lie, intimidate and bully anybody who should dare to
protest, or protect their own property or common law rights, has been outrageous.
5.
The social cohesion within rural Australia has been demolished, once a wind power
company “comes to town”. The very social fabric of rural Australia has been DESTROYED, at
great economic cost, in areas where wind farms operate. Those not in support of such
projects are denigrated, intimidated and literally excommunicated from any local activities,
groups etc. The economic COST of this culture has been ENORMOUS but has been largely
ignored.
6.
Whilst “jobs, jobs, jobs” is the catchcry of wind power developers in rural
communities, the greatest ECONOMIC IMPACT has taken place whereby, due to the fact
that so many people are forced to leave their homes, and cannot work safely on their farms
any more, the “food bowl” of Australia has become, and will continue to become an
INDUSTRIAL WASTELAND.
WHERE WILL OUR FOOD COME FROM when the exodus of farmers increases ?
As many people living near and next to the enormous Macarthur wind farm, are forced to
leave their properties, either permanently, or for several days of each week, the
PRODUCTIVITY of this magnificent, possibly the most reliable agricultural district of Australia
is, and will continue to RAPIDLY DECLINE .....
The value of land out to about 8 kilometres from the nearest turbines is DECIMATED. There
are around 200 properties within a 10km radius of the huge Macarthur wind farm in southwest Victoria, and most of these properties are UNSALEABLE.
Why ?
Because NOBODY wants to live, or work near a wind farm. There are hundreds and
hundreds of millions of dollars worth of properties in the vicinity of the Macarthur wind
farm, which now have NO VALUE AT ALL.
This incredible economic loss to the south-west Victorian district where we live, must be
multiplied all over rural Australia where wind farms operate currently, but also where there
are merely wind farm PROPOSALS.
If farmers cannot live and work on their properties, therefore livestock numbers continue to
diminish, affecting LOCAL TOWNS, local SCHOOLS and other services provided will be taken
away as rural populations decline, DUE TO WIND FARMS .
To be effective the RET and REC review MUST consider the following -1.
A secure cost effective energy supply MUST be provided – available DAY in DAY out –
ie. 24/7 ON DEMAND.
2.
What about HYDRO POWER ? How about including HYDRO POWER within the RET
and REC ? There are numerous HYDRO POWER STATIONS laying idle down the east coast of
Australia – but they DO NOT attract the huge government subsidies which unreliable,
inefficient, expensive WIND and SOLAR do.
HYDRO POWER can provide BASE LOAD POWER ----- WIND POWER CANNOT PROVIDE
BASE LOAD POWER .....
3.
Saving of substantial CO2 emissions as a cost effective way of fulfilling the original
intended purpose of Renewable Energy Targets, ie. the displacing of fossil carbon fuel – or
even investing money into clean coal burning.
4.
Wind/solar should not require substantial backup as a proportion of achieved
generating capacity.
5.
Until a method of STORING WIND POWER can be developed WIND POWER should be
DISCONTINUED as it is just SO COSTLY and UNRELIABLE.
6.
A MORATORIUM on ad hoc large scale industrial energy facilities to be placed in
HIGHLY INAPPROPRIATE locations in rural communities.
As Professor of Economics at the University of Edinburgh, Dr. Gordon Hughes claims “The key problems with current policies for WIND POWER are simple. They require a huge
commitment of investment resources to a technology that is NOT VERY GREEN, in the sense
of saving a lot of CO2, but which is certainly very expensive and inflexible. Markets have to
be rigged in order to persuade investors to fund the investment that is required. The
economic cost of fixing markets in this way, especially if there is a possibility of making
mistakes, is VERY HIGH.
Before proceeding along this path, any Government ought to be VERY SURE that the
economic and environmental benefits OUTWEIGH the SUBSTANTIAL COSTS INCURRED,
and the risks of pre-empting better option that may emerge in the future have been
minimised.
In reality, neither of these conditions is close to being satisfied. to misquote another
aphorism, unless the current government scales back its commitment to wind power VERY
SUBSTANTIALLY, its policy will be worse than a mistake, IT WILL BE A BLUNDER”.
Refer Hughes attachment above.
Ann and Andrew Gardner
Vic