The Acceptance and Progress of Wind Power. (June 18, 2012)

An article last Monday in Energy Matters discusses the matter of  the perceptions in Victoria, NSW and South Australia of wind farms. It cites, for example, a CSIRO report which states "support for the development of wind farms is stronger than may be assumed from media coverage", while a separate report this past month notes that the majority of residents living near Capital Wind Farm in Bungendore, the largest wind farm in New South Wales, believe the power station had either a good or very good impact on the local community.

In addition the Clean Energy Council (CEC) released the results of its own survey "Wind Energy Community Research in Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia" which found a large majority (77%) of survey respondents said they supported wind farm developments and just 13% said they were opposed. The survey gives details of the make up of the respondents to it.

Energy Matters notes:

Among other key findings:

- 75% of respondents said they believed generating electricity through wind farms is a good idea in Australia.

- 60% of respondents said they agree or strongly agreed that by placing restrictions on wind farm growth opportunities are being missed to support Australia's own wind farm manufacturing industry.

- 77% of respondents said local communities and land owners should be able to make up their own minds about wind farms with less interference from state politicians.

- 80% of those surveyed thought it likely/very likely a wind farm could provide important income for farmers and other land owners.

- 58% believed economic benefits of wind farms to local communities far outweigh any negative impacts.

- Three quarters of survey respondents believed wind farm construction would create some jobs in the local area.

As for the matter of "Wind Turbine Syndrome" its existence appears to be questioned by a large section of the community. 83% of respondents said they felt that concerns about the health impacts of wind turbines "will turn out to be nothing to worry about".

Philip Warburg in his recent book Harvest the Wind America's Journey to Jobs, Energy Independence, and Climate Stability writes that in 2003 China had ~100 MW generated by the wind which by 2010 had increased to 18,900 MW.

Mr Warburg  states that a top Chinese energy planner's goal is to put 150,000 MW of wind power on-line by 2020, which is about three times the capacity installed in the United States by the end of last year. It's estimated that will engender a $150 billion market and it oughtn't come as a surprise that the Danish firm Vestas recently recently opened the largest wind turbine factory in the world in China rather than Denmark.