I would like to respond to the article Paddle-out protest over wind farm in CCN 396.
Offshore windfarms have been in operation since 1991.
While onshore wind has expanded rapidly – it is now the second biggest source of renewable energy behind hydro – rollout of offshore wind has been slow due to its high cost.
This has now changed as the increasing size of turbines and economies of scale in manufacturing have driven the cost of offshore wind down to where it is below the cost of coal and gas power, and its global rollout is now accelerating.
Turbines which sit on piles anchored into the seabed require seismic surveys during planning and pile-driving during construction which can disturb marine mammals and fish.
Neither of these is required for floating wind turbines.
The suggestion that noise from the proposed turbines will harm marine life is therefore false.
Floating turbines act as an artificial reef which increases diversity and abundance of fish within the field and delivers up to seven per cent increase in commercial fish catch around the field.
The suggestion that the proposed turbines will harm commercial fishing is false.
The increase in fish and absence of ship traffic results in an increase in abundance of marine mammals such as dolphins in the field.
Marine mammals such as dolphins and whales have no problem navigating around floating objects such as anchored turbine platforms and anchored ships.
The suggestion that the proposed turbines will harm whale migration is false.
There is a serious threat to the future of whales and other marine life, but it’s not from offshore wind turbines.
It’s the heating and acidification of sea water and the melting of polar ice which is slowing the great ocean overturning currents which deliver the nutrients which in turn feeds algae which are the base of the marine food chain.
If the anti-offshore wind activists were truly concerned for the welfare of marine life they would be demanding an acceleration of the rollout of offshore wind power, not trying to oppose it.
Undersea cables are commonly used to transport power (e.g. between Tasmania and the mainland) and to power communication cable repeater stations.
No significant effect on marine life has been reported after decades of use of these cables.
The suggestion that electromagnetic emissions from the cables associated with the proposed wind farm will harm marine life is false.
Based on experience with other offshore wind farms, and as confirmed recently by local academics, the suggestion that floating turbines located 10km to 50 km off the cost would have any detectable effect on local surf conditions is also false.
Finally the activists claim that visual impact of the turbines would “dominate the landscape and ruin our way of life forever”.
At a range of 10km to 50 km offshore the visibility of the proposed turbines would be minimal and certainly much less than the current conga-line of rusting coal ships anchored much closer to shore.
The first solution to the intermittent nature of solar and wind power is diversity – both in technology and geographic.
Offshore wind is an essential component of the mix of renewables this country needs to get to a clean energy system in time to avoid increasing global climate chaos.
The rollout of renewable energy in this country has been opposed by a relentless campaign of misinformation for about the past 30 years.
Readers will remember headlines such as: Global warming is a fraud, The planet is getting colder not hotter, Global warming is caused by volcanoes, Global warming is caused by sun spots, Global warming is happening but the warming will be good for us, Wind turbine noise makes people sick, Renewables are too expensive and too unreliable to do baseload.
I know nothing about the people behind the current anti-offshore wind campaign, but their tactics and the professional level of planning, execution and funding looks very familiar to me.
Email, Jul 6
Geoff Cameron, Narara