Senator John Madigan and wind power facts

Introduction

By his campaign against wind power, Senator Madigan is harming the fight against climate change. At another time and under other circumstances, his ill-informed campaign might be little more than comical; at this time, when we must move away from burning fossil fuels or irreparably damage the planet, we cannot afford to allow nonsense to stand in the way of intelligent and much-needed action.

I might have used the word 'error' rather than 'ignorant statement' below; but to make claims, as Senator Madigan seems to have done, such as 'carbon dioxide is not a pollutant' is more than an error, it is ignorant.

Climate change damage near my home in the Clare Valley Dead red stringybark Eucalyptus macrorhyncha in the Spring Gully Conservation Park near Clare

The red stringybark trees in the Clare area are in the coolest gullies and on the tops of the highest hills; they can be found nowhere else in South Australia. As temperatures rise and droughts become more common they will probably become locally extinct.

The world's most prestigious medical science journal, The Lancet, publised a paper puting numbers to the annual toll of deaths and serious illnesses in Europe due to the air pollutants from burning coal to generate electricity. Air pollution from coal fired power stations result in 24 deaths and 225 serious illnesses per Terrawatt-hour (TWh) of electricity generated. Based on these figures, it can be calculated that something like 50 lives are saved each year by Australia's wind farms, and more than 500 serious illnesses avoided.

Wind turbines do not cause health problems

All this proves is Senator Madigan's poor grasp of how science works. Before something can be considered to be scientifically accepted it must be published in respectable peer-reviewed science journals. There have been 17 reviews of the research literature and all have concluded that there is no acceptable evidence directly linking wind turbines to health problems.

Graph from the UK Centre for Sustainable Energy, data from A Summary and Comparison of Bird Mortality from Anthropogenic Causes with an Emphasis on Collisions; Wallace P. Erickson, Gregory D. Johnson and David P. Young Jr.

Wind turbines and birds

Both the Australian Conservation Foundation and Friends of the Earth Australia support wind power and recognise that its net environmental impact is positive. While the ideal in regard to energy and the environment would be greatly reduced energy generation and consumption, replacement of fossil-fuelled electricity by renewables like wind is next best.

In an effort to show, by example, that wind turbines do much more good than harm for birds – by reducing greenhouse gas production and therefore slowing climate change – the UK Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) plans to build a big wind turbine at its headquarters.

The main US bird protection association, Audubon, states that while badly sited wind farms can kill a lot of birds, "On balance, Audubon strongly supports wind power"; see Audubon policy statement on wind power. The statement goes on: "If we don't find ways to reduce these [greenhouse gas/carbon dioxide] emissions, far more birds – and people – will be threatened by global warming than by wind turbines."

Also see Bird deaths from wind turbines.

In March 2012 Adelaide-based energy economics group EnergyQuest chief executive Dr Graeme Bethune produced a press release which stated, in part:

"... a massive 26% of South Australian electricity was generated [in 2011] by wind, up from 18% in 2010 and less than 1% five years ago. Since 2006-07 the share of gas in power generation has fallen from 58% to 49% but the big change has been in coal, which has fallen from 42% to 25%. Wind is effectively replacing coal."

Obviously wind farms are delivering.

Ignorant statement 3: "Wind turbines are being abandoned"

"We have already seen the failures around the world where thousands of wind turbines have been abandoned."

No country, anywhere in the world, is abandoning wind power; most are building exponentially more and more wind turbines.

The World Wind Energy Association has recorded worldwide growth from 18GW of installed wind power at the end of 2000 to 215GW in June 2011. That is an annual growth rate of more than 25%.

Ignorant statement 4: "Coal-fired power generation is safe"

As mentioned above, a paper published in the prestigious health science journal The Lancet stated that air pollution from coal fired power stations result in 24 deaths and 225 serious illnesses per Terrawatt-hour (TWh) of electricity generated. This is due to a combination of particulate matter, sulphur dioxide and oxides of nitrogen that are released into the atmosphere when coal is burned.

And then, of course, we must consider the damage to the Earth's systems due to climate change and ocean acidification.

Ignorant statement 5: "There are many organisations that claim wind farms are the saviour of Australia's energy needs"

Ignorant statement 6: "Wind farm have limited output due to weather conditions"

"We have heard from spokespeople this week that wind farms have limited output because of weather conditions."

He didn't specifically mention solar power which was, of course, generating massive amounts of electricity during the heatwave. Climate Spectator did an analysis that indicated solar power reduced peak demand by 4.6 per cent.

No one with any intelligence has ever claimed that Australia can run on wind power alone.

"Clean energy must not compromise jobs"

Renewable energy provides at least as many jobs per unit of electricity generated as does coal and gas, with a tiny fraction of the pollution as well as less consequent illnesses and deaths.

Choice quotes

"First up, let me say this. I am not and never have been against wind farms, wind energy or green technology" "wind farms ... fast becoming one of the greatest scandals in Australian political history." "There are many organisations that claim wind farms are the saviour of Australia's energy needs." "Their environmental propaganda is a cover for a sinister, powerful and dangerous wind industry."

I copied this one from one of Senator Madigan's pages on 2012/11/27:

"The DLP will push for the retention of our cheap, clean and efficient coal fired power stations and look to a more transitional model of using coal gasification and other clean coal technologies that would be far less costly to the taxpayer, while producing a secure and solid baseline for our grid."

"A lot of people feel like they are a mouse in a Ferris wheel in a big pond of water and if they so much as stop and smell the roses, they are going to bloody drown." "I don't doubt there is climate change. We know there is, because the dinosaurs aren't here any more. But I didn't cause it and you didn't cause it and once again, we get back to bloody assumptions, but assumptions don't pay the bills."

To quote Hamlet: "What a piece of work is a man". Or is Puck's "Lord, what fools these mortals be!" more apposite?

How do turbine hosts feel about turbines?

Not holding out hope for senator to give answers Jan. 26, 2013 Senator John Madigan is reported to have told the meeting about the proposed Baringhup community wind farm, "Most people I've spoken to who are hosts of wind turbines wished they never signed up for them" ("Baringhup wind farm closer", by Josh Fagan, Bendigo Advertiser, January 24). I would like to know the evidence for this statement. I've visited wind farms in Germany and Australia and talked to many turbine hosts and other residents. I've never met a host who had any misgivings. Take the large 128-turbine Waubra wind farm for example. I've been studying this wind farm for the past eight months. In that time I've spoken at length to all the 27 turbine hosts in the area. All are strong supporters of the wind farm, nearly all of them appear to be in robust good health (despite living and working very close to turbines) and those who have significant health problems do not blame them on the turbines. As none of them have gag clauses in their contracts, they feel totally free to speak out if they need to. Waubra is not a perfect wind farm. Some mistakes were certainly made during the pre-construction phase and two families have left their houses since the turbines started up. However, given that all the turbine hosts and the great majority of the local population strongly support the wind farm, it's not doing too badly. So, Senator Madigan, please supply evidence for your extraordinary claim; I will be fascinated to see it. But I won't be holding my breath. I've asked you questions before but never received a response. Neil Barrett, Castlemaine

While I have not spoken to many turbine hosts, all those I have spoken to had no regrets about their decision, so my experience, while much less broad than Neil's, is similar to his.

To give Senator Madigan the benefit of the doubt, it is possible that this is not an outright lie. Senator Madigan travels around Australia seeking out people who oppose wind power; he talks to many wind power opponents and very few people who are supportive of turbines; so if there are turbine hosts who are opposed to wind turbines it is quite possible they have talked to Senator Madigan.

Senate speech of 2014/06/17

Australian parliamentarians have a legal right to say anything about anyone in Parliament without fear of prosecution for libel; it is called Parliamentary Privilege.

The Senator made a number of statements about Professor Chapman that, if made outside of Parliament, would quite probably bring on another claim of libel. For example, protected by Parliamentary Privilege, Senator Madigan said that Professor Chapman was "devoid of any decency and courage".

However, this page is about Senator Madigan's claims against wind power. In this speech he repeated a number of fallacies that we have heard from him previously.

1. He claimed that wind power "does not decrease carbon dioxide". This is a ridiculous claim that I have refuted elsewhere.
2. He claimed that wind power "does not improve the environment"; overlooking the fact that wind power displaces coal-fired power which produces air pollution that is directly responsible for millions of deaths and serious illnesses each year and released carbon dioxide that is causing ocean acidification and is one of the main causes of climate change.
3. He again makes various claims about wind turbines causing illnesses, ignoring the fact that nowhere in the respectable peer-reviewed literature is there any evidence to support this claim and the fact that both the NHMRC (National Health and Medical Research Council) and the AMA (Australian Medical Association) have said that there is no evidence that wind turbines cause illness.
4. He quotes Annie Gardener who lives near the Macarthur Wind Farm in Victoria at length about health problems that she ascribes to infrasound. In this Senator Madigan is totally ignoring the fact that there is no evidence in the science and health literature that moderate levels of infrasound harm anyone and that the South Australian EPA conducted a study that showed that there is no more infrasound near wind turbines than in other urban and rural environments.

I could go on, but I think that is sufficient for the present.

Pie in the sky

Controlled nuclear fusion has been an aim of scientists ever since they discovered that the fusion of hydrogen to helium power the Sun and most stars. Billions of dollars have been spent in trying to get it working commercially. Yet after fifty or so years, nowhere in the world has a nuclear fusion device been built that consistently produces more energy than it consumes.

It is understandable that Senator Madigan wants to show that he is supporting a sustainable form of energy generation, but what the world needs is sustainable energy now, such as wind or solar, not something that might or might not become viable in fifty years time.

The good side of the Senator

Support for the Clean Energy Finance Corporation

Waubra noise compliance

Lenore Taylor wrote an article in The Guardian on 2014/01/08 that included this excerpt:

"The claim that wind farms are 'non compliant' is usually based on the fact that the Victorian government has not made a final determination on Acciona's Waubra wind farm compliance with noise regulations, despite having had the company's compliance report since 2010. The anti-wind campaigners say that because the compliance report has not been formally signed off, the wind farm is 'illegal' and therefore engaged in a 'fraud' and improperly receiving renewable energy certificates under the federal subsidy scheme."

A few days after the Senator's speech I sent an email to Acciona asking for their side of the story. On 2014/01/09 I sent another inquiry. I have received no reply as of June 2014.

It is not clear whether the alleged problem is with one or several turbines and/or homes.

Index

On this page...