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Brown Hill Wind Farm
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| These turbines are saving many lives and serious illnesses
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The Lancet paper was
"
Electricity generation and health", by
Anil Markandya and Paul Wilkinson (Sep 15-Sep 21, 2007; 370, 9591; Research
Library pg. 979).
(The Lancet is probably the health science journal having the highest
reputation of any in the world.)
The Lancet article specifically referred to Europe, it is likely
that the figures in most Western countries would be similar, although one
could speculate that they would be lower in Australia because of our low
population density.
It should be noted that these figures do not include damage due to the large
portion of
climate change, ocean acidification,
sea level rise and
ocean warming that is due to
burning coal.
These will be far worse than the more direct health problems from 'air
pollution' in the long term.
A single three megawatt turbine in Australia can be expected to generate
8.8 GWh of electricity each year; on the assumption that this replaces
the same amount of coal-fired power and based on the figures published in
The Lancet, each such turbine will save two serious illnesses each year.
Of course it is not only wind power that displaces dirty, polluting
coal-fired power, solar and all other forms of renewable energy do too,
but the main subject of this page is the positive impact of wind power.
More on the health problems there would be without wind farms can be read
elsewhere on this site.
A study published in Our World in Data in February 2020 showed that power generated by the burning of fossil fuels, coal in particular, kills hundreds of times as many people per unit of power generated as does power generated by wind or solar.
I've summarised these results and provided a link to the original study
elsewhere on these pages.
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The WHO has released figures linking indoor and outdoor air pollution to
around seven million deaths a year making it the biggest single environmental
health risk.
The outdoor pollution was largely due to traffic fumes and coal-burning; both
of which could be eliminated by a transition to renewable energy.
See an article in the Guardian
or the WHO pdf file.
See also Exporting Death and
Killer coal.
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USA
National Research Council. Hidden Costs of Energy: Unpriced Consequences of
Energy Production and Use. Washington, DC:
The
National Academies Press, 2010.
In regard to coal:
"To summarize, the aggregate damages associated with
criteria-pollutant-forming
emissions from coal-fired electricity generation in 2005 were approximately
$62 billion (USD 2007), or 3.2 cents per kWh..."
The Laboratory for Aviation and the Environment of the Massechusetts
Institute of Technology published an
article titled "Air pollution causes
200 000 early deaths each year in the U.S." on 2013/08/29.
Of these 52 000 were estimated to be caused by emissions from power
generation.
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Australia
The Climate and Health Alliance got together with the Public Health
Association of Australia to produce a
short video on the very real health risks of mining and burning coal
and unconventional gas.
Environment Justice Australia;
Cleaning the Air report.
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Other figures
Next Big Future gives figures varying from 15 (in the USA) to 170
(China) deaths per TWh from coal based on a number of sources.
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We cannot really put a price on good health, but we can measure
the financial costs to the taxpayer of running the health system, and we
can calculate how much is spent on trying to fix the health problems
caused by coal-fired power station pollution.
One such investigation concluded that for every kilowatt-hour of electricity
generated by coal, the health costs amount to US$0.18.
Note that this is much higher than the wholesale price of coal-fired
electricity.
If you are not interested in the arithmetic you might like to skip this
section.
The Lancet paper mentioned above stated that air pollution from coal fired power stations result in 24 deaths and 225 serious illnesses per Terrawatt-hour (TWh) of electricity generated (see
Table 2 of the paper).
A graph published in the Australian
Energy Market Operator's report titled 'SA Supply and Demand Outlook 2011',
giving SA's power consumption, shows that total power consumption in 2006 was
around 14 TWh and in 2011 was around 14.5 TWh.
This graph combined with a report released by
Energy Quest on 2012/03/19
allows the figures in the following table to be approximated:
Energy generation in TWh
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Year | 2006 | 2011 | Change
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Coal | 5.88 | 3.63 | -2.26
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Gas | 8.12 | 7.11 | -1.02
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Wind | 0.14 | 3.77 | 3.63
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From these figures we can see that, in South Australia's case at least,
about one third of the electricity generated from wind is displacing gas
power and about two thirds is displacing coal power.
So, in the Snowtown example:
the Snowtown Wind Farm in
South Australia generates about 360 gigawatt-hours per year
(360 GWh = 0.36 TWh).
If two thirds of this (0.24 TWh) displaces coal power then Snowtown
Wind Farm has reduced coal-fired power production by 0.24 TWh.
Then, (again approximately) 0.24 × 24 = 6 lives
saved and
0.24 × 225 = 54 serious illnesses avoided per year
just from the one wind farm.
Average annual generation from all SA wind farms calculated for 2011 was
3.44 TWh.
Two thirds of this is 2.29 TWh.
So it can be estimated that South Australia's wind farms are saving about
55 lives and avoiding about 520 serious illnesses each year.
There is some irony in the fact that while the
Victorian government has made it
difficult for anyone to build a wind farm in that state, many of these
avoided illnesses and deaths will be in Victoria's Latrobe Valley because
South Australia is importing far less coal-generated electricity from
Victoria than before the spurt of wind power growth.
At the time of writing this section, 2012, both state and federal Liberal Coalition governments in Australia were opposing renewable energy. By 2020 this had changed in the states, where both Coalition and Labor governments were supporting renewable energy.
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Multiple exposure of one of the Wattle Point turbines
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The total coal fired electricity generation for Australia is around
195 TWh.
From this you would expect, based on the Lancet figures, about 4 700
deaths and 44 000 serious illnesses each year.
At the end of 2011 installed wind power capacity in Australia was
2 476 MW.
Based on a capacity factor of 34% this generates about 7.4 TWh of
electricity.
If we conservatively estimate that half of this replaces coal-fired
electricity then it saves about 88 lives and 830 serious illnesses each year.
By making it very difficult, or economically unviable, to build wind farms
in Victoria,
NSW and
Queensland the governments of those
states have made it much harder for wind farm builders to reduce these
numbers of unnecessary deaths and illnesses.
These governments have not only put a stop to the growth of this important
renewable energy industry and in so doing damaged the economies of their
own states, but they have also condemned thousands of their citizens
to unnecessary serious illnesses and hundreds to an early death each year.
One has to ask why these Liberal governments are
so strongly opposed to renewable wind power?
The only answer that I can see is that they are in the pockets of the
fossil fuel industry.
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Update December 2020
The coal-fired power stations were shut down on 2015/11/17. By late 2020 there could be no doubt that South Australia's energy future was in renewables. South Australian governments of both major parties recognised that fact.
At the same time in the federal sphere the Coalition government was still supporting the fossil fuel industries and trying to downplay the huge part that renewables would play in the future of energy in Australia.
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Sarah Mennie wrote
a piece in the Sunday Mail on 2010/03/27
pointing out that Port Augusta, the site of South Australia's only
coal-fired power stations, had about twice the state's average rate of
lung cancer.
While Port Augusta has a slightly higher rate of smoking than SA generally,
this, on its own, could not account for the increased rate of lung cancer.
In early 2012 it was announced that the Tom Playford Power Station, the
dirtiest power station in Australia in terms of tonnes of CO2
per megawatt of power generated, is to be permanently closed, and the larger
Northern Power Station is only to be used in summer in future.
This is at least in part due to wind power taking the place of coal-fired
power.
Repower Port Augusta was
proposing a solar power station to replace the coal-fired power stations.
- In March 2014 the World Health Organisation released figures linking
indoor and outdoor air pollution to around seven million deaths a year
making it the biggest single environmental health risk.
The outdoor pollution was largely due to traffic fumes and coal-burning; both
of which could be eliminated by a transition to renewable energy.
See an article in the Guardian
or the WHO pdf file.
- The Lancet,
Electricity generation and health,
Prof Anil Markandya PhD and Paul Wilkinson FRCP.
(This is the paper I have relied on primarily for the numbers of deaths
and serious illnesses due to coal-fired electricity generation.)
24 deaths and 225 serious illnesses per TWh of coal-fired electricity.
- Doctors for the Environment, Australia;
How coal burns Australia: The true cost of burning coal.
- The Conversation, 2016/07/21; Fiona Armstrong and Peter C. Doherty (Nobel Laureate 1996, Australian of the Year 1997)
discussed the threat that climate change was posing to health.
Replacing fossil fuels with renewable such as wind power will slow climate
change.
- Doctors for the Environment, Australia;
The health factor: Ignored by industry, overlooked by government
Failure to prevent pollution and protect human health is creating a costly
legacy for Australia
- Beyond Zero Emissions,
Is Coal Mining Harming Our Health?
- A report from the Climate and Health Alliance and The Climate Institute,
jointly, Our Uncashed Dividend: The health
benefits of climate action puts the human health costs from lung, heart
and nervous system diseases due to coal-fired power at $2.6 billion annually.
- The Climate and Health Alliance got together with the Public Health
Association of Australia to produce a
short video on the very real health risks of mining and burning coal
and unconventional gas.
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| Part of Waterloo Wind Farm
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- Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences; Full cost accounting for the life cycle of coal; Epstein, Buoonocore
and many others.
It mentions 13 000 deaths in the US per year from coal.
- The Health Effects of Coal Electricity Generation in India; Table 7,
Distribution of Deaths Attributable to Emissions – All Plants 2008;
Cause | Deaths per TWh
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Particulate matter | 5
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SO2 | 74
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NOx | 19
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Total | 98
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- Next Big Future; calculated from WHO and others:
World: 161 deaths from coal per TWh;
USA: 15 deaths/TWh;
China: 278 deaths/TWh;
- Economic Analysis of Various Options of
Electricity Generation – Taking into Account Health and Environmental
Effects; Nils Starfelt, Carl-Erik Wikdahl;
25 deaths per TWh for coal in the European Union.
- American Economic Review: Environmental Accounting for Pollution in the
United States Economy; Nicholas, Muller, Mendelsohn and Nordhaus:
Executive Summary,
Full text.
From the Executive Summary:
"... oil and coal-fired power plants have GED larger than their value added.
Put differently, if the accounts estimated net value added as including
environmental damage, the net value added of these industries would be
negative."
From the Abstract: "The largest industrial contributor to external costs is
coal-fired electric generation, whose damages range from 0.8 to 5.6 times
value added."
- PowerWorks;
Health and Climate
Benefits of Altmont Pass Wind Power – on humans and birds.
A report by Donald McCubbin, PhD and Bengamin Sovacool, PhD, dated December
2011 titled 'Health, Wildlife and Climate Benefits of the 580 MW Altamont
Wind Farm' states that electricity generated by the Altamont Wind Farm, by
replacing fossil-fuelled power, is expected to save 168 premature human
deaths over a 40-year period.
The report also estimated that about 130 000 avian deaths will be avioded
due to reduced air pollution (including the wind farm's effect on slowing
climate change).
- An article by Tom Ferrio in
Progressive Charlestown.
Tom writes about a visit to Embres-et-Castelmaure in France.
Speaking about wind farm opponents at Charlestown, Rhode Island, USA Tom
wrote
"It saddens me that people feel they have to demonize the entire industry to
prevent a wind turbine being built close to them."
- Wikipedia:
Environmental impact of coal power
-
Wind Power Saved USA Tens or Hundreds of Billions of Dollars (2007-2015),
Study Finds; (reduced health-care costs, and it saved lives)
CleanTechnical, 2017/09/11