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Experience wind turbines for yourself!
We organise regular tours to the Hepburn Community Wind Park, near Daylesford. Come along if you’d like to get up close to a wind turbine, learn about the Hepburn project and ask questions. Hepburn Wind is community-owned and brings many benefits to the local community, or see the case study below.
Register here to come on a tour.
Resources
NEW!
Neil Barrett (2012) ‘Getting the Wind Up: Exploring concern about the adverse health effects of wind turbines in Australia and Europe’ NBarrett_Getting the Wind Up_2012_2
This newly released report by former MASG Chairperson, Neil Barrett, looks at the difference in the level of concern about adverse health effects from wind turbines in Australia, Denmark and Germany. In the latter countries where wind turbines are very common, there is hardly any debate, whilst in Australia the claims made by anti-wind groups threaten to bring the industry to a standstill. By providing evidence of the lack of concern about health effects in Europe, this report casts further doubt on the validity of `wind turbine syndrome’.
CSIRO_Acceptance of rural wind farms in Australia_2012_Summary CSIRO 2012.
WIND POWER FACT SHEETS
Clean Energy Council CEC_WIND_FACT SHEET_Final
Beyond Zero Emissions BZE wind fact sheet
Sustainability Victoria SV_WindEnergy
Origin Energy WhyChooseWind_Origin_FactSheet
NSW Department of Environment, Climate Change & Water Wind Energy In NSW – Myths and Facts
HEALTH IMPACT STUDIES
National Health & Medical Council 2010 evidence_review__wind_turbines_and_health
Journal of Environmental Health, Knopper & Ollson, 2011 Knopper&Ollson_HealthEffectsWind_2011
Hepburn Community Wind Cooperative
COMMUNITY RENEWABLE ENERGY
‘Community Renewable Energy: Opportunities for Rural Australia’, Community Power Agency 2011 Hicks&Ison_Rural Society_2011
‘Community Involvement in Renewable Energy Projects: A guide’ Community involvement in renewable energy projects a guide for community groups
Research
One of our volunteers is doing research into wind turbines and reported ill-health effects, or rather, the lack there of in Germany and Denmark.
Neil Barret
I have had a strong interest in windpower in Germany and Denmark for many years and was able to spend a week visiting two key sites in the north and central regions of Germany back in 2006. At that time, neither residents living nearby nor windfarm developers were mentioning the possibility of adverse health effects, despite that fact that many large (1MW+) turbines had been operating in their midst for 10 years or so. Today, though the issue is barely on the radar in Germany and Denmark (despite the much greater windfarm intensity there), it has become a major factor limiting windfarm development in Australia and North America. With the help of a German friend, I’m currently surveying a range of organisations and prominent individuals in the energy scene in the two European countries to better understand the reasons for the difference. Some of these are people I’ve kept contact with since my visit; one of them is a windfarm investor who happily lives with his young family just 500m from several 2 and 3MW turbines. I will report the results to a Facebook group on Windfarms and Health of which I’m a member as well as to interested people in MASG.
