Why are there so many more wind farms in Europe & America than Australia?

Question

While travelling around Europe & America, I noticed there were wind farms in so many country areas and they seemed to be making a big effort to use these alternative power sources. Why don't we have many in Australia? I've heard the argument that it kills birds but Europe & America have birds, how have they got around the problem and why can't we do that?

Answer 1

Alot has to do with the various Governments policy (read "committment") to renewable energy targets.  In Aus' until recently the target was about 2% of electricity coming from renewable sources. The target is now 20% by 2020.  Many European countries have set higer targets earlier and have greater incentives - thus leading to more investment/research into this industry

Answer 2

To answer your kills birds question --  Today's wind farms use towers that are taller and with slower turning (than older previous generation wind turbines), larger blades that (everyone hopes) can be seen and avoided by high flying birds.    I have yet to check the base of these new towers to see if it is true or not.  

     On the other hand -- New studies report wind turbines, even the new slower turning ones, reduce air pressure which causes the lungs of nearby bats to blow up, killing the bats.  Now that can be very nasty as bats eat billions of harmful insects every season.

I have heard about a vertical axis sail blade type of wind turbine (aka Savonius maybe?) that just might solve both bird and bat problems.    Hopefully good info on this at the web site Hanna's Grandpa gives below.  Thank you Granpa.

Answer 3

well I guess the wind is not the same maybe it goes slower on Europe and America than on Australia (meaning that the wind power is not the same)

I live in Iceland and I don't know much about this but I guess Australia just does not trust these power sources....

Answer 4

population density and location of power lines.  while traveling in the US we share road corridors with power lines, so wind farms are close to both.

Answer 5

bigger

Answer 6

Wait.  It's not time yet in America, but the day of wind farms is coming.

Oil hasn't run out yet.  There's a finite amount of it in the ground but there are still places left to drill and profit to be made.  

When the oil's  all but gone, the oil companies will bring out the alternative energy patents they've bought up over the years. All they will need is land on which to place windmills and solar panels.  

Right now, land is cheaper because of the mortgage crunch.  I'm pretty sure Exxon and T. Boone Pickens are investing in real estate.  Real Estate sales are up.  It's a buyer's market.  The economy's growing!

But I digress.

Soon, but not too soon, America will be  covered in windmills and working families will all be living in high rise condos..  

Answer 7

I think that it is a matter of investors not having the vision, Here in America we have a possibility of shortage at peak period.

We have such a large population and are having pollution problems that you might not be having in Australia.

Also with the new developments in vertical Wind generators they are not only solving the bird problem, which it is claimed to already being solved by running the blades at a slower revolution, but also the wind problem with the horizonal wind generators.

http://peswiki.com/index.php/Directory:V...

Answer 8

Americans don't care (which is very bad)

Australia is sparsely populated, if they have them they are in the outback away from the cities.

Answer 9

cuz we are cheap

Answer 10

Because most countries could care less about alternative energy, at least for the time being.

Answer 11

Because there is a bigger population to support them, and in those countries they have been investing in "green power" for a number of years.

Answer 12

Because of Australia's climite they can not preduce a sucessful farm land land....its to dry and the land itsn't quite fertile...but they producess certien fruits like apples.

Answer 13

Firstly, the wind-farm that was to open in Gippsland did run into difficulties over the orange bellied parrot that was supposed to be going to be killed by wind turbines. This was only one problem. I think that it was in more danger from feral cats.  There are some wind turbines scattered around Australia - usually along its' coast in Western Victoria, South Australia and in Western Australia where there is plenty of wind.

Web sites for research into wind farms in Australia

https://www.tai.org.au/documents/dp_full...

Wind Farm Accreditation

http://www.auswind.org/accreditation/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power_...

http://www.res-australia.com/wind-farms/...

http://www.rise.org.au/info/Applic/Windf...

http://www.pb.com.au/PBAU/Projects/Certi...

http://westwind-energy.com.au/html/FAQs....

http://www.urbanecology.org.au/topics/wi...

http://www.sedo.energy.wa.gov.au/pages/w...

Sustainability Centre Paper

http://www.sustainabilitycentre.com.au/W...

Australia is better suited to solar power and thermal power obtained from under the ground. These should have been pursued by the last government. However, this didn't happen because Prime Minister John Howard was at best a climate change sceptic and at worst didn't believe that it existed. He did nothing until about a year before the 2007 elections that he lost. He then implemented the $10 billion over 10 years Murray - Darling program. This was a joke because he didn't spend one cent of it on buying water back or doing anything else.

There has been a desire by sugar cane growers to develop an ethanol industry in Australia for over 30 years. This has been ignored with the exception of one company which made donations to the Liberal Party. Now that it is out of office nothing is happening with the ethanol industry.

We have also had university professors, and business people develop develop solar power resources that are some of the best in the world. They have left Australia - mainly for the US either to work for an American company or list their company on the US stock exchange becuse of the lack of interest by government in encouraging their entrepreneurship here. This is a crying shame. Our economy needs this type of initiative. This should be encouraged by government. We still have the environmental problems and have lost the business.

We should especially use solar power that is best suited to our economy and climate. We can only hope that people can continue to band together in groups of 50 to 100 which makes it much cheaper and have solar cells put on their roofs. This way they can take advantage of the Government rebate of $8,000 for those on less than $100,000 p.a. This way the installers can import large quantities in bulk and cheaper and pass the savings on to the consumer.

I hope that his information helps you in finding out the extent of the use of wind power in Australia. We could certainly have more of it. The bit we do have is out of sight and therefore out of a lot of people's minds.

Cheers!!!