NEW THREATS TO TURBINES FUTURE
Former leader of the Greens, Bob Brown, in July 2019, came out against a giant new wind farm planned for Robbins Island, in the north-west corner of Tasmania. He said it would ruin the view and kill endangered birds like the Tasmanian wedge-tail eagle and the white-breasted sea eagle that live on the island, and potentially migratory birds like the swift parrot and the orange-bellied parrot that travel between Tasmania and the mainland” Guess what?… more than three years later the EPA have ruled that the project would have to close down for at least six months of the year to protect the migratory Orange Bellied Parrot.
But the real threat to the future of renewables is the latest Carbon Dioxide Capture technology which enables a reduction of CO2 by as much as 95 % or more. A literature review undertaken as part of this study exposes the 90% capture rate cap as an artificial limit. It is an historical benchmark based on the economics of capture. To-date, capture technology developers have largely focused on designing plant for CO2 capture rates of 85% to 90%, leaving 10-15% of the emissions not captured, which are usually referred to as residual emissions. The review indicated there were no technical barriers to increasing capture rates beyond 90% in the three classic capture routes and with the broad suite of CO2 capture technologies currently available or under development. In a “well below 1.5 C” scenario, it is projected that net zero carbon emissions would be required by early in the second half of this century. A techno-economic analysis of a standard process applied to both coal- and gas-fired power plants revealed that, with dedicated process design, the additional costs of achieving essentially zero CO2 emissions were quite modest in comparison with the costs of achieving a 90% CO2 capture. We could use the gas that we have in abundance which already generates 50% less emissions than Coal. But that’s not all… we could use the existing infrastructure surrounding the plants and obviate the need to employ hundreds of miles of transmission lines across the nation…..a trillion dollars worth according to the CSIRO I am told.
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There are a number of politicians and their families who have invested in the green technology and want to keep the renewable energy going. We have power lines already in place and we now have the technology to convert power stations to 100 per cent capture….so why are we wasting taxpayer funds?
Turbine blades vary in size, but a typical modern land-based wind turbine has blades of over 170 feet (52 meters). The largest turbine is GE’s Haliade-X offshore wind turbine, with blades 351 feet long (107 meters) – about the same length as a football field. A Perfect death trap for our native wild life.
The outer tip of the blades are moving at the rate of about 180 miles per hour and birds can’t comprehend the fast circular movement…it is so cruel!
The orange bellied parrot is now our favorite bird. The 170-kilometre transmission line was to be built on a 60-metre-wide easement and draft plans show it crossing 17 private properties.
Some landowners have received letters from the company building the powerline suggesting compulsory acquisition if no deal can be reached.