The Victoria government has recently
proposed a plan of an offshore wind farm consists of 250 turbines which can
generate 1/5 of the state’s energy. The estimated investment is eight billion
dollars and could reduce 10.5 million tonnes of CO2 emission.
We have been reading news about the power
shortage problem in Victoria for quite some time, mostly since commitment on
increasing the portion of green energy and closing down conventional power
plants. And since SA reduced the energy sales to VIC, power shortage has become
a severe problem for VIC. Now with the free and clean wind power generators,
the future of VIC looks brighter, doesn’t it?
In my opinion, this is yet another example
of green energy plan that is attractive however not sustainable overall. Obtaining
power for free from the wind sounds like the cleanest option so it must be
green, after all the wind will pass by with or without a turbine sticking
there. However, this might only be true when we are talking about a wind mill
hundreds of years ago. Modern turbines for electricity generation do harm the
environment such as producing noise, killing avian and reducing the wind speed
dramatically. Many so called green solution such as the solar panel,
rechargeable battery and multiuse shopping bag are actually less friendly to
the ecosystem considering the full life cycle including production and disposal
process. Wind farm as large as this will cause unknown impacts to the sea lives
and surrounding environment during the whole construction, operation,
maintenance and destruction life cycle. It’s doubtful to see if the benefits
would justify the investment and side effects to the environment? I tend to
believe the larger human made plant, the worse impact it has to the surrounding
environment, no matter how green it is supposed to be.
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