I'm in love.........

[Lesley Cox]

On Saturday 5th Feb after my market job, Roger and I went down to the harbour to join hundreds of others on an open day, viewing components for a wind farm already under construction near Dunedin. It is at Lake Mahinerangi, about an hour from the city. I was fascinated by the long windmill blades and things in general and yesterday, on what was otherwise a nothing sort of a day, Roger suggested we go to Mahinerangi and have a look.

First, some facts. Trustpower, a NZ utility company is building the farm on 1723 hectares of farmland and when it is complete there will be up 100 turbines, 145 metres high, the tallest in NZ. The first stage nearly completed will have just 12. They are built in Denmark by Vestas and have been shipped to Dunedin where the public has been able to walk around and inside the pieces and get a really good idea of how everything will work.

There has been some opposition to the project, mainly on the "blot on the landscape" basis but I am thoroughly in favour of wind power being completely clean and infinitely renewable. So far as their appearence is concerned, I see the turbines as huge and magnificent sculptures and love everyone of them. After yesterday's trip, I'm truly in love with wind towers.

Here are some pictures.


Needless to say, Teddy and Cain were with us and Teddy trotted right over to the tower and raised his leg as if to claim it for his own.



The blades in waiting, as it were.

[Paddy Tobin]

An extraordinary project, Lesley.

Paddy

[cohan]

I agree they can look quite cool, Lesley
It seems these things kill a lot of birds, hopefully some study will go into finding a way to reduce that, but even still, the oil and gas industry must have a greater net negative impact, even when its not as direct as the ducks drowning in tailings ponds at the Tar Sands here in Alberta....

[Lesley Cox]

We looked and photographed extensively and were rather surprised that we could drive almost right up to them, expecting to be stopped by "Keep Out" signs and the like. There was a security guard at the very beginning but he waved us on cheerfully. When we felt we'd seen enough, we took a rough track towards what I think was a musterers' hut and found various plants of interest. I was able to collect seed of 5 species for the seed lists. (See NZ Field Trips 2011 thread). Then we turned back and at the furtherest out windtower, had the incredible good fortune to find men working on it, though it was Sunday, and we saw the first of the 3 blades was already in a sling, held by an enormous crane. It was about to start its lift to be placed in the nacelle aloft. Of course we stopped and and took more photos, and listened to the workmen giving instructions to each other. There was the crane driver, and 5 men holding long ropes to turn and guide the blade as it ascended and eventually was inserted into the nacelle, where two more men were waiting for it, way above the ground. Although we were less than 20 metres from the action, we weren't asked to get out of the way and in fact were able to chat to the men and find out what was happening. They were very accomodating, a German, a Dane and an American I think, near to us and the others on the other side of the area.

[Lesley Cox]

I don't know about the bird situation here Cohan. Yesterday we saw seagulls and larks but not much else in the air.

Those towers already completed were gently turning in the light wind. They seemed to grow from the ground or sprout up from behind hills like huge and monstrous (dare I say the word), snowdrops.

The predominent native plant here is Aciphylla aurea, especially in an area called Black Rock Scenic Reserve. The combination of Aciphylla backed by windtower was a study in how nature can live with modern technology. Perhaps some others see it differently.

[Lesley Cox]

I know I shall go back and back to this place and just look and listen. To have seen the very beginning has been special, for someone not generally into technology.

There is to be a second wind farm in the nearby Lammermoor Range, built by a different company. It will have 176 turbines and the opposition has been greater than for the Mahinerangi farm, mainly because it will be seen from a major tourist road.  For my part I am utterly bewitched by wind power.

[cohan]

It does look like an interesting landscape, with or without the windmills.. I'll have to look at the fieldtrips...

[Paul T]

Lesley,

We have a wind farm a half hour or so north of us as well.  Set along hilltops, viewed in the distance from the highway.  I haven't seen them up close but I think they're very cool!! 

[David Pilling]

Here there are wind turbines everywhere, out to sea, up in the hills, more are to come. It is a mystery why it has taken so long.  Personal turbines seem to have faded away, it's a few years now since B&Q were selling them and politicians were fitting them to their houses, remains to be seen if the big ones go the same way (e.g. if their subsidy is taken away).

[maggiepie]

I wouldn't want them in my back yard.
I think they are allowed to be as close as 500 metres to houses in some provinces here.
A lot of people are claiming that the turbines are making them sick.
Personally, I have a very bad reaction to low frequency noise.

[Martin Baxendale]

Lesley, I think you need to go hug one. You know you want to.

[Lesley Cox]

I plan to before too long Martin. I probably would have if Roger hadn't been with me. He thinks I'm odd anyway.

Helen, I can understand the noise problem - there was no noise for me but they're not commissioned yet, all the electrics still to be done - but I think it would be crazy to site them within 500 metres of housing. We have many smaller wind farms in NZ but not near residential areas. I believe that one near Wellington is of concern to some people.

David, no subsidies of any kind here. Do you mean that the UK govt. subsidises utility companies to build them?

I agree Paul, very cool, and as the thread says, I'm in love...with wind towers.

[David Pilling]

David, no subsidies of any kind here. Do you mean that the UK govt. subsidises utility companies to build them?

Yes or they are paid more per unit for the electricity than 'bad' sources. Last week there was an offer in the post, let a company cover the roof in solar cells, get £270 of electricity per year. They just pay you for the space, you don't buy the cells. Typical of the creative accounting going on in this field.

This flat coastal area 'the Fylde' was once called "little Holland" because there were so many old style windmills. I wonder if there are many of those in NZ. Recently a cheese factory stuck up a single huge turbine, which is now a landmark for miles around. Not surprising when they can get paid over the odds for the electricity.

[fermi de Sousa]

Hi Lesley,
We saw a lot of them in India on the way to Hampi - I'm not sure which state -but they went on for miles as we were driving along.

This pic was taken from the car as we were driving. It also shows how they keep the weeds down in the median plantings!
cheers
fermi

[Lesley Cox]

I think our pricing arrangements must be different from the UK's David. We are heavily into emissions trading now. Huge cost to users of energy and petrol/diesel, big industries selling their emissions savings. Can't understand how it all works except that the price of everything has gone up as a result.

Was there to be a picture with your last past David? We don't have old style windmills much at all except the occasional small one on a farm. When I lived on a farm when first married we had a windmill to draw water but it had an engine as well for the still times. I guess it stood about 20 or 25ft high.