“I know the government is worried about all the super funds and other money that has been sunk into these projects, but I also know the government is fully aware that wind farms do not abate GHG, but are good vote grabbers … Allowing the fraud to continue just allows the problem to get bigger and bigger until the wheels fall off, just like in Germany and Spain last month.”
March 4, 2013
The Hon Michael O’Brien MP
Minister for Energy
Level 22, Spring Street
Melbourne Vic 3000
michael.obrien@parliament.vic.gov.au
From: Hamish Cumming
Dear Michael,
I am writing to request you, as the Minister for Energy, demand a full and independent forensic carbon audit of the Eastern Power grid and all the generators that are linked to it.
I have researched the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) abatement figures claimed by wind farm companies (for which they are being paid billions of dollars through RECs and other consumer funded subsidies) and analysed the actual GHG they are likely to be abating.
I have found that it is unlikely that any of the operational wind farms that are connected to the coal-fired eastern seaboard power grid will repay their GHG construction and maintenance debt over their entire operational life.
This is due to the way the coal-fired grid operates and how the wind farms are managed over the interconnectors between states and how fossil fuel is used to back the wind farms up.
I put this forward at the 2010 Acciona Mortlake Panel Hearing and provided the math behind the premise, and used the AEMO data for SA wind farms to support it.
Acciona had the consultant firm SKM try to disprove me, but they instead had to agree that my premise was “basically correct”.
I was recently asked to give expert witness at another wind farm VCAT case (Cherry Tree) and was again able to defend my position and not be proven wrong under cross examination.
The carbon intensity figures supplied by the Victorian coal fired generators also show that in the past 6 years, as more wind farms have come on line, more coal is burnt over and above what is necessary to supply the electricity.
We would in fact be better off carbon wise if there were no wind farms at all in SA, Vic and NSW.
The addition of wind farms into the Eastern grid, and the way they are allowed to enter the grid any time, causes significantly more GHG to be generated than would ever be abated by the wind farms.
I have been written about in the press many times now, and the Clean Energy Council and others keep claiming I am wrong, but have never put forward any facts to try to prove their claim.
I have repeatedly asked the fossil fuel generators to provide hourly fuel consumption figures, which would categorically prove my position, and totally debunk the Clean Energy Council.
However, as the conventional generators also have a vested interest in the wind farms themselves and also have no other way of meeting their RET, they refuse to provide the information.
They also now want to talk only about carbon intensity at the generator, rather than the real picture of carbon intensity for sold electricity. This is a very different number.
I instead have to use the broader annual data I obtain from the coal mines and from annual reports and stock exchange releases.
As the Minister for Energy I ask that you demand a full and independent forensic carbon audit of the Eastern Power grid and all the generators that are linked to it.
This will expose the billion-dollar fraud that is being thrust upon the Victorian consumers through the wind farm industry.
I know the government is worried about all the super funds and other money that has been sunk into these projects, but I also know the government is fully aware that wind farms do not abate GHG, but are good vote grabbers. (“Look, we are doing something!”)
Allowing the fraud to continue just allows the problem to get bigger and bigger until the wheels fall off, just like in Germany and Spain last month.
Now companies from around the world are threatening to sue the Spanish government due to their billions of lost dollars and failed investments in wind farms there.
Make a stand now.
Tell the Victorian people the truth and expose the wind industry and its corrupted followers. The longer you leave it, the bigger the bubble that will eventually to burst.
Regards,
Hamish.
STOP THESE THINGS 
Bravo Mr. Hamish Cumming!!
From Robert Peltier, editor-in-chief of POWER magazine:
“Forgotten by many proponents is the justification for the PTC in the first place: to reduce CO2 emissions…. [Yet] … many utilities with large amounts of wind generation steadfastly refuse to release operating data for analysis. I suspect to do so would mean the release of empirical data to build the opposition’s case for insignificant CO2 reduction and poor operating economics. I was unable to find one study of existing wind energy installations that found the CO2 reductions predicted by AWEA.”
[POWER’s Peltier: Show Your CO2 Hand or Fold, Windpower — masterresource.org/2012/12/peltier-wind-co2/]
20% was what the Fedeal Government agreed to, the states are the ones who have to collectively reach that target. Where are we now if all the Solar including solar water heaters, individual small wind turbines and industrial windfarms, as well as measures undertaken by industry and businesses across the nation to change the way they operate to reduce demand, including the type of light bulbs utilised … were added together – remember it is apparently the potential capacity that is counted not the actual production/reduction – have we as a nation already reached the 20%?
You can say you have already reached your targets, that would be as accurate as their accounting.
Thank you Hamish, but I am sure that WA and Qld don’t want turbines either. Although not as impacted yet as NSW, Vic or SA we are on the cards for huge future developments.
The times they are a-changing for the unfortunate saps who’ve invested in the corrupt wind industry. There is no longer the security of knowing the scam was being believed, and supported world-wide. As a matter of fact, the truth is coming out world-wide, and it is a slippery slope the windies find themselves on indeed. Each and every day, more of the black ooze is being seen, squeezing out of the cracks which have been found in the lies and propaganda of the wind weasels. Investors are running scared. Pressure is being put on government by wind lobbyists to tighten the laws forbidding communities to fight against the onslaught of industrial wind turbines, while at the same time, citizens are fighting to eradicate such laws, and give the power back to whom it truly belongs….the people. The ones who have been forgotten in this scam, the ones who’ve suffered the most, and been heard the least. Now, it is time that everyone began to hear our side of the story. And you will find, we have no need to tell lies. The truth is shocking enough!
I believe that, unfortunately, the State Govt has the obligation to meet the 20%. It is in the State Govt’s interest that wind turbines are perceived to provide a contribution to that 20%. Bugger GHG reduction or otherwise. It is the Federal Govt who channels tax payer funding to wind turbine developers/operators. Clearly, the Labor/Greens Coalition will not permit such an audit. They do not believe in compliance and accountability. And, for that matter, they probably have no idea what Hamish is talking about. But the Auditor General should understand. Let’s see if the Federal Coalition understands Hamish’s line of thinking. And global audit firms will by now have a feel for the measure of financial miscalculation involved. They will be looking at their client’s financial exposure to investments in wind turbines. As will the prospective foreign investors in the wind turbines. Infigen is no doubt trying to flick this exposure out of their books to hoped for unsuspecting investors.
Go Hamish. Keep the bastards honest.
Well done Hamish your tenacity is to be admired persistence and truth will eventually win out over greed and corruption. I congratulate you.
I wonder what a Xmas wish might now be for the Industrial Wind Turbine Industry. Maybe retrospective Legislation pertaining to Common Law Litigation protecting them from WTV ?
It takes 10 % brain power to change things and to instigate things, but it takes 110% brain power to figure out where that change is going to take you.Over the past 6 years we have nothing but 10 bloody percenters who have got us into an absolutely bloody financial mess.
Hamish your request is a valid and just one. Hopefully your Government with the assistance of SA’s and NSW will be able to show the industry and it’s mouthpiece’s including the CEC up as the untrustworthy lot they are.
Peoples lives, livelihood and taxes are being stolen by these companies, and Government ‘s should not turn a blind eye to theft of any sort let alone on this magnitude.
Hamish Cumming, I hope that your request will be heard by the Minister for Energy, demand a full and independent forensic carbon audit of the Eastern Power grid and all the generators that are linked to it is a great Idea, I would also like to know what installed wind Turbine power we have by mgw , and what they really produce in 12 month, if it is like Germany, where there is already enough Turbines in capacity to produce all their power needs, but in reality only can come up with less then 7%.
good on you Hamish Cumming.