The hostile Illawarra floating ocean windfarm (OWF) ‘debate’ is a Punch and Judy Show, where facts are hounded out by opinions and everyone has an opinion.

Some bizarre straw-clutching claims have been made against OWFs (see Crikey) and for an excellent research paper on the socio-psycho aspects of windfarm complaints, see ‘Wind turbine syndrome, a communicated disease,’ by Simon Chapman and Fiona Crichton.

This story cuts through the noise and examines the current research on floating windfarms. We know a lot about the benefits of windfarms but we don’t know much about their impact on whales.

One OWF turbine can produce enough electricity in a year to power approximately 20,000 households and save around 38,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions. That’s the equivalent of removing 25,000 cars from the road each year.

On current projections, Australian consumers soon will pay the average power prices of 2-3 person households in the UK. That’s £2100 (including the government subsidy) per year or about $4000 Australian dollars. This will pauperise low-income earners.

The Australian government has the power to lock-in OWF developers into fixed-price contracts, to protect consumers from soaring energy prices.

More than 60 per cent of Australia’s population live on or near the coast with such as Newcastle, Sydney and Melbourne. Building offshore wind farms is nation building and will help these cities meet their energy needs from nearby sources.

While some complaints are bonkers – such as OWF’s will block the sunrise - others are legitimate and require significant on-site investigation by independent researchers.

The Visual Aspect

It may be heartless but the Federal Government, cares little about visual aesthetics of the OWGs. It’s aim is to reduce carbon emissions and provide cheaper power to consumers. The curvature of the earth will help ‘reduce’ their height but they will be visible from the shore.

Whales

About 25-35,000 Humpback whales travel up and back where they plan to build the 300 OWFs. No one has done any location-specific research. The frequency range of Humpback whale songs fluctuates between 20-24,000 Hertz and their songs can travel for more than 30 kilometres and some believe they can travel 1000s of kilometres. We don’t know how these whales may be affected.

One Scottish Association for Marine Science study in 2018 of audio recordings from a hydrophone 200 metres from the Kincardine offshore wind farm off the northeast coast of Scotland, recorded mooring line snaps every few minutes. These happen when the windfarm moves. How far can these ‘snaps’ be heard?

One important aspect is the degree to which whales will be affected. If whales die or mating patterns change, that is serious. If they simply change course, that is another matter.

According to the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, research into the impact of OWF underwater noise on marine mammals has flagged mitigation measures such as sound protection. That shows it has research which states there is noise to mitigate. That information must be made public.

The Australian government has the power to lock-in OWF developers into fixed-price contracts, to protect consumers from soaring energy prices.

More than 60 per cent of Australia’s population live on or near the coast with such as Newcastle, Sydney and Melbourne. Building offshore wind farms is nation building and will help these cities meet their energy needs from nearby sources.

While some complaints are bonkers – such as OWF’s will block the sunrise - others are legitimate and require significant on-site investigation by independent researchers.

Electromagnetic Fields

Research shows that while underwater power cables do emit electromagnetic fields (EMF), the intensity depends on the current passing through a cable, the depth at which it is buried, as well as the distance between cables (if multiple cables are running in close proximity such as OWFs). EMFs can distort the natural geomagnetic field which some marine organisms use to navigate. Sharks and rays have evolved electroreceptors with a sensitivity of less than one microvolt. We need more local research.

Complexity and Labour

While environmental factors have been foregrounded, the real risk is a labour shortage. The successful developers will need 2000 workers to fabricate the towers, build the platforms, the transmission and mooring cables and more.

A recent Infrastructure Australia report states a shortfall of 229,000 workers is looming across the infrastructure sector, which will make planning for new power generation very difficult.

Government and the private sector have reported large project cost overruns due to worker shortages, supply chain problems, and the high number of infrastructure work spread across the country. Will the OWF developers partner with local university and training providers to provide a skilled workforce? No one knows.

Conclusion

Much more local research needs to be done on OWFs, EMFs and whale behaviour. We also need more detail on the socio-economic pros and cons for local communities. It’s no wonder local communities go ‘ballistic’ in the open consultation forums. The developers don’t know the answers either.

Malcolm King is a writer, surfer and former journalist