Friday 1 February 2008

More Wellington wind turbines

Nice to see some are leading the way by expanding their natural eco-friendly power generation.

My old political town of Wellington has plans for more wind turbines. This proposal will generate power for an additional 35,000 homes.

Already a number of turbines exsist in the Wellington suburb of Makara which originally resisted the construction. However the opposite has occured in Wellington's Ohariu Valley where rural residents made the proposal to Meridian Energy to use their land for a wind farm.

Windy Farm at Ravenshoe is our closest local effort to providing a renewable energy supply.

The Queensland State Government reduced dramatically the subsidy to install solar water heaters in residental houses, making the incentive to install the $10,000+ systems unattractive.

Local Councils could be leading the way in renewable energy.

Last year, Cairns City Council allowed you to dump your green waste for a few days for free. Whoopie doo. They should not only be offering free green waste disposal year round, but turning it into garden mulch and make it available free of charge for locals as it aids water retention substancially.

Other simple measures should be intergrated as a minimum design feature in new buldings is "Queenslander" style floor to ceiling louvers be installed on at least two exterior walls, along with one meter wide external shades over all windows.

Oh, and ban effing Air Cons.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

It ain't easy being Green...When I built my new house in Forest Gardens in 2004-2005 it was part of the covenant that absolutely NO solar hot water systems/panels were allowed.
I found that a bit strange in this part of the world with sooo much sunshine.
When the sun isn't shinning , it's raining... but sorry, no rainwater tanks either.
To argue would have cost us time on approval of the house design and money, so we ended up with an electric hot water system and forgot about the tank, same as all our neighbourhood.

Anonymous said...

Ohhh..how could I forget. The one Green thing I was allowed to have was a R.V (roof ventilator) from Andy's Sheetmetal at Centenary Park.. Thanks Andrew(Local for 30+ years) for inventing it and explaining in great detail to my Builder that they are NOT just like a WhirlyBird! I still need air-con sometimes but reduces the need to have it running all day, every day like my neighbours do!!!
P.S While I'm doing local business plugs..Had Troppo's Pizza on Friday Night...MeatLover, bloody beautiful, I usually get Supreme with is also darn fine.

Anonymous said...

Hey there Kermit. One thing I have found from building a few houses is, that a covenant isnt worth the paper it is written on. The last house I built the covenant stipulated that the house had to be of brick, and low set. I built a highset queenslander made of recycled timber. The developer took me to court. He lost, and had to pay court costs. I had no lawyer. He then threatened to bulldoze the house so I invited him over for a bbq before he did it. He declined to do it. The basis of the covenant is to keep a standard of the buildings in the area. Which is a good thing. All you have to do is have your plans prepared before signing the dotted line. I have built several houses against the covenant, unfortunately, not here in Cairns, but in mackay, and every one of them is still standing, and some builders have changed their minds about how to build houses in northern queensland.

Anonymous said...

No solar hot water systems in Forest Gardens!!! Jesus, what a disgrace. What lamebrain came up with that "covenant" in this age of global warming??

Anonymous said...

I almost CROAKED when I read your comment Paul from Edmonton..lol. Yes Anonymous,it would be nice to think some sensible person would check what covenants developers are dreaming up for these subdivisions and how they impact the residents and the town.
On a positive note, a few houses in the new section that were built last year have solar panels on the roof, so they must have revised the covenant ..or the home owners might be friends with Paul from Edmonton! Hee hee.

Anonymous said...

With the housing blocks so tiny in Forest Dump there wouldn't be any room for rain tanks anyway, unless they doubled as a swimming pool.

Anonymous said...

It isnt anything to choke over Kermit.. The covenant is in place to keep the standard of the buildings that are going into a specific area. Which is a good thing. That way you dont have someone build a house out of corrugated iron and taking 6 years to finish it, beside a house someone has spent $300k to have built. I agree with covenants to a certain degree. But, no-one can tell you what you have to build. The way I have worked around the covenant ruling is to have myself prepared when I have bought land. I have my plans drawn, building materials chosen, and been able to prove that by my building a 5 bedroom queenslander our of recycled materials will not detract from the dwellings being built around me. With the last house I built, it was a 5 bedroom, 4 bathroom queenslander, painted in traditional victorian colours. I chose recycled materials, except for the roof as it complimented the queenslander style better than using hardyflex or hardyplank. I had my plans drawn and artists impressions done before offering a contract to the developer, then asked him to prove that my house would not detract, or devalue the surrounding properties. He couldnt. and when I sold the house, it sold for 20% more than any of the other houses that where selling in the area at the time. But, I spose it depends on how bad you want to have your idea of a home built. Because developers can be beaten if you have everything prepared.