Photo Steve Nowakowski
By Jo Nova
Just another day trapped in the impossibility paradox — trying to change the troposphere on the cheap…
Asbestos has been found in GoldWind turbines, and now in Vestas turbines too. Both were using brake pads supplied by 3S Industry, a company based in China. The brake-pads are small, and contained within the lifts inside the towers, so at the moment, not likely to be spraying asbestos fibres across forests and farms. But no one will be sending unprotected workers up any of those wind turbines until those pads are replaced.
However as Rachel Williamson says at Renew Economy, it’s likely this is just the “tips of the iceberg”:
“Several sources confirmed to Renew Economy that 3S supplies the brake pads to almost every turbine OEM [Original Equipment Manufacturer] supplying Australia. “
The opposition has called for a halt on new turbines as the asbestos scare spreads. Both companies are quarantining an undisclosed number of turbines. So at best, even if the health risk is small, it’s just another nasty surprise, another delay, and another cost for the Renewable Crash Test Dummy.
Who would have thought that building thousands of square kilometers of industrial infrastructure to catch the sun and breezes would be so complicated?
Federal opposition demands halt to new wind turbines as asbestos scare spreads
By Christine Middap, The Australian
It comes as opposition industrial relations and employment spokesman Tim Wilson urged Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen to order a national safety review and temporary moratorium on new turbine installations, warning of the operational and reputational risks the issue posed to the country’s clean energy transition.
“The importation of asbestos-containing goods into Australia has been banned since 2003, yet this incident suggests that components containing asbestos may have been distributed widely within the renewable energy sector,’’ he said.
We might not want to be 100% dependent on China to make us all the widgets we want:
Australian Workers Union national secretary Paul Farrow said the asbestos cases highlighted the risk of relying entirely on overseas supply chains for Australia’s renewables transition.
“Right now we are building these massive infrastructure projects with nearly zero per cent Australian content. That is unacceptable and unsafe,’’ he said.
We’d love to revive Australian manufacturing, but we’re buying it all from China because it’s all we can afford. If we make the brakepads and widgets ourselves, it’ll make renewable energy even more expensive than it already is. Let’s not forget — things cost less in China because they’re burning our coal, they treat their workers badly, the quality assurance is poor, and the environmental standards are terrible. That is not a race that we want to win. How many people should we kill today to save one spotted quoll in 2095? Where are those sums?
Still, it could have been worse. At least we didn’t put the Chinese-made brake pads in preschools across the country and then have to close 70 schools while we clean the carpet in hazmat suits.