Renewable power facilities do not pose a significant threat of increased fire risk, according to the Australian Firefighters Climate Alliance (AFCA), which has developed a paper on renewables and fire risk.
The organisation is speaking out in the face of growing misinformation about renewables that suggests wind farms, batteries and other renewables will create “fire hotspots”.
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Recent headlines such as ‘Pilot fears wind farms will create ‘no-fly zones’ in fire hotspots’ and articles suggesting the construction of wind turbines would make it ‘nearly impossible’ to fight bushfires in the future were classic examples of hyperbole overriding measured conversation, ACFA said.
Spokesperson Cam Walker said, “Renewable power facilities do not pose a significant threat of increased fire risk. The AFCA is concerned that misinformation about renewables is rife, and that bad faith actors are amplifying misinformation in order to slow the energy transition.
“There is nothing unique about the challenges posed by renewables. The firefighting environment is constantly changing, and fire fighters are very good at adapting to change and learning new skills. To suggest otherwise undermines how professional firefighters are.
“A common argument used by campaigners who oppose wind farms is the claim that renewables increase the risk of fire in regional communities. There is no data that we have seen that suggest that areas with wind farms have more frequent or intense fires after turbines are installed.”
Authorities consider the risk from wind turbine fires to be low. For instance, the Country Fire Service in South Australia says wind turbine fires are rare.
The Australasian Fire and Emergency Service Authorities Council’s Wind Farms and Bushfire Operations document says “wind farms are not expected to adversely affect fire behaviour, nor create major ignitions risks”. In fact, it says wind farms may actually reduce the risk of bushfires starting from lightning since the lightning would hit the turbines rather than the ground because they are tall, metal structures. Unlike isolated trees, vegetation is cleared around the base of turbines, making the likelihood of a fire getting away very low.
“To claim that renewable energy poses a special risk of fire is simply not true. What we need is a measured and sensible conversation about energy sources,” Walker said.
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“As fire fighters, we remember the fire in the Hazelwood coalmine that burned for 45 days and needed many hundreds of firefighters to put it out. It had enormous public health impacts and many firefighters suffered serious health impacts from working in the mine open cut.
“Compared with the reality of what a fire at a fossil fuel facility looks like, the current opposition to renewables because of claimed fire risk sometimes verges on the hysterical. In reality, a fire in a turbine nacelle is generally a rare and isolated event.”
