Community Group Achieves what the old electricity utility could 
not.

The Breamlea wind generator is a high-tech windmill that 
produces electricity when the wind blows. Just over a year ago 
the Alternative Technology Association bought it from the former 
SECV. It had been languishing in neglect for nearly 4 years, 
while the electricity industry was undergoing major structural 
change. 

This 60 kilowatt machine on the coast south of Geelong was 
erected in 1987 by the State Electricity Commission of Victoria at 
a cost of $200,000. For 3 years the SECV ran it fairly seriously 
and managed to produce more than a quarter of a million 
kilowatt-hours of pollution-free electricity directly fed into the 
Victorian electricity grid.

There followed a series of fairly minor mechanical breakdowns 
and operational problems, which together with the upheavals 
going on within the industry, resulted in the wind generator 
seriously under-performing for the next 4 years.

And now for the good news !

	The ATA bought the machine for only $18,000 in 
September 1994 (what a bargain!). If we had not, it would have 
been dismantled and shipped interstate.
	By 8 December 1994 it was re-commissioned and returned 
to service using only the skills and voluntary efforts of ATA 
members.
	Apart from a two-month hiatus in production (because of a 
power mains fault) it has run reliably, especially since 
adjustments to its computer control circuits in August 1995.
	Last month power output averaged fifteen thousand watts 
(15 kilowatts), a result only equalled or bettered in four of the 
previous ninety-six months of operation, and the best result since 
January 1992.
	Every month it avoids the production of its own weight 
(twelve tonnes!) of carbon dioxide, a major Greenhouse gas.
	All electricity produced is being bought by CitiPOWER, at 
a price well above the current (rather low!) market price, as part 
of their EcoPower concept to promote renewable sources of 
electricity.
	Armchair Eco-tourism: visit the wind generator without 
using transport fuels. Words and pictures await you at
			http://suburbia.net/~claire
	Open Day this Sunday 19th November at 1pm: guided 
tours, childrens activities, information displays. See Melways 
Key Map E between Torquay and Barwon Heads (its marked on 
the map)