It has hired Brunswick-based renewable energy consultants Enhar to conduct a six-month test at Hastings, Mt Martha and Red Hill.

The company has installed wind measuring devices, or anemometers, with data loggers atop 10-metre poles on the roof of Pelican Park aquatic centre on the foreshore at Hastings, on one of the highest parts of The Briars Park at Mt Martha and on a light pole at Red Hill recreation reserve.

All are shire-owned properties. The installations at Red Hill and Mt Martha are full weather monitoring stations.

The shire's manager of renewable resources Sophia Schyschow said the council had previously monitored wind at various sporting grounds to gauge watering needs but this was the first wind power test.

"We need average annual wind

of about 4 to 5 metres per second

for wind turbines at these sites

to be viable," she said. "An early test at Red Hill showed wind of twice this speed.

"The shire is not intending to go into the business of generating wind power but this is part of a program to show residents that such systems could be viable."

Wind of 4-5 metres per second equates to about 14-18kmh.

The shire's sustainable energy officer Jarrod Filosa said other factors such as wind speed distribution (the amount of very high wind speed compared to low wind speed) will also impact the total energy output of a turbine.

"If the monitoring reveals available wind energy at the three locations is sufficient, the shire will install small-scale wind powered turbines to produce green electricity. The turbines would act as an educational tool as well as a practical measure to reduce the region's reliance on coal-fired electricity," he said.

BLOW ZONES

THE Victorian Wind Atlas published in 2003 by the State Government shows the Mornington Peninsula is the best place in greater Melbourne for wind power. The best spots for wind turbines on the peninsula would be from Point Nepean to Flinders between the coast and the southern slopes leading up to Main Ridge and Red Hill areas. Average annual wind speed ranges from 7-8 metres per second. The state average is 6.5 and in metropolitan Melbourne it is 6.3. Best places in the state include the Victorian Alps, parts of eastern Gippsland, around Wilsons Promontory, around Portland in the west and the Macedon Ranges.