ALAN Jones has lost a battle of the "wind wars", with a rally against wind farms headlined by the radio shock jock failing to draw large crowds to Parliament House.

The lacklustre attendance at Tuesday's protest was seized upon by supporters of clean energy, who claimed victory in the "wind wars" by staging a much larger counter rally in Canberra's city centre.

The anti-wind farm website stopthesethings.com had encouraged participants to bring deckchairs for the event on the front lawn of parliament.

But only about 100 people turned up to rally against the "fraud" of wind farms, which they claim destroy rural communities and cause illness through turbine noise.

There were signs claiming "Wind Wrecks Health and Jobs" and "Wind Power Will Cost the Earth", but none of the "Ditch the Witch" placards that caused a stir at the last major climate protest hosted by Mr Jones.

The Sydney radio host paid tribute to those who attended but conceded numbers were down.

"There aren't a lot of people here," he told the rally on Tuesday.

"They don't have the time, they don't have the resources to be able to make the kind of statement they want to make."

Organisers of the counter rally claimed more than 1000 attendees in support of clean energy.

The "Rally 4 Renewables", staged by activist groups GetUp and Friends of the Earth, was attended by Australian Greens leader Christine Milne, independent MP Tony Windsor and parliamentary secretary for climate change Yvette D'Ath.

Liberal senator Chris Back attended the anti-wind rally but independent South Australian senator Nick Xenophon was a no-show, despite being invited to speak.

Senator Xenophon said he remained "fully committed" to a bill he co-sponsored on wind turbine noise, and didn't want his absence from the rally to be misinterpreted.

Originally published as Alan Jones lacks wind at protest