Tasmanians will build wind farms in China

The Examiner, Page: 5
Friday, 2 June 2006

Renewable Energy company Roaring 40s has secured contracts to build up to three new wind farms on the east coast of China. The first 49MW wind farm will be a $80 million project near Rongcheng City in Shandong Province on China's East Coast. Roaring 40s managing director Mark Kelleher said the Chinese wind farm marked a breakthrough into East China and the first of what he hoped would be a fruitful relationship with a major Chinese energy company."China is embracing renewable energy as a means of meeting increasing energy demand and improving the environment," he said.

Mr Kelleher said this was the company's second major client in China and was thanks, in part, to the tariff arrangement the Chinese Government had in place for renewable energy. Roaring 40s recently put all wind development in Australia on hold because of the Federal Government's reluctance to increase the Mandatory Renewable Energy Target. This has included the $300 million wind farm project Heemskirk that was earmarked for the West Coast. But in a positive sign for the company, Mr Kelleher said recent talks with the Federal Government revealed that it may be prepared to look at renewable incentives.

Mr Kelleher said construction would start on the wind farm later this year and full commissioning of the project would be by mid-2007. Roaring 40s is a joint venture between a Hong Kong-based power company CLP Group and Hydro Tasmania.