Southern Argus
Thursday 21/9/2006 Page: 12
One third of the world's electricity can be supplied by wind and 113 billion tonnes of CO2 saved by 2050, says industry report.
Wind will be a major contributor to future energy needs and is key in the fight against dangerous climate change. concludes 'Global Wind Energy Outlook 2006', a report launched today by the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) and Greenpeace.
Yet the wind industry in Australia is faltering with the Federal Government persistently choosing dirty fossil fuels over clean renewable energy. Over the past five years, wind energy has been the world's second fastest growing form of electricity generation (after solar) with growth rates of 28% per year.
The report examines the future potential for wind power and is an industry blueprint that explains how wind power could supply 34% of the world's electricity by 2050 and save 1.5 billion tonnes of CO2 emissions by 2020.
"Australia has world class wind resources especially in the southwest, southern and east coast regions where the majority of the population resides," said Mark Wakeham, Greenpeace Australia Pacific energy campaigner.
"Whilst states such as Victoria and South Australia have made some progressive steps in legislating renewable energy targets the wind industry still lacks the long term support it needs to match its prospects overseas.
Federal and State Governments should support wind power development via mandatory targets and by cutting back subsidies for fossil fuels. "In South Australia wind power generation is approaching 15% of the state's electricity, and not a single megawatt of additional back-up generation has needed to be built".
"We have barely scratched the surface of the potential for the wind industry here - Australia could be a global wind leader".
"But we need an economically integrated industry with a manufacturing base, not just stand alone projects, in order to achieve this," said Sven Teske, co-author of the report and energy expert from Greenpeace International.
In addition to climate change, other challenges such as security of energy supply and the increasing volatility of fossil fuel prices are important drivers for wind power. "Wind is already cost competitive with gas in some locations and will become cheaper than coal in the future'.
"If Australia fails to develop a wind industry, technology will have to be imported from overseas and our reliance on burning coal, the biggest contributor to climate change, will continue." Mr Teske said.
"Wind energy is the most attractive solution to the world's energy challenges. It is clean and fuel-free". "Moreover, wind is indigenous and enough wind blows across the globe to cope with the ever increasing electricity demand".
"This report demonstrates that wind technology is not a dream for the future - it is real, it is mature and it can be deployed on a large scale," said Arthouros Zervos, GWEC's Chairman. "The political choices of the coming years will determine the world's environmental and economic situation for many decades to come."
The 'Global Wind Energy Outlook 2006' runs three different scenarios for wind power - a Reference scenario based on figures from the International Energy Agency (lEA); a Moderate version which assumes that current targets for renewable energy are successful: and an Advanced version assuming that all policy options in favour of renewables have been adopted. These are then set against two scenarios for global energy demand.
Under the Reference scenario, growth in demand is again based on lEA projections; under the High Energy Efficiency version, a range of energy efficiency measures result in a substantial reduction in demand.
wind power has experienced major growth in OECD countries, especially the United States and Europe, with significant growth in developing countries such as China and India).
The global market for wind power has been expanding faster than any other source of renewable energy. From just 4,800 MW in 1995 the world total has multiplied more than twelve-fold to reach over 59,000 MW at the end of 2005.
The international market is expected to have an annual turnover in 2006 of more than 13 billion, with an estimated 150.000 people employed around the world.
The success of the industry has attracted investors from the mainstream finance and traditional energy sectors. "wind power will significantly reduce CO2 emissions, which is key in the fight against dangerous climate change," said Mr Teske.
"The required CO2 reduction can only be achieved if wind power plays a major role in the energy sector". "Getting this right will be critical if governments are going to meet climate targets".
"Concerned Australians must ask their governments why they, are supporting the coal industry when action on climate change is so urgently needed and why climate change solutions, such as wind and solar energy, are not being exploited".
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