Wind to lead green energy

Age
Tuesday 10/10/2006, Page: 6

WIND farms will be the main winner from a state renewable energy scheme, with little benefit for most other "green" technologies, including solar power.

The Bracks Government has committed to making energy retailers source 10 per cent of their electricity from renewable generators by 2016, under the Victorian Renewable Energy Target scheme.

A cost analysis report prepared for the Government reveals that the scheme will cost consumers a net total of $692 million spread over 22 years, adding around 1 per cent to the average electricity bill.

Launching the scheme in July, the Government claimed there would be a small impact on households of less than $10 a year, but refused to release the consultant's report their estimates were based on.

The Department of Infrastructure has since released the report, by consultants McLennan Magasanik Associates. The report supports the Government's claim about household bills, estimating an average extra cost of $8.40 a year.

But the consultants also calculate previously unreported costs for business. Small businesses - those using roughly six times more power than a home - are expected to pay an average of $47 more a year, while big businesses could pay around $21,000 extra.

The consultants estimate that by 2030, the renewable scheme will save around 27 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions, at a cost of $71 a tonne.

They also predict that wind farms are set to become "by far the most dominant renewable energy resource" in Victoria over the next decade, taking over from hydro-electricity and potentially generating well over half of the state's 10 per cent renewable target by 2016.

In contrast, all other renewable energy sources' share of electricity production will fall or stay steady at best. The State Opposition has vowed to scrap the renewable energy target, claiming it will prove more expensive than the Government says.