Something in the wind

Sunday Tasmanian
Sunday 4/2/2007 Page: 5

CHINA'S largest power company toured Tasmania's Woolnorth wind farm yesterday. Executives from China Datang Corporation were shown around the wind farm in far North-West Tasmania by Roaring 40s chief executive Mark Kelleher. The Datang visit was part of a three-day tour of Hydro Tasmania energy assets led by Energy Minister David Llewellyn.

"To put how important this visit is into perspective, Datang has a total controlled installed capacity of over 50,000MW which is more than Australia's entire generating capacity," Mr Llewellyn said.

Datang is one of five massive power generation firms created by the communist People's Republic of China. In 2002 the Chinese State Power Corporation was broken into five companies which were authorised by the government to seek investment and shareholding enterprises.

A vast majority of China's power plants rely on dirty coal. But Datang and other rival power generators in China are being instructed to switch to cleaner fuels and renewable energy. Datang aims to expand capacity 60 per cent in the next six years. It has plans to spend $580 million this year and between $414 million and $497 million next year, mainly on capacity expansion.

Roaring 40s which owns and operates the Woolnorth wind farm, is a joint venture between Hydro Tasmania and Hong Kong firm China Light and Power. The state-owned Hydro Tasmania, joint owner of Roaring 40s, has borrowed to the hilt and owes more than $1 billion to the Tasmanian Government's lending arm TasCorp. The Hydro has asked the Tasmanian Government for a $300 million equity injection.