130 out as turbine plant closes

Herald Sun
Thursday 23/8/2007 Page: 20

A MAJOR international wind turbine manufacturer will close its Victorian plant at the end of the year, saying Australia's renewable energy sector was not a viable investment. About 130 jobs will go when Vestas Blades Australia closes its Portland factory in December, 21/ years after it opened.

Vestas Asia-Pacific senior vice-president Jorn Hammer said the Portland venture was no longer profitable. "It's not viable for us to make further investments in the Australian market. .. we don't see the market as big enough in Australia to justify the expense," he said. "When we committed to build the factory we believed there was support for the wind industry in Australia, and that has not come through to the extent we anticipated." The Danish company is one of the world's biggest makers of wind-power technology.

Environment groups said the Federal Government's 2 per cent Mandatory Renewable Energy Target was driving investment overseas. The target aims to generate 2 per cent of Australia's energy using green power. Greenpeace energy campaigner Mark Wakeham said the Government needed to legislate for 25 per cent renewable energy by 2020. "If we don't show we are serious about climate change and investing in clean energy, renewables companies will go where investors are serious about it," he said.

Environment Victoria climate change campaigner Louise Morris said: "It really does show that Australia is not giving the renewables industry the support they need to take off." Federal Opposition climate change spokesman Peter Garrett said the closure was "another kick in the guts for our renewable energy industry". He blamed the Federal Government's failure to increase the MRET for the closure.

But a spokeswoman for federal Resources Minister Ian Macfarlane said Vestas knew the Government would not be increasing the MRET when it decided to build in Portland. The MRET scheme had generated more than $3.5 billion in investment and increased wind energy capacity by 8000 per cent, she said. The factory makes wind turbine blades for export.

Mr Hammer said Vestas had hoped to upgrade technology to make blades for local wind farms, but that was not viable. The decision comes a year after the company shut down a similar $15 million factory in Tasmania, laying off 65 staff. Vestas would honour employees' annual leave entitlements and redundancy payouts. Mr Hammer said.