Minister asked to explain low-wind beliefs

Australian
Tuesday 9/10/2007 Page: 7

THE nation's biggest wind farm with the ability to power up to 400,000 homes could be operating near Broken Hill by 2009, despite NSW Industry Minister Ian Macdonald's belief that his state does not have enough breeze. Renewable energy group Epuron Pty Ltd said yesterday it would spend $2 billion to install about 500 wind turbines northwest of Broken Hill, in the far west of the state. Mr Macdonald said the NSW Government, which must approve the project, would look positively at the wind energy proposal.

But Epuron Pty Ltd's demand that the Government guarantee it will only buy renewable energy from within NSW could prove a stumbling block. At present, renewable energy generation can be purchased from other states. And Mr Macdonald said the Government had no intention of changing the legislation, with experts saying NSW was not a high-wind state. "We are a national grid after all, so where the source of the power comes from isn't exactly the most relevant issue," Mr Macdonald said. He said the most important issue was meeting renewable energy targets.

Climate campaigner and Australian of the Year Tim Flannery said last night Mr Macdonald should be asked to explain the basis of his belief that NSW was not a high-wind state. He said it had been thought NSW did not have the wind-generating ability of southern Australia, but Epuron Pty Ltd's investment plans proved the area around Broken Hill was a "world-class wind province". Professor Flannery's comments came as he revealed new figures from the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change showing that greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere already have "the potential to cause dangerous climate change".

He told the ABC's Lateline that scientists had expected this threshold 455 parts per million of CO2 equivalent to be reached in a decade. But the IPCC's "synthesis" report, due next month, showed it was reached in mid-2005. We are already at great risk of dangerous climate change. It's not next year or next decade it's now," Professor Flannery's said, calling for urgent action to cut emissions.

Epuron Pty Ltd said its wind farm project could produce up to 4.5 per cent of NSW's annual energy needs, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by three million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year. However, NSW Premier Morris lemma warned that the Howard Government's uncertainty about a national emissions trading scheme could hold up the investment.