Thursday 20/3/2008 Page: 17
THE Queensland Conservation Council believes offshore wind farms could hold the key to powering the Tugun desalination plant and it is asking for state government money to prove it. On Sunday, Premier Anna Bligh invited the private sector to begin investigating ways to completely neutralise carbon emission from the $1 billion desalination plant, which is expected to use as much power as all the homes in Mount Isa, when it comes online later this year.This week, the QCC announced plans to apply for up to $4 million from the Government's Queensland Renewable Energy Fund to investigate the feasibility of installing clusters of $4 million, giant wind turbines somewhere off the coast of Queensland. QCC executive director Toby Hutcheon said the government money could help to harness the untapped potential of wind-generated electricity.
"All we are wanting to do is to look at the feasibility and to see what the resources are, and to have a look at the area that you could potentially use for the facility," he said. "There is significant wind at Brisbane airport and global data suggests offshore wind resources are normally 30 to 50 per cent higher than costal wind resources." Mr Hutcheon said a precise site for the offshore wind farm had yet to be decided. "It's probably a little bit early to say," he said. "We're probably talking in that sort of area from 3km to 10km offshore.
"One of the key aesthetic issues is going to be, do you want to have wind farms off the beach? "It's possible that the notion would be, you would have them sufficiently out to sea so that you couldn't see them, but you can't necessarily guarantee that." Mr Hutcheon said the QCC would initially took at a 12-turbine offshore wind farm to fuel the Tugun site, which is expected to use about 200,000 megawatts of power each year.
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