Winds of change

Adelaide Advertiser
Saturday 12/4/2008 Page: 18

THE amount of wind power generated in South Australia is expected to more than double by the end of next year. More than $1.1 billion worth of investment has been committed to projects either under construction or slated to start this year. Four projects are expected to be completed, or ramp up to full electricity production, during this year. Once all projects were complete, South Australia's wind power generation capacity would increase from 387 megawatts to more than 850mW.

This follows a year in which Australia lagged the world in the installation of new wind generation capacity, with just 7mW of new generating capacity installed in 2007, the Global Wind Energy Council said in its annual report, released this month. This increase, of less than 1 per cent, lagged the 27 per cent increase in installed capacity worldwide. It follows six years of growth from just 32mW of wind power in Australia in 2000, to 824mW in 2007. The largest of the new South Australian projects, the 159mW Lake Bonney Stage Two project, owned by Babcock and Brown Wind Partners, is already generating power.

It was expected to be finished in the middle of the year. That project involves 53, 80m high turbines generating a maximum of 3mW each. The first turbine at TrustPower's 88mW wind farm at Snowtown was installed in December and all 47 turbines are expected to be up and running by September. Transfield Services's Mount Millar Wind Farm, which has been operating since February, 2006, will also reach its full capacity in the second half of this year.

Pacific Hydro has started building its 27 turbine Clement's Gap project close to Port Pirie, which is also expected to be operational next year. AGL is planning to build a 34 turbine, 71mW project at Hallett Hill, 170km north of Adelaide, which will be operational late next year. Hallett Hill 1, also known as Brown Hill, is nearing completion, and will contribute 95mW. The slowdown in investment last year was due to the Federal Government's Mandatory Renewable Energy Target scheme reaching capacity.

Under the scheme, electricity generators were committed to buying 9500 gigawatt hours of power (about 2 per cent of national demand in 2001) from renewable sources per year by 2010. As the scheme filled up, the viability of some new projects, such as a 39 turbine project 30km southeast of Clare, was called into question. Tasmanian company Roaring 40s put that $180 million project, the Waterloo Wind Farm, on hold in 2006. Clean Energy Council general manager, policy, Rob Jackson, said the policies of the previous Federal Government caused the slowdown in investment.

"As early as 2004, MRET was considered to be basically full and not a lot of new generation was needed," Mr Jackson said. "Schemes to spur investment in Victoria and New South Wales had been announced, but only Victoria had a legislated target, which had led to a lot of localised new investment and activity in 2007. "And while South Australia had a 20 per cent renewable energy target, there was no specific policy in place to deliver that. "Last year on the back of that, with the uncertainty leading up to the federal election investment slowed down quite quickly.

Mr Jackson said the Federal Labor Government's policies were expected to reinvigorate the sector "driven by the Federal Government's intention to increase MRET to 45,000 gigawatt hours (by 2020) and on top of that to bring in the Emissions Trading Scheme." "There's potential for billions of dollars in new investment that will create thousands of jobs in regional Australia, particularly in the manufacturing sector. Along with the environment, many regional communities will benefit from these policies." The GWEC report indicates the tide has already started to turn.

"While there were only three new project commitments during 2007 - amounting to $740 million of investment - the 2008 outlook is rosier. Significant wind capacity is moving through the project planning stage with over 400mW of projects receiving planning approval during 2007. State Energy Minister Patrick Conlon said the success of the wind energy sector was evidenced by the recent heatwave in March, when at times more than 10 per cent of the state's power was supplied by wind turbines.