State wind energy project on hold

Adelaide Advertiser
Monday 27/10/2008 Page: 4

THE STATE Government's green credentials are being queried after MPs were told a mini wind turbine rollout has "collapsed". The $331,000 project followed Premier Mike Rann's announcement in 2006 to install turbines on his and four other prominent Adelaide office buildings, as part of a commitment to renewable energy. At the time, Mr Rann said the turbines would be monitored for 12 months, but the Government has told The Advertiser that it does not know how much electricity is being generated from the project.

It says the data will be available once a new version of the machines are in place. Last week's Public Works Committee hearing was shown drawings of the Victor Harbor High School upgrade, complete with a mini wind turbine. However, Department of Education infrastructure director John Chadwick told the committee the turbines would not be installed on new capital works programs across the state because they were not available. "I understand ... a government contract has not come through," he said.

Opposition Education spokesman David Pisoni said the "plans across the whole of Government had collapsed" because a contract had failed to come through. Measurement Engineering Australia, the company that supplied the monitoring equipment on the five government buildings, describes the turbines as "window dressing" because of the turbulent airflow in urban environments. "There is no great wind on the Adelaide plain anyway," engineering director Andrew Skinner said.

The Opposition says the Scottish-invented SWIFT mini turbines, which are supposed to be able to supply up to half of a household's electricity requirements, have not lived up to expectations. "A foolhardy Premier rushed into buying the mini turbines without testing the claims of the product's inventors," Opposition Leader Martin Hamilton-Smith said. A spokesman for Mr Rann said the Government's wind energy policy wasn't simply about mini wind turbines on top of city buildings. "When the Rann Government came to power, there were no wind farms in SA," he said. "The state is now home to 53 per cent of the nation's wind energy."