Australian
Thursday 25/3/2010 Page: 24
PLANS for another massive wind farm in Australia received a major boost yesterday when West Australian energy retailer Synergy Energy signed a 15-year contract worth an estimated $1.5 billion to purchase power from the proposed Collgar wind farm. Construction of the $750 million, 206 MW wind farm in the wheatbelt which would produce more electricity than the combined output of Western Australia's two biggest existing wind farms, at Emu Downs and Albany could start in May.
In Victoria, an even bigger wind farm, to produce 365MW, is under consideration. West Australian Energy Minister Peter Collier said the WA farm was assured and should be operating by August next year. Its production would lift total renewable energy generation in the main electricity grid from 5% to almost 9%. Synergy Energy manager of power procurement Trevor Harvey said the deal was the biggest renewable energy contract in the company's history. "There's no doubt renewable energy does have additional costs associated with it. It is more expensive than non-renewable energy but it benefits the environment and this is a good market price in our view," Mr Harvey said.
0 comments:
Post a Comment