Wednesday 28 March 2012

Wind and solar 'not to blame' for rising energy costs

www.abc.net.au
23 Mar 2012

A renewable energy lobby group says the South Australian Opposition is wrong to conclude wind power is forcing up South Australian electricity prices. Opposition Leader Isobel Redmond says SA has parallels with Denmark and Germany, which both rely heavily on wind and solar power. SA came in third behind those places in a global survey of energy costs.

The Energy Users Association of Australia released a report which compared the household electricity prices in 92 countries, states and provinces. Russell Marsh from the Clean Energy Council says prices are rising because the state network has to supply a small number of users spread over a vast area, not because of the issue of wind farms or solar power generation.

"The figures tell us that South Australia's leading Australia in the deployment of wind power in particular, but the important thing to note also is that it hasn't come at a high cost", he said. "At the moment about 2% of South Australian consumers' electricity bills are going to pay for the deployment of wind power".

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