Tilting towards wind energy

www.smh.com.au
21 Nov 2012

AUSTRALIANS overwhelmingly want more renewable energy over the next five years and half of them want the brands they regularly buy to declare the source of the energy that went into making them. That's two of the findings in a study across 20 countries commissioned by Vestas Wind Systems, the world's biggest maker of wind turbines, and Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

Almost three-quarters of the 1000 Australians polled prefer to have their energy supplied by renewable sources, and just 5.6% for fossil fuels-almost the reverse of the country's actual energy mix. But while the study had the support of Vestas Wind Systems, its findings also reveal Australians are less enthusiastic about wind as the renewable energy source of choice.

Almost 1 in 6 Australians, for instance, were opposed to having wind turbines ''within visible proximity of their lives'', compared with a 1-in-20 ratio globally. Those strongly in favour came in at 13.7% locally versus almost a quarter internationally. Despite the concerns, wind turbines are expected to continue to expand rapidly because of their relatively cheap cost of power generation. From about 2500 MWs of installed capacity now, the industry is likely to erect turbines with a total capacity of 1000 MWs each year for the rest of the decade, said Ken McAlpine, director of Vestas Wind Systems' policy and government relations.

Several challenges, though, remain. For starters, the government is under pressure from fossil fuel-fired generators to tinker with the renewable energy target, putting at risk $17 billion in potential investment. And New South Wales may follow Victoria in restricting wind turbines to within 2 km of a house without the consent of the owner. ''There's been a lot of interest from developers of projects in NSW, despite the anti-wind movement there,'' Mr McAlpine said. ''We have a lot of faith that the government will take a balanced approach.''

Morten Albaek, Vestas Wind Systems' group senior vice-president, in Australia to launch the Energy Transparency campaign on Wednesday, said the media magnified opposition to wind turbines. Vestas Wind Systems recently helped fund the launch of WindMade, a consumer label identifying products produced using wind power-a concept the company is in talks to introduce in Australia in the March quarter next year.

Participating companies must obtain at least 25% of their electricity from wind sources, a level that many firms-particularly those in South Australia with its soaring wind power supplies-will be eligible to apply for, Mr Albaek said. The corporate shift will be voluntary because large firms ''want to set themselves up to a commercial reality where it comes close to impossible to sell a 'black' product,'' Mr Albaek said. With the completion of two big wind farms in Victoria and Tasmania, Vestas Wind Systems will control about 60% of the wind turbines in the country.