The Examiner, Page: 4
Thursday, 22 June 2006
Australia stands to lose billions of dollars in wind farm investment if it doesn't give renewable energy a greater share of the national energy market, an industry leader has warned. Mark Kelleher, managing director of renewable energy company Roaring 40s, said yesterday that companies were being forced to invest offshore as Australia lagged behind international renewable energy targets. renewable energy accounts for about 0.5 per cent of the Australian market, compared with up to 20 per cent in other countries.
The industry is calling tor the Federal Government to revise its Mandated renewable energy Target or implement another measure to ensure future growth."In the absence of something like that, the industry won't be able to proceed," Mr Kelleher said. The MRET was introduced in 2001, requiring energy retailers to buy an extra 2 per cent or 9500 gigawatt hours of renewable energy a year by 2010.But Mr Kelleher said Australia's economic and energy growth meant the specified 9500 gigawatts was now equal to only 0.5 per cent of themarket.
The Government's refusal to lift its renewable energy targets had forced Roaring 40s to stall new projects including its $230 million Musselroe wind farm in the North-East. Mr Kelleher warned that unless renewable energy targets were raised, wind farms would lose importance as a source of renewable energy in Australia. Mr Kelleher said the Federal Government had indicated it could"rethink" the matter but meetings would be held to further discuss the issue over coming weeks.
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