Age
25 February 2011, Page: 16
ANDREW Chapman claims that transitioning to renewable energy will make power more expensive (Letters, 23/2). The truth is somewhat different. Credible research has demonstrated that in 2009 electricity prices in Denmark, Germany and Belgium (all among Europe's early adopters of wind power) fell as a direct result of the increasing contribution of wind power to the overall mix.
Since 2005 in the US, the average wind project has been producing energy at less than the national average wholesale price. In Australia a study for the National Generators Forum concludes that with the government's renewable energy target, electricity retailers will be $10 billion better off in 2015 than without it.
Current increases in the cost of power have almost nothing to do with the growth in renewables and a great deal to do with the cost of building fossil fuel infrastructure to accommodate demand growth and maintaining existing, often antiquated, infrastructure.
Doug Evans, Clifton Hill
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