RAMSEY HIGHLIGHTS WINDFARM CONCERNS IN PARLIAMENT
Posted on Thursday, 16 February, 2012
Federal Member for Grey Rowan Ramsey raised the future of wind-farms in his electorate this week in parliament.
“There is an Australia-wide debate developing around wind-farms and their environmental and health impacts. It is not surprising those concerns are echoed in the Grey electorate where already ten farms are operating with an installed capacity of 792 megawatts,” he said.
“This represents almost 40% of Australia’s wind generation capacity and more importantly more than 25% of the State’s grid.
“While I welcome the local employment opportunities and investment wind-farms bring to Grey, it does raise a number a questions about the desirability and sustainability of the some of the massive expansion plans for the industry.”
Mr Ramsey said it was recognised throughout the world that reliance on unreliable energy sources in excess of 20% presents a risk to the sustainability of the electricity grid.
“Already Alinta Energy at Port Augusta has had to dump power at times during last year,” he said.
“When the wind blows strongly there is a surplus of energy on the market and the price crashes below zero.
“Retailers are compelled to buy 20% renewable throughout the course of the year, so in that case they purchase wind energy at its cheapest, which is of course when the wind blows.
“On other occasions, almost always on our hottest days, the State is becalmed and the total wind system has produced as little as 6% of its capacity. In that case almost all of the electricity must be provide by 100% reliable sources, in our case coal or gas.
“That is why we cannot afford to lose any base load capacity until there are alternatives.
“There are huge numbers of new wind towers proposed for South Australia, if they were all to proceed they would represent 63% of South Australia’s installed generation capacity- this is clearly unviable and the grid would collapse.”
Mr Ramsey said both State and federal governments must urgently assess the stability of the grid and its capacity to absorb anymore wind production before any capacity is lost.
Media Contact: Leonie Lloyd-Smith (02) 62774967 Canberra Office (08) 86331744 Port Pirie Office
February 14, 2012