The heart shaped island of Tasmania off the coast of mainland Australia will become one of the first states to benefit from the Government’s renewable energy target, with a major boost announced for its windfarm industry…
Last year, the Australian Government committed to ensuring that 20 per cent of Australia’s electricity supply comes from renewable energy sources by 2020.
To deliver on this commitment, the Australian Government is working in cooperation with the States and Territories through the Council of Australian Governments (COAG), to implement an expanded national Renewable Energy Target (RET) that will bring the existing state targets into one national scheme.
The national scheme will increase the existing target by more than four times to 45,000 gigawatt hours in 2020 as well as contributing to meeting Australia’s targets for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
It will also provide a market incentive to accelerate uptake of renewable energy sources powering Australian properties, which include solar, wind and geothermal energy. The scheme is expected to be introduced in mid-2009.
Tasmania – world class resources
Tasmania is unique within Australia as the only state that already generates a large proportion of its electricity from hydro-electric power schemes.
Hydro has been the predominant source of electricity in Tasmania since the first power stations were built in the early 1900’s and currently there are 29 hydro-electricity power plants throughout Tasmania.
Lying in the path of the Roaring Forties – the prevailing westerly winds that circle the earth’s high southern latitudes – Tasmania has world class resources for the generation of wind power.
Currently, there are two operating wind farms in the State – Woolnorth Wind Farm in the State’s North-West and the Huxley Hill Wind Farm on King Island.
There are a number of privately owned wind turbines in the State, including a 225 kilowatt wind turbine on the Nicholas Poultry Farm and two wind turbines on Flinders Island with a combined generation capacity of 80 kW.
Now, Tasmania’s wind farms look set to grow further with the announcement from the Federal Government that, after a year of uncertainty, draft legislation aimed at increasing the amount of clean electricity has been released.
The Federal Government’s faced a great deal of pressure to introduce the scheme, not least from the Tasmanian Premier David Bartlett, who criticized the long wait for the scheme, saying that millions of dollars were being lost in potential investment.
Mathew Warren from the Clean Energy Council said, “Tasmania will be one of the first states to benefit.
“Wind farms are going to be the early adopters of this legislation because they’re proven technology and they’re ready to go,†he added.
Another wind farm is currently in the pipeline at Musselroe Bay in the north east of Tasmania, which is scheduled to start next year.
Subject to finances, the Musselroe project will have 60 wind turbines which will provide an additional 129 MW of electricity generation capacity each year.
The project also includes the construction of a transmission line to connect the wind farm site to the main Tasmanian electricity grid at Derby.
The installation of wind turbine generators on Flinders Island and further wind development on King Island are also currently being investigated.
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