No development of wind farms in Tasmania/Austrailia after 2008

There will be no more wind farms developed in Tasmania after 2008 because of the Federal Government's decision not to extend the Mandatory Renewable Energy Targets scheme, Hydro Tasmania said this week. Hydro chairman David Crean said that with the MRET scheme due to expire in 2020, wind farms that were not in operation by 2008 would not be viable. In a swipe at the Federal Government's decision not to extend the scheme, Dr Crean said Hydro Tasmania was disappointed.

He said wind farms needed 12 years of financial incentives to make them competitive, so any developed after 2008 would not make economic sense. "It doesn't make any sense to us at all. At a time of climate change through global warming, you want to increase the proportion of your energy consumption coming from renewable energy," Dr Crean said. "Australia as a government and as a nation really needs to take a lead on this issue within our region and within the world. "The definitive way of doing this is to encourage an increase of our energy consumption from renewable sources." In 1965, 23 per cent of energy consumption in Australia came from renewable energy sources. That rate has dropped to 10 per cent and, according to Dr Crean, will decrease further to 8.5 per cent by 2020 under the existing MRET scheme.

"If MRET had been extended, then we would have been looking at increasing the proportion of renewable energy sources up towards 20 per cent by 2020," he said. "We will continue to pursue this very strongly. We haven't given up on this issue but we realise that it's a big challenge and a difficult task for the organisation." Hydro Tasmania's priorities were the completion of Woolnorth stage 3 and to ensure the Heemskirk and Musselroe wind farms received final approval by 2008. Federal Environment Minister Ian Campbell defended the Federal Government's decision and said that while alternative energy sources were important, investing in low-emission energy production and transport was the answer to greenhouse gas concerns.