| | Reducing GHG Emissions |  |
NEWS! Sustainability Victoria Told to Refine their Estimates
The Planning Panel for the Oaklands/Glenthompson Wind Facility has encouraged Sustainability Victoria to refine their current estimates of GHG abatement from wind energy in the light of operating experience. They state that ‘…experience with existing facilities should provide a much sounder base than theoretical projections’.
“We would also suggest that panels and others assessing wind farm projects, such as local Councils, would be more assisted if Sustainability Victoria were to focus its future submissions on substantive information of direct relevance to the specific project rather than on the background to Government policy and outlining broad Government policy initiatives.”
Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHG) and Renewable Energy
The Association supports meaningful and sensible developments in the reduction of greenhouse gases, including greenhouse gases from electricity generation. We are also fully supportive of research into, and development of renewable energy generation. The amount of GHG abatement, based on data when available, should be a key factor in determining the best renewable energy projects for Australia. The impact on the surrounding environment must also be an important consideration so we are not destroying the fragile ecology of Victoria.
The cornerstone of any policy for reducing GHG emissions should be based on Reduce, Reuse and Recycle with individuals and organizations taking responsibility for reducing their own waste. For information about what you can do to reduce your carbon emissions visit the Sustainability Victoria Resource Smart website.
GHG Emissions and the Wind Industry: A Tale of Misrepresentation
The public have been grossly misled by the wind industry and the State Government into believing that wind energy will significantly reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions when this is simply not the case. With the huge financial cost of wind energy to consumers (hidden in our electricity bills) and the toll they take on threatened native species, the landscape and rural communities, it is only reasonable that we demand an accurate account of the CO2 emission savings using real data from operational wind facilities rather than be continually fed these fictitious claims from those who profit enormously from the wind industry. The fact that the government is compliant in this misleading of the public is either ignorant or negligent.
Lets look at Wind Power’s claim:
“Stockyard Hill Wind Farm should produce approximately 1.482 TWh (terawatt hours, or 1,482,000 MWh) of electricity per year (as a long term average based on an assumed capacity factor of 30%” and “It represents an equivalent saving of 1,347,000 tonnes of CO2”.
This claim is outrageous and typical of the misleading claims made by the wind industry. Here’s why:
Firstly, using an “assumed capacity factor of 30%” to calculate the amount of electricity produced by the wind facility is unwarranted. Experience shows that most wind facilities operate at about a 25% capacity factor - many lower - nearby windy Challicum Hills and Wind Power’s own Wonthaggi plant do not operate at 30%. Secondly, their claim does not factor in the amount of CO2 emissions from the back-up electricity generation that is required for any significant input of wind energy into the grid. As wind power is intermittent (like the wind), a constantly and instantly available back-up generation is required to provide steady power to consumers (so that blackouts don’t occur). Back-up power is generally sourced from gas or coal, both of which will continue to emit CO2 when wind power is used. Over the life of this project any accurate and honest analysis of CO2 emissions savings from wind power would account for these emissions. Here are some examples of what is not disclosed:
- emissions from powering up and running down back-up generators, and maintaining them in ‘spinning reserve’ (i.e., a standby mode that allows them to be powered up quickly when wind power drops);
- emissions from coal power stations when they are required to reduce power by venting steam (while they continue to burn coal and emit CO2 at a high rate); and
- emissions from generating the energy to provide reactive power and feed-in power for wind generators (yes, believe it or not – wind facilities use electricity that they don’t produce).
If the CO2 emissions and cost of back up generation required for wind power are properly accounted for then Wind Power Pty Ltd’s claim that 1,347,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions can be avoided would be reduced to mere 85,956 or 133,380 tonnes - a massive difference. This is why independent experts conclude that wind power on the grid does not avoid significant amounts of greenhouse gas emissions. For a full analysis, please see Peter Lang’s report Cost and Quantity of Greenhouse Gas Emissions Avoided by Wind Generation which can be downloaded from the menu on the left. His findings also demonstrate that:
- wind power is a very high cost way to avoid CO2,
- wind power, even with high capacity penetration, cannot make a significant contribution to reducing CO2 emissions.
Lang demonstrates that CO2 savings from wind cost us between $830 and $1149 per tonne whereas other technologies (which will be required to met the Federal Governments new Clean Energy Target) will cost a lot less per tonne: $22 nuclear, $33-$47 gas, $56 clean coal.
Wind Energy – Who Pays?
Through the Victorian Renewable Energy Target (VRET) scheme, wholesale purchasers of electricity in Victoria must acquire a certain portion of their overall electicity acquisitions from additional renewable energy. Much of this “additional renewable energy” is wind. As wind energy production is at least twice the cost of that generated from gas and coal, the power companies pass along this increased cost to consumers through your electricity bill whether or not you sign up for “green power”.
The VRET scheme will soon be subsumed, with an increased target, into the Commonwealth’s Mandatory Renewable Energy Target (MRET) scheme. |
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