A new CSIRO report released last week and some strong State Government targets look set to boost sustainable wind development in NSW.

Global warming caused by our use of oil and coal is now widely accepted by Australians. However, we are still learning about the exact impacts to our cities and towns. A CSIRO report released last week Climate Change and Infrastructure – Planning Ahead, examines the potential risks to infrastructure of water, power, telecommunications, transport and buildings.

While the impacts to water supply will mostly affect inland areas, the impacts for power generation will affect all Australians.

Snowy Hydro says it can only guarantee electricity production from its hydro power stations for the next eight months without substantial snow and rains. The prolonged drought means many of our coal power stations are also experiencing power cutbacks, because they need large volumes of water for cooling because of the wasted heat they produce. Already, Loy Yang and Yallourn power plants in Victoria are buying additional water on top of their annual water entitlement from the government.  Last week, as a result of the Tarong power station reducing output because of lack of water, mining giant Rio Tinto cut 160 jobs from coal mines supplying the plant because of the reduced demand for coal.

Extreme water shortages can stretch our electricity production to breaking point at peak periods further down the track.  But there are solutions for us here and now.

Shortly, the NSW Government will introduce new legislation to raise the state’s renewable energy target to 10 percent by 2010 and 15 percent by 2020. At the moment, Australia has a National target for clean energy that represents less than two percent of all our electricity use.

In line with international trends, it is likely that most of this renewable energy target will be met by wind power, because it is the most developed and most cost competitive technology. NSW has substantial wind resources and a good electricity network, therefore a large proportion of the new target could be met from within NSW.

This would be good news for the environment, take pressure off power stations that are suffering under drought and water shortages, and bring jobs and investment to rural and regional NSW. Regional centres like Yass and Goulburn will benefit directly from this investment.

Taurus Energy has been exploring wind resources in NSW since 2002. In 2005, Taurus became part of EPURON, which is a renewable energy development company working in several countries in solar, wind and bio-energy projects.

EPURON continues to measure the wind resource around NSW through its network of more than a dozen wind monitoring stations. Monitoring stations in the Goulburn and Yass areas continue to demonstrate one of the strongest and most consistent wind resources in NSW. This includes areas like the Grabben Gullen Range near Bannister and the Conroy’s Gap Wind Farm site near Bookham.

EPURON has received development approvals for two projects at Snowy Plains (near Berridale) and Cullerin Range (near Goulburn), with a further wind farm going through development approvals at Conroy’s Gap near Yass.

The new legislation in NSW is likely to ensure these projects will be commercially viable.

Wind is taking its place in the National electricity market, as a viable way to help meet our growing power demand.