Lash for $350m wind project
Credit: Sue Neales, The Mercury, www.themercury.com.au, 29 December 2009
The opposition has accused the Government of being foolhardy in pressing ahead with a $350 million wind farm.
Liberal energy spokesman Peter Gutwein also queried yesterday why $30 million had already been spent since April to begin construction work on the wind farm at Musselroe in Tasmania’s North-East.
The State Government said on Sunday the massive project had been quietly given the green light to go ahead despite the business case for final project approval being unlikely to be finalised for several months.
Mr Gutwein said the Government was being foolhardy in speeding up construction of the 56-turbine wind farm when no contracts or sale prices had yet been locked in for the supply of the 130 megawatts of power it will produce.
He told the Government to “draw breath” rather than rush in to complete a project that might turn into a financial white elephant.
The Musselroe wind farm will be built, owned and managed by Tasmanian renewable energy company Roaring 40s, half-owned by the State Government through its energy generation business Hydro Tasmania.
Mr Gutwein acknowledged that construction of the Musselroe project would be an employment boon for the state’s North-East.
But he is concerned its go-ahead is now driven more by the impending state election than sound financial reason.
“The concern I have is that there has been a significant investment already [in the Musselroe project] without there being any certainty the project is commercially viable,” he said.
“The Tasmanian Liberals want Musselroe to succeed but only the very foolhardy — or this State Government — would plough ahead with construction without knowing whether the project will actually be able to financially sustain itself.”
The Government has repeatedly refused to answer questions about progress on the Musselroe project at Cape Portland.
The dramatic fall in value of saleable Renewable Energy Credit certificates produced when wind power is generated has been blamed for threatening the future of wind farm projects nationally.
Tags: Wind power, Wind energy
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