Antinuclear

Only 5.6% of Australians prefer fossil fuel energy, meanwhile, wind energy growing

Almost three-quarters of the 1000 Australians polled prefer to have their energy supplied by renewable sources, and just 5.6 per cent for fossil fuels – almost the reverse of the country’s actual energy mix………

Tilting towards wind energy, SMH, November 21, 2012, Peter Hannam  AUSTRALIANS overwhelmingly want more renewable energy over the next five years and half of them want the brands they regularly buy to declare the source of the energy that went into making them.

That’s two of the findings in a study across 20 countries commissioned by Vestas Wind Systems, the world’s biggest maker of wind turbines, and Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

Almost three-quarters of the 1000 Australians polled prefer to have their energy supplied by renewable sources, and just 5.6 per cent for fossil fuels – almost the reverse of the country’s actual energy mix………
Despite the concerns, wind turbines are expected to continue to expand
rapidly because of their relatively cheap cost of power generation.
From about 2500 megawatts of installed capacity now, the industry is
likely to erect turbines with a total capacity of 1000 megawatts each
year for the rest of the decade, said Ken McAlpine, director of
Vestas’ policy and government relations.
Several challenges, though, remain. For starters, the government is
under pressure from fossil fuel-fired generators to tinker with the
renewable energy target, putting at risk $17 billion in potential
investment. And New South Wales may follow Victoria in restricting
wind turbines to within two kilometres of a house without the consent
of the owner.
”There’s been a lot of interest from developers of projects in NSW,
despite the anti-wind movement there,” Mr McAlpine said. ”We have a
lot of faith that the government will take a balanced approach.”
Morten Albaek, Vestas’ group senior vice-president, in Australia to
launch the Energy Transparency campaign on Wednesday, said the media
magnified opposition to wind turbines. Vestas recently helped fund the
launch of WindMade, a consumer label identifying products produced
using wind power – a concept the company is in talks to introduce in
Australia in the March quarter next year.
Participating companies must obtain at least 25 per cent of their
electricity from wind sources, a level that many firms – particularly
those in South Australia with its soaring wind energy supplies – will
be eligible to apply for, Mr Albaek said.
Google, Motorola, IKEA and Coca-Cola are among firms signing up to
brandish their green credentials.  http://www.smh.com.au/business/tilting-towards-wind-energy-20121120-29o0b.html#ixzz2CsXa1MMO

November 20, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, wind