””””CANBERRA, April 25 (Xinhuanet) -- Australia has begun to develop renewable
energy though it is rich in oil and coal resources.
””””A big wind farm is under construction on the north-western tip of Tasmania.
The Australian Financial Review said in its latest report that the project was
designed to catch the roaring trade winds blowing down Bass Strait and generate
about 130 MW a year. The first two stages of the project will be in service by
mid-2003,generating 54 MW. The power will sell to states on the Mainland,
especially on the developed East Coast.
””””In another development, a newly listed company, Environmission,is searching
for an ideal site in Victoria to build a one-kilometer-high solar thermal tower,
which will be surrounded by a five-kilometer-diameter field of mirrors. The
would-be tallest built structure in the world require 670 million Australian
dollars (355 million U.S. dollars) and will produce 200 MW a year.
””””However, the country is still depending mainly on fossil fuels such as
coal, oil and gas. According to a figure released earlier,fossil fuels accounted
in 1997-98 for 94 percent of energy consumed, while the proportion of renewable
energy consumed has declined to 6 percent.
””””Steps to develop new energy are small. The government-owned statistics
magazine ABARE forecasted in its latest issue that the renewable energy will
grow by only 2.3 percent a year. The power generated by wind energy is to grow
by 25 percent a year until 2019-20 and will still only account for 0.9 percent
of the electricity market in the country.
””””But the highly polluting brown coal production will be limited.ABARE
estimated brown coal consumption will rise by just 0.4 percent a year over the
next 20 years. In contrast, use of black coal is to increase by 1.4 percent
while the use of natural gas will grow by an average of 2.3 percent a year to
eventually generate 23.9 percent of the energy used in Australia from 18 percent
now.
””””Australia is short of immediate drive to develop alternative energy. The
Howard government is reluctant to ratify the Kyoto protocol though last year the
Bonn conference allowed carbon to beabsorbed in vegetation and soil in Australia
to offset emissions from industry and transport. It means Australia is committed
to holding its greenhouse gas emissions at 8 percent over 1990 levelsby 2010.
Enditem
””””
””
””