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"The Institute of Professional Engineers overstates concerns about increasing wind and renewable generation in its report, Electricity Generation - Achieving New Zealand's Objectives," says Fraser Clark, Chief Executive of the New Zealand Wind Energy Association. "And in doing, so it misses the opportunities that renewable energy offers our economy."
The IPENZ report identifies issues with New Zealand's reliance on hydro generation and the significant uncertainties around gas supplies for electricity generation beyond the end of the decade. Nonetheless it goes on to predict a likely future scenario with three new hydro schemes on the Clutha River by 2025 and a continued reliance on baseload thermal generation.
The report fails to recognise wind energy is established and well proven as a mainstream source of electricity generation - instead calling it a "new" technology. Wind energy has been the largest source of new generation capacity in Europe for the last two years, well ahead of gas and coal, and it has been equal to natural gas in the USA.
"There is a huge wealth of experience - and success - to draw on for managing increasing wind generation in electricity systems. Many countries are already well ahead of New Zealand with integrating wind into their electricity systems. These countries include Ireland and Spain, which are comparable to New Zealand as they have very limited connections into other power systems," notes Mr Clark.
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Comments
IPENZ need to update their
IPENZ need to update their ideas and stop living in the 'energy past'. New renewable technologies are the way of the future, and NZ should be developing and selling these technologies. Talk of three more large dams on the Clutha by 2025 does little more than reveal their ignorance. Large dams are not economically viable when lifespan costs are included, and they have a lifespan carbon footprint that is 2-6 times higher than that of a windfarm.
There isn't even enough storage on the Clutha (Lake Hawea only) to run the two existing dams optimally as 'run of the river' dams, let alone adding three more! And you can be sure that more 'dry winters' are going to cause us grief because of our over-reliance on hydro. Besides, those old Francis turbines are only 60% efficient at best, while the newest kinetic turbines are up to 90% efficient and they DO NOT NEED DAMS.
A range of technologies are far superior, being cheaper, less destructive, more sustainable, and more reliable. For example, in NZ, we have the potential to produce 17,000MW in a relatively small part of the Cook Strait, using underwater turbines linked to the nearby grid. Neptune Power is working on this, and this is exactly the kind of technology we need and should be selling.
We will see a continuing energy revolution world-wide, including smarter generation, storage and delivery. Our present energy infrastructure is old and inefficient. Better turbines, batteries and smart-grid technologies already exist. What we are lacking is foresight.