Wind energy blowing hot air

There are ways of storing energy which may also help with this problem. One small-scale method involves charging battery electrolyte (the fluid in large batteries) and storing the electrolyte for use later in re-energising batteries. Its use with a turbine system on King Island in Bass Strait has reduced, although not eliminated, local use of diesel powered generators. (See here.)

Another possibility is to use wind turbines to pump water into a dam so that the dam can then be used to produce hydro-electricity as and when required. The dam is a form of battery. Energy from coal powered plants is used to pump water uphill when the energy is not required for the grid. But this does not seem to be done anywhere with wind energy.

This very substantial problem with wind energy then may be overcome with considerably more work, and some careful planning. Instead of looking for windy sites, network planners should look for an optimal spread of sites to smooth out some of those enormous variations, and combine it with improved wind forecasting. Perhaps hooking those sites up to a spread of wave power generators and combine it all with a dam might achieve something - although the designers will also have to take into account the cost of building transmission lines out to more remote areas where there might be more wind.

But nothing like that is being planned and, if it were, generating a genuine 20 per cent from renewables, as opposed to a symbolic reduction, would seem to be an all but impossible figure. A 5 per cent genuine contribution would seem to be more achievable.

As matters now stand, if power generating companies are required to buy 20 per cent of their power from renewable generators by 2020, then they will do so, and pass the cost onto the consumers. The problem is that it will be a nominal 20 per cent - the power stations will still be operating at almost the same capacity, as they would be if the renewables were not there at all, and the network would be overall less efficient. The wind farms and other projects will be there simply to make voters think that the Government has done something about emissions. They will be an expensive symbol, and a symbol for which consumers will pay.