Right: This wind turbine, one of a dozen just outside the city of Albany, Western Australia, dwarfs the humans on the track below it.
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Background information
Much of the information given below has been taken from a Wikipedia entry titled 'Wind power in Australia'.
The full text can be accessed at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power_in_Australia
Wind power is a rapidly expanding mode of renewable energy production in Australia with an average annual rate of growth in installed capacity of 35% over the five years up to 2011. As of 2011, there is 2224 megawatts (MW) of installed capacity, with another 15284 MW either being planned or under construction. In the year to October 2011, wind power generated 6432 gigawatt hours (GWh) of electricity accounting for 2.4% of Australia's total electricity demand and 21.9% of total renewable energy supply. As of October 2010, there were 52 wind farms in Australia, most of which had turbines of from 1.5 to 3 MW.
South Australia has close to half of the nation's wind power capacity, accounting for almost twenty percent of that state's electricity needs of as October 2010. By the end of 2011 wind power in South Australia reached 26% of the State's electricity generation, edging out coal-fired power for the first time. At this stage South Australia, with only 7.2% of Australia's population, had 54% of the nation's installed wind compactly. Victoria also had a substantial system, with about a quarter of the nation's capacity, and projects under construction forecast to more than double that capacity by the end of 2013.
Australia has excellent wind resources by world standards. The southern coastline lies in the roaring forties and hundreds of sites have average wind speeds above 8 or even 9 m/s at 50 m above ground (the hub height of a modern wind generator). The southwest of Western Australia, southern South Australia, western Victoria, northern Tasmania and elevated areas of New South Wales and Queensland have good wind resources. Several states engaged in systematic wind speed monitoring in the 1980s and 1990s, the results of which are publicly available. Australian wind farms produce on average capacity factors of 30-35%, making wind an attractive option.
Australian government policy changes regarding wind power
From 2001 to early 2006, the main driving force for the establishment of wind farms in Australia was the Government's Mandatory Renewable Energy Target (MRET). However, by mid-2006, sufficient renewable energy had been installed or was under construction to meet the small MRET target for 2010. Also, in 2006, several Federal Government Ministers spoke out against a number of wind farm proposals.
Some critics have suggested that the Howard Government had tried to stop the development of wind power, the lowest-cost, new, renewable electricity source, until such time as coal-fired power stations with CO2 capture and sequestration and possibly nuclear power stations are available. However, 'clean coal' technologies may not be commercially available for at least 20 years. Furthermore, to bring down the high cost of nuclear power to a level where it could compete with wind power would require a new generation of nuclear power stations that is still on the drawing board, which could take at least 15 years.
In November 2007 the Rudd (Labor) government was elected in Australia on a platform of reducing Australia's greenhouse gas emissions. The new government ratified Australia's commitment to the Kyoto Protocol, promised a target of 20% renewable power by 2020 and to introduce an emissions trading scheme intended to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. As a result, several new wind power projects were proposed or developed in anticipation of an expanded MRET.
The Abbott (Liberal/National Coalition) government elected in 2013 has been critical of the RET.
In October 2014, while opening a 3.9 billion coal mine in central Queensland, the Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, stated, 'Coal is good for humanity, coal is good for prosperity, coal is an essential part of our economic future, here in Australia, and right around the world.'
The Prime Minister went on to claim, 'Energy is what sustains our prosperity, and coal is the world's principal energy source and it will be for many decades to come.'
On 18 May, 2015, a bipartisan deal was reached between the Federal Government and the Labor Opposition regarding what Australia's renewable energy target would be for the next five years.
The legislation for the new target was finally passed in the Senate on June 24, 2015. The new target is 33,000 gigawatt-hours of renewable energy sources by 2020. This is around 20 per cent lower than the original 41,000 gigawatt-hours target. This was based on a compromise brokered by the Clean Energy Council (CEC).
On June 10, 2015, the Prime Minister gave a radio interview to Sydney talkback host Alan Jones, during which he stated that he regretted Australia had ever committed itself to a RET and that his intention was to reduce the growth of wind farms which he criticised as 'ugly' and harmful to human health.
On June 18, 2015, the Abbott government announced its intention to appoint a national wind farm commissioner to investigate complaints about wind turbines. A similar commissioner has not been appointed to investigate complaints about any other form of power generation.
On July 12, 2015, the Abbott government announced the federal that it will instruct the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) not to invest in existing wind technology or small-scale solar power projects. Instead, the CEFC is to focus its energies on 'emerging technologies', including large-scale industrial solar generation.