Wind Group Slams International Energy Assessment

The wind energy association in New Zealand has attacked an international report which provides little support for wind technology in that country.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand, NZ, 2001-07-19 [SolarAccess.com] The wind energy association in New Zealand has attacked an international report which provides little support for wind technology in that country. “The latest International Energy Agency report on energy use in New Zealand must be condemned as a sham of biased and outdated tunnel vision thinking,” says Alistair Wilson, chairman of the New Zealand Wind Energy Association. “Fossil fuelled business appears to have influenced the response prepared by the Ministry of Economic Development and used by the IEA to prepare the report on New Zealand.” “Their work is at odds with, and undermines, all of the submissions from the renewable energy industry and those passionate public who wanted to be involved in the development of the national Energy Efficiency & Conservation Strategy for New Zealand,” he adds. A national strategy for promotion of renewable energy and energy efficiency currently is under development by the Energy Efficiency & Conservation Authority and Ministry for the Environment. Public consultations on the draft are finished and the final strategy is due in October. “The IEA have pulled the rug out from under them with this biased and one-sided report,” says Wilson. “NZWEA is very disappointed in the IEA’s lack of support for the sustainable energy future which is published government policy.” “It appears like an attempt to kill off the development of new sustainable energy industries in New Zealand before they even get to first base,” he says. “It was clear that the IEA report was completely out of kilter with their own sustainability objectives, and clearly is not in New Zealand’s sustainable interest.” The IEA assessment for New Zealand suggests that the renewable energy industry consider how small-scale renewable sources of energy “can efficiently participate in the competitive electricity market” and “encourage small-scale renewable energy generators to address problems of reliability and to improve overall operational efficiency,” quotes Wilson. The assessment on Australia recommends that the country “continue to use and, if possible, expand incentives within the regulatory reform process, such as the Mandatory Renewable Energy Target,” while the report on Sweden recommends that the government “introduce a scheme to support market entry of renewables that does not distort competition.” The IEA recommends that Canada may require some form of support to further advance renewable energy, “preferably through market-based incentives consistent with reforms that are underway in the electricity market,” and the report on the Netherlands noted that “Dutch citizens are very environmentally minded; they are prepared to pay extra for clean and renewable energy to meet the national climate commitments.” “These sorts of comments should have been reported for New Zealand also,” concludes Wilson.