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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Second Session (51-2)
2008-06-18 Daily Xml
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BROWN HILL WIND FARM

Ms CICCARELLO (Norwood) (14:06): Will the Premier inform the house about South Australia's newest wind farm at Brown Hill?

The Hon. M.D. RANN (Ramsay—Premier, Minister for Economic Development, Minister for Social Inclusion, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Sustainability and Climate Change) (14:06): I promise members this: I will never call a quorum to get my own supporters into the gallery to support me.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.D. RANN: That is how bad things are on the other side of the parliament.

Ms CHAPMAN: Mr Speaker, point of order.

The Hon. M.D. RANN: They had to have the ringing of the bells—

The SPEAKER: Order! The Premier will take his seat.

Ms CHAPMAN: Mr Speaker, that is the second time the Premier has deliberately defied your ruling.

The SPEAKER: Order! We do not need theatrics. The Premier will answer the substance of the question.

The Hon. M.D. RANN: Thank you, sir. I am delighted to answer this question. I would have liked to have had more notice, but, never mind. This is controversial, I know that. I know what I will say, and I do not want anyone to think that I am dodging these issues at all. I will not run and hide. I will pull the sock out that the Tiser put in! Okay. South Australia is taking a leadership role in the development of renewable energy in Australia. Wind power in particular has been a great success story for our state. I had the pleasure of opening AGL's Hallett Stage 1 wind farm last week, along with the outstanding local member, Graham Gunn. I should use his proper name, but I am very pleased and proud to call him my friend and colleague.

He is the grandfather of the house, I am the deputy grandfather of the house and the member for Wright is the grandmother of the house. And congratulations; she is a beautiful baby. I saw the picture the other day; it is fantastic. AGL's Hallett wind farm, which I had the pleasure of opening last week along with Graham Gunn, will bring South Australia's share of the nation's total installed wind power capacity to around 53 per cent—8 per cent of the population of Australia, 53 per cent of the wind power.

The $250 million Hallett Stage 1 project includes 45 turbines with a capacity of 95 megawatts. I am told that this will be able to provide electricity for around 50,000 homes and will avoid hundreds of thousands of tonnes of carbon emissions being released into the atmosphere. I must say that it is quite something to take in the view of these majestic turbines in the Mid North landscape of South Australia. I know that every member would agree that not one wind turbine was operating six years ago. We now have 53 per cent—billions of dollars worth of investment in wind farms. What a difference a change of government makes! At the opening I was told by AGL's Managing Director, Michael Fraser, that the Mid North of South Australia is regarded as being one of the best areas of wind prospectivity in the nation.

In fact, it has been described as the hub of Australian wind farm investment. He also told me that, with the completion of Hallett stage 2 at Hallett Hill and the proposed development of Hallett stage 3 at Mount Bryan, as well as Hallett stage 4 at North Brown Hill, AGL would have invested more than $1 billion in the region—$1 billion of investment in the Mid North. He also mentioned the possibility of Hallett stage 5; and, according to AGL, that means more than 400 jobs will have been created by 2010. I want to congratulate the energy minister. Some people regard me as the greenie in the cabinet, but I know that sitting to my right is a minister—

The Hon. K.O. Foley: Over one. Two to your right.

The Hon. M.D. RANN: Two to my right is a minister who is a genuine greenie from way back. In fact, I would encourage him to look at lunar power because of the tidal currents we have in South Australia. Altogether, there are currently 261 wind turbines operating in South Australia. This is a great investment in the local community, not only with construction and ongoing jobs but also for the reliable income that the wind turbines generate for local farmers.

Another investment in the community is the establishment of a regional centre of operations, office and stores facilities, by Suzlon Energy. I am told that Suzlon Energy is ranked as the fifth leading wind turbine supplier in the world. People would know that Suzlon Energy is based in India. In fact, from memory, it is based in Pune, which is about three hours' drive from Mumbai—in fact, very close to where we have been working with the Maharashtra government and Indage Holdings Limited on a wine research centre, which I think is going to have great benefits for the wine industry here as we sell South Australian wine into the Indian marketplace by lifting the interest of wine in India—which has nothing to do with Suzlon Energy.

Following the opening of the Hallett Wind Farm, I travelled to Jamestown to turn the first sod on this $1.5 million regional operation. I invited the member for Stuart to join me. I am advised that the company has three other contracts in place in South Australia—at Snowtown, Clements Gap and Hallett Hill, which in total will bring Suzlon's contract value to more than $750 million. Given the contracts are within 80 kilometres of each other, Suzlon Energy has committed to a long-term presence in the community.

I am told that by the middle of 2010 South Australia will have around 860 megawatts—that is, 860 megawatts—of wind generation capacity in store, which represents around $2 billion worth of investment in clean, renewable energy production. As I say, what a difference to six years ago when there was not one wind farm and not one wind turbine. Now, in 2008, with just 8 per cent of the nation's population, we have gone from around 47 per cent to 53 per cent. I want to make this prediction today: I believe that by next year we will have about 20 per cent of South Australia's power coming from wind power and solar power combined, which will put us into a world leadership position.

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