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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2010-06-24 Daily Xml
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ELECTRICITY (WIND POWER) AMENDMENT BILL

Introduction and First Reading

Mr PENGILLY (Finniss) (11:03): Obtained leave and introduced a bill for an act to amend the Electricity Act 1996. Read a first time.

Second Reading

Mr PENGILLY (Finniss) (11:03): I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

I will not take an inordinate amount of time because I am aware of other business. This is identical to the bill that I introduced in the last parliament. I bring it back hoping that I will get support from the government to introduce this piece of legislation. It is not a complicated bill. Currently, users of solar energy have the opportunity to assist with a feed-in tariff back into the system. I am proposing, without going through all of the paraphernalia that I went through last time, to do the same thing and allow small wind turbines to be introduced onto buildings and to get a feed-in tariff for that form of energy.

All this bill attempts to do is remedy the situation, so that any excess energy created by households can be fed into the grid and then, as for solar panels, you get a feed-in tariff out of it. The way that the bill achieves this is by broadening the definition—I am excited with the events of the day, ma'am, I am sorry—of 'qualifying generator' in section 36AC of the Electricity Act so that it includes—

An honourable member: One down and one to go.

Mr PENGILLY: That's it: one Kevin gone and another one to happen—both solar generators and wind turbine generators. The technical matters are simple. I want to say a few words about the purpose of the bill because it could have quite a significant effect in the wider electorate of South Australia, including my own electorate, of course.

Wind generation is not new. Indeed, for decades people in rural areas had free light power, and it was an efficient and useful means before many areas had mains. The wind light generators powered the batteries and the batteries powered the houses. My colleagues behind me probably cannot remember wind lights—

An honourable member: We remember.

Mr PENGILLY: You remember; good man. It is also interesting that the Fleurieu, as part of my electorate, has led the way in wind energy in South Australia, with the first wind farm at Starfish Hill, I think in 1995—from memory, it came in about then. Wayne Matthew, as minister initiated things, and then when Patrick Conlon came in he took it one step further and signed off and we got the Starfish Hill Wind Farm and, of course, it has gone on from there.

In my electorate there is a very competent engineer by the name of Mr Mike Davison, who has invented a cylindrical wind turbine. I am not talking about the fan type, this is a small cylindrical wind turbine. He would seek to put those into production and, obviously, they would probably be put into production around the rest of the nation. I think it is an absolute winner. I think it gives people the opportunity to generate some revenue. I have a stream of, particularly, pensioners who have solar panels on their properties who benefit from the feed-in tariff they get, some of them actually complaining that they are earning too much money and it is damaging their pensions.

I ask at this time that this bill of mine not disappear never to surface again. I seek a bipartisan approach on this so that we can actually get some common sense out of it. I know there would be a little bit of toing and froing on the side, and we went through that last time, but, to me, that is not an issue. If the government sees fit to support my bill, I see it as a leader in Australia and as some leadership from this parliament in getting it up and about.

As I said, this will promote efficiency and competition in the electricity supply industry. It will promote the establishment and maintenance of a safe and efficient system of electricity generation. It is in the best interests of the consumers of electricity. It is in the best interests of the environment, and I think that is important.

While we talk about all these sources of electricity and energy, the sun and the wind are there all the time. The sun is not there at night, not here anyway, but the wind is there 24 hours a day, a lot of the time, and by placing these turbines on people's homes and businesses it can be a valuable support mechanism. It could cut back the use of coal-fired electricity generators in some small way, and I think it is in the best interests of South Australia. With those few words and without seeking to go through everything that I said last time, I ask the house to support the bill.

Debate adjourned on motion of Mr Sibbons.

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