Wind farms turn out to be tree times more expensive to build than gas generators

The Shadow Minister for Energy Dr Steve Thomas the estimates process in State Parliament today delivered a cost shock for wind farms in Western Australia.

“Today in estimates we learnt that the Government will pay $500 million to build the King Rocks wind farm at Kondinin, 350km east of Perth” Dr Thomas said.

“We were also told the wind farm is expected to a nameplate capacity of up to 140 Megawatts.

“Simple maths therefore tells us that the construction cost of this windfarm is $3.57 million per Megawatt.

“In my energy policy released in May we committed to building an additional 300 Megawatts of gas generation, using the Government’s own costing put together by the Economic Regulation Authority of $264 million.

“That puts the price of construction of a gas unit at below $1 per Megawatt.

“The construction price of the wind turbines is three and a half times that of the equivalent gas generator.

“Of course, Synergy has to purchase gas to produce electricity from a gas unit, and that comes at a cost.

“But it will take 35 years of gas purchases