6. GERRY BROWNLEE (National—Ilam) Link to this
to the Minister of Energy
Does he stand by his statement made when launching the New Zealand Energy Strategy on 11 October last year that “The government does not believe it is in the interests of the country for the SOEs to build any more base-load thermal generation.”?
Hon DAVID PARKER (Minister of Energy) Link to this
Yes, I do, because the Labour-led Government has a vision for a sustainable New Zealand, which means having more renewable electricity rather than more fossil-fuelled electricity. The Government is unlike the National Party, which does not even have a policy on energy and has members who are saying all sorts of contradictory things because they do not want to be pinned down on what they really stand for.
Why, then, is the Government allowing Genesis Energy to progress a proposal to build a 240 to 400 megawatt gas-fired plant at Rodney—a plant that will be the biggest new project since the Huntly station itself—if it is not for the fact that the Government has a very contradictory policy when it comes to energy security, particularly on the thermal ban and the idea of electricity generation being 90 percent renewable?
As has been reported in the Dominion Post just on Monday, Genesis has already confirmed that it will, of course, comply with the Government’s legislation and would not put any proposal to shareholding Ministers unless the project complied with it. I think it is more interesting that last week Gerry Brownlee was in Australia looking at coal and carbon capture and storage trials. You know, I have never seen Mr Brownlee at the launch of any renewable electricity or energy proposal—not one of the many projects—that we have seen in New Zealand. But there he was flying to Australia to pursue his love affair with coal, which he says he thinks is “sexy”. I am asking why National does not come clean and admit that when it finally releases its energy policy, it will be about favouring coal and fossil fuels and putting renewables back.
Madam SPEAKERWhy is the Government allowing Genesis to advance proposals to build a 240 to 480 megawatt gas-fired plant at Rodney at the same time as telling New Zealanders that the Government has a ban on thermal plants and that we are moving to 90 percent renewable generation?
Hon Dr Nick SmithNo, we are not; 175 megawatts of additional renewable capacity is required each year to achieve it, and 300 megawatts is being built this year. We have always made it clear that there will be a need for some more peaking plants, and perhaps the Rodney proposal may be one that is needed.
Su’a William SioIs New Zealand in step with other OECD countries in aiming to increase its proportion of renewable electricity from around 70 percent to 90 percent of the total amount by 2025?
Yes, we are. I am advised that Scotland’s target is to go from 16 percent to 50 percent of renewable electricity by 2020, Spain’s target is to go from 19 percent to 29 percent by 2010, Austria’s target is to go from 62 percent to 78 percent, and Australia’s target is to go from 8 percent to 20 percent by 2020. Those are just a few of the dozens of targets around the world. Our target is in step with the targets of other countries, but we are lucky to be starting from a higher base than those countries.
Was the Minister aware of the Genesis proposal when he told the Wind Energy Association conference this morning that it would take only one or two gas-fired plants to be built at the moment, to make the 90 percent renewables target unattainable in the future; if so, will he be asking Genesis Energy to back off from the Rodney proposal?
What I said to the wind conference this morning, which I have said on a number of occasions before, is that if one or two large gas-fired baseload generation facilities were built, then that would close out renewables. That does seem to be National’s ambition. At this fork in the road, we can go down the road to renewables or we can go down the road towards using more fossil fuel. The Government is pursuing a target of 90 percent coming from renewable sources. To achieve that, it is necessary to have restrictions on additional baseload fossil-fuelled generation. That is what we have, and that is what National opposes.
Can the Minister confirm that under this Government’s watch 75 percent of the new electricity generation built has been thermal, that the percentage of renewable electricity generation has plummeted to only 66 percent of total capacity, and that given this sorry record the public should not be particularly surprised that the trend is continuing, despite the Government’s rhetoric about a 90 percent renewables target?
Again, the National member shows his confusion. There is a difference between capacity and output. Our target is for 90 percent of electricity to come from renewable sources by 2025. We are on our way towards that; National opposes it.
I have a document in front of me that shows that the figures I just used are for output. The Minister may be interested to know that. I seek leave to table the document.
Te Ururoa Flavell Link to this
Tēnā koe, Madam Speaker. Kia ora tātou e te Whare tae rā anō ki ngā whanaunga o Hāmoa—talofa lava. He aha tā te Kāwanatanga hei tautoko i ngā kamupene pērā i a Tuarōpaki kei te hoko, kei te huri hiko mai i ngā ngāwhā i Mōkai?
[An interpretation in English was given to the House.]
[Greetings to you, Madam Speaker, and to those of us in the House, including relatives from Samoa—talofa lava. What will the Government do to support companies like the Tuarōpaki power company, which generates and markets electricity from the Mōkai geothermal field?]
A number of Māori organisations are partnering with State-owned enterprises to bring forward geothermal electricity generation proposals. That has been of benefit to both those Maori organisations and the country. We are very lucky to have our wonderful geothermal resource, which is already affordable, which provides substantial baseload, and which operates at higher average load factors throughout a year than any other source of generation, including gas or coal.