12. GERRY BROWNLEE (National—Ilam) Link to this
to the Minister of Energy
How much electricity, if any, was generated from thermally fuelled sources in the months of April, May, June, and July 2008, measured as a percentage of total electricity generation for each month?
Hon DAVID PARKER (Minister of Energy) Link to this
Electricity from fossil-fuelled sources in those months peaked at 46 percent of the total in June and fell to 37 percent in July. This compares to around 35 percent in a normal year.
Is the Minister’s stubborn insistence on advancing the thermal ban, in the face of overwhelming opposition from industry experts, an indication of a total lack of confidence in the ability of the Government’s emissions trading scheme to incentivise new renewable generation, because, if the emissions trading scheme works—as he assures us it will—why is it that we need this heavy-handed thermal ban?
First, it is not a ban. [ Interruption] It is not a ban. National is doing its best to set up a phoney war. Its members are trying to argue that security of supply and renewables are incompatible, but of course we know that we can have both. The first casualty in this phoney war that is being set up was from a salvo in National’s own energy policy. It produced a graph on security margins that left off the period after 2006, because it did not suit the myth that National was trying to portray. National excluded from its security margins the 1,000 megawatts of electricity capacity that has since been added or is currently under construction. It is a phoney war and the first casualty is truth.
Moana MackeyJust today Contact Energy, one of New Zealand’s biggest generators, outlined its plans to invest up to $3 billion in about 1,400 megawatts of new generation projects, nearly all of it renewable. It includes about 500 megawatts of geothermal, a renewable baseload source of renewable electricity. Mighty River Power is also building more geothermal. These investors have confidence in a renewable future. In contrast, of course, we have the backward-looking energy policy from the National Party, which is wedded to fossil fuels—
Hon Dr Nick SmithIt is well supported by Nick Smith and about one other. National would tie electricity prices to rising gas prices and increasing greenhouse gas emissions. It is no wonder that Greenpeace said of National’s policy: “Earth to National: there is this thing called climate change.”
Is it now the Minister’s position that thermal generation has saved his bacon this year but we do not need any more of it?
That is not what the policy says. It is clear that we have large amounts of economic, geothermal, baseload renewable capacity that the generators are willing to build and that we know is cost competitive. National is turning its back on that, saying “More fossil fuel, less renewables”.
I seek leave to table the graph used by National in its energy policy that excludes the 1,000 megawatts.