Forum Archive Index - May 2004

[Robin Benson <rob@hammerheadmedia.co.uk>]

How much debate is there in New Zealand regarding the future of power 
generation? It seems that there is huge potential for a progessive, 
active and sustainable energy market given the right incentives and a 
creative approach. Is this too high an expectation given other 
countries' expertise in this area? SCT and FPA do pretty well on the 
engineering side, competing in the global market where the 
playing-field is often far from level.

The Scots are busy with mini-turbines ... Scotland's population is 
similar to New Zealand's with far less room to move. Ditto Denmark.
Scots launch rooftop wind turbine trial
http://tinyurl.com/2q3ak

Renewable Devices website (manufacturers of mini-turbines)
http://www.renewabledevices.com/swift.htm

The Danes have had an energetic (sorry) and decentralised generation 
market for some time. I know people who have done very well from their 
investment in the local wind farm, feeding into the national grid. The 
following web-page does a much better job than I of summarising these 
and other benefits:

9 Good Reasons for Local Ownership [of windmills, but true of other 
methods of generation]
http://www.middelgrunden.dk/MG_UK/wind_cooperative/why_ownership.htm

Further reading:

Danish Wind Energy Co-operatives
http://www.windpower.org/en/articles/coop.htm

The Wind Turbine Market in Denmark
http://www.windpower.org/en/articles/wtmindk.htm

I'm not just poking sticks at nuclear power ... this could be a very 
interesting and lively investment sector.

NZ needs to invest in a knowledge-research-technology-based future to 
supplement bread-and-butter exports. The kicker is that this investment 
is longer-term than NZ is traditionally used to thinking about ...

Imagine MacDunk with his mini wind-farm feeding sustainable power into 
the national grid! I rather bet on him to get his maintenance right as 
opposed to, say, Mercury in Auckland ...

Robin

On 14 May 2004, at 09:48, hugh webber wrote:

> NE1 know why CEN dropped 9cps in heavy trade this arvo?


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