Build smaller power stations closer to demand, say Greens

Jeanette Fitzsimons

Green Party co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons disagrees with Keith Turner. She says the bigger pylons will promote the large-scale construction of polluting coal-fired power station, rather than renewable forms of energy.

The new 400-kilovolt, $500 million line proposed through the Waikato will not promote renewable forms of energy such as windpower, argues Jeanette Fitzsimons.

Instead, she predicts its construction will lead to "a rush of large-scale building of new coal-fired stations".

The Green Party co-leader says that once the line is built, the economics of new, polluting coal stations in the South Island will improve, prompting more to be built.

She says the plan smacks of 1950s thinking, although she agrees that a reliable national grid is essential.

"There's no doubt at all that if we want wind we need a grid. Whether you need a grid with more capacity than we've got now is a different question," she says.

"A 21st century, environmentally-friendly energy policy would have smaller power stations, mostly using renewable energy sources, closer to demand with fewer line losses; local grids linked by a national grid no more powerful than we have now; and much, much less energy waste."

Other forms of energy will soon be available, says Ms Fitzsimons. Waste wood from new wood-processing industries in Northland can be used for co-generation. Excess power will be fed back into the grid. It will be a renewable source of power where it is needed, north of Auckland.

Within 10 to 20 years, generation from wave and tidal power should also be coming onstream, she says.

Opponents of the new 220km Waikato transmission line have also pointed to the need for more power stations closer to Auckland and growth areas north of the city. One station, a 19-megawatt windfarm planned for the Awhitu Peninsula south of Auckland, was turned down for resource consent last year, after objections about what it would look like and the effect on horses.

State-owned power company Genesis is appealing the decision to the Environment Court.