Call for Australia to make wind turbine towers as well as solar PV and battery storage
The local manufacture of wind turbine towers in Australia could create more than 4,000 direct jobs, produce more than 800 towers a year and slash millions of tonnes of emissions from imports, a new report has found.
The report from The Australia Institute’s Centre for Future Work is calling for wind turbine towers to be included in the policy push for a Future Made in Australia, alongside solar PV and battery energy storage systems.
It says that given Australia’s “comparatively unsophisticated manufacturing base,” a mature low-medium technology activity like making turbine towers is well within our domestic capability.
According to cases simulated in the report, an established workforce could produce around 818 towers every year with a cumulative value of $15 billion over the next 17 years.
The report also finds about 2.6 million tonnes of CO2 emissions would be avoided thanks to reduced shipping.
Wind towers have been manufactured in Australia, but policy uncertainty over a decade of Coalition governments put local operations out of business, with the last locally produced turbine tower finished in 2020.
The report says fresh efforts to establish turbine tower manufacturing in Australia are unlikely to meet the same fate, due to supportive renewables policies both federally and in states.