freediver wrote on Nov 22
nd, 2007 at 9:07pm:
It has nothing to do with economies of scale. We aren't taking our coal fired plants over to China because of economies of scale. The Howard government killed off the Australian wind power industry. It's as simple as that.
It has a great deal to do with economies of scale.
China's energy requirements are frightening. Today they produce approx 2,000,000,000,000 Kwh of electricity - that's 2 thousand billion Kwh. That's far more than the rest of Asia combined.
Wind power makes up less than .001%. Less than point zero zero 1 percent!!!! It's pathetically small as a percentage of the total.
And Australia's wind power generation is massive by the standards of the region. We generate almost as much as the entire Pacific Region combined. In fact we generate more electricity using wind power than Latin America, the Carribean, North Africa, Egypt and Morocco combined. Under John Howard we have seen huge growth in alternative energies.
But still we generate only a little over half of China's output.
It's called 'economies of scale' as IQ pointed out. They don't seem to do much as a percentage - but the quantum is massive.