Brownlee Gerry: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Brownlee Gerry: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:646;Page:15489] 
8.  
GERRY BROWNLEE (National—Ilam) 
 to the  
Minister of Energy 
: Does he think Genesis Power’s proposed new 480 megawatt gas-fired power station at Rodney is consistent with the Government’s Energy Strategy; if so why? 
Hon DAVID PARKER (Minister of Energy) 
: 
 A large baseload gas-fired power station would close out renewables it would increase greenhouse gas emissions and it would undermine efforts to achieve New Zealand’s 90 percent renewable energy target. But that is not what Genesis Energy now proposes. As the company itself has stated it will comply with legislation. It has also been reported as confirming that no funding proposal would even go to shareholding Ministers for approval unless it complied. 
Gerry Brownlee 
: Is the Minister seriously asking the House to believe that Genesis Energy a State-owned enterprise would spend the thick end of $500 million building a new thermal power station which is bigger than the last Huntly power station committed simply for it to be used occasionally as back-up—non-baseload—or is he just embarrassed that one of the Government’s own energy companies is very publicly defying the Government’s ban on new thermal energy? 
Hon DAVID PARKER 
: I am not at all embarrassed and I do not think anything is hidden here. Not only is Genesis Energy looking at peaking plants but also Contact Energy has announced proposals for peaking plants. These are good advances. New Zealand does need some peaking plants into the future and I am pleased that these companies are carrying this forward. 
Darien Fenton 
: Can the Minister advise the House of some of the renewable electricity projects now under construction or planned? 
Hon DAVID PARKER 
: Three hundred megawatts of renewable capacity are currently being constructed. Approximately 125 megawatts of this is geothermal 16 megawatts is hydro and 164 megawatts is wind. In addition some 500 megawatts of renewables have resource consents. Of that figure about 130 megawatts is geothermal and over 300 megawatts is wind. On top of that many more renewable electricity projects are in the consent process. 
Gerry Brownlee 
: Why does the Minister continue to talk about what might happen and continue to say as he did yesterday that we are well on the way to achieving a 90 percent renewable electricity generation capacity when his ministry’s own figures show that under his Government electrical energy from renewable sources has fallen by some 6 percent and 75 percent of all new generation has been thermal—or is that just the rhetoric he gives to keep people happy before he then goes and does something entirely different? 
Hon DAVID PARKER 
: As I have previously said in this House one of the things that has happened over the last decade is that existing thermal has run to higher load factors. That is one of the reasons why the percentage of renewables has decreased. I have also made the point that this year we are building 300 megawatts of renewables. New Zealand needs to build 175 megawatts of renewables each year to meet the 90 percent renewables target and I am confident that as a country we will do so. 
Gerry Brownlee 
: Does not the decision by Genesis to proceed with the new plant at Rodney confirm the unnatural distinction between so-called baseload generation and reserve generation because the reality is that all power plants are in use in New Zealand today as we have a scarcity of electrical energy and the Minister’s approach to renewable energy has no show of getting off the ground given the record of his Government? 
Hon DAVID PARKER 
: No. 
Gerry Brownlee 
: Can the Minister confirm that despite his rhetoric and that of the Prime Minister—the constant talk about carbon neutrality and sustainability—last year only 66 percent of New Zealand’s electrical energy was generated from renewable sources a 6 percent drop over the case 8 years earlier and that under the watch of his Government rather than its producing more renewable capacity we have seen 75 percent of new generation built with thermal capacity? 
Hon DAVID PARKER 
: The 66 percent figure to which the member refers is the third-highest proportion of renewables in the world. New Zealand can do even better than that; we can get to 90 percent by building 175 megawatts of renewable capacity each year and this year we are building 300. 
Gerry Brownlee 
: Can the Minister confirm that the electricity spot price has recently climbed to $300 per megawatt hour in the North Island; if so why is the Minister ignoring the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research— 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: This member is so last week! 
Gerry Brownlee 
: I will start again. Can the Minister confirm— 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: He’s so last century. 
Gerry Brownlee 
: I can tell members that this guy is obviously late for the anger management class. There he is just swaying on the ropes—“Rope-a-dope” Trevor! 
Hon Harry Duynhoven 
: No that’s not on— 
Gerry Brownlee 
: I withdraw and apologise—all right Harry? You should be the Minister son. To the Minister— 
Dail Jones 
: Point of order. 
Madam SPEAKER 
: Please be seated. We have a point of order. 
Dail Jones 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. This is all very interesting but if those parties are not interested in question time perhaps we should move on to the next question from the Green member which I am sure will be much more interesting. 
Madam SPEAKER 
: Yes I must confess that I would be tempted to call the next question but we will have one more go. 
Gerry Brownlee 
: Can the Minister confirm that the electricity spot prices have recently climbed above $300 per megawatt hour in the North Island; if so why is he ignoring the prediction of the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research of a dry winter this year with all of the worries of electricity shortages that such a prediction might bring but is prepared to redesign the entire energy system based on a 50-year climate prediction from the same organisation—what is the difference between 2008 and the next 50 years? 
Hon DAVID PARKER 
: I do not think anyone is denying that inflows into the hydro system have been lower this year than is average.