Energy use rises slowly

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34046, 9 January 1976, Page 5

Energy use rises slowly

(N.Z. Press Association) j WELLINGTON. In the last two years • New Zealand's energy consumption has grown less than 2 per cent. This compares with a, .growth rate of 10.9 per cent ■in 1971-73. an average of 4.21 • per cent since 1950 A recent Department of! Scientific and Industrial Re-1 search study has shown that! New Zealand must make ai .substantial cut in its energy! consumption if the life of its; known indigenous energy re-; sources is to be prolonged. The study was made by! Mr E. R. Palmer, of the Department’s Chemistry Divi-i sion. Mr Palmer said that assumptions about future energy consumption were risky because of the increased awareness about the cost and significance of energy. But annual growth rate of 7.20 per cent up to .1988 could be expected. “If that were to be the trend, without imports, resources of coal, natural gas., condensate. hydro-electric! i power and geothermal elec-j

[tricity would not last be-; yond 2014, assuming the: 'construction of. for instance, oil-from-coal plant to pro-: • vide the present mix of con-1 ! sumer forms of energy.” Mr Palmer predicts that' New Zealand cannot avoid: substantial dependence on • imported petroleum products) land later, nuclear energy. He said the break-even; point was just under 5 peri • cent. So. the latest figures,) (putting that growth rate at* • just under 2 per cent, ap-i peared very hopeful. Mr Murray Ellis, of the: Ministry of Energy Re-; : sources, said the figures re-i fleeted the general slow--down in the economic! ; growth rate more than any- • thing. He expected them to) increase again. “It is only delaying the' time it will take us to reach any given demand figure,” he said. Factors affecting industry were very important because that was now the largest consuming sector of the community. Until 1973, transport was the largest' energy-consuming sector. Mr Ellis said that the difference; • would probably widen. )