New-look energy plan this year

Press, 16 February 1980, Page 5

New-look energy plan this year

PA Dunedin The first energy plan giving details of planning assumptions and energy strategy will be tabled in Parliament this year, the Minister of Energy (Mr Birch) has said. The plan would give details of pricing policies, energy conservation plans, liquid fuel, gas, electricity, and coal development, and energy research and development projects, Mr Birch told the National Conference of the Institution of Engineers.

It would be revised annually by an energy advisory council to be established for the purpose, and would replace the report of the Power Planning Committee and the Committee to review Power Requirements. Mr Birch also told the engineers that various pri-vate-sector proposals for the development of ethanol from rootcrops in Canterbury, and forestry in Rotorua, were being considered before the Government determined which would be used for commercial ethanol production.

Ethanol from biomass was not as favourable economically as methanol production from natural gas, but Mr Birch said that it had an assured future in New Zealand’s, energy scene as a sustainable energy source. He also said that coal

would play a dominant part in 'future energy developments, as new technologies were under development to convert coal to liquid fuel at a price competitive with oil at $3O a barrel. Mr Birch said that details of New Zealand’s coal resources had been supplied to many overseas companies, but it was too early to say whether any firm proposals would follow from the approaches. He said that in the immediate future there was a sense of urgency about the four big projects the Government had approved in an effort to make New Zealand more than 50 per cent self-sufficient in liquid fuels by 1987. A chain of liquefied petroleum gas stations between Auckland and Wellington would be designed to service 10 per cent of the total vehicle fleet by the end of 1985. Plans for the $350 million refinery at Marsden Point, due for completion in 1984, were well under way. The project was on appropriately zoned land and had already been subjected to environmental impact reporting procedures. \ However, the worldsized methanol plant, due for completion in 1984, and the synthetic petrol plant, due for completion in 1985, had yet to go through site selection, design, and planning procedures, Mr Birch said.

He said that undue delays could not be tolerated' in the development of the schemes because of New Zealand’s vulnerable position. The National Development Bill “should be seen as a faster alternative where the national interest is at risk, and not as legislation which will compromise either planning or environmental interests,” Mr Birch said. Dr Basil Walker, technical director of the Liquid Fuels Trust Board, told the conference that both the methanol and synthetic petrol plants would be in the Taranaki area. He said that the scale of the two projects was subject to negotiation, but the chemical methanol plant would produce betwen 400,000 tonnes and 660,000 tonnes of methanol a year. The synthetic petrol plant would produce betwen 500,000 tonne and 700,000 tonnes of petrol from methanol a year. Dr . Walker said that from the environmental point of view the projects would not have drastic environmental effects. “Natural gas is a clean feedstock, and processing plants can be designed to a very high standard of environmental protection,” he said.' However, environmental effects could become more difficult to deal with when biomass and coal were used as liquid fuel feedstocks.