According to research from the Centre for Future Work, Australia could create more than 4,300 quality direct jobs by making its own wind towers instead of importing them.
Earlier this year, Weld Australia called upon the Federal Government to provide a clear and immediate public response regarding the manufacturing of wind and transmission towers.
Weld Australia wanted clarification over whether the wind towers would be manufactured in Australia, or in China.
Both Weld Australia and the Centre for Future Work are advocating for the wind towers to be made in Australia, creating thousands of jobs in the process.
READ MORE: Towers to be built by Australia or China?: Weld Australia
At present, all wind towers installed in Australia are imported from overseas with most coming from China.
“It’s conventional in traditional economic circles to say Australia should stick to its so-called ‘comparative advantage’, in determining its role in the emerging net-zero global economy,” report author Professor Phil Toner, senior research fellow at University of Sydney said.
“But if we follow the advice of conventional economists we will lock Australia into once again being just a supplier of raw resources to other, more technologically sophisticated countries.
“These countries will purchase Australian resources at the going global rate, transform them into innovative and expensive products, and then sell them back to us at premium prices.”
“Manufacturing our own wind power equipment represents an enormous opportunity for Australia to attain a more balanced industrial structure and create good quality well paid jobs.”
“Anyone concerned about the climate should be up in arms at the fact we’re importing huge heavy steel towers from China when we could be producing them here, which would provide fantastic opportunities for our burgeoning green steel sector.”
Centre for Future Work’s research found a domestic wind energy sector would generate
- 4,350 ongoing jobs in wind tower manufacturing, and thousands more in input industries, especially steel
- Output of over 800 towers per year, with cumulative value of up to $15 billion over the next 17 years
- Incremental demand for up to 700,000 tonnes of Australian-made steel per year, creating a foundation for the recapitalisation of Australian steel plants with carbon-free technologies
- Avoiding 2.6 million tonnes of CO2 emissions thanks to reduced sea shipping of imported wind towers
Wind energy manufacturing represents a prime opportunity to apply the new policy tools of the federal government’s Future Made in Australia manufacturing strategy.
The report recommends the federal government, in partnership with state counterparts, commission an engineering and financial study into an east coast domestic wind manufacturing industry.