Australia wants to lead the world in the race to renewables, but it is in the bottom half for projected growth in the capability to make complex items.

Australia is ranked 93rd out of 133 monitored countries, and the lowest of any OECD nation, after decades of decline in manufacturing activity.

At this point, Australia does not have a purpose-built wind tower manufacturing facility to match rivals with enormous capacity.

Mr McKinna, who operates out of a converted particle board factory, says there’s no excuse for Australia not to be making wind towers at scale, particularly as global competition heats up.

The energy market operator says the surge in renewable energy generation expected by 2050 needs to be connected by more than 10,000km of new transmission lines and 25,000 transmission towers - each needing up to 60 tonnes of steel.

Geoff Crittenden, CEO of Weld Australia, said Australia does not have the sovereign manufacturing capability to make this a reality.

  • @YendorEnglish
    7•11 months ago

    I completely agree on the wind towers, but I find this but strange:

    The energy market operator says the surge in renewable energy generation expected by 2050 needs to be connected by more than 10,000km of new transmission lines and 25,000 transmission towers – each needing up to 60 tonnes of steel.

    Australia has plenty of local cable manufacturing capacity, between Nexans Olex, APEC, Physmian and Elcon. We also have plenty of bauxite and most states have an aluminium refinery and smelter.

    We also have plenty of capability to manufacture towers. But most Australian tower manufacturers are now fabricating them in pieces in Thailand/Phillipines and then assembling here, because boilermakers and coded welders are $60/hr in Australia but $6/hr in south east Asia.