Homegrown wind tower industry could create 4300 jobs

A new report from The Australia Institute’s Centre for Future Work has made the case for a homegrown wind tower industry, finding that by manufacturing its own towers, Australia could create more than 4300 quality direct jobs.

Currently, all wind towers installed in Australia are imported from overseas, with most coming from China.

The Centre for Future Work found that a domestic wind energy sector would generate 4350 ongoing jobs in wind tower manufacturing and thousands more in input industries, especially steel. It would be capable of producing over 800 towers per year, with a cumulative value of up to $15 billion over the next 17 years.

Such an industry would drive 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.

Importantly, it would also avoid 2.6 million tonnes of CO₂ emissions thanks to reduced sea shipping of imported wind towers.

Carrying out the report’s recommendations would require some bold rethinking of accepted economic wisdom.

“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,” said Professor Phil Toner, Honorary Senior Research Fellow at The University of Sydney and author of the report.

“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,” Toner argued.

“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.

“With all the opportunities of a net-zero global economy, do we really just want to replace traditional mineral exports like coal with new generations of unprocessed minerals like lithium and rare earths?”

The report recommends that the federal government, in partnership with state counterparts, commissions an engineering and financial study into an east coast domestic wind manufacturing industry.

“Most other industrial countries are investing aggressively in manufacturing the new equipment and products that will be in demand as the energy transition continues. Australia needs similar policy activism to maximise the industrial, technological and employment potential of the energy transition,” Toner said.

“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.”

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