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SustainableHistory
Sustainable energy in Western Australia
Western Australians have always relied on energy drawn from nature.
Aboriginal people were the state's first users of renewable energy, burning wood for cooking and heating. European colonists made similar uses of wood, and settlers also harnessed the forces of nature by using waterwheels and windmills to grind flour.
Over the years, new ways of extracting energy from sunshine, wind, water and biomass have been developed.
In the twentieth century, as living standards rose and energy consumption increased, fossil fuels quickly became the main source of energy for most Western Australians. Renewable energy, however, still had a place. Windmills for water pumping dotted the rural landscape.
Water itself was used to produce electricity on a significant scale in the 1930s, with the installation of a 55kW hydroelectric plant at Pemberton. By the 1950s an early type of domestic solar hot water system was being sold, though in the expanding suburbs wood, gas and electric heaters remained the norm.
With the dramatic rise in the price of oil in the 1970s interest in renewable energy escalated. In Western Australia the price of oil quadrupled in 1974. This had a significant impact on electricity generation as the state's three main power stations, East Perth, South Fremantle and Kwinana were all fuelled by oil. The change to coal-fired generation was undertaken to help reduce the cost of electricity generation but renewable energy development was also seen as an opportunity.
From the 1970s to the end of the 20th century numerous commercial and demonstration renewable energy facilities were installed around the State.
Now, in the twenty-first century, 'clean and green' renewable energy is becoming an increasingly important part of Western Australia's energy mix.
Significant Renewable Energy Projects 1975 – 2000
In 2000, the State Government's Alternative Energy Development Board funded an historian to record the development of renewable energy in Western Australia from 1975 to 2000. Oral histories from some key participants in the industry were recorded and lodged in the Battye Library.