The Greens have blasted Labor’s plan to burn more coal to bring soaring power prices down.
At least a quarter of Australia’s coal-fired electricity production is currently offline due to planned and unplanned outages while the east coast shivers through a freezing winter.
With gas supplies dear and energy bills set to skyrocket, Resources Minister Madeleine King on Tuesday called on coal power stations to increase their output as soon as possible.
But Greens leader Adam Bandt said this is the wrong move and the focus must be on renewable energy. He also cautioned the government against subsidizing coal-fired power.
‘Propping up these aging plants would be throwing good money after bad,’ he told Daily Mail Australia.
‘No amount of patching up these dirty clunkers will fix the problem.’
Mr. Bandt said Australia should follow the example of the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), which has generated all of its electricity from renewables since 2020.
While the east coast braces for soaring prices, power bills in the ACT are set to fall from July 1, providing an annual saving to households of $23.
The ACT is currently paying less than a quarter of the NSW market price for its electricity because it relies on solar and wind and is less vulnerable to global price shocks.
‘The lesson from the ACT could not be clearer: go 100% renewables, break up with fossil fuels and reap the benefits of cheaper, cleaner, reliable energy,’ Mr. Bandt said.
Labor wants cheaper renewable sources to supply 82 percent of electricity by 2030, claiming this will save households $275 a year by 2025, and $378 by 2030.
But Ms. King said more coal was needed for now.
‘In the very short term, what we really need to do is to have the coal power stations come back online because that is the missing piece of the puzzle right now,’ she told ABC radio on Tuesday.
‘There [have] been unplanned outages for many reasons, many beyond the control of those operators and I do accept that, but I hope they’re doing their best to make sure this power source comes online as well.’
There is global pressure on gas prices as nations reject abundant Russian gas following the country’s invasion of Ukraine.
Germany has drafted laws to prevent coal power stations destined for the scrapheap from being axed, ordering them to be kept on standby instead.
Italy, Bulgaria, Romania, and the Czech Republic also plan to burn more coal as a temporary measure while they reduce reliance on Russian gas, and the UK is drilling for more gas in the North Sea.
Australian Gas Light company (AGL) currently has three coal power stations in NSW and Victoria either offline or on reduced capacity due to scheduled and unscheduled maintenance issues.
Origin’s Eraring power station, the largest in NSW, has also been crippled by coal production cutbacks at its neighboring conveyor belt-connected coalmine.
It’s had to buy coal on the open market as prices surge because of the global crisis sparked by the war in Ukraine, which forces electricity prices up further.
Queensland’s Callide coal power station is also offline after an explosion at the plant, creating a perfect storm just as the bitter cold snap hit Australia’s east coast.
The maintenance work at affected power stations is not expected to be completed until July at the earliest while Callide is out until December, but Labor is demanding the work is now fast-tracked.
Energy Minister Chris Bowen will meet his state and territory counterparts on Wednesday to discuss solutions as the Albanese government considers short- and long-term solutions to take pressure off prices.
It comes just five days after Mr. Bowen appeared on stage with leading members of Emergency Leaders For Climate Action and declared the new government will take ‘real action on climate change.’
Currently, about 60 percent of Australia’s electricity comes from coal, 32 percent from renewables, and eight percent from gas.
Ms. King skirted the issue of the government providing assistance to coal-fired power stations, insisting Labor still had a clean energy policy.
‘It wouldn’t matter how much money anyone put in right now, we just need the operators to get moving on fixing their plants,‘ she said.
‘It is the coal companies themselves, and the operators of the power stations, that need to get these power stations back online.
‘It’s 30 percent of the energy capacity taken out of the mix because of unforeseen circumstances in many respects.’
When asked if the government would consider a nationwide policy forcing producers to reserve 15 percent of their gas from exports as they do in Western Australia, Ms. King said ‘nothing is off the table’.
She did not commit to the policy, saying it was a ‘great political struggle’ for the Labor government to introduce it, with many people losing ‘a lot of political skin in that fight’.
Opposition energy spokesman Ted O’Brien said the Albanese government needed to pull the ‘gas trigger’, which allows exports to be diverted to domestic supply.
But Mr. Bowen has argued it is a complex process, and action taken now would not have an effect before January.
He blamed the Coalition for leaving ‘Australia ill-prepared and our energy markets ill-prepared for the challenges we face today in relation to gas and energy supply.‘
He added: ‘The previous government didn’t do the work necessary to increase renewables or storage.
‘If we had more storage and renewables and better transmission, we would be much better placed to deal with the current challenges.
‘That is exactly what our powering Australia plan seeks to implement but it will take some time to implement.
‘As I have said, you don’t overturn nine years of dysfunction, denial, and delay overnight. But action is necessary.’
h/t Rúnar O.
Read rest at Daily Mail
Tell the Eco-Freaks to Get A LIfe and stop acting like the idiots they are
When things don’t add up we can be sure people are lying. Take the claim that Australian Capital Territory has been generating 100% of its energy from renewables since 2020. The wind doesn’t always blow and the sun certainly doesn’t always shine. The only way that claim could be true is if they tolerated power outages when renewables were not available.
They claim renewables saved the average household in the Australian Capital Territory $23 per year. This does not match the experience of the rest of the world. Germany tripled it cost of power by adding 30% renewables to its energy mix. California has triple the cost of power as the rest of the nation by adding 20% renewables to its energy mix. To understand the claim of a $23 savings, looking at typical behavior of climate change activists probably has the answer. These activists are always making claims that don’t come true, and the reporting as if they did come true. They will predict a reduced yield of various crops and then run articles as if this has happened where as it in reality it hasn’t. Before the territory relied heavily on renewables they probably made the claim that there would be a $23 savings and now pretending this has happened.