There is no end in sight to the energy superidiot:
The opposition has opened a second front in the fight over energy policy by pledging to include gas in the capacity investment scheme, the federal government’s flagship policy spurring investment in clean power generation and storage needed for the transition.
On top of its pledge to build seven nuclear power plants, the Coalition says the government’s decision to limit generation to renewable power was a triumph of ideology over reality in that it would result in higher prices and greater instability of supply.
Energy and climate change spokesman Ted O’Brien said a Coalition government would include gas in the scheme and, in doing so, underwrite new gas power projects using a capacity auction mechanism currently only available to renewables.
The capacity investment scheme aims to mitigate the technology curve, and the risk of investment today into technologies that will be cheaper tomorrow, which can delay investment.
Including gas in it is ridiculous. There is no technology curve to offset.
As well, we certainly need the new supply but, more importantly, we need structural reform to the failed gas market.
I’m all for new gas supply but publically underwriting it for the existing gas export cartel is the most stupid idea since the helicopter ejector seat.
We are already doing that on the consumption side via bill rebates. Now we are going to it on the production side as well?
If we were going to use some public subsidy mechanism to increase gas market competition, that might be worthwhile.
But we aren’t. The gas cartel already owns 90% of East Coast reserves.
The cartel must be broken first or this is just feeding the hand that bites. To wit:
A huge liquefied natural gas export terminal led by Shell (SHEL.L), opens new tab, called LNG Canada, may struggle to dramatically raise Canadian natural gas prices when it starts operating next year because a flood of pent-up supply is waiting to hit the market, analysts said.
Gas prices at Alberta’s AECO hub hit a two-year low of 5 Canadian cents per million British thermal units (mmBtu) in late September as storage filled up. The slump has hurt producers who boosted drilling activity this year in anticipation of new demand from LNG Canada and prompted some firms to curtail production.
That is, Canada is desperate to export more LNG because gas prices are just too damn low.
Break the Aussie gas export cartel now.
Meanwhile, there was a lift for Dutton’s superidiot nuclear plan:
Alphabet’s (GOOGL.O), opens new tab Google said on Monday it signed the world’s first corporate agreement to buy power from multiple small modular reactors to meet electricity demand for artificial intelligence.
The technology company’s agreement with Kairos Power aims to bring Kairos’ first small modular reactor online by 2030, followed by additional deployments through 2035.
The companies did not reveal financial details of the agreement or where in the U.S. the plants would be built. Google said it has agreed to buy a total of 500 megawatts of power from six to seven reactors, which is smaller than the output of today’s nuclear reactors.
Should be here by 2090.
