It is all so predictable.
One of Australia’s biggest coal power stations in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley is set to stay open for four more years amid fears of devastating electricity shortages, in an extraordinary U-turn for the state Labor government’s renewable energy-only blueprint.
A decision to keep coal in the power system for longer underscores Australia’s volatile transition from fossil fuels to green power, even as federal Energy Minister Chris Bowen insisted a move to double the amount of renewable energy by the end of the decade remained on track.
The Australian can reveal owners EnergyAustralia, along with the Victorian government and the power grid operator, have held talks about delaying the mid-2028 closure of Yallourn. Instead, it could remain running into the next decade to dodge a power shortfall, although no decision on the length of an extension has yet been made.
The issue is not coal. It is gas. Without enough gas, and gas peakers, to support intermittent renewables, coal power stations must run unprofitably for longer to prevent power outages.
Victoria already has secret deals subsidising the Loy Yang A power station until 2035 and Yallourn until 2028. The communist VIC government has refused to release the cost.
Now it will extend Yallourn in another secret deal with secret costs.
Meanwhile, in NSW, Eraring has been extended to 2027, costing another $450m in straightforward subsidy to Origin Energy, the very gas cartelier that is strangling gas supply.
This is the Australian energy super idiot in full flight: failed renewable targets, secret coal corruption, intense vested interests, gas cartel triumph, while you pay much more for much less energy security and bugger-all climate change mitigation.
Alas, there is more.
Major investors have clashed with the Coalition ahead of the federal election, warning that slowing the rollout of renewable energy will push up electricity bills by increasing the need to call on failure-prone coal plants and expensive gas-fired generators.
…in a significant intervention, a group of large investors including US asset giant BlackRock, France’s Neoen, Australia’s Macquarie Bank and the Andrew Forrest-backed Squadron Energy has ramped up its push against policies that would restrict the expansion of wind and solar and keep the grid heavily tied to fossil fuels for longer.
“Australia needs more renewables, not less, to achieve sustained power price reductions,” said the Clean Energy Investor Group, which represents 18 global and local investors with a portfolio value of $38 billion across Australian renewable projects.
How is this significant? It is simple vested interest whinging. Neoen has plans for 10GW of renewables. Squadron wants to import gas to support renewables. The other two love to trade assets like footy cards.
I’m no fan of nuclear. It is expensive. Ridiculously far off. And I have no faith it won’t be so butchered by the energy superidiot that it bankrupts the nation.
But not I’m stupid enough to think that the companies behind renewables would ever say anything other than “nuclear is evil”.
Meanwhile, is sanity dawning for the gas cartel? Which is the ONLY actual problem with the energy transition.
Growing fears among Queensland’s LNG producers that the federal government is preparing to compel them to divert gas into the undersupplied domestic market once Asian sales contracts expire are driving a fresh hunt for gas, according to experts.
ConocoPhillips’ recently approved drilling campaign in the Bass Strait and Shell’s closely watched exploration in the little-known Taroom Trough in onshore Queensland are both proof of rising concerns about a crackdown on LNG exports, they say.
“The government is gearing up to force the Queensland LNG projects to divert gas domestically once their LNG contracts roll off next decade,” said MST Marquee energy analyst Saul Kavonic.
…Last month’s release of data from the competition watchdog revealed that the three Queensland LNG ventures would suck up increasing volumes of domestic gas over the next 10 years to meet export commitments, which has reinforced the view that the federal government is determined to get tougher on domestic supply requirements.
…The ACCC advised governments in December to “consider the implications” of the LNG producers extending their export contracts on supplies for the country’s east coast and pointed to an opportunity to work with producers to ensure that domestic needs are met.
Rick Wilkinson, chief executive of research firm EnergyQuest, said he was convinced that whoever was in government would be making sure that enough gas was available for domestic buyers before approving any new LNG exports.
You have more faith than I, Rick. There are already enough spot gas sales into Asia to fill any local supply gap.
The only shortage is of the balls to divert locally.
Pure energy superidiot.
