Why yes it is. Energy Security Board warns more coal power stations face closure.
Australia’s remaining coal fleet could be forced to close earlier than expected as low wholesale prices and cheap renewables rout generators’ profits, the Energy Security Board has warned, following EnergyAustralia’s decision to shut Victoria’s Yallourn coal plant four years early.
Coal generators including Trevor St Baker’s Vales Point in NSW, Queensland’s largest power station Gladstone and Alinta Energy’s Loy Yang B in Victoria are all viewed as contenders for early closure by analysts.
ESB chair Kerry Schott said marginal coal plants faced a decision on whether to pull the pin early.
Let me therefore take you to the comments section. In order of Most Liked First.
How can the ESB still be chaired by someone who has done their best to make energy supply INSECURE through her unceasing advocacy of solar and wind as the country’s future?
We are entrusting our nation’s energy security future to Kerry Schott? Ummm…… Why?
Goldman saachs said it “ADVERSE POLICY SETTINGS”! The freemarket sprinkled with fairydust and bs to make it look like renewables are cheaper yet as noted in the comments below. Your power price keep going up, not down. What a joke. Its time for the politicians to put an electrical engineer in charge instead of green beurocratic bean counters. Kerry schoot, ceo of the energy security board : Has a bachelor of arts degree and was the governments representative that oversaw the sale of vales point for $1m in 2015. Meanwhile, the two lucky owners of vales point pocketed a $62m fy dividend in 2020 and currently value the plant as an assett at $220m, closing it in 2029. The wrong person for the job.
So…Governments federal and state abrogating their responsibilities to the citizenry. You’ve sold us out, pushed power prices through the roof and are trashing our future well being. All of your cute marketing tricks and smug smiles are for nought. I don’t trust your ‘best intentions’.
Media and government keep talking about “cheap renewables” yet the more renewables are introduced, the more expensive electricity and everything related to it gets. When will the cognitive dissonance crack through?
The simple fact is that foolish government policies threaten to make these plants completely worthless. Spend money on upgrades or even serious maintenance and there’s little chance of recouping what was spent. It’s an object lesson in how to destroy Australia as quickly as possible.
These so called experts know nothing. They love attending conferences and blab on. One big hug fest. Like Davos. You dare not be a AGW skeptic.
What sort of a market is it where according to the “experts”, the removal of the so called “most expensive” form of generation (coal and gas) and its replacement by so-called “cheaper” renewables, leads NOT to wholesale prices FALLING but instead RISING by an estimated $6/Mwh? It may, according to the “experts” be “basic economics” but its definitely NOT the brand I was taught.
Wake up Aussies. We will be poorer and China even richer!
Last night it was hot and muggy, then the power went off for several hours. There was no wind, no sun (it was night) where is the back up when there is no solar or wind power. This was at night, but what if it happens during the day when heavy industry are shut down because of no solar or wind power. In the meantime China is laughing building more and more coalfired power stations. Where is commonsense?
Take the triple coal taxes off and the power stations will become economical. Simple.
Barnaby Joyce is one of the few prominent politicians who dares to defy the foreign climate alarm confidence tricksters who work against the best interests of Australia. There is no climate emergency. There is no valid reason for outlawing coal and oil and slaughtering most of our cattle and sheep. Look for those who profit from the sale of windmills and solar panels and for those who enjoy career enhancement and regular overseas jaunts on fully-paid climate-alarm business. All Australian political parties except Pauline Hanson’s One Nation party see climate saving gestures as a vote winner although the liberals are not quite as impatient as the Labor/Green partnership. Will the Nationals party under new leadership rise from the ashes and take a stand against the foreign climate confidence tricksters who threaten the future of our nation?
Say goodbye to our Aluminium smelting industry. It will move offshore..China?
California here we come!
The AEMO operates under rules set by the AEMC. They have publicly stated that they will alter those purchasing rules to facilitate the change in direction of the energy market from centrally located coal fired power stations to geographically distributed renewable networks. That is the reason that the owners of the existing coal fired power stations are running them into the ground. Our power systems are heading into rolling blackouts because not enough investment is going into the required firming when the coal fired assets are retired due to neglect.
And that is every comment at the present time. So let me end with this: EU bullies demand control of Australian electricity in order to do trade deals.
The EU has given up trying to persuade Australian voters that wind and solar power is “cheap”. Instead, it’s using Upperclass centralized bully-power in an attempt to force Australia to sacrifice cheaper electricity and hobble its generation network to satisfy the EU totalitarians.
Australian exporters could face millions of dollars in European tariffs as EU seeks to punish polluters
Written by someone at Their ABC
Australian exporters to Europe are likely to face millions of dollars in new tariffs after the European Parliament voted overnight to move forward with a carbon levy on products from countries lacking serious pollution reduction programs.
The vote came after a top parliamentary committee noted concerns about “the lack of cooperation by some of the EU’s trade partners … to reach the objectives of the Paris Agreement”.
Australians installed more renewables per capita than any place on Earth in 2018-19, but that isn’t enough. The EU say we need a “target” of net-zero, (which we can point at and ignore, like most of what the EU does):
Kathleen van Brempt, a key parliamentary trade coordinator, said an FTA was contingent on “a clear vision [from] Australia by when and how they will become climate neutral and by when and how they will phase out of coal”.
Until Australia establishes a new scheme to lower emissions, its exporters to Europe face the prospect of paying additional tariffs under the new Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), which is expected to come into force in 2023.
The mechanism is designed to apply tariffs on imports equivalent to the fees paid under the EU’s Emissions Trading System by local businesses producing the same product.
The aim is to have us freeze in the dark while others prosper.
Law of Markets 