Coal fired power generations will be needed for many decades
Electricity bills have more than doubled in the past decade. The NSW budget brought down just the previous week revealed an $800 million rise in coal royalties. Australian thermal coal export prices rose from $66 a tonne in April 2016 to $140 in May this year. They are rising because of demand. Coal-fired power stations are being built globally. China is building 299 plants, India 132, Indonesia 32 and Vietnam 34.
These are not industry figures. They are from the Australian Parliamentary Library and they were splashed on this newspaper’s front page last year. The New York Times quoted similar figures, as did Greenpeace and the International Energy Agency. Current affairs hosts should know this stuff and the ABC should report it, but they don’t.
Ison claimed nine studies, including one by the Australian Energy Market Operator, had concluded a power system based only on renewables would be as reliable or more reliable “than what we have now”. She should have been challenged with the experiences of South Australia and Germany. Such a system without coal would need a level of despatchable power from pumped hydro, hydro, battery storage and gas that does not exist today.
