ENERGY and the LNP and the ALP/Greens, page-28

Dex . That's the way I have been thinking pretty much .

First , we need to come up with a national ( or eastern seaboard ) plan so that we can integrate renewables progressively .

I probably wouldn't recommend replacing all the cfps just yet as I don't think we need to . I think that all those stations might not be needed in 15 years or so I would rather spend the money progressively . Hopefully some of that money will then be directed to newer technologies that we will use for many decades after that .

I would replace Hazelwood with a new Ultracritical cfps and maybe even a combined cycle gas fired station . The site already has the resource ( and plenty of it ) , all the infrastructure in place and an available skilled experienced workforce . One of the main reasons why Engie is shutting it down is that there is no guarantee for it's investment were they to spend any money on it .

That's where the government needs to get involved . If the new station were to be not required after 15 or 20 years because technology had advanced that much then so be it . Sure it would mean less return on investment but that would mean that we achieved zero emissions earlier than planned . It's a bit like looking at your house insurance policy at the end of the year . You don't look at it and say " Gee , I could have saved that money because my house didn't burn down " .

That would be a win in my book .

Replacing Hazelwood would be an immeadiate ( almost ) reduction in emissions because the " dirtiest power station in Australia " would be shut down . Obviously I am not confident in the governments claims that we don't need it .

I would expect the government to underwrite the business in order to support the project for a 20 - 30 year life . I imagine it could end up being the last cfps in Australia to shut down .

I would do the others on an as needs basis . The other stations have varying life spans so I would rather let them run as long as they could , albeit with minor upgrades .

The Lib/Nats have been testing the electorate recently . They seem to be ramping up the idea so I can only guess that their polling suggests that it might be a popular idea .