Tonight we had the zoom meeting 14/09/2021 here are the relevant parts: Zali Steggall: "... we are currently having an inquiry with the energy board, err committee around the storage and transmission uh and we heard from the clean energy, err energy regulator, from Kerry Shot, umm we have obviously heard from the Australian Energy Market Operator and they obviously discuss the integrated system plan where they look at how we're tracking as far as our energy needs the variety in the market, whether it's thermal, thermal energy production so coal, what percentage is gas, what percentage is renewable, whether it is solar, PV, large scale or wind or hydro, and of course we've got snowy hydro 2.0 coming online, soon hopefully, the ISP has a number of models, included, and in those they don't identify major shortages, I know people are concerned around the variability of wind and solar but a lot of that can actually be managed through transmission, and better balancing, there's the question of hydro, there is a question of we have some amount of gas in the system, and gas peaking which is more of efficient than thermal coal. Because the biggest problem with the cost model of thermal is you have to continue operating at all times, and for a large proportion of the day it is not cost effective compared to renewables coming into the grid cheaply, um then you have... so the ISP has not identified them to have major shortcomings, of course there is the scheduled retirement of certain thermal energy plants we have in NSW in particular and I have had a briefing with the NSW minister, Matt Kean around this question of how NSW is placed, so again, I am looking at the whole solution, but we have to have in this matrix the need to get to low emissions as quickly as possible, and to be cost effective and to have that reliability, um the Government is looking at a mechanism I know Minister Taylor is very much a proponent of this in relation to a market design mechanism, which is to pay for a certain amount of base load to remain in the system, the question though is that will ultimately be a cost impost on consumers, um so I am very concerned about the proposal of that, because its essentially paying for thermal energy production, so coal, to stay in the system longer than it is currently economically viable for them to stay in the market, when there is probably alternatives, so if we are going to have a market design mechanism it needs to be technology agnostic, and it needs to be there for all technologies to deliver that, whether it's batteries, hydro, or combinations, or gas peakers, whatever it is, but it shouldn't be used just to extend thermal coal..."
*** Regarding: "Do you have any thoughts about Carbon Capture and Storage" Zali Steggall: "... yes, look, I think it is necessary in some sectors, because in some sectors it will be hard to transition to net zero, so definitely some sectors, but no I don't support the Government's focus on it because it has not proved to be a workable component. Billions of public dollars have been spent, on projects around carbon capture and storage and they have not worked, and they have not delivered the results, I am very aware of that, the problem is it has been used in the debate as a justification for extending the use of fossil fuels, so if I could make the analogy of someone having cholesterol issues and needing to go on a diet, and they were told "oh don't you worry, keep eating all the wrong things, we will give you a magic pill that will offset the effects so you don't have to change anything about what you are doing" that is how carbon capture and storage has been used in that sense, of trying to delay needing to transition away from fossil fuels, and unfortunately it is not cost effective and there are no proven projects. But keep in mind, the theory of carbon capture and storage is ultimately, draw down, you known, we need to draw down carbon in the atmosphere, and our most effective way of doing that is forestation, trees, our most effective carbon syncs are land use, soil use, there are great developments happening around sea weed, but also it is trees, we need to stop deforestation, so, I am with you in... the most frustrating part is the Coalition's plan is still is heavily dependent on carbon capture and storage. So the Government introduced it's technology road map, in it its hand picked five technologies it has wanted to pursue and it has a very heavy emphasis on gas, hydrogen, but the Government has include blue hydrogen, which is hydrogen made from gas as opposed to Green hydrogen which is from renewables, and the use of carbon capture and storage, which I think is highly problematic, this is not the way the rest of the world is going, and its not really supported by the market, so at the end of the day the markets are really pointing the way of whats really going to be economically viable, and I do think the Government has a responsibility we need to transition to net zero in the most equitable and cost effective way and we cannot keep throwing good money after bad technologies which simply have not proven to work."
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