This forum has been highjacked by those that worship fossil fuel but it's simply not needed and is being replaced by more efficient energy supplies. This is now based on commercial reality and it's time to remove all subsidies because this government is determined to pour $billions into propping up fossil fuel.
"Don Harwin, the energy minister of the NSW Coalition government, has made a dramatic departure from the bulk of his state and federal colleagues by declaring that it was time to move on from the notion of “baseload” power as essential to the reliability of the future grid.
In an extraordinary speech to a CEDA energy function in Sydney on Thursday, Harwin looked back on his few months as energy minister, and underlined the huge gap between moderates such as himself looking to embrace new technologies and the conservatives locked into the past.
He particularly focused on the heatwave in February and the events that followed it, including major load-shedding for customers such as the Tomago aluminium smelter.
“There’s no better way to understand how an energy market works and doesn’t work than a heatwave,” Harwin said. “And there’s no better way of understanding the capacities and vulnerabilities of our generators than being in a heatwave.”
Indeed, were it not for the solid performance of solar, he noted, and other renewables, and the “demand response” from consumers volunteering to reduce the load, the result could have been much worse. “Clean energy performed as forecast. Thermal generation did not,” Harwin said.
Indeed, some 2GW of coal and gas capacity went missing at the critical moments in NSW when demand hit its peak in early February – around 1GW from the Liddell coal generator and more than 1GW from the two biggest gas generators.
More capacity was lost from other coal plants due to heat stress, and Harwin said there were questions about the ability of fossil fuel generators to perform in the heat, and of the reliability of coal and gas supplies.
The Australian Energy Market Operators has embraced these views, and its latest electricity forecasts focus almost entirely on the benefits of distributed generation, small units scattered around the country, like rooftop solar PV, and backed up by battery storage."
