Why ScoMo Needs to Cool It With Coal
Written by Grace Hessian
Why ScoMo needs to cool it with coal
Human-induced climate change has been a known phenomenon for several decades and one of the accelerators of this issue is dirty energy generation and usage. Despite many countries beginning or accelerating the move to renewable energy, and our part in the Paris Agreement, Australia has vehemently stuck with coal. Furthermore, our government visits the same few arguments when asked why they stay with coal. Around 60% of electricity generated in Australia comes from coal-fired power stations. The Australia Energy Market Operator tracks the electricity market in Australia and on the AEMO website, fuel mixes depict what kinds of energy sources the different states are using. Over the past year, around 75% of Victoria’s energy came from brown coal, around 10% from wind, 5% each from natural gas and hydroelectricity and 2% from solar. Showing similar results as Victoria, 85% of New South Wales’ and 82% of Queensland’s fuel mixes come from black coal. This is compared to states like South Australia, who used 40% wind and Tasmania who used 91% hydroelectricity. Renewable energy sources can realistically work and have worked for other states in Australia and other countries in the world. So why is Australia so fixated on coal?
Reliability
A key aspect of coal power generation is reliability. As long as we have coal, humans can control and adjust the amount of energy being generated based on demand. Simply put, coal power plants generate electricity by burning coal and using it to heat water which turns into steam which physically turns turbines due to high pressure. The movement of the turbine is used by a generator to make electricity. This process is not necessarily subject to external forces such as the wind, sun, temperature and rainfall, which can affect renewable energy generation. Coal processes can be adjusted to generate more or less electricity based on the demand for that particular day.
However, (and this is discussed in depth under Expense) coal power stations are becoming more unreliable because of increased outages. Furthermore, coal is not a sustainable resource and estimates vary greatly as to how long before we run out of it, but it currently sits around 50-150 years. Either way, with growing consumption of fossil fuels and eventually the limited availability to mine and generate electricity using these methods, fossil fuels aren’t as reliable as people are often led to believe. The stability of jobs in this industry is also becoming increasingly worse.
Employment
In 2018, the coal industry employed at least 35,000 people and Scott Morison has promised these jobs will be secured. Just the year before saw the decommission of the Hazelwood coal power plant. This power plant, located in the Latrobe Valley in Victoria which, as of 2017, held 90% of Australia’s brown coal. Hazelwood was producing as much as a quarter of Victoria’s electricity using coal and upon closure, up to 1000 people were out of work. Residents expressed their concern that the closure of such a large employer would negatively impact the local economy. Many people in the community were or knew someone who worked with Hazelwood who lost work upon the closure. However, even those who did not have a connection with Hazelwood asserted that without the secure employment and certain disposable income of so many people, their local businesses would also suffer.
On the other hand, local communities have recently undergone massive projects with community-owned wind farms. One small wind farm, Hepburn Wind, commenced supplying electricity in 2011 and does so to an average of 2000 homes, although at the peak it's much higher. Grants and investments made by community members financed the project which means the ongoing profits largely stay within the region. During construction, onsite full-time employment for seven years was offered and wherever possible, local services including construction, catering, graphic design, internet service, accountancy and other consulting services were used. Furthermore, people are employed as operatives on the wind farm. Hepburn Wind was the first community-initiated and owned project of its kind but this style of project is not uncommon both in Australia and internationally.
Expense
A way the government chooses to reject renewable energy for coal is by continually claiming that coal is cheap. This is a throwaway statement that does not take into account several factors. The reason that they can claim coal is cheaper than renewables is because the movement from fossil fuels to renewable energy requires spending and upgrades on facilities. The entire country’s electricity can not come from the small number of renewable facilities we currently have and so building the infrastructure required will be expensive. Another reason is the lack of reliability that renewable energy can have, investments into energy storage must be made for the country to be able to adjust electricity input based on demand. However, once these facilities are built, and as we’ve already seen, wind and solar electricity prices begin to drop.
Since 2009, prices for wind and solar have fallen dramatically and even below coal. However, even without this incentive to move to renewables, there are many price problems with continuing to use coal and it goes far beyond the prices the public pays for electricity. Many coal power stations are old and repairs or upgrades may be costly. Furthermore, many of these power stations have seen problems occur during the above-average temperature summers, which they have played a key role in producing. In Victoria, the Loy Yang and Yallourn power plants have seen an increase in outages and sudden failures on high-temperature days. These plants were made to run at their highest demand in the winter when the heaters are on, but with hotter summers and normalisation of temperature-controlled houses, the highest demands are now being seen in the summer, when everyone has their air-conditioning and fans on. These power plants are not made to thrive during these high temperatures and we can see that in the increased outages. Around ⅔ of Australia’s coal fleet is older than 30 years and although their design life is 40-50 years, the average age of an Australian power plant is 29 years. Age is arguably the biggest factor in a power plant’s closure. The disastrous effects of the power plants, when they are running, also create expensive problems, such as major damage done to transmission lines in the 2019-20 bushfires season and other natural disasters.
These coal power plants are simply not fit to provide Australia with the energy that we need. The arguments that we are given, that renewable energy is unreliable, expensive and will cause job loss, are simple arguments that do not look beyond short-term gain for businesses. Australia cannot keep consuming coal at the rate we do now because of the disastrous effects it has, as we’ve seen in intensified bushfire seasons and heightened storms, floods and droughts. And for what? Relatively cheap electricity, jobs that will also be available in more sustainable energy industries and “reliable” energy that has seen increased outages during the summer and storms. The arguments that the government turns to are flimsy and illogical and do not acknowledge the growing reliability and development of technology to harness the energy that we know will remain for another five billion years.
“The implementation of the 1.5℃ scenario will have a significant impact on the global fossil fuel industry. While this may seem to be stating the obvious, there has so far been little rational and open debate about how to make an orderly withdrawal from the coal, oil, and gas extraction industries. Instead, the political debate has been focused on prices and security of supply. Yet limiting climate change is only possible when fossil fuels are phased out.”
- Sven Teske
Here's how a 100% renewable energy future can create jobs and even save the gas industry: