9 thoughts on “Labor asks coal fired generation question today”

1. ” Snowy 2.0 can ‘out-compete’ any new coal plants”

   I love reading these claims. To actually think that storage can produce more energy than a generator, despite the fact it is a net consumer of energy.

   If any lefties are trolling this site please also note this little planet saver. No CO2 geneated, so it must be genuine 😉
   sciencing.com/make-bedini-motor-4704703.html

2. So Turnbull promotes the hapless Snowy 2.0 but knows full well it relies on coal fired to reliably pump water uphill? I hope you find the text of yesterdays question time.

3. I suspect the unspoken pantomime surrounding the Snowy 2.0 white elephant, at least for the consumption of the inner city, green, latte set, is that it will be powered during the night by thousands of windmills at a time when they are producing zillions of unneeded megawatts. Obviously if this pantomime came to pass we’d see horrendously expensive wind power driving an uneconomic pumping scheme, a scheme which is obviously going to tack its own kings ransom onto the price when it eventually comes to flog what remains of these precious green megawatts back into the grid.

4. Text is here: www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Hansard/Hansard_Display?bid=chamber/hansardr/7b4c2cb8-1498-4872-92f7-c93540b9c054/&sid=0057

5. Thanks Dave – here is the text of the question on the 26th
   Dr MIKE KELLY (Eden-Monaro) (14:07): My question is to the Prime Minister. The CEO of Snowy Hydro has clearly stated that building new coal-fired power plants ‘doesn’t stack up’, and the chief operating officer has said it would mean Snowy 2.0 is not viable. As the government is the sole shareholder, has advice been sought from Snowy Hydro about the impact of building new coal-fired power plants on the viability of Snowy 2.0?

   Mr TURNBULL (Wentworth—Prime Minister) (14:07): Partisan divisions aside, I cannot thank the honourable member enough for asking me a question about Snowy Hydro. What a great demonstration of Australian engineering! What a great example of the vision of Labor and coalition governments in the past! Snowy Hydro 2.0 is the next stage that is going to deliver thousands of jobs into the Eden-Monaro electorate and provide secure, dispatchable, baseload power into the future. The honourable member referred to some remarks by Paul Broad. He is entitled to his opinion, but we have a policy that is entirely technology agnostic. The National Energy Guarantee provides no disincentives for anyone to build a new coal-fired power station or refurbish an existing one, any more than it provides a disincentive for people to build more gas or, indeed, more hydro.

   Mr Hart interjecting—

   The SPEAKER: The member for Bass is warned.

   Photo of MP Mr TURNBULL: What it does is prioritise dispatchability, which had been sadly missing from all of the green-Left energy policies of the Labor Party. That, of course, supports thermal power. As far as Snowy Hydro 2.0 is concerned, I’d remind the honourable member of this: Snowy Hydro 2.0 will be a big baseload customer of all providers of energy—generators, renewables, but including coal-fired power. A power station that runs 24 hours a day, like a coal-fired power station, does not have the same demand 24 hours of the day. A big pumped hydro scheme will be buying power from coal-fired generators in the off-peak times and will provide that off-peak baseload demand. So it is one that will provide support right across the industry, but the bottom line is: let the market decide on which technology to determine. Let the market decide. What we are prioritising is affordability, reliability and meeting those emissions reduction targets. We can do all three. The NEG does it. It will bring down energy prices for the reasons that Paul Broad has advanced. It will bring down energy prices, and that is going to be good for families, it’s going to be good for businesses, large and small, and above all it’s going to be great for Australian jobs.

   Here is my AEMO chart updated – no sign of price trends towards $50. Large version There was another question today the 27th.
   

6. “Snowy Hydro 2.0 is the next stage that is going to deliver thousands of jobs into the Eden-Monaro electorate and provide secure, dispatchable, baseload power into the future.”

   A cynic might say, thousands of jobs will cost hundreds of millions of dollars, and we had secure, dispatchable, baseload power before we ever started on this renewables nonsense.

   “we have a policy that is entirely technology agnostic”

   Sorry but I have to laugh at this one. First Turnbull is talking about Snowy 2.0, which is a specific technology that he is going to build anyway, whatever it costs. Second, the only reason Snowy 2.0 is even vaguely plausible now is because power prices have already gone through the roof because of renewables. It was uneconomic 50 years ago when we had reliable baseload power, and would still be uneconomic today except that the wind turbines we have already lumbered ourselves with might be spinning like mad at 3 in the morning and then stationary during peak morning and evening demand.

   So, good on Turnbull for sticking up for coal in principle, but it’s hard to swallow his line that Snowy 2.0 is “technology neutral”, and its “thousands of jobs” should be written down not as a benefit but as an extra hidden cost of wind power.

7. One would have to wonder how long any debate of this sort would last if the ACT Canberra grid was disconnected from the rest of NSW & the East coast reticulation grid for a week or two.

   The political class & their life support carers would need counseling & time off in a safe space if their cocoon was compromised.

8. People underestimate Waffle. He is very sneaky – too sneaky for most to credit. His Achilles Heel is his vanity, of course, so one will see if one looks that he remains the smartest person in the room by dint of cherry picking the room’s population to begin with.

   No, he has no intention of actually supporting any new coal-fired generators. He is just conditioning the general populace to regard Abbott et al as idiots *IF* they cross the floor on the NEG since he (Waffle) has already taken their position. In any case, the ALP is likely to support the NEG against rebel Libs on the grounds that this NEG is better than nothing at this stage and it can always be amended from the Treasury benches.

   Several weeks ago I had attended a luncheon presentation on the state of play of coal mining in Aus. At the conclusion of the presentation, questions from the floor – in fact the last faux question – came from the back of the audience. In loud and fruity condescension, that Kerry Schott showed herself as a pompous ass in insisting that coal-fired generators *must* go on losing money till the precious “renewables” were fully developed. The owners of these generators are not allowed to cut their losses. Expropriation by any name … Waffle hand-picked this person to run his Energy Security Agency.

   There is a small trend (which will peter out, as is the way of all MSM) from SkyNews to question this imbroglio. To be applauded, of course, but Waffle and Co have no shame at all on this issue. As Australians have no concept of revolution, either, the destruction will continue.

9. A bit of common sense is needed on Snowy 2.0.
   The avalanche of rooftop and large scale solar and the unsightly and erratic windmills now imbedded in the grid, have ruined our once efficient, reliable, and cheap, electricity supply system. They are now a fact of life.
   Snowy 2.0 will effectively allow the output of these destructive “renewables” to be stored and released when it is truly needed, leaving the vital base load generators to contiue doing the heavy lifting.
   The real problem will be in ensuring renewables receive no further taxpayer subsidies for their production effort and that all their costs, including transmission costs, pumped storage costs, ongoing maintenance costs, and all the associated capital costs, etc., are met by the owners of this parasitic infrastructure.
   One needs do no more than ask “How would the admirable, and competent, community serving State Electricity Commission of Victoria have responded to a government decree that renewables must be introduced to its grid?”