Essay by Eric Worrall
The details of the bill to cut emissions by 47% are sparse. The bill does not include any mechanism or funding to enforce emissions cuts.
Australia’s climate change goals will become law. What happens now?
Here’s what we know the new bill means for climate action and what happens once we’ve set the goals
Adam Morton Climate and environment editor
August 5, 2022 03:30 AESTThe Australian House of Commons has passed the country’s first climate change law for over a decade. The main part of the previous bill – an emissions trading scheme, put forward by the Gillard government with the support of the Greens and independents – was repealed by the Coalition under Tony Abbott in 2014.
Here’s what we know about the bill’s implications for climate action and what happens once the country has developed statutory emissions targets.
What does the climate bill do?
The climate bill puts into law two national greenhouse gas emissions targets: to cut 43% below 2005 levels by 2030 and to “net zero” by 2050.
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The bill requires the Secretary of Climate Change, now Chris Bowen, to issue an annual statement to parliament on progress towards the goals. Bowen likened it to Close the Distance statement.
What does the climate bill do?
It does not include a mechanism or funding to cut emissions from electricity, industry, transport, agriculture or other parts of the economy.
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These capacity payments are ongoing;
Why putting coal in a new ‘capacity mechanism’ will make Australia’s energy crisis worse
Published: June 21, 2022 1.07pm AEST
authors
Tim Nelson Associate Professor of Economics, Griffith University
Joel Gilmore Associate Professor, Griffith UniversityAustralian generators will be paid extra to be available even if they don’t actually generate any power, according to a new mechanism proposed by the federal government’s Energy Security Board (ESB).
It is debatable, the ESB has recommended all of eligible generators, including older coal-fired generators that are increasingly failing.
The proposal comes after federal and state ministers last week request The ESB promotes its work on a “capacity mechanism… to bring in renewable energy and store it”. The ESB says the combination of generators is crucial for the mechanism to work efficiently, ensuring power to the grid.
Therefore Will this capacity mechanism lower energy prices for households? Probably not, since it includes unreliable coal-fired power plantsand consumers are likely to pay the price when factories eventually fail.
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Going by their speech, it can Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese really believe the green revolution will now proceed with minimal government help, other than the installation of a few new grid lines. The risk funding they have allocated for battery backup shows that they have completely misunderstood the importance of the problem of continuous regeneration.
At least for now, the Albanese government is cashing our coal plants near the end of their life to keep them running in the form of capacity payments (see above), to prevent lights from going out.
The Albanese government couldn’t even promise the people that it would stop issuing new coal mining permits – maybe they realized they needed the revenue from the coal tax to fund their social programs.
Energy storage is the real tool for Albanese’s green transition plans.
Governments willing to impose harsh price caps and force operators to supply electricity at a loss in my opinion killed the business case for expensive backup systems like batteries.
Not batteries will be a big part of the solution, around $6 – $20 trillion AUD batteries are required to back up Australia’s national grid for 7 days, depending on how many people buy an EV and scheduled to charge from the national grid.
262232GWh per year / 365 x 7 x 1000000 (GWh to KWh conversion) x $1200 per KWh of battery cost = 6 trillion dollars
If you assume a battery life of 10 years, that $6 trillion is just the beginning – the government also needs $600 billion per year to maintain a $6 trillion battery pack.
Obviously you can play with these figures, the worst part of the wind breakdown caused the power crisis last June that lasted 1.5 days more than 7 days. But there may be longer power outages. In 2017, South Australia experienced a two-month wind-driven drought.
Snowy 2, our showcase hydraulic pump system, the big hydraulic battery that is supposed to make Australia green, will lose more than 40% of the energy it stores. The gap between the upper and lower reservoirs is too large for efficient storage and retrieval. Even The deep blue Sydney Morning Herald recently described Snowy 2 as being like a White Elephant.
Have hydroelectric options have been proposed for the far north, the huge tropical river system is now emptying into the sea. But the cost of installing and maintaining thousands of miles of cable, to transport electricity to where it is needed, and the cost of building and maintaining all the hydroelectric infrastructure needed to date is still a huge number. . And of course, the government will face a lot of political backlash because of the flood of the river’s headwaters full of endangered species.
The Green Party deserves the blame for this charade. I don’t agree with his politics or green ideas, but I’m actually starting to think Green Party leader Adam Bandt might have some political principles, when Bandt was against this absurd bill – until he bowed and waved it over.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, if you really want to reduce emissions, if you really believe in your green transition, go ahead and do it. Let’s have our Brandon moment. Do something important to reduce emissions, such as shutting down all coal exports and domestic coal use.
WUWT would applaud the bravery of such a decision. Of course, we will also report all power outages, business failures, and financial distress that are certain to follow.
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