Crunch Time: Australia’s Renewable Energy Rent-Seekers Suicidal After Coalition Victory

‘Ghost PM’ (left) with Alex ‘Born Lucky’ Turnbull (right).

The ‘shock’ Federal election result has left RE energy rent seekers reeling. What was meant to be a Green/Labor landslide – with the promise that subsidies to wind and solar would double and be extended until kingdom come – returned not only the Liberal/National Coalition to power, but left the Energy Minister, Angus Taylor firmly in place.

If Australia has any hope of restoring reliable and affordable power to all comers, it’s down to Taylor.

STT hears that Taylor’s ‘retailer reliability obligation’ (RO) (which kicks into operation on 1 July) has wind and large-scale solar ‘industries’ up in arms. The RO was at the heart of the original National Energy Guarantee – as explained here: PM’s Reliable Power Play Spells Disaster for Unreliable & Intermittent Wind Power

In short, the RO means that, for every MW a retailer has promised to sell its customers, it will need to have a contract to purchase a MW of dispatchable power to meet that promise. A failure to do so will result in very substantial financial penalties for the retailer. Courtesy of the RO – all of a sudden – chaotically intermittent wind and solar have become worth a whole lot less, if not, worthless. Hence the sense of fear and loathing amongst those invested in wind and solar.

The NEG put together by Taylor was, however, quickly hijacked by then PM, Malcolm Turnbull (in cahoots with Labor). No doubt at the direction of his son, Alex ‘Born Lucky’ Turnbull, a lad who’s directed $millions of his own and other people’s money into rent-seeking operations like Infigen: Born Lucky: Stars Align Perfectly for PM’s Son with Mammoth Bet on Wind Power Outfit Infigen

Turnbull’s NEG would have increased the effective Renewable Energy Target to around 45% and included a legislated carbon dioxide gas emissions target. It was Turnbull’s dogged pursuit of what was, in reality, Green/Labor policy that resulted in knives being drawn in the Liberal party room – with Turnbull’s embittered corpse replaced by Scott Morrison: Turnbull Trounced: RE Obsessed PM Ditched Over Ludicrous Plan to Double-Up on Subsidised Wind & Solar

Notwithstanding the flat-out rejection of that very same policy by Australia’s ‘truculent turds’ – the equivalent of America’s ‘deplorables’, there are still a few in the Liberal party acting as if the Green/Labor Alliance had actually taken power in Canberra.

One of them is NSW Energy Minister Matt Kean who – like his predecessor in title, Don Harwin – harbours the delusional belief that we’re well on the way to an all wind and sun powered future.

Harwin once made the ludicrous suggestion that wind and solar are cheaper coal-fired power: Delusional NSW Energy Minister Claims Wind & Solar More Reliable Than Coal & Gas

Well, it seems that Matt Kean is no brighter.

Liberals clash as NSW seeks to revive NEG
The Australian
Perry Williams
7 June 2019

The NSW government has defied Canberra by demanding the resurrection of Malcolm Turnbull’s dumped National Energy Guarantee as part of a policy revamp that also calls for coal plant extensions and potential market interventions to ensure stable power for the state after Liddell shuts in 2022.

Just a week after reappointed Energy Minister Angus Taylor ruled out reviving the NEG, recently installed NSW Energy Minister Matt Kean fired a shot at the Coalition by calling for an effective nationwide policy.

“We need a national framework that properly integrates climate and energy policy,” Mr Kean will say in a Sydney speech today.

“That’s why the NSW government still supports the National Energy Guarantee and will continue to support a national mechanism that integrates climate and energy policy, which provides business with the freedom to innovate.”

Federal Labor took the NEG to the election as part of its policy platform and it enjoyed broad support among big business as a way of ending a decade of climate wars.

However, Scott Morrison says the Australian people rejected Labor’s more ambitious climate ambitions.

Instead, the Coalition will forge ahead with elements of the policy, including the retailer reliability obligation to ensure enough generation to meet power users’ needs.

Mr Kean, part of the “moderate” NSW Liberal left faction, says the state has gained little from political volatility on both energy and climate.

“Since the Howard government, successive state and federal governments have been acting and reacting on climate and energy,” Mr Kean will tell a Committee for Economic Development of Australia event.

“This political instability has increased uncertainty, exacerbated risk, stalled investment and contributed to the problem, rather than helped to solve it. The climate wars have not delivered for the people of NSW.

“I know there are some on both the left and the right who want to continue this fight. But it is time for a new approach to climate and energy policy.”

The state’s energy reset will focus on keeping the lights on, cutting power bills and taking “decisive and responsible” action on climate change.

The biggest immediate challenge is ensuring the power grid stays affordable and reliable while also lowering emissions.

With AGL Energy’s 1680MW Liddell coal plant due to shut in 2022, Mr Kean argues the state needs to take a pragmatic approach to its generation mix.

It will encourage the extension or upgrades of other coal facilities to ensure the state avoids a repeat of the sudden exit of Victoria’s Hazelwood plant in 2017, which caused a supply shortage and high prices in the national electricity market.

Currently, up to 80 per cent of NSW’s electricity is produced by coal-fired power.

“During this transition, private operators may need to upgrade coal-fired power plants to ensure they can supply their customers and provide more time for firmed renewable generation to be built,” Mr Kean says.

“Coal mines in NSW will continue to supply power stations at home and overseas.

“This does not mean that we have given up on taking action on climate change. Rather, it reflects that our economy and economies overseas need to smooth the transition to low-emissions electricity generation.”

NSW will also consider a new intervention mechanism should it be faced with a lack of supply.

“The electricity system is too big to fail. Put simply, it is unacceptable for the state to be left with insufficient capacity to address peak demand.

“We need to transition our generation, not our expectations.

“Accordingly, if the need arises, the NSW government will act. Our strong preference is that we never have to.

“We strongly prefer to create sufficient certainty so that governments don’t have to step in as the provider of last resort.”

New generation sources to replace Liddell’s capacity may also be fast-tracked to ensure the state is not left empty-handed.

“Liddell’s capacity will be replaced by a combination of increased interconnection to other states and increased generation in NSW.

“We are working closely with industry and will expedite these investments to ensure they are delivered on time,” Mr Kean says, while noting a new coal station, even if economic, would take seven years to build and not be ready in time for Liddell’s closure.

In a potential nod to Santos’s long-delayed Narrabri project, awaiting planning approval, the government will also work to improve its native supplies given it currently relies on other states for 95 per cent of its gas needs.

“While approval processes need to take their course, we also support more gas being made available to the state.

“This may be through import terminals, pipelines or local sources of supply, but whatever the case we need to ensure that the state has a secure supply of gas.”
The Australian

Taylor gets to grips with latest loony from NSW.

Matt Kean is on the wrong side of history, if he actually believes that there really is a ‘transition’ underway. And he must have been asleep over the last decade, as his neighbours in South Australia headed off on their ‘inevitable transition’ – with its Labor government setting its very own 50% RET and meeting it.

The results have been an economic debacle: SA pays the world’s highest power prices, which will inevitably jump again, come 1 July. SA is also renowned as an international laughingstock, after a series of mass load shedding events and Australia’s only statewide blackout, all due to the chaotic delivery of wind and solar. Some model!

STT suspects that Matt Kean is just another dupe for the likes of Alex Turnbull, Simon Holmes a Court and Mike Cannon-Brookes: a group of spoiled-brat troughers, keen to keep the subsidy gravy train rolling, to their very substantial benefit.

Meanwhile, back on Earth, moves are afoot to build the kind of generating capacity that people like Matt Kean and his cronies believe to be redundant.

$2bn target for company behind bold indigenous power project
The Australian
Joe Kelly
8 June 2019

The indigenous company proposing a 1000MW clean coal plant in north Queensland says it is confident of raising $2 billion in finance before the next state election.

The ambitious timeline to reach “financial close” will test the commitment of Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk to the construction of a new coal-fired power station after she described the federal election result as a “wake-up call” for Labor over lengthy delays to the Adani coalmine.

Representatives from Shine Energy, including chief executive Ashley Dodd, met with senior officials from the Energy Department in Brisbane yesterday to discuss the $10 million promised by Scott Morrison before the election for a bankable feasibility study into the project.

Mr Dodd said he was hopeful of raising $2bn to build the proposed Dhalgan Energy Park by October 2020, when the next state election is due, and said it would help to provide new economic opportunities for thousands of traditional landowners.

“We want to reach financial close by October next year. That’s our aim and we will push really hard to get it there,” he told The Weekend Australian.

“Liddell is shutting in 2022. And we want to have the first unit commissioned by 2022. It’s now moving forward so we can actually get it done.

“The federal government has delivered on its promise to the Australian people.”

The new ultra-supercritical coal plant is planned for Collinsville in the electorate of Capricornia, held by LNP MP Michelle Landry.

Shine Energy says the project would create 2000 jobs in the construction phase and 600 permanent jobs in operation and maintenance. Mr Dodd said it was agreed at yesterday’s meeting that the company would provide “high-level” information to the department before the end of the month about a series of documents it will need to finalise.

The $10m in funds is to flow in the new financial year.

These documents include further detail on equity and debt contracts for the asset as well as the engineering, procurement and construction contracts for the building of the new plant.

In addition, Shine Energy will provide further details about its planned power purchasing agreement contracts and a connection application, which is needed to link the power generation asset to the national electricity market.

Resources Minister Matt Canavan yesterday said it was “great to see progress on large-scale energy investment”.

“More supply of electricity will help us lower power prices and that will keep manufacturing industries alive,” Senator Canavan said.

“We said before the election we will back new investments in power, including in coal, and that’s why we are getting on with the job.

“What I want to see from the Labor Party is not just words describing their love for coal, but also actions as well.

“If the Labor Party support our coal industry, why wouldn’t they support the use of some of that coal to drive economic development for indigenous Australians and for north Queensland.”

Ms Landry said she was “very excited” about the new power station and said the meeting was “full of energy and positivity”.

“I think this is going to be fantastic for Collinsville. They’ve gone through some hard times and this is the light at the end of the tunnel for them,” she said.
The Australian

H-E-L-E spells guaranteed votes in the Sunshine State.