Watts happening GAS MONEY
Scott Morrison and
Angus Taylor will today confirm plans to build a 660 megawatt gas power plant at Kurri Kurri in the Hunter Valley through a $600 million equity investment via the publicly-owned Snowy Hydro Limited, news dutifully announced by
The Australian ($) as stepping in “to keep power prices down and the lights on”.
This is despite the Australian Energy Market Operator finding that the 2023 closure of Liddell’s coal-fired power station would create a maximum shortage of just 154 megawatts, and, as
Guardian Australiaexplains, that batteries, pumped hydro, or demand management would all be cheaper options than the Kurri Kurri project.
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at 9:00 am on May 19, 2021 | 18 comments
I long ago ran out of pejorative adjectives to describe the Morrison Government machete hacking into the Australian energy market. Today it swings another stroke into the pulpy corpse:
$600m will spend on the Hunter white elephant power pork station.
The 660MW beast will fill a notional shortfall predicted by the AEMO to 150-200MW, easily and much more cheaply filled by private energy storage.
This has nothing whatsoever to do with providing cheap, secure and carbon mitigated energy. It is the usual combination of political drama to keep the Hunter electorate fearing energy transformation while feeding Morrison mates in the gas cartel.
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Hunter Valley gas plant âwould only operate a week a yearâ
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The proposed gas-fired power station in the Hunter Valley that the Morrison government is insisting should be built would operate just two per cent of the time - the equivalent of about a week per year - and employ only 10 full-time workers.
The figures are contained in the environmental impact statement for Snowy Hydroâs proposed 750 megawatt open-cycle gas plant for Kurri Kurri in the Hunter Valley, made public on Thursday.
Isobella Evans is a journalist with NBN News in Tamworth, NSW.
After writing her first story at age twelve about an adventurous beach ball, she quickly discovered her love for writing. Since then, she has graduated from a Bachelor in Communication at the University of Newcastle and worked as a journalist for the Sydney Royal Easter Show and as a columnist for a Central Coast publication.
NBN News is Isobella s first full-time television role, and she is loving every minute of it.