East coast spot gas prices are thumping along well above Albo’s phony contract price cap:
This is driving a new shock in electricity prices:
Paul Kelly finally wrote something worth reading yesterday:
Opposition energy spokesman Ted O’Brien is undeterred. The Coalition intends to roll out a massive transformation in Australia’s long-run energy policy leading to net zero at 2050. Replying to Bowen, O’Brien told this column: “The facts are on our side. When nuclear is part of a balanced energy mix, then energy prices come down. This is the experience the world over and there is no reason to think it won’t happen in Australia.”
The Coalition’s present thinking is for nuclear sites to be located at closed coal-fired stations. The truth, however, is that government support for nuclear will be essential – just as the renewables industry has grown off the back of huge public subsidies.
The Grattan Institute warns that Labor’s target of 82 per cent renewables by 2030 “looks unachievable”. It says the national electricity market “is operating closer to the reliability edge, more often”. In an act of ineptitude our leaders have promoted renewables making coal-fired power non-viable, forcing the decline of coal-fired stations, thereby creating reliability problems in the system, consequently necessitating a rethink to keep coal open and reprioritise gas.
Got it? The blundering is massive. Policy is now split between realism and ideology. Witness the reversal by NSW Labor to keep open for a further two years the Eraring coal-fired power station at a potential cost to taxpayers of up to $450m, with Premier Chris Minns saying it guaranteed “certainty for households and businesses”.
…Asked about gas, O’Brien gave a revealing answer: “We will continue to embrace renewables and other forms of technology as part of a balanced energy mix. But nothing is more important in the short term than putting more gas into the energy system. For the Coalition, all roads lead to gas.”
It’s surely a signal – wait for the Coalition to run far harder on gas.
Nuclear will lower the price of electricity if gas stays at $15Gj:
But why would we build massive nuclear power stations at immense cost when we have so much cheap gas? The problem is only that we are exporting too much of it:
We need to keep roughly 10% of what sails overseas for ourselves:
All we need is tougher domestic gas reservation on the East Coast to resolve all energy transition problems.
Or we can have chaos.
