Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is back at it, lying that a renewables-based future will deliver Australia an “era of growth and prosperity” with the private sector leading the charge.
“The global shift to clean energy is the biggest economic transformation since the industrial revolution and it is a profound economic opportunity for Australia”, Albanese will reportedly say in a speech to the Business Council of Australia’s annual dinner on Monday.
“If we act now, if we get it right, we can set our nation up for a new era of growth and prosperity, one built on our strengths as a high-skill, fair-wage economy”.
The reality is the polar opposite.
As illustrated below by the ABC, virtually all renewable power generation projects since 2012 have been heavily subsidised by taxpayers:
“Since 2012, all of the new large-scale generation that’s been built in the national electricity market has relied upon significant support from government”, Brian Spak from Energy Consumers Australia told the ABC.
“It’s not being built because of high market prices. It’s government support”.
Net zero hero Ross Garnaut told The AFR in late July that “there are now virtually no new investment commitments for solar and wind generation that do not have CIS or other government underwriting”.
Meanwhile, as illustrated below by Westpac last month, the overwhelming majority of electricity generation work being done in Australia has come from the public sector:
Thus, the renewables ‘revolution’ in Australia is one giant taxpayer-funded boondoggle, and an expensive one at that.
I could support the taxpayer-funded renewables transition if it would actually deliver cheaper energy to Australians. But instead, power prices are rising and will continue to do so.
Across the globe, energy costs have risen alongside the rise in wind and solar.
South Australia, which generates around 75% of its power from wind and solar (but also imports brown coal power from Victoria), has the highest retail electricity bills in Australia.
California, which is the USA’s leader in renewables, has by far the most expensive power in the nation.
Renewables provide expensive power because they have low capacity factors and are weather dependent and intermittent. They require massive overbuilding in nameplate capacity and transmission lines to generate the required amount of energy.
Because renewables are weather-dependent and cannot match energy supply with demand, they require massive amounts of investment in pumped hydro and battery storage, as well as firming from expensive gas peakers.
These costs get capitalised into retail power bills, driving up inflation across the supply chain, cost-of-living pressures, and further deindustrialisation of the Australian economy.
Heaven help Australia if Prime Minister Anthony Albanese truly believes that this path will deliver an “era of growth and prosperity”.
