Australia just doesn’t have the energy to meet its green goals | Caleb Bond
The war in Ukraine may be part of the problem but Australia’s real energy crisis is homegrown, writes Caleb Bond.
Opinion
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There is nothing a government loves more than to “consult”. Consult with people, businesses, punters – whatever the term du jour is.
But the governmental definition of consultation seems to be ever so slightly different to the one you’ll find in the dictionary.
Consultation – where a government or council is involved – usually means a small number of people are asked what they think of something before their thoughts are promptly dismissed in favour of whatever the government wanted to do in the first place.
But hey, at least they asked.
It’s hard to see anything different happening when Prime Minister Anthony Albanese goes off to consult with gas companies about reducing prices
He can ask but it doesn’t mean he’ll get. In fact, he’s almost guaranteed to get nothing in return without implementing a price cap which, in the long run, we’d all pay for anyway.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has tried to shirk blame for rising energy costs on the war in Ukraine.
And yes, it’s a contributing factor. Though it is a much bigger problem in Europe than in Australia. The wholesale cost of gas and coal has spiked worldwide. That is an unavoidable reality no matter where you live.
But Mr Chalmers has to admit that his government’s policies have helped drive this price spike – and will continue to do so.
On top of rising global costs, Australia has battled a lack of available power. In the world of basic market forces, prices increase when demand outstrips supply. It’s the same reason the prices of myriad other products have spiked.
The lack of energy supply has largely been caused by coal-fired power stations unexpectedly going offline for maintenance and repairs.
At one point in May, nearly a third of the country’s coal power generators were off.
It’s no wonder they’ve gone to rack and ruin when renewable energy has been subsidised up the wazoo to the point where it has become cheaper to produce.
If you’re a commercial power producer or retailer, you’re obviously going to pursue the product that returns you the most profit.
Thanks to government intervention, that is now renewables.
As a result, coal-fired power stations have gone without needed maintenance and are now slated to go offline years – in some cases even decades – earlier than planned.
And yet we are hurtling full-steam-ahead towards ambitious emissions-reductions targets.
The extra energy that needs to be made up for coal going offline is simply not there.
In Germany, the greenie North Rhine-Westphalia government has just approved the demolition of a wind farm to allow the urgent expansion of a coalmine.
According to Australian Energy Market Operator chief executive Daniel Westerman, by 2050 wind and solar farms need to increase ninefold, the backup supply for renewables has to triple and we need 10,000km of new power lines.
If we don’t wake up from this green dream, power prices will only continue to rise.
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