Mike O’Connor: Energy aspirations all well and good but unrealistic

One day, we will have electric vehicles and renewable power, but it will be determined by technology and not politicians, writes Mike O’Connor. VOTE IN OUR POLL

Cheap electricity forever and cities filled with electric vehicles gliding silently along emission-free streets – the future has never looked brighter.

This green-tinged nirvana is of course a target or more prosaically, an aspiration.

Aspirations are fine. You can aspire to lose weight, drink less and be nice to idiots but the likelihood of achieving any of these is dubious.

This is not to say that they are unworthy, but that they are unrealistic.

Aspirations have been very much in vogue these past weeks as our leaders race to be the first to grasp the Holy Grail of environmental politics, net zero emissions!

The Queensland government put on an impressive burst of speed by lifting the state’s target from 70 per cent renewable energy generation by 2032 to 80 per cent by 2035.

A quick reference to your mobile phone’s calculator will reveal that this is 13 years away.

State Energy Minister Mick de Brenni. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Dan Peled

Anyone who can confidently predict what our world will be like in 13 years’ time is possessed of powers more usually attributed to a higher being yet federal and state politicians, some of whom it could be easily argued are not the sharpest shovels in the shed, trot out these statistics with absolute certainty to what they hope is a gullible electorate.

To reinforce these incredulous flights of fancy, they rely on modelling, easily the most discredited science in the universe.

It doesn’t matter that, like your determination to achieve a sylph-like figure by Christmas, the target is unachievable because by 2032 or 2035 – pick a number, any number – the current crop of politicians will be long gone and enjoying second careers as overseas trade commissioners, foreign diplomats or resting their feet up on the boardroom tables of union-controlled super funds.

Queensland has embraced pumped hydro as its path to lowering emissions from electricity generation.

Federal Energy Minister Chris Bowen. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Gary Ramage

Energy Minister Mick de Brenni said that, after researching about 1000 sites, one west of Mackay had been found to be “simply the best”.

Within 24 hours of this revelation, it was revealed that “simply the best” was actually simply not quite the best and that simply put, the government was now looking for another site that could provide the massive areas of land required for water storage for the upper and lower dams without significantly damaging the environment, a site could be connected to the grid to supply the power necessary to pump the water and transmit the power generated.

How much will this cost when they find simply the best placed to build it?

The figure is $12bn, with the total cost of achieving that mirage-like figure of 80 per cent shimmering on the 2035 horizon, being $62bn.

Where will the money come from? Tricky one, that.

The federal government and private infrastructure funds will be relied upon to bring this wondrous scheme to fruition.

How much has been committed thus far? Not a cent.

The pumped hydro scheme will be located 70km west of Mackay in the Pioneer Valley. Picture: Queensland Energy and Jobs Plan

It is worth noting that Snowy Hydro 2.0, the result of a Malcolm Turnbull thought bubble, was budgeted to cost $5.1bn.

That now looks like blowing out by a further $2.1bn and is beset by problems.

Meanwhile, if you are leasing a servo, it might be good time to start looking for an exit strategy because, according to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s pre-election policies, by 2030, 89 per cent of new vehicle sales in Australia will be electric vehicles.

How did the Labor Party arrive at this incredibly precise figure? You guessed it – modelling. What percentage of new car sales were electric in Australia last year? Two per cent.

Federal Energy Minister Chris Bowen has been talking about getting tough on vehicle emissions.

I don’t envy him the task of telling the nation’s tradies that they’ll have to give up their treasured four-wheel-drive utes and buy something more environmentally friendly.

He might also get a less than warm reception from the caravanning community who will have to say goodbye to their Toyota LandCruisers and Nissan Patrols and park their vans in the yard because electric vehicles are incapable of towing heavy loads over long distances.

There will come a time when electric vehicles will be practical in this vast country and when renewable power will replace that generated by fossil fuels but it will be determined by technological advances and not grandstanding politicians with both eyes fixed firmly, not on the well being of the next generation but the next election.

And that sylph-like figure by Christmas? Good luck with that.