Don’t waste any of our options on baseload electricity

Peter Weste (Letters, 8/9) and others sharing his concerns should not despair about where our baseload electricity can come from. In 1903 Denmark built its first municipal waste-fuelled combined heat and power plant. The 12 million tonnes of non-recyclable combustible municipal waste we produce a year would provide about 2000 megawatts of baseload power plus industry heat. Another 4000MW to 5000MW of power plus industry heat can come from agricultural and plantation forestry residues. Another 1000MW of peaking power can come from anaerobic digestion of our food wastes and sewage. It’s nothing new and all being done elsewhere, including Denmark. These smarter countries will be happy to sell us their technology and expertise.

Andrew Lang, Lismore, Vic

I’m surprised by correspondents contemplating the worst (“Britain’s dark winter must not be Australia’s destiny”, 7/9) and that they should blame renewable energy for the exorbitant cost of fossil fuels. Britain and the EU will no doubt be reeling from their energy bills over the coming winter but they would be far worse off had they not invested heavily in wind and solar energy over the past decade. Renewables were the cheaper option even before the massive price hikes that Vladimir Putin has inspired for gas, oil and coal. Luckily, Russia has no control of the world’s solar and wind resources. I look forward to the day when we no longer need to import fuels to Australia or suffer the costs imposed by the world’s uncaring fossil fuel suppliers.

Tom Hunt, Oak Flats, NSW

To back up her support for renewables, Amy Hiller refers to sunny Australia, reliable winds and a warmer climate (Letters, 8/9). This seems to fly in the face of her previous comments on climate change and conjures up an image of Australia being cut off from the rest of the world by some imaginary force field. If climate change is a global phenomenon it’s reasonable to assume its impact is affecting and will continue to affect Australia. It may be that Australia won’t always have warm days and reliable winds; we may even see more catastrophic days that trash wind and solar farms. While renewables have a role to play, a sensible energy policy would consider a mix of energy sources.

Joanna Wriedt, Eaglemont, Vic

When it comes to saving the planet, the cost of renewables never seems to be a concern. So why is it such a concern with nuclear? Perhaps it’s because if we went nuclear we wouldn’t need renewables, and I suspect too many have a vested financial interest in the renewable industry to allow that to happen.

Ian Cope, Tea Tree Gully, SA

The Coalition has missed an opportunity to neutralise the government’s recalcitrant opposition to nuclear energy. Was Canada wrong to include nuclear in its energy mix over the past 60 years? And it has developed its own excellent power generation technology. Has France been stupid to generate about 70 per cent of its energy by nuclear, thereby having the cheapest electricity in Europe? It’s time to hold the government to account by demanding answers to these questions.

Tom Smith, Bowral, NSW

The many letter writers and uranium mining executives keen to see Australia turn to nuclear power (“With cheap SMRs we can’t afford not to go nuclear”, 8/9) may be interested in the observations of the thoughtful columnist Paul Kelly. Ten months ago Kelly correctly anticipated that “right-wing parties keen to seize the political initiative on climate will push nuclear against the left, arguing this is the only guaranteed road to net zero at 2050”. He referred to the SMRs so beloved of modern nuclear fans and continued: “But nuclear plant construction remains poor in advanced OECD nations, the main reason being not safety but its weak business case.” Kelly’s arguments still hold.

Lesley Walker, Northcote, Vic

Foreign Minister Penny Wong was asked by senator Pauline Hanson to explain the concept of net zero and Wong missed a great chance of explanation by not using recent events in Solomon Islands, where the Australian government has offered nearly $90m to fund games and elections, which has made PM Manasseh Sogavare very angry and resulted in a net-zero result for Australia.

Paul Haege, Darling Point, NSW