Hydrogen-based energy plan wakes up to cost reality

Your report rightly points out the immense cost of producing hydrogen, which remains several times more expensive than existing alternatives (“High-price hydrogen bombshell”, 10/6).

While some argue that future technological advances may reduce these costs, no advancement can overturn the fundamental scientific reality: the energy required to produce hydrogen from water will always be greater than the energy it yields.

The economic implication is stark: a hydrogen-based energy system cannot sustain itself without ongoing subsidies. It becomes a perpetual drain on the economy, not a driver of growth.

Don McMillan, Paddington, Qld

Your editorial says: “Mr Tehan is entitled to be in no rush” to state Coalition policy on net zero and energy (“Coalition must face energy issue as substance not style”, 10/6). Deep party divisions may be forcing opposition energy and emissions reduction spokesman Dan Tehan to dally, but Australia can’t afford the luxury in terms of cold cash, future productivity and linked military survival.

This country is in decline and needs to immediately tune into the scientific reality that net zero is unachievable in current technology and a renewables electricity grid is already a nation-destroying fantasy.

The Coalition is being coy and unworthy about needing time the nation doesn’t have, to solve the insoluble problem of little Australia pretending to affect global climate with its unachievable cost-effectiveness on renewables.

Drop the doublespeak and talk reality and logic. Voters of all stripes don’t want to pay for any of this political fantasising now unique to Australia. Our self-evident madness is so extreme it should feature as an urgent energy policy review in every speech we endure from every parliamentarian as they indulge in action-free waffle.

Betty Cockman, Dongara, WA

I hope Robert Gottliebsen keeps on stating energy facts despite being ignored by the federal and most state governments (“The truth on renewables”, 10/6).

Our increasingly expensive and complex energy systems will become even more so if we continue to ignore the facts and world trends he outlines. There is a reason we are alone in the world in prioritising wind, solar and batteries. And it’s not because we are leading the world but because we are ignoring its lessons.

Gottliebsen enunciates these lessons clearly and factually. The facts are there for all to see if only they will take off the ideological blinkers.

Doug Hurst, Chapman, ACT

A lot of people are misreading the election result as being supportive of Labor energy policy. Many voted against the “wet” Coalition policies as being too Labor-lite. The country is crying out for sanity and acceptance of pragmatic net-zero realism.

LJ O’Donoghue, Richmond, Vic

Contrary to what Anthony Albanese repeatedly told us in the lead-up to the May 3 federal election, Australia will not become a major green hydrogen exporter.

The costs of producing it are so high that it is uneconomical and unlikely to attract buyers. But that reality hasn’t stopped Albanese from, so far, squandering billions of dollars in taxpayer funds in his quest to kickstart an industry that will fail to get off the ground. Just as bad is the Labor government’s plan for the nation’s energy system to be running on 82 per cent of renewables in five years. It will cost taxpayers and electricity consumers a fortune.

Then comes the cost of batteries and pumped hydro, needed to back up renewables when the sun stops shining or the wind stops blowing.

Add to this the necessity of having to replace solar panels and wind turbines every 15 years, and the costs keep going up and up. Not only is the cost of Labor’s renewable energy transition exorbitant but, because of their unpredictability, renewables render the energy system dangerously unstable.

Dale Ellis, Innisfail, Qld

I can’t understand Dan Tehan’s reluctance to decide if the Coalition should walk away from net-zero by 2050 (“Coalition to take its time on net-zero policy preference”, 10/6).

If he does, he will upset the Labor-lites. And if he doesn’t, the LNP will fade away into insignificance. That’s not a hard decision.

Ross McDonald, Gordon, NSW