Australian chief scientist advocates coal-fired power extensions

Lots of coal in Australia

Some say the ‘soaring prices and increased black outs’ mentioned in the report are at least partly due to over-hasty substitution of fuel-powered generation by expensive and intermittent renewable energy, mainly wind and solar. Now the argument is that Australia needs early action to try and prevent the situation getting even more serious.

Alan Finkel, Australia’s chief scientist, believes the country would be better off extending the life of existing coal-fired power plants, rather than investing in clean coal technology, as PEI reports.

Finkel says the move would increase Australia’s energy security in an affordable manner.

He authored a report making 50 recommendations to address soaring prices and increased black outs, said building new ultra-super-critical coal plants would take eight years and carry much higher risks for potential investors.

But he said the owners of coal fired generators could be encouraged to spend A$600m-$700m on upgrading the plants to extend their life by another 10 years. “Investing in extending the life of existing coal generators is absolutely in line with our recommendations,” he said.

“There is a lot more generation coming into the market, wind and solar, and that’s good, we need more generation … but we also need to ensure that we have got that dispatchability,” he said.

“That can be provided by batteries but they’ve got limited capacity. It can be provided on a large-scale by pumped hydro but that takes years to build … all of those things take time.”

Continued here.