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Power giants feel heat on coal closures, green energy plans (smh.com.au)
Martin Currie, one of AGL’s largest investors, said coal plant retirements in the 2040s were “too late” and out of step with the goals of the Paris climate agreement, which aims to limit global heating to as close as possible to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels.
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‘Act now’: Grid chief urges renewable boom as early coal closures loom
“Loy Yang A shutting at the end of the 2040s is probably going to get brought forward quite significantly, so we are encouraging them to follow Paris-aligned shutdowns, which would be mid-2030s,” Martin Currie portfolio manager Andrew Chambers said.
While the United Nations has called on developed countries to quit burning coal for electricity by 2030 to avert catastrophic climate change, Chambers said that may prove too difficult in Australia given the massive scale of investment needed to build enough new renewables backed up by gas or pumped hydro, and thousands of kilometres of transmission lines to replace coal-fired power, which still account for two-thirds of the electricity mix.
Still, he said investors would be pressing AGL to increase and fast-track renewable energy spending.
“We would see them investing a lot more in renewables – and they’ve got various battery projects, renewable projects and other storage projects which we think that makes a lot of sense,” Chambers said. “So we are encouraging that investment, and
Electricity generation | energy.gov.au
Electricity generation
In 2019-20 total electricity generation in Australia was nearly steady at around 265 TWh (955 PJ), the highest total generation on record for Australia. COVID-19 affected sectoral usage and time of demand, but had limited impact on overall demand for electricity for the year as a whole.
Fossil fuels contributed 76% of total electricity generation in 2020, including coal (54%), gas (20%) and oil (2%). The share of coal in the electricity mix has continued to decline, in contrast to the beginning of the century when coal’s share was more than 80% of electricity generation.
Renewables contributed 24% of total electricity generation in 2020, specifically solar (9%), wind (9%) and hydro (6%). The share of renewable energy generation increased from 21% in 2019.
About 16% of Australia’s electricity was generated outside the electricity sector by business and households in 2019-20.
7 July 2021 The Base Load:
In March, AGL announced it would build a 250MW big battery at the Torrens power station site, marking another step in the company’s transition from its older fleet of fossil fuel generators to clean energy projects.
The first stage of the battery will feature one hour of storage, but AGL envisions it will be upgraded to four hours storage, or a total of 1,000MWh, as battery storage plays a bigger role time shifting renewables for when they are needed at times of peak demand.
It is also a further indication of the evolving dynamics within the Australian energy market, with lower cost supplies of wind and solar generation and the growing attractiveness of battery storage for its grid support services – and now arbitrage – pushing ageing fossil fuel assets out of the market.
This will be AGL’s first big battery, although it is also planning a 200MW big battery with four hours storage at its Loy Yang A brown coal generator in Victoria, a 150MW battery (possibly up to 500MW) at the soon to be closed Liddell coal generator in NSW and a 50MW big battery at Broken Hill.
AGL already contracts the output from the Dalrymple North battery in South Australia, but it does not own that facility.
It has a contract with, but does not own, a new 100MW/150MWh big battery at Wandoan South that is being built in Queensland, and has also commissioned Maoneng to build 200MW and 400MWh of battery storage in NSW.
EVs
What renewable energy will the sites use?
All our ultra-rapid sites are backed by 100% green power. In many cases we also add solar and batteries on site to facilitate charging via solar energy.
