The existance of bunyips and alligators in the sewers are common urban myths, but one mythical concept that continues to rear its head in Australia is the idea of so-called “clean coal”.
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The truth is, there’s no such thing as “clean coal”, but just like Groundhog Day, this urban fallacy is somehow back on some politicians’ agenda.
Just over a year ago Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull first flagged the idea of building new coal power stations in Australia, including using carbon capture storage technology to make cheap “clean coal”. The business and community response was overwhelmingly negative.
Large energy and finance companies labelled the idea “uninvestable” and “unbankable”. No matter how you dress it up or what spin the government decides to put on it, coal is never clean. In fact, coal is always polluting, and new coal is very expensive. Making electricity from coal always pollutes.
No matter what label you give coal generators, whether it’s “ultra-supercritical’”, “high efficency, low emission”, or “carbon capture”, coal power stations emit massive amounts of greenhouse gas pollution. Because they use exotic steels and extreme temperatures and pressures, they are also very costly to build and run.
Coal power is a technology from last century. Most of Australia’s coal stations were built then, using obsolete technology. Today, most are approaching their “use-by” date of 40 to 50 years. Old power plants like these are unreliable in extreme summer heat, when needed most. They suffered faults causing shutdowns over 40 times last summer.
These malfunctions may occur during times of high electricity demand on hot days, causing spikes in electricity prices and on occasions, may lead to blackouts or load shedding, hurting vulnerable people and industry.
Closing these old clunkers in an orderly way presents an opportunity for Australia to move to a reliable modern grid powered by renewable energy and storage.
Coal power, old or new, is expensive. The Liddell coal-fired power station is already 47 years old and will need around $1billion spent to keep it running for up to 10 years past its planned 2022 decommission date. Expert energy analysts have labelled the construction of new coal-fired power stations as “ludicrous”.
The only way to make coal power pollution free, in theory at least, is to capture all the greenhouse pollution and store it underground forever.
Easier said than done. Just last year, owners of America’s largest “clean coal” power station scrapped using coal at the site, after construction costs skyrocketed to almost $10 billion and the technology could not be made to work reliably.
Renewable energy is the cheapest form of new energy generation in Australia.
New solar and wind farms produce electricity much cheaper than new gas and coal power stations, which is why worldwide, renewables now dominate new build power capacity and investment.
Australia is one of the sunniest and windiest nations in the world. Our renewable energy resources are among the best in the world, with the potential to provide 500 times the electricity we currently use.
Let’s look to the future and move forward in the 21st Century with a truly clean energy system we can be proud of.
Professor Andrew Stock, Climate Councillor and energy sector expert
