CLEAN ENERGY BOOM POINTS TO BRIGHT FUTURE
A CLEAN energy boom is taking off in North Queensland with a new large- scale clean energy industry underway with much more coming over the next few months.
With highly predictable and year- round sunshine, why wouldn’t North Queensland become a solar and renewables leader?
Construction started two months ago on the Kidston Solar Farm Stage 1 and a decision on Stage 2 peak hydro powered by solar is due later this year. Construction is due to start in coming months on massive solar farms at Clare, Ross River, Townsville with Sun Metals and three in the old coal mining town of Collinsville – all under the Palaszczuk Labor Government.
The Far North is booming as well with solar farms under construction at Lakeland, Normanton and a wind farm at Mt Emerald big enough to power a city the size of Mackay soon to start construction.
All this in just two years under Queensland Labor after not a single large- scale renewables project was started under Campbell Newman and Tim Nicholls. Not. One.
Listening to the Turnbull Federal LNP Government via Minister Matt Canavan, you’d never know any of this boom existed. That’s because the Turnbull Government is looking backwards when they propose old, expensive and high carbon emission technology via a new coal- fired power station. That’s bad news for business, consumers and the reef.
If we want to cook the Great Barrier Reef, then locking in high carbon emissions for 50 years via a new coal- fired power station will certainly help do that. The greatest threat to our reef is climate change and the Turnbull Government seems willing to damage one of the great wonders of the world with old thinking and old technology.
There can be no comparison between solar, wind and hydro power versus coal- fired generation when it comes to emissions. Even the newer ultrasupercritical coalfired generators emit around 800kg of carbon equivalent emissions per megawatt hour. Claims that any form of coal- fired generation is low emissions are simply absurd.
Carbon capture technology is no solution either. It provides minimal reduction in emissions – just 6 per cent on the most efficient plant in Queensland – and the cost is astronomical. It’s not just the intergenerational environmental impacts that makes the proposal obsolete – it’s the economics.
Renewable energy technology costs continue to plunge with solar 80 per cent cheaper than in 2009 and the International Energy Agency and CSIRO among groups saying they will continue to fall.
A new coal- fired power station would take three to four years to build, cost billions more than quicker to build large- scale renewables, at taxpayer expense.
It’s like investing in bi- planes during the jet era.
Eighty per cent of our power is generated via eight generators, four of which are super critical technology built in the last 10- 15 years. What we need is cheaper, faster, zero emissions large- scale renewable energy. That’s already happening under the Palaszczuk Government, with a 800MW pipeline of renewable energy projects committed in the North over the last 12 months, a $ 1.5 billion investment supporting more than 1400 jobs in the next year- and- a- half.
And that’s why we committed to a business case for the Burdekin Hydro Project. Cyclone Debbie reminded us all of the immense destruction from extreme weather events happening more often due to climate change. North Queensland is more vulnerable to that threat than any other part of our nation. The North Queensland clean energy boom under Palaszczuk Labor is addressing exactly that while creating real jobs right now.
It’s time the Turnbull Government stopped looking to the past and looked to latest technology that reduces the carbon emissions which accelerate climate change to not just protect the reef but also our homes, industries and economy.