Use power for change
I LOVED working at the Collinsville Power Station from 1975 and was awed by the incredible amount of precision engineering and construction, and enormously powerful machines.
The first unit was an AEI 30MW steam turbine generator made in Manchester in 1966 ( it was still in good condition when stripped for its copper this year) — the last unit was a 60MW Reyrolle Parsons turbine and hydrogen cooled brushless generator dating from 1975 and could have continued operating for decades but for the boiler, and coal and ash handling plant deterioration. The age of steam is not ending as solar thermal power stations use steam turbines.
In 1986 I visited a power station in West Germany that was the first to start retrofitting Flue Gas Desulphurisation [ FGD] plants to their coal fired units to reduce acid rain that was eroding buildings and monuments, and killing trees and lakes over Europe.
FGD was extended to the East after reunification and then the rest of the European Union [ EU] — health records showed that the removal of the Sulphur Dioxide [ SO2] from the air had unexpected benefits, as infant mortality rates fell in direct relationship with reductions in SO2.
Most developed countries have mandated FGD along with developing countries like China yet Australia does not have any regulations to remove SO2 from coal power stations which is externalising the environmental and health costs onto our communities.
Carbon dioxide [ CO2] and toxic emissions cannot be economically removed from coal. The CSIRO estimated in 2014 that the cost to replace buildings exposed to bushfires, inland flooding and storm surges caused by Climate Change at $ 1.4 trillion by 2100; with ecosystem and health costs even higher. These are some of the reasons why there is a transition to renewable energy. The science and economics of power are complex and quality analysis is critically important. The strategy by some activists, industry lobbyists and politicians to sow confusion and muddy the waters is very unhelpful to say the least.
Many communities have a dependency on fossil fuel industries and planning for transitions to more advanced technologies is vital. It is essential for good governance and decision making that all the costs and benefits are considered — it is an irresponsible and fatally flawed strategy to try to ignore, obfuscate or deny reality. GARRY REED,
Collinsville.