For whom the death knell tolls
While the ebbing life force of a net zero energy economy struggles to reach its goals, the Minns’ government is struggling to keep the lights on in NSW – pursuing its own version of Angus Taylor's Coalkeeper tax. A tax that instead of bringing the price of electricity down, will more than likely force everyone in NSW to prop up an unviable coal-fired power station.
Eraring Power Station should have been decommissioned in 2025, but an energy generation crisis in NSW, now has the State government scrambling to secure power to keep the lights on whilst they struggle to transition toward reliable and renewable energy future.
5 June 2024
ALAN HAYES
LAST week the Grapevine, in its lead story – ‘Waiting impatiently for green energy’ – exposed the excessive degree of political verbosity as NSW comes to grip with an energy crisis.
The NSW Premier’s announcement that he’d made the right decision by extending the life of Eraring power station, has left NSW Welshman in the dark – NSW taxpayers will pay an extraordinary $450 million to fossil fuel giant Origin Energy, shoring up the financially unfeasible Eraring power station from 2025 to 2027.
Origin Energy, who had previously set a closure date for their 42-year-old behemoth as 2025, late last month announced it would keep the lights burning for a further two years. The deal with the NSW Government to extend the life of the aging plant will see NSW taxpayers cover 80% of Origin’s losses in operating the plant.
Origin Energy’s share price spiked in early May with reports NSW was going to provide the handout and hit a six-year high in the wake of the news. Little wonder with NSW taxpayers being treated as an unwilling cash cow!
The deal brokered by the Minns Government is nothing more than a variant on Angus Taylor’s notorious “Coalkeeper” proposal, under which the Morrison government energy minister planned to impose an electricity bill tax of up to $400 a year on all households to fund the propping-up of unviable coal-fired power stations. After the ousting of the Morrison government, then State Liberal Energy Minister Matt Kean helped lead the state charge to kill Coalkeeper off - seemingly for good.
But energy utopia wasn’t to last! The election of NSW Labor — influenced and funded by climate denialist unions like the Australian Workers Union and advocates for coal mining such as the Electrical Trades Union and the Mining and Energy Union - quickly saw the return of the Coalkeeper, version 2.0. An avoidable disaster for the environment - this time the cost will be worn by all NSW taxpayers, not merely by households.
So, why have things gotten so bad in the supply of energy and who are the real victims of the ‘pealing death knell bells’?
The frequent and steady onset of extremely terrible decisions on climate, and an inordinate desire to stick with the status quo, to avoid ambition and mostly, to preserve the fossil fuel industry is the problem. This ‘king-coal’ and ‘queen-gas’ attitude has driven these bad decisions, and, together, they add up to terrifying images of fires, heatwaves and evacuations on your evening news.
Yet not surprisingly, the Minns Government is keen to test the waters, and see just how far they can push public concern for ‘no more fossil fuel’, before announcing any new fossil fuel subsidy. What many people don’t know is that the idea whether it was viable to buy back the Eraring power station had been ‘floated’ for some time.
Under Labor in NSW, progress on renewables investment, and a green utopian future, has moved at a snail’s pace since previous treasurer Matt Kean pushed the state to the forefront of the renewables transition under the former Berejiklian and Perrottet governments.
But wind farms, solar farms and massive storage batteries won’t provide the renewable energy we need. Solar panels and batteries are perfect for a home power system, but wind farms and solar farms become problematic when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow – on a large scale it ‘won’t cut the mustard’, no matter what our politicians tell us.
The push to lock fossil fuel into Australia’s power grid comes at time after years of long failure to create a new renewable 24/7 energy policy, which includes investment in green base-load power - 'Concentrated Thermal Power Plants’ and ‘Pumped Hydro’.
The ‘Reaper’ is knocking at the door but our government is deaf to change, instead extending the lifespan of yet another ‘people-killer’.
Extending Eraring’s lifespan may seem the obvious answer but it’s still dubious! It’s planet-heating impact has been around 7-8% of Australia’s total power sector emissions (about 13% of NSW’s total emissions), for the past few years, according to NGERS reports and DCCEEW emissions data.
Giving Eraring a new lease of life isn’t just a little smidgen of extra carbon emissions, it's a lack of a ‘social licence’ and a 'raft' of health problems borne by Central Coast residents.
It may have seemed the logical and easiest decision by the state government but will no doubt translate into the worst outcome – amplifying a catastrophic failure of basic planning and decision making to provide reliable power for the future. A decision that will have Origin Energy, who is raking in record profits, getting paid taxpayer money to raise pollution, worsen future electricity reliability and guaranteeing an increase in electricity bills.
Despite the Government’s Eraring decision being challenging, in September 2023 the government announced a $1.8 billion in renewals, including a portion of the funds being set aside for transmission lines. At the time Premier Chris Minns admitted “we are way behind in that endeavour, and we need to get back on track.”
So, why are NSW taxpayers expected to now foot the bill for propping up coal-fired power, as a coal-addicted government drags its heels on renewables and accept the alternative solution - ‘green, base-load power plants’ - while scores of Central Coast deaths are the reality of coal-fired power.
There is no doubt ‘For Whom the Death Knell Tolls’ - yet the Premier was spruiking the Origin Energy-Eraring deal as a win for workers. But what about the health issues on those residents living in the Central Coast’s northern suburbs? People who are already dealing with a plethora of cancers that have been linked to airborne coal dust particulates and coal ash dams.
The fact is that Eraring produces around 13-14 million tonnes of CO2 a year and its output of highly toxic pollutants has dramatically worsened recently. A 2018 academic study showed that Eraring was responsible for at least 87 deaths a year from PM2.5 pollution, meaning an additional 174 deaths as a result of the Minns decision. Eraring is also estimated to be responsible for 75 low-weight births a year.
Greens spokesperson for Energy and Treasury Abigail Boyd was recently reported as saying that the government was "dragging its feet" on the transition to clean energy.
"We have two paths ahead of us — either we choose to keep pandering to the fossil fuel industry by keeping coal-fired power stations open longer than they need to be, or we urgently invest in publicly-owned renewables," she said.
And what about those communities who live in the shadow of Eraring – families losing loved ones before their time from hideous cancers, resulting from the toxic airborne pollution and coal ash dams?
Health problems are a known fact
The issue with keeping coal-fired power stations, such as Eraring and Vales Point, is the coal’s content of uranium and thorium, both radioactive elements. They occur in such trace amounts in natural, or "whole," coal that they aren't a problem. But when coal is burned into fly ash, uranium and thorium are concentrated at up to 10 times their original levels.
Power stations emit 30 toxic pollutants and are the single biggest source of dangerous sulphur dioxide (SO2), oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and fine particle pollution (PM2.5) in Australia.
Exposure to these toxic pollutants cause premature death, heart attacks, stroke, asthma attacks, low birth weight babies, lung cancer and type 2 diabetes.
Not only is the Central Coast impacted by Eraring and Vales Point, but Sydney communities also bear the health burden from burning coal as weather conditions push much of the pollution into the Sydney basin.
In Sydney, each year, pollution from coal-fired power stations causes 153 premature deaths – more than half of the state’s total.
If the NSW government doesn’t act now and rethink the renewable solution, thousands more people will die from exposure to toxic coal pollution before the state’s five power stations close.
And thousands more will suffer from heart attacks, stroke, asthma attacks, low birth weight, lung cancer and type 2 diabetes.
The companies that own these power stations have the technology to reduce toxic pollutants from coal-fired power stations by more than 85% – they just don’t bother to install it and the government doesn’t make them.
Since power moved into private hands not a ‘penny’ has been spent on them – it’s been all about profit and continues to be so, which is evident by the recent Original Energy deal to keep Eraring open.
Central Coast’s community group Future Sooner spokesperson Gary Blaschke said "Suddenly, the deal between it and the Minns Government extending the life of Origin's old polluting power station for a further two years was negotiated behind dosed doors, totally ignoring the health issues facing residents of the Central Coast and the environment.
"More than 912,000 extra tonnes of coal ash will be dumped into Eraring's unlined 45-year-old open ash dams over these two extra years.
"In the past 12 months, mercury emissions from Eraring soared by 130 per cent, PM2.5 fine particles increased by 88 per cent, PM1 o particles by 16 per cent and sulphur-dioxide pollution rose by 15 per cent.
"Imagine what another two years will do to the health of residents.
"As pollution emissions rise so too do the diseases facing our local communities.
"Already people living on the Central Coast and Lake Macquarie suffer three or more chronic health conditions.
"In suburbs close to the power stations, the number has reached 16.9 per cent of the population.”
Blaschke further stated that there have been no epidemiological, exposure assessments or health risk studies of the health of residents residing near coal ash dams, as recommended by the government's own Coal Ash Inquiry.
"There is no plan to remediate the millions of tonnes of toxic coal ash stored in dams throughout NSW," he said.
Delaying the closure of Eraring not only jeopardises our renewable energy goals but also undermines efforts to combat climate change and to secure a sustainable energy future, but also exponentially jeopardises the health of Central Coast residents.
So, what is the final outcome?
Environment Minister Penny Sharpe said about the Eraring deal, "This ensures that the transition to renewables can be delivered without exposing the people of New South Wales to blackouts or to price spikes."
Federal Energy Minister Chris Bowen said the NSW government had done a "good job" balancing reliable energy supply and the renewable transition.
Marilyne Crestias, interim CEO at Clean Energy Investor Group, said she hoped the government did not set a precedent for other coal fired power stations.”
Hunter Community Environment Centre researcher Paul Winn was reported as saying that some local residents were 'bitterly disappointed' by the decision.
"The people of Lake Macquarie... have to suffer the pollution of this facility for another two years, the expectation was always that these facilities had a limited life," he said.
"I think the owners of Eraring, have been running it with the intention that it's going to close, so obviously the maintenance and so forth has been a poor over the last several years.
"That's leading to significant increase in pollution coming from the facility, which we're all going to have to suffer from for another two years, which is not great."
The NSW Greens have condemned the extension deal.
And the future?
Last Friday, the NSW Government announced that it had opened the largest energy storage tender in NSW history, seeking new long-duration storage projects to boost electricity reliability and keep the lights on in NSW.
According to the Minns Government, these projects will help ensure a steady and reliable supply of energy around the clock. The government contends that it will play a significant role in the NSW ‘s transition to renewable energy, delivering reliable and affordable power to households and businesses at the same time as driving down emissions to meet net zero targets.
A government spokesperson said “The energy stored within 1 gigawatt of eight-hour long-duration storage is equivalent to the daily energy consumption of around 505,000 households.
“Renewable Energy Zones are the power plants of the future. They group generation and storage projects in areas where there is plenty of renewable resources, and connect them to transition lines to pump the electricity around NSW.
“They will deliver projects that ensure NSW has enough renewable energy generation and storage when coal-fired power stations retire.”
But from investigations carried out by the Grapevine, these projects all rely on wind farm and solar farm power generation to be stored in huge battery banks (that only have a lifespan of fifteen years).
Shouldn’t the NSW Government be following the South Australian lead, and encourage investment into Concentrated Solar Power? An energy systems that will ensure green power generation 24/7 and not be dependent on the fickleness of the wind and sun.