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https://reneweconomy.com.au/peter-duttons-nuclear-accounting-trick-3-hide-the-costs-of-keeping-coal/>
"It’s very important to note that the Coalition’s costing of its electricity
system cuts out in the year 2051. It only accounts for costs incurred between
2025 to 2051 and anything after that date is ignored.
The LNP’s claim of a 44% saving does not represent the cost of two alternative
systems for achieving near zero emissions once they are both completed to see
how nuclear might reduce the cost of the system.
Instead, a heavy influence on the cost estimates in the model is the degree to
which the scenarios can delay incurring costs in replacing the old, highly
polluting and likely to be increasingly unreliable coal power plants.
How is this a problem?
Coal power stations are much like a car – they are exposed to extreme heat,
pressure and general mechanical stress that means they wear out and become
unreliable as they get old. That’s physics.
Many of us will have experience with an old car that has got to the point where
it increasingly encounters mechanical problems and the mechanic is warning us
that it really needs some major repairs but these would cost more than the car
is worth.
At this point many of us can be tempted to take a gamble by putting off such
repairs, and go for temporary, less costly patch-ups and hope the car keeps
going. That will be a lot cheaper than buying a new car, at least for as long
as we can keep the old car going. But it comes with the risk that it could
leave us stranded with a broken-down car at an extremely inconvenient point in
time and even pose a danger to our safety and that of others.
The Coalition’s modeled plan chooses to take that gamble with our electricity
system. But it doesn’t account for the risks and potentially extreme costs this
involves if the gamble goes wrong."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
