<
https://reneweconomy.com.au/intermittent-coal-bowen-tells-right-wing-think-tank-and-fierce-critic-that-its-got-it-wrong-on-renewables/>
"Federal energy minister Chris Bowen has pitched the “conservative case for
climate action” to one of Australia’s most right wing think tanks, in a speech
describing renewable energy as predictable and reliable and coal as
“intermittent energy.”
The speech was delivered by Bowen in the Gold Coast on Friday, at day two of
the annual “consilium” hosted by the Centre for Independent Studies (CIS), a
right wing think tank that has been a loud and angry critic of the Labor
government’s renewables policy, the CSIRO and the Australian Energy Market
Operator.
As Michael Mazengarb reports here, the CIS notably ran a campaign supporting
nuclear and opposing renewables, and attacking energy market institutions
including AEMO and the CSIRO, in the lead-up to the 2025 federal election.
In this vein, Bowen’s appearance at the Consilium is on the agenda under the
headline, “Are we still sure about net zero?” A follow-up conversation on Day 3
is called “What to do about net zero,” and features Coalition senators Matt
Canavan and James Patterson.
No doubt the minister’s speech will serve as a great primer. And, notably, it
came just two weeks after the state’s LNP government unveiled a controversial
new energy roadmap that aims to keep coal “for decades” and which models an
effective end to new large scale wind and solar projects.
“I have two fundamental arguments that I am going to put to you in the time
that I have available today,” Bowen told the conference.
“Firstly, that conservatives and liberals should care deeply about climate
change, support the drive towards to net zero and dismiss the conspiracy
theories of climate denial.
“And secondly, in the unfortunate event that I don’t convince you on my first
argument … the government’s move towards renewable energy, backed by storage
and gas peaking is the economically rational, pragmatic and sensible approach.”
Bowen’s main thrust was around the perils of relying on ageing coal generators,
that are proving unreliable and a threat to grid reliability and security.
“Predictability in the energy grid is critical to reliability,” he said. “And
coal fired power is no longer predictable generation in Australia.
“During the second quarter according to the Australian Energy Regulator, high
price events were observed 66 times across six days, with coal outages playing
a central role in every single one of these events.”"
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
