Can the other plants produce enough power to take up the void left behind by shutting down those two?
The West Australian Liberal climate plan has huge gap, but a surprising ambition to clean up the grid and reach 100 pct renewables by 2030. Is it just to save the furniture?
reneweconomy.com.au
This entails the shut-down or retrofit of
three coal-fired power stations and 14 gas-fired power stations within ten years’ time, assuming biogas is excluded. That’s 1.5 gigawatts of coal and 3.3 gigawatts of gas. 100% renewables by 2030 requires a hastening of the change currently occurring in the SWIS, and a maintenance of that pace for a decade:
Some coal was
scheduled to close within that time period anyway, but most power stations, particularly gas, are scheduled to retire well after.
The only information about balancing mechanisms for the new wind and solar are a $500m 330kV transmission line and a 500 megawatt battery, both built by Western Power.
It’ll be complicated, but it all seems pretty feasible. The strangeness simply comes from the level of ambition – a high level of work, planning and government intervention will be required to achieve a zero emissions WA grid by 2030, and setting a target like this is significant.
In fact, the plan even specifically cites the impact of renewable energy on electricity bills, with an unambiguous declaration that renewables are far cheaper than coal, declaring that the Liberals “will deliver a dramatic reduction in energy prices” due to renewable energy growth. It’s a stark departure from the party’s past reasoning.
Labor minister Mick Murray
“We [Labor] also have a promise that we’ll have a power station into the next 15 years, not exactly as we have it now, but we’ll have coal being produced in this town for the next 15 years,” he said.
New Energy Jobs Plan will deliver net zero emissions for the WA Government by 2030, an important milestone on Australia’s path of zero emissions by 2050.
“I want to make it perfectly clear that this will not impact the private sector. This is about the State Government’s emissions and leading by example,” Mr Kirkup said.
Reneweconomy which is a great site and the one I turn to to see if things are feasible think the WA proposal is doable , however both parties fail to address overall emissions and needs more work...
One of two the power stations are due to be closed next year anyway so one power station being closed early in 5 years time is entirely feasible... Remember this is ONLY government Generation not the Private sector , so around 50% of power wont be touched in WA......
What I find amazing is the scare tactics being used by the Labor party and the mirroring of fear when SA decided to go green....
WA Labor want coal to be mined and burnt for the next 15 years...... That is the reality......
.. stop pretending it's a great plan just because its the libs.
