Coal and gas to remain part of Australia’s energy mix – report

PERTH (miningweekly.com) – An independent report into Australia’s electricity future has assured that both coal and natural gas would maintain a foothold in the country’s energy generation mix.

The Australian Power Generation Technology Report released on Thursday measured a broad range of technologies, their capabilities and their costs in 2015 and looking forward to 2030.

Undertaken by collaborative research organisation CO₂CRC, the report demonstrated that there was unlikely to be a “winner takes all” technology, with no single source able to reliably and cleanly supply all of Australia’s electricity needs.

The study was able to compare technologies on a like-for-like basis on important dimensions such as construction costs and carbon dioxide emissions and includes discussion about the connection of electricity technologies to Australia’s grids.

The report also highlighted that in the future all new technologies would cost more than the current mix and all of the technologies have strengths and constraints.

The Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association (Appea) on Thursday said that the report provided a thorough, independent assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of renewable, coal and gas technologies.

“The expert verdict is that gas-fired generation is cleaner than coal, cheaper than renewables and can adapt quickly to meet changing demand,” Appea CEO Dr Malcolm Roberts said.

“By every measure – costs, water use, emissions, waste and reliability – natural gas is strongly competitive against other generation types. Natural gas and coal remain the cheapest sources of baseload power. 

“And combined-cycle natural gas plants can provide baseload power at a comparable cost to efficient, super-critical coal-fired plants but with the critical advantage of much lower emissions.”

Roberts added that the report was an important contribution to discussion about Australia’s growing low carbon energy needs ahead of climate change talks in Paris next week. 

“The energy debate is too often distorted by cheer squads for one or other technologies, ignoring the fact that our energy needs are complicated and demand a mix of generation sources,” Roberts said.