WINS FOR RENEWABLE ENERGY IN AUSTRALIA
The Liberal government in Australia, much like the Trump administration, love coal like you love an abusive partner: they hold you back, they steal your money and everyone around you is negatively affected but you keep going back. The Turnbull government devised a plan to continue running a very large power plant in New South Whales during this week, by the name of “Liddell” to the tune of $3.6 billion. Embarrassingly, reports show the pitfalls to this plan after a report was filed which showed that there’s a cheaper plan, that will not only cut emissions but be just as effective as keeping the coal plant open! Great news for all you renewable energy lovers out there because the solution to coal (as if you didn’t already know) is wind and solar, among other emerging technologies. The power plant in its current form will, in five years give off 40 million tonnes of emissions, compared to the renewable energy plants 0 emissions, it’s a no brainer really.
Turnbull has said “the most obvious solution to prevent power shortages [is] to keep the plant open”, hopefully he reads this report, sees the error in his judgement and leads our country to a greener future, just like China and India are starting to otherwise we will be left behind. A second report came out on Monday stating: “Australia has the potential to lead the world in developing large and home scale energy storage systems if public uncertainty can be overcome”, which is telling, in my view because currently it seems like we have a Prime Minister who is so in love with coal (or being paid to love to coal) that he is blinded to the endless possibilities that renewable energies can bring us. From what I’m seeing signing the Paris Climate Accord has done nothing for Australian policy because here we are relentlessly trying coal like its going out of fashion when renewable energies are ready and more available than ever, we need a government that wants to lead us away from disastrous coal and away from global warming otherwise we are going to be in serious trouble.
Another win on the renewable energy front came from South Australia where a new Tesla battery was installed to hold wind power and send it to the power grid, it was up and running a day ahead of schedule. Tesla have said that this battery is both the "largest" by storage and "most powerful" of its type in the world, with a tax payer subsidised $50 million over the next 10 years going towards the project it’s off to a flying start. Some power lines were destroyed by a storm in South Australia about 7 months ago, prompting those opposed to a renewable energy plan to blame the energy shortages on the closure of a coal plant rather than the storm itself, so its safe to say it’s been a turbulent beginning for renewable energy in SA but going by this, it’s uphill from here.
As renewable energies get more and more wins, its only a matter of time before the people have more faith in the idea and governments start utilising renewable energies and begin phasing out coal all together.
Thank you for reading.