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https://reneweconomy.com.au/dealer-lecturing-addicts-australia-backs-coal-power-ban-but-continues-to-sell-the-stuff/>
"Australia has just joined a new coalition at the UN climate talks, one that
rules out new coal power in our energy system and promises to encourage others
to do the same in the run up to next year’s critical mitigation summit in
Brazil.
This is a critical step in our country’s energy future, and may be the first
time the Federal government has publicly said the quiet part out loud – in the
sunniest country in the world there’s no economic window for new coal power
going forward.
We have so much solar right now, that even the existing coal plants are
struggling to stay economical. Last month, solar broke yet another record. We
generated over a quarter of our electricity from solar. This pushed coal below
half of Australia’s electricity generation for the last two months running.
According to the Clean Energy Council, we’re on track to exceed 25 GW installed
rooftop solar capacity by the end of this year. When you combine wind and solar
together, we’ve been generating 40% of our electricity from renewables since
September. Let’s see how high this climbs over the coming months.
This is a massive shift since we first signed onto the Paris Agreement. Back in
2015, wind and solar contributed just 7% of electricity (18 TWh). This grew to
28% (77TWh) just last year, putting Australia as not only the country with the
highest rooftop solar share in the world, but the ninth-highest absolute
generation of solar and wind anywhere.
We’re truly punching above our weight at the moment, and if we ramp up progress
towards our 82% renewable energy goal for 2030, we might just be able to
support other countries to ramp up the energy transition globally.
One small caveat though. While we’re out telling the world not to include new
coal power in their energy system plans, we’re also selling the stuff. In fact,
we’re the second biggest thermal coal exporter in the world by quantity.
Since 1990, coal production in Australia has skyrocketed. In 2022, we dug up
170 per cent more coal than we did in 1990. We’re now responsible for over a
quarter of the global coal export market, selling 8.39 exajoules of coal in
2022.
I just don’t know how the world’s second biggest coal tycoon can go around the
world telling countries to stop using the stuff we’re selling?"
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
