Electricity from COAL is cheapest and best for Australia

The Energy Supply Association of Australia needs to submit their findings through a BF (bullshit filter) and you would find NOTHING coming out the other side. Why don't they admit to the public having to paid costly electricity bills, at 31 cents kWh, that they got it wrong and so too have the pollies, including John Howard, by promoting the Renewable Energy Target Scheme.

The RET legislation, that requires by 2020 our electricity be 20% supplied from renewable sources, is crazy. In Australia, hydroelectric schemes are barely possible (because of the Greens), solar and wind power are excessively expensive and should NOT be subsidized by the State Governments, if we want cheaper power. Promotion of useless wind farms must be STOPPED. If we must have a Power Target let it be 15 cents per kWh by 2020, then we WOULD have a flight of the warmists rabbits from positions of influence.

We don't need to subsidize or promote renewable energy just now when we have plentiful supplies of coal and gas to fuel power stations for the national grid. Maybe by the year 2100 renewable energy may start to be attractive in Australia, but until then let's make the most of our competitive advantage in world trade by having cheap coal-based electricity. CO2 is NOT a pollutant and CO2 emissions should be cherished by mankind and the biosphere. No more pollie bullshit allowed from 2014 onwards. Merry Xmas from Allano

3 CHEERS FOR A PROSPEROUS SOUTH AUSTRALIA

A prosperous future for South Australia lies in getting energy (electricity) costs down preferably by HALF what it is today i.e. down to 15 cents per kWh from the present 31 cents which has come about mainly by the Labor Government subsidizing wind farms and solar panels. Promoting wind and solar is a very expensive way of getting a dribble of "green electricity" often when you don't need it, and this must be stopped if we want a prosperous future.

We must preserve and modernize our existing coal-fired power plants at Port Augusta and expand production and development of our coal resources beyond the Leigh Creek operation. Shipping coal in from NSW or Queensland could be considered as a possible option.

A new Coalition Government for SA in March must stop the present Labor's idiotic unbridled promotion of expensive renewable energy projects. I hear that a $40 million grant is being considered for a FEASIBILITY study of a thermal solar plant for Port Augusta! It is high time these Green cowboys were given their marching orders out of our state so that a sensible energy policy can be followed exploiting our extensive coal and gas resources for electricity generation. Merry Xmas from Allano

Barossa Wind Farm Project .. Get Lost

Pacific Hydro has planned a wind farm at Keyneton, South Australia. The site is located 6 km west of Sedan and 10 km SE of Angaston and runs about 15 kms North to South along the Mount Lofty Ranges. An application was submitted to the SA Development Assessment Commission (DAC) seeking approval of 42 turbines having a maximum height of 145.5 meters from the ground to the tip of the blade when vertical.

There were many objections by community groups in the Barossa Region with concerns about noise and health problems. The Labor Planning Minister John Rau says that the EPA studied noise levels and that there was no detectable concern, therefore approval has been given.

My advice to Pacific Hydro is to get lost and take all your wind farms with you. We don't want you or ANY of your wind farms (=WIND SCAMS) in South Australia.

Wind farms are just a scam that should NOT be allowed in South Australia. We should develop our extensive gas and coal resources for electricity generation and explore the use of nuclear power since in South Australia we have the largest uranium mine in the world. It is crazy of the present Labor Government to allow more wind farms to be built. Next March the state elections will allow the populace to vote out of office this Labor Premier Jay Weatherill and replace him and his hopeless Government with an adult and sensible Liberal Government. (Oz Liberal not US).

The new Coalition Government after March must stop all future wind farm developments and start to phase out Government subsidies to existing wind farms (ca 24) with the idea of demolishing them all within a decade. The turbines can be converted to scrap metal and their sites restored to the former pristine countryside. Wind farms need ca 100% backup by gas turbine generators so now electricity production will continued to be produced by burning gas and coal. The CO2 emissions are not pollution and will greatly benefit the biosphere and agriculture. A suitable goal would be to get the domestic price down to 20 cents/kWhr instead of the present 31 cents.

How to have a prosperous South Australia

20 20 Vision for South Australia: What goals are sensible for year 2020? How do we get a more prosperous SA and Australia when we have ever increasing power and water bills? The more we have to pay for utilities, the less money we have left over to pay for other goods, for fun things and luxuries (home, car, holidays etc).

To be more prosperous we MUST have the cheapest electricity and water possible. BUT the reverse is happening, noticed? The reason is that we have some very stupid politicians in Labor/Green Governments at the State and Federal levels following an anti-carbon eco-religious belief system.

In South Australia, let's have as a goal the cheapest electricity possible. First thing to do at the Federal level is to get rid of the RET bill, which specifies that 20% of our energy must come from renewable resources, such as wind, solar, geothermal, hydro etc. Renewable energy is good stuff, particularly hydro (none in SA), but the Greens are TOO impatient. Renewable energy will come gradually but it doesn't need subsidies from Government that distort the energy market.

In South Australia we must develop our coal and gas resources for power generation; coal for base load generation and gas for covering peak loads. There must be a STOP to any further Government subsidy of wind farms and any large solar plants (eg solar/gas plant at Pt Augusta) which are fundamentally unsound economically. Plans can be made for phasing out the worst and most inefficient wind farms and have the landscape restored to the original pristine state (good Green jobs here for redundant Climate Change bureaucrats). It will take a decade going in this new direction to get reduced power bills and a sensible energy policy established in this State.

More needs to be said regarding coal exploration and development and modernization of existing coal plants, and the possible role of nuclear power. That's enough for today, but then we are only half way to prosperity .... there is WATER to worry about and what a supply disaster that has been!!!!

Black and Brown Coal should be top priority for electricity generation in Australia

Australia's energy policy is so distorted by nonsense info emanating from the Labor/Green warmist brigade that it's not funny. Even a bright school child could formulate a more sensible energy policy that would ensure our future prosperity for the next couple of hundred years.

The source of the problem is the Renewable Energy Target Bill (RET) that specifies 20% of energy should be renewable by year 2020, which is an impossible objective, and very costly. Both Labor and the Coalition Parties promoted this bill, but now in retrospect we (at least some of the Coalition, and most of the community that pay electricity bills) now realize that the RET, which promotes solar and wind farms,is based on bunkum economics and should be rejected ASAP.

However, in principle, renewable energy is good stuff, at the right price. In Australia we have the Snowy River hydro scheme which provides electricity for NSW State and Tasmania has several hydroelectric schemes operational all providing valuable base-load electricity and/or available to be brought more into operation at short notice for peak demand.

In Australia about 75% of our electricity is generated from coal and lignite fired power stations at low cost compared to that from gas, solar and wind farms. There are no nuclear power stations yet, which is anomalous, considering we are a major producer of uranium ores which are exported.

So what is the sensible road ahead? Don't look to the Rio + 20 Earth Summit for the solution. The warmists are in disarray and now everybody realizes that their yearly Conference is just one glorified expensive junket of no worldly significance, except to organize next year's extravaganza, at tax payer's expense, in another exotic locale.

In my opinion, what should be done is for the Coalition to amend the RET bill by changing the objective date to the year 2200, (instead of 2020). This gives everybody another 200 years to develop renewable energy technology without the need of Government subsidies. There should be no subsidies for solar energy or wind farms.

What's the big hurry? Australia has enough known coal reserves to last a couple of hundred years without looking for more. What about "global warming" and the need to move to a "low carbon economy"? This is all bunkum and false propaganda promoted by the Greens, Labor and businesses that have invested heavily in the so-called Green economy, like US General Electric and many EU companies. I say Pox on them. In Australia we know better and will pursue our own path to prosperity, once we vote out this incompetent Labor/Green Federal Government, which will be ASAP. Allano

South Australia power supply? Coal and Uranium are the best bet.

SOUTH AUSTRALIA: lots of talk-back radio discussions on replacing/upgrading the Port Augusta old Playford A & B coal-fired power station (ca 330MW) with natural gas, or, the lady Mayor wants a solar-gas plant. The Playford plant was built in 1950's and the nearby Northern Power station (coal) of 520 MW was commissioned in 1985. The coal comes from the Leigh Ck coal field ca 280 kms north by dedicated rail link, mining ca 2.5 million tonnes annually.

Will the best decision be made???? God help us in SA!! Already the state is bristling with useless wind farms thanks to former Premier Mike Rann, and our power bills continually escalate. We have an unwanted/unneeded $2 billion desalination plant unfinished and earmarked to run on expensive power from windmills. We have the present Premier Jay Weatherall ignoring the MISMANAGEMENT of the Lower Lakes and how this stuffs up the management of the WHOLE of the Murray Darling Basin.

My suggestion for the future SA power supply, and this should be on the table for review and costing, is as follows: (it's is devoid of eco-BS). The existing Pt Augusta power stations which are coal-fired can be modernized and continued to use Leigh Ck coal. I am assuming that PM Julia's Labor Government and Carbon tax will be voted out ASAP, if not sooner. What Pt Augusta has now with its power stations are a very valuable asset producing the cheapest electricity.

Another prime site for a coal-fired power plant is where the desalination plant is located south of Adelaide (formerly an oil refinery site). A 500 MW plant could be built there with coal shipped in from the East Coast. It could power the desalination plant (God forbid!) and Adelaide city during heat waves etc.

Also, as I suggested and submitted to BHP about the power supply for the Olympic Dam mine expansion, was the idea having a nuclear power station there, building up in stages of say 250 MW to maybe 1000 MW eventually to power electrification of the Adelaide to Darwin rail link plus all the new mining activity in the region.

If you let the Federal and SA State Governments be run by eco-religious socialists you get what you voted for ... ever increasing power and water bills and poverty for the workers and pensioners. Do something about it! Allano

Federal Labor still writhing in anti-carbon idiocy

The rampant idiocy of this Labor Federal Government continues on all fronts. More rumbles are reported of the need to build 12 more submarines to protect us from invasion, to replace the ageing Collins class ones (only one being operational). Why not build Egyptian type pyramids which at least would boost the tourism and quarrying industries? Also talk of replacing the SA Port Augusta coal-fired power station with a solar-gas station like is used in Spain! I don't think we need Spain to guide us into economic ruin, nor are CO2 emissions to be worried about ie, the need to reduce greenhouse gases to go to a low carbon economy is just eco-religious bunkum. We don't need to copy the EU in anything.

The Port Augusta coal-fired power stations have been operational since the 1950's hence are past their used by date and need replacing BUT by a modern high tech coal-fired power station to provide the cheapest electricity. The Leigh Creek coal field needs expanding and other coal fields developed in the region. What is our "Mines Department" doing about it? Has it been replaced by the useless CO2 bean counters in the Climate Change Department of SA State Government? When the Coalition regains Government there will be a great clean out of staff promoting unaffordable and ridiculous Green inspired projects, plus the projects and associated legislation will be consigned to the dustbin. eg RET bill, windfarms, Green Energy Investment Fund etc.

New Coal-Fired Power Station for Bangladesh

Bangladesh Government has signed a joint venture agreement with the Indian Government to build a $1.5 billion coal-fired power station to generate 1300 MW of electricity to overcome the chronic power shortages. Present supply comes from aging and inadequate gas-fired stations. Predictably some environmentalists object saying that emissions of SO2 and fly ash will cause untold harm to adjacent forests and mangroves. What they don't say is that in modern power stations these emissions are at a controlled and harmless level and that the CO2 emissions are very beneficial to the biosphere, acting as a free fertilizer for crops and forests. This is the sort of power station we need on the outskirts of Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide to prop up our base-load generation of electricity, instead of wasting $billions on useless and costly wind farms.

Copenhagen blabfest is a scam

Letter to the Editor #19; "Gladstone Observer", ca 10 Nov 2009 (and others).
66 words, By Allan Taylor of Adelaide.

Coal is Great. The third world can modernize by burning coal to generate much needed cheap electricity. The CO2 sent into the atmosphere will fertilize our crops and forests, improve growth rates, and so greatly benefit mankind. We need more atmospheric CO2 not less.

The coming Copenhagen blabfest on climate change is a fraud and carbon trading a dangerous scam, both best avoided by Australian politicians.