Antinuclear

In the public arena, it’s not just a rephrasing that’s taking place, but a concerted attack on renewables. For the second time in as many weeks, Prime Minister Tony Abbott has criticized renewable energy, its intermittency and its supposed costs – repeating the force-fed lines from his main business advisor, Maurice Newman,extremist blogs and some mainstream media, and encouraged by the fossil fuel incumbents, whose greatest fear is that their coal and gas-fired generation is being sidelined and rendered unprofitable by the growing capacity of wind and solar.

Abbott’s complaints fail on numerous counts. For a start, the renewable energy target is having little impact on retail prices. The Queensland Competition Authoritynotes in its latest finding that the large scale renewable target (the apparent subject of the new government’s attacks) will cost Queensland households $26 a year, or about 1.3 per cent of their bills – about half the rise in retail bills caused by soaring gas prices.

Wind and solar do not need new back-up power. South Australia has got to 31 per cent wind and solar without the need for any new equipment. That’s because most of the peaking plants that respond to changes in demand – and supply – already exist to cope when a whole bunch of people switch on air conditioners at the same time, or when coal or gas fired generation has unexpected shut-downs, such as when the Millmerran coal fired generator shut down last March, or the two major gas generators lost large amounts of capacity in South Australia. The difference with wind and solar is that at least their output is predictable…….

The problem with the current debate in Australia is that much of this information will simply be ignored. The new government – like its noisy boosters and spokespeople – has shown itself to be un-interested in clean technology, even when it makes environmental, economic and financial sense.

Take the Clean Energy Finance Corporation as an example. It has now established that it will be able to do its job of investing up to $10 billion in low carbon technologies, while achieving up to half the government’s emissions reduction target, and return a surplus to the budget.

Too good to be true? Must be. Because even though Treasurer Joe Hockey accepted the CEFC’s numbers in his budget update just before Christmas, the governmenthas given no indication it will abandon its attempts to scrap the CEFC.

As some industry insiders suggest, it’s about time the PM accepts that Australia has a “super-abundance” of wind and solar, just as it has of coal and gas. The only difference being is that wind and solar generation will be cheaper – as the government’s own economic advisor suggests – and cause a lot less pollution.

The renewable energy industry is currently fearing the worst. If, as The Australian suggests, the only two cabinet ministers supporting the renewable energy target are Industry minister Ian Macfarlane and environment minister Greg Hunt is true, then there is big trouble ahead…..http://reneweconomy.com.au/2014/abbott-wont-let-facts-derail-anti-renewables-campaign-97197