ARTICLES
New Coal doesn’t Stack Up (continued)
(largely sugar cane bagasse and ethanol) and hydro generation
have been relatively static.
This principle is reflected in our work on 100% renewable
electricity for Australia. We used five years of climate data to
determine the optimal location for wind and solar plants, so as
to reliably meet the NEM’s total electricity demand. We found
that the most cost-effective solution required building about 10
gigawatts (GW) of new wind and PV in far north Queensland,
connected to the south with a high-voltage cable.
Although employment figures are higher during project
construction than operation, high employment numbers will
continue as long as the growth of renewable projects continues.
As the chart below shows, a total of 6,400MW of new wind and
solar projects are set to be completed by 2020.
The Queensland question
Australia’s newest coal-fired power plant was opened at Kogan
Creek, Queensland in 2007. Many of the political voices calling for
new coal have suggested that this investment should be made in
Queensland. But what’s the real picture of energy development
in that state?
There has been no new coal for more than a decade, however,
developers are queuing up to build renewable energy projects.
Powerlink, which owns and maintains Queensland’s electricity
network, reported in May that it has received 150 applications
and enquiries to connect to the grid, totalling 30,000MW of
prospective new generation – almost all of it for renewables. Its
statement added:
A total of more than A$4.2 billion worth of projects are currently
either under construction or at least financially committed, which
offers a combined employment injection of more than 3,500
construction jobs across regional Queensland, and more than
2,000MW of power.
As the map on the right shows, 80% of the projects are in areas
outside South East Queensland, meaning that the growth in
renewable energy is set to offer a significant boost to regional
employment.
In particular, tropical North Queensland basks in plenty of
sunshine, and relatively little seasonal variation in its climate. Whilst
not as windy as is South Australia, it has the added advantage
that it is generally windier at night than during the day, meaning
that wind and solar energy are capable of complementing one
another well.
Existing and under-construction (solid) and planned (white)
wind and solar farms in Queensland. Qld Dept of Resources,
Mines and Energy
Renewable energy projects that incorporate both solar and wind
in the same precinct operate for a greater fraction of the time,
thereby reducing the relative transmission costs. This is improved
still further by adding storage in the form of pumped hydro or
batteries – as are employed at the new renewables projects at
Kidston and Kennedy. Remember also that Queensland is linked
to the other eastern states via the National Elec tricity Market
(NEM). It makes real sense to construct wind farms across a
range of climate zones from far north Queensland to South
Australia because – to put it simply – the wider the coverage, the
more likely it is that it will be windy somewhere on the grid at any
given time.
Jobs and growth
This kind of investment in northern Queensland has the potential
to create thousands of jobs in the coming decades. An SKM
report commissioned by the Clean Energy Council estimated
that each 100MW of new renewable energy would create 96
direct local jobs, 285 state jobs, and 475 national jobs during
the construction phase. During operation those figures would be
9 local jobs, 14 state jobs and 32 national jobs per 100MW of
generation.
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SCIENCE EDUCATIONAL NEWS VOL 67 NO 3