Record drop in electricity emissions cancelled out by rises in other sectors

Emissions from the electricity sector in the three months to June dropped by the biggest amount on record, as the effect of the Hazelwood coal-fired power station closure is seen for the first time in quarterly projections produced exclusively for the Guardian.

Australia’s most polluting generator, the Hazelwood
power station in Victoria may have closed, but
overall emissions in 2016-17 were the highest since 2011.

But even that drop wasn’t enough to stop Australia’s overall greenhouse gas emissions from continuing to rise. Emissions from almost every other sector – industrial energy, transport, industrial heat and agriculture – all rose. They are the highest levels seen since before the carbon tax was repealed, according to projections by consultants at Ndevr Environmental.

The results mean Australia has now consumed 24% of its carbon budget set by the government’s Climate Change Authority – the total amount of carbon it can release from 2013 while doing its fair share to keep global warming under 2C. Once a certain amount of carbon goes into the atmosphere, warming over 2C will be inevitable.

Read the story by Michael Slezak and Nick Evershed on The Guardian - “Record drop in electricity emissions cancelled out by rises in other sectors.”

Hazelwood power station: from modernist icon to greenhouse pariah

The roar of the furnaces, the rattle of the conveyors, and the occasional whoop of a siren marked out both day and night at Hazelwood. The pungent smell of brown coal permeates the air, and the fine particles would work their way into your clothes, hair and shoes.

Noisy no longer, the turbine hall at
Hazelwood is now offline.

On quiet evenings you could hear it all the way over in the nearby town of Churchill, seven kilometres away. That distant hum has been a comforting one as the station produced power in all weathers, day and night, for more than five decades. For many in Churchill and the other coal towns of Victoria’s Latrobe Valley, the noise also represented continuity of employment for more than 450 workers.

Those old certainties are now disappeared. The eight units that make up the 1,600 megawatt power station were progressively decommissioned this week, all now shut off ahead of Hazelwood’s official closure on March 31. While some 250 workers will remain, the distant hum has settled to a whisper.

Read the piece on The Conversation by the Professor of History at the Federation University Australia, Erik Eklund - “Hazelwood power station: from modernist icon to greenhouse pariah.”

A local community watches on as the plug is about to be pulled on Hazelwood power station

Latrobe Valley businessman Ross Bertoli took a path well-trodden by local teens after he finished Year 11 at Yallourn Tech.

Ross Bertoli is a part-owner and general
manager of Hydro Australia which like
many Latrobe Valley businesses relies to a
  significant degree on the power industry
 for work.

In 1970, aged 16, he became an apprentice fitter and turner with the State Electricity Commission, one cog in an intake of a couple of hundred apprentices.

By joining "the biggest employer" in the Latrobe Valley he became a colleague of his father Arthur (an overseer), and brothers David (electrician), Bryan (fitter), and Peter (draftsman).

"Everyone in the family worked for the SEC," he says, while sitting in an office of his Morwell business, Hydro Australia, just a few kilometres from the Hazelwood coal mine and power station's main entrance.

Read Darren Gray’s story in today’s Melbourne Age - “A local community watches on as the plug is about to be pulled on Hazelwood power station.”

Hazelwood owners facing unprecedented $743 million rehab bill

Nearly three-quarters of a billions dollars
 to rehabilitate the massive mine
 serving the Hazelwood power station.

The owners of the soon-to-be closed Hazelwood power station have conceded the bill to rehabilitate the mine and demolish the ageing plant will run to almost three-quarters of a billion dollars.

In an extraordinary development highlighting the broader cost of brown coal-fired power, Hazelwood's majority owner, French energy giant Engie, has upgraded its rehabilitation cost estimate by more than half a billion dollars.

The figure was revealed in financial documents quietly lodged with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission 10 days ago.

Read the story by Josh Gordon in today’s Melbourne Age - ”Hazelwood owners facing unprecedented $743 million rehab bill.”

Early skirmishes point to a war over renewable energy lasting well into 2017

South Australian Premier, Jay Weatherill -
concerned about looming energy crunch.

Just before last year's federal elections, Jay Weatherill, the South Australian premier, was ruminating about what it would take to finally get attention paid to the nation's looming energy crunch.

Would it be the closure of the brown coal-fired Hazelwood power station, which accounted for a fifth of Victoria's power and a supplier to SA when the wind didn't blow? Or perhaps the shutdown of the ageing Portland aluminium smelter – a huge consumer of electricity adjacent to his state?

"It may be those sorts of events that might precipitate that discussion," Weatherill told Fairfax Media in his parliamentary office in Adelaide.

The Premier wasn't to know that within months, a series of mishaps would thrust energy – and in particular, his state's relative dependence on renewable sources such as wind and solar – into the spotlight.

Read Peter Hannam’s story in today’s Melbourne Age - “Early skirmishes point to a war over renewable energy lasting well into 2017.”

Hazelwood owner 'driven out of town' by Daniel Andrews: Frydenberg

Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg has given
Australians assurances about the security of
the country's energy network.

Hazelwood owner Engie was "driven out of town" by the Andrews government, Federal Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg has claimed.

In a sign that a sensible national debate on energy security is unlikely any time soon, a war of words has erupted between the state and federal governments in the wake of the historic decision by Engie to close Hazelwood by the end of March.

On Thursday, Mr Frydenberg offered reassurance that the energy network could cope with the closure of the plant, which generates up to one-quarter of the Victoria's power when fully operational. He also said the federal government broadly agreed with a state assessment that power prices will rise by 4 to 8 per cent as a result of the closure.

But on Friday Mr Frydenberg went on the offensive, accusing the Andrews government of forcing the shutdown by tripling the brown coal royalty rate in the last budget and imposing an "unrealistic" 40 per cent renewable energy target.

Read Josh Gordon’s story in today’s Melbourne Age - “Hazelwood owner 'driven out of town' by Daniel Andrews: Frydenberg.”

Power station closure will be harsh, but there's a silver lining

Nicola Rivers - the closure of Hazelwood
 will be understandably distressing, but
it has a silver lining.

The announcement that Hazelwood power station is to close next year is understandably distressing to many in the Latrobe Valley. This distress is well founded. Although the announcement was predicted for many years, state and federal governments have done essentially nothing over the past five years to ensure a smooth and gradual transition for the people of the Latrobe Valley away from coal and into other jobs.

Although there is still time for that to happen, governments and Hazelwood's owner, Engie, will have to work rapidly and with strong commitment to ensure the community is properly supported into the next phase. However, despite the anxiety and disruption to the local community the retirement of Hazelwood may cause, there is a very large benefit whose impact will be felt immediately – the health benefit.

People that live within 50 kilometres of coal-fired power stations face a risk of premature death as much as 3-4 times that of people living further away. Coal-fired power stations emit a range of toxic substances that have serious impacts on the communities that live near them.

Read the piece by Nicola Rivers in today’s Melbourne Age - “Power station closure will be harsh, but there's a silver lining.”

Inflamed rhetoric of revolution can disguise the reality

Inflamed rhetoric frequently results in revolution – Victorians, and beyond that those throughout the world interested in climate mitigation, have heard much about the ills of the state’s Hazelwood coal-fired power plant in the Latrobe Valley.



Speculation is mounting that
Hazelwood power plant will close.

Much has been said about why Victoria should shut down what has been described as the “dirtiest” electricity generator in the world (never seen any real evidence about that and although I have no reason to doubt the claim, I’m yet to see anything supporting that idea, but maybe I’ve been looking in the wrong places).



While much has been said about why we should close the plant down and there has been an equal amount of rhetoric about how we could replace it with renewable energy, there still appears to be a yawning gap between the rhetoric and the reality.

So before we pull the plug on Hazelwood, let’s first work together to ensure we actual have a serviceable renewable energy source actually generating electricity.

Many revolutions have begun with great fervour as the protagonists knew precisely what they wanted to be rid of but that push for change evaporated with a strangely equal zeal for those leading the charge had only a vague idea of what the future should look like – Robert McLean.

The Hazelwood power plant has been saddled with multiple repair notices for ageing equipment, amid growing expectations it will close next year. 

Several insiders reported that the plant was facing at least four WorkSafe notices that would be expensive to fix.

Read the latest about Victoria’s prime energy source in today’s Melbourne Age - “Hazelwoodfacing WorkSafe notices amid expectations of closure.”

Dithering over Hazelwood closure will lead to a messy end

Hazelwood's closure could be
 as early as next April.

The closure of Hazelwood is unfolding like Ernest Hemingway's description of going bankrupt: "gradually, then suddenly". Age, emissions and other energy options meant it was only a matter of time before Australia's oldest and dirtiest power station retired. Rumours permeated the Latrobe Valley for the last couple of years. But only now that an announcement appears imminent – and closure could be as early as next April – are governments starting to respond.

The federal government has said it's up to the power companies themselves to decide if and when to close coal stations. But leaving it up to the market means giving up control of critical infrastructure and the future of regional communities to a few big power companies.

We saw what happened when Alinta shut down South Australia's Northern coal station with just eight months' notice: 400 jobs gone, massive dislocation for the people of Port Augusta, and sudden pressures on the state's electricity system which the energy market operator is still figuring out how to address. The causes of South Australia's recent price spikes are many, but earlier attention to smoothing the impacts of coal exit could certainly have helped.

Now we are about to repeat the same experience in Victoria, on a larger scale. This is a messy way to undertake what Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg calls the transition to a lower emissions future.

Read Olivia Kember’s comment in today’s Melbourne Age - “Dithering over Hazelwood closure will lead to a messy end.”

Hazelwood secretly considering plans for 'clean energy'

T

he owners of one of Australia's oldest and dirtiest coal-fired power stations—Hazelwood in Victoria's Latrobe Valley—have been secretly considering plans to reinvent the plant as a 'clean energy generator' by burning forest waste.

GDF Suez, the majority owners of Hazelwood, and Victoria's state forest corporation, VicForests, have confirmed to ABC RN there have been discussions over the supply of native forest wastes from East Gippsland logging operations.

Listen to the ABC’s Background Briefing report - “Australia's 'dirtiest' power station considers 'clean energy' biomass burning option”.