ESB modelling confirms NEG designed to shut door on renewables

The latest modelling for the federal Coalition’s proposed National Energy Guarantee confirms the new policy would effectively shut the door on new renewable investment at the national level in the next decade.

The modelling – included in a new 50-page document prepared by the Energy Security Board for the COAG energy ministers meeting on Friday – suggests that the NEG is barely better than doing nothing.

In its low demand scenario, doing nothing would meet the government’s emissions targets just as effectively as the NEG, the modelling shows. Adopting the NEG would add an extra 1 percent of renewable capacity over doing nothing over a whole decade.

“Both BAU and the Guarantee achieve the emissions reduction target under the ‘low demand’ scenario,” it says. And that would mean no need for any new wind or solar.

In its most optimistic scenario (see table below), the NEG would add just 4 percent of additional renewable capacity over business as usual – yet even this modelling appears to underestimate the uptake of rooftop solar. So the incentive for new large-scale investment is largely illusory.

Read the story by Giles Parkinson on RenewEconomy - “ESB modelling confirms NEG designed to shut door on renewables,”

AGL urged to close Liddell 'clunker' by protesters

AGL has found support for its plan to shut the Liddell power station from a slightly unexpected quarter - protesters outside its Sydney office.

AGL's Liddell power station. 

The mixed group of shareholders, customers and environmentalists presented a petition signed by almost 12,000 people urging the company to close the Hunter Valley plant, ahead of Wednesday's AGM in Melbourne. 

"AGL is Australia's biggest climate polluter and if it is to address climate change then the company needs to get out of coal," Nature Conservation Council campaign director Daisy Barham told Fairfax Media.

"They need to close Liddell, we can't rely on this clunker of a power station to keep the lights on."

The Nature Conservation Council said the estimated $1 billion required to keep Liddell open beyond its scheduled closure in 2022 should be invested in new clean energy generation.

Read Cole Latimer’s story in today’s Melbourne Age - “AGL urged to close Liddell 'clunker' by protesters.”