This morning on ABC Breakfast, Resources Minister Keith Pitt, in response to a question about the Government’s $4 million coal feasibility study, said:
“I’m technology agnostic – if you look at HELE coal, super critical boilers combined with CCS – that is a 90 per cent reduction on emissions from legacy brown coal power stations around the country.
“So if we want to take the opportunity to look at this with open minds I think there are opportunities for building further power stations right around the country , and we need them.”
Bloomberg New Energy Finance has estimated the cost of a HELE power station with CCS as $352/Mwh.
In comparison, Snowy Hydro are selling dispatchable renewables for $70/Mwh.
And the Government has itself a target of wholesale price at $70/Mwh.
Not to mention the fact that any serious research and development into CCS technology was scrapped by this Government’s cut of $400 million and effective abolition of the carbon capture and storage flagships program.
Scott Morrison is willing to spend billions of taxpayers’ dollars on a new coal-fired power station to appease the hard-right of his deeply divided Party room and he has refused to rule out providing a taxpayer-funded indemnity sought by the proponents of the Collinsville coal-fired power station, which the Australian Industry Group says could cost taxpayers $17 billion.
Keith Pitt’s latest idea about Collinsville would cause power prices in Queensland to skyrocket.
There’s no place for new coal-fired power stations in Australia.