This morning The Aus article by Ben Packham; New coal power...

This morning The Aus article by Ben Packham;

New coal power stations ‘no match for renewables’
The architect of Malcolm Turnbull’s signature energy blueprint says there is no longer an investment case to build new coal-fired power stations in Australia because “the cost of coal is always going to be more than the cost of wind and sun”.
The comments by Energy Security Board chairwoman Kerry Schott sparked a furious response from the Coalition’s pro-coal Monash Forum, but were backed by Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg, who said new coal stations faced “an uncertain utilisation rate and return on capital”.
Dr Schott said it was widely accepted in the energy sector that new coal plants could no longer compete with wind and solar, together with gas or pumped-hydro capacity to ensure “dispatchable” power.
“You are unlikely to see a new coal-fired generation plant built unless there is a change in technology and a decline in the price of coal,” Dr Schott said.
“The cost of running a clean-coal plant is much more expensive that running a combination of wind, solar and gas, or, better yet, wind, solar and pumped hydro.”

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Dr Schott, who oversaw the design of the government’s national energy guarantee policy, said the view was “not contentious at a factual level”.
She said coal would continue to play a role in the nation’s energy mix until 2050, when the last of Australia’s coal-fired power stations was due to retire.

But she said investors would not put their money into new coal-fired power stations unless the price of coal fell dramatically or there was a significant improvement in technology.
Tony Abbott said Dr Schott’s comments suggested the NEG — billed by the government as “technology neutral” — would discriminate against coal-fired power.
“I am very disappointed by this remark. It suggests that the system is not technology neutral and that it is in fact anti-coal,” the former prime minister said.
Former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce said Dr Schott’s remarks were “bizarre”, and warned they would put off potential investors in the Australian coal industry.
“In the nation with the biggest coal resources, for someone to come out and say ‘coal won’t be considered’, I find to be completely and utterly ridiculous,” Mr Joyce said.
“It obviously means we must be living on a different planet to Southeast Asia, because they don’t seem to have any problems investing in coal, and coal generation.”
Mr Abbott and Mr Joyce are members of the Monash Forum, which has called for taxpayers’ money to be used to build a new coal-fired power station, which the government has ruled out.
Mr Frydenberg said investors had signalled they were more interested in upgrading existing coal plants, for which the upfront capital costs had already been paid, than building new ones.
“This is because constructing a new coal-fired power station would take more than five years and have an uncertain utilisation rate and return on capital,” he said.
Mr Frydenberg said the NEG “does not pick winners”.
“It is not pro-coal or anti-coal; not pro-renewables or anti-renewables. Under the guarantee, all technologies will compete on their merits,” he said.
Dr Schott said the rumblings on the Coalition backbench were a matter for Mr Frydenberg. “He’s the politician, not me, but I think that this is something that everybody is aware of,” she said.
The debate came as competition watchdog Rod Sims warned that high electricity prices were driving businesses to the wall, with many “considering reducing staff or relocating overseas”.
“Some businesses have even been forced to close,” the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission chairman said.
“This is a terrible outcome for these companies, their staff and, ultimately, for the country.”
In a speech to the Energy Users Association, he said the costs of over-investment in poles and wires to ensure reliability were now “locked-in”, and would burden energy consumers for decades if action was not taken. He said environmental schemes, such as generous feed-in tariffs for early adopters of home solar power, had also caused costs to rise.
The gas market was also broken, delivering an “unprecedented price rise shock for business”.​