There is a very large place for 18th century coal in our future just not in power generation connected to a costly and vulnerable national grid?

Expensive unsightly transmission lines need to be rolled out all over the joint to allow renewables to be connected to this, spanning the land, great white, and very vulnerable, energy wasting elephant!

And then needing battery back ups, pumped hydro and what have you, so the turbines can operate at peak efficiency and under optimum load!

Optimum load ensures the best possible burn and therefore lowest possible carbon emission!

Gas on the other hand can be stop started on demand, just horribly inefficient. Given these back up plants operate like jet turbines and waste a lot of energy via thermodynamics! But are up to full operating speed in minutes.

A better gas plant utilises that waste heat and doubles the energy coefficient. But then needs an hour to get up to electricity generating speed, without huge load shedding and brown outs, all over the joint!

The folks/bean counters that decide, just don't have a clue on any of this and are only as good as the advice they receive, some of it from folks conflicted by this or that ideological belief and or massive misinformation!
TBC Alan B.

If we were to build a coal fired power plant? It needs to be built alongside a very large coal deposit like, (still ours) in the Callide. Then needs to be backed up with pumped hydro and possible if the Burdekin were so utilised!

Moreover, it would need a very large scale algae farm operating alongside. Utilising large clear plastic pipes filled with nutrient loaded effluent. Vacuumed to remove any and all gas then have the smoke stack emission (CO2) channelled into that flow after the smoke stack electronic precipitators had removed most if not all the mineral pollutants.

Which could be, arsenic, carcinogenic cadmium, uranium and lead etc/etc!

These same oil rich algae farms would eventually produce enough diesel or jet fuel, to more than repay their inclusion, and have the desirable effect of producing zero emissions, coal fired power, profitably!

Walk away safe molten salt thorium presents none of these problems, can even be shut down for the weekend, restarted Monday if convenient?

They have as demonstrated in the few examples that actually went operational, been able to consume 99% of their fuel, which is three times more abundant than lead. As cheap as!

Safe enough to put almost anywhere and only needing far less expensive micro grids to reticulate power anywhere, which could have a median price expectancy of less than 2 whole cents P.K.H! (Professor Hargreaves)

As cheap as that is, could even be cheaper, if these things were set up as waste burners, burning other folks nuclear waste and in complete safety!

For which they'd pay us annual billions. More than enough over a decade to both build and completely pay for seven or eight 350 MW FUJI, molten salt reactors, or something better? And all our current power stations over the next two-three decades?

And just about right, as our ageing coal fired power stations are rendered obsolete by their age!

Yes thorium reactors do produce Gamma radiation and are able to be effectively shielded by simple concrete walls!
TBC Alan B.

Every Australian family produces enough biological waste to completely power their homes 24/7!

And without a single wrinkled (oh poo/poo) nose anywhere in sight!

And possible with the locally invented closed cycle/sealed, two tank poo digestor system, that converts this wasted waste into endlessly sustainable, bladder stored methane. That could be used to poo power a stationary engine, or scrubbed then feed into a methane consuming ceramic fuel cell, located with the aforementioned, on the poo powered premises!

The second option with its 80% energy coefficient, able to produce somewhere north of a 50% saleable surplus, with which the amenity could eventually pay for itself! Over say a decade? Thar's gold in them thar nuggets! Groan!

And then provide endlessly sustainable, reliable power/endless free hot water, for the lifetime of all current defecating family members, given few if any moving parts to eventually wear out! Groan!

That, burning ring of fire! Takes on a whole new meaning!

Coal has a guaranteed and greatly expanded future in our locally invented, single step, steel production and guaranteed by the demonstrably low cost of thorium power!

And some of it, most of our current export production could be converted to diesel, if we just had intelligence at the helm, directed soley by the undeniable economic imperatives of a thorium powered economy!

Thus we'd quite massively reduce our imports while simultaneously increasing our exports and turning our balance of trade, positive! What are we waiting for? Permission? Laxative chocolate?
Alan B.

What if Adani built a couple of new power stations?

I was sought of offered carbon credits for my land, however as usual the goal post kept changing and the carrot that was first dangled at me became very unattractive in the end.

The initial suggestion was around $23 per ton, and calculated as follows
Tons of standing timber per ha, calculated at 125% of the tree to allow for the root system, multiplied by the number of ha, divided by 20 years.
Not bad, 260ha @ 180 ton/ha x $23 = $53,820/yr, But, one had to lock their land away for 100 years (say 5 generations) and pay to maintain it to prevent the likes of bushfires.

Ok, so lets go back say 50 years. 100 hours per year at say 50 cents per hour =$50 per year plus consumables. Not bad.

Today however the sum is more like $40 per hour, or $4,000 plus consumables which is A 8000% increase in 50 years, let alone 100 years.

Its all a huge con job.

Geoff, get with the program! All these facts and figures?all this straight talking? Forget it! Work out the worse possible scenario and double it and then double it again!
Next blame massive, corrupt, Swiss based multi nationals like Greenpeace. Plus all the local rent seekers and the subsidies stolen from from ordinary Australians. Lie your proverbial off as is done in the green play book, that's the way to do it!