Just before the state By-election for the Upper Hunter Morrison announced a $600 million gas fired power station was to be built in the region. The cynic in me says it was pork barrelling on a grand scale. Simply an attempt to buy the by-election for the Berejiklian state government, which following a series of scandals and forced resignations was looking at minority government. If that was the intention, it worked, the Nationals candidate fell over the line.

What, if anything will the taxpayer get for their 600 million bucks? The story began with AGL announcing it will close the aging Liddell 1,680 megawatt coal fired power station in 2023. With no interest from investors to build an economic lemons in the form of fossil fuel driven power stations, the Morrison government did what any good socialist government would do, commit to build a state run 660 mwatt gas fired power station. If this gas fired station ever gets to operate it will produce electricity 2% of the time, with 10 staff.

According to Nicki Hutley from the Climate Council; "Simply put, gas doesn't make economic sense in Australia anymore. It drives up electricity prices, it increases emissions at a time when the rest of the world is reducing emissions, and it creates very few jobs." Hopefully the only gas this project sees is hot air from the Morrison government.

I had the impression that Gas was a mere stepping stone until better alternatives become viable.
As desirable as green energy is, it does not as yet have the means to satisfy the requirements. Gas will get us through this period.
Those who aren't happy about the Gas are more than welcome to provide a better system right now !

Hi Paul,

Scott Morrison believes that energy prices could rise
by 30% in NSW if energy companies can't fill the gap
left by the closure of the Liddell power station in
2023.

And Energy Minister Angus Taylor insists the plane will
secure affordable energy for NSW once Liddell shuts
down.

The new plant will create 600 jobs in the region at the
peak of its construction phase.

With an election around the corner - this gas project
makes sense.

individual,
Of course that's the impression you had. It's the impression the government are trying to give now they realise Scotty can't market coal. And five years ago it was the truth!
But conditions have changed since then. The cost of renewables has fallen, and batteries are far more cost effective than new gas turbines for the times when the wind isn't blowing and the sun isn't shining.

The plant should have been a coal burner. We have a lot more coal
energy available than natural gas energy.
If anyone thinks it will only be a peaking unit you should watch the
AEMO web site more often. Together with the other gas station on the
south coast it will only provide about 1 Gigawatt, = 1000Megawatt.
Not enough these days.
Despite the billions spent on solar and wind plus subsidies they are
still only producing single digit percentages a lot of the time.
They seem to get up to 15% at times. I have never seen 20%.
So to get to 100% they will need to multiply the number of wind and
solar by about 10 times the present installations.
However you cannot just plant them alongside the existing ones.
You need to spread them over the country.
You then need to build a country wide high power grid that can supply
anywhere from anywhere depending on where the wind is at any one time.
NOW do you see why we cannot afford renewables ?

Indi,

The greens are like children. Pauliar's cynicism is directed solely at the coalition.

That renewable power supplies are not reliable seems to be beyond their grasp ramping up wind and solar supplies and phasing out coal-fired power stations is not possible without standby power in the form of fast-start gas power stations or batteries etc.

That the gas generation has been planned for a while is documented, that Morrison chose the moment to announce it is what all polies do.