But for a summit , a lot of voices were absent. Big Wind, Big Solar and the growing movement of citizens, intellectuals and NGO’s demanding the rapid energy descent away from coal oil and gas. The chiefs who supply us with over 80% of our dirty energy were there as the clean energy target was swallowed up and the National Energy Guarantee emerged.
The NEG requires Energy Retailers to give a guarantee of reliability. They will need to contract or own a certain amount of dispatchable power. As more coal fired power stations close, this could mean they invest in pumped hydro storage , batteries or gas turbines. In a heatwave when all the air conditioners go on, pumped hydro storage can turn on in 20 seconds and batteries in 1 second, according to Professor Andrew Blakers ANU. He says 20 or 30 of the 22,000 possible sites need to be developed for pumped hydro storage and they can be built quickly, but none of this was discussed at the summit.
The NEG also requires retailers to guarantee electricity with a set level of emissions intensity. The amount will be reduced each year. The emissions from gas were hardly mentioned. Does this mean the responsibility for our Paris Commitments is in the hands of retailers?
Many of the people we interview say that we need a carbon tax to cut emissions in every sector and it was clear at the summit that even business leaders who had opposed this in the past were now demanding any sort of policy framework as long as it could survive short term governments. Mark Butler said “At the end of the day companies will start contracting and trading with each other and a price will emerge on that which reflects the carbon obligation”.
Comments that the RET was a subsidy to renewables ,that all subsidies are out and we now have a level playing field might bamboozle some people. But until all subsidies to fossil fuels are removed and Dr Finkel’s recommendation that we have an Economy Wide Plan by 2020 to map out the energy descent away from fossils, we are expected to trust to the market.
