Comments on: Australian Electricity Emissions Intensity Drops Since Carbon Price

By: TOM

TOM — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 10:00:00 +0000

Actually a large coal plant in Victoria (Yallourn) shutdown due to a flooded mine. It was returned to service after the carbon tax started but the total amount of coal power sold in VIC didn’t rise. Victorian generators were the most affected because they are extremely dirty (1.4 kgCO2/kWh)

By: Zachary Shahan

Zachary Shahan — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 01:22:00 +0000

looking forward to it!

By: Zachary Shahan

Zachary Shahan — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 01:21:00 +0000

Ronald, I love your comments.

“…that’s why the line is wriggly.”

By: Ronald Brak

Ronald Brak — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 14:49:00 +0000

And I see the planned one gigawatt gas peaker Dalton plant in New South Wales has been put on hold due to a lack of demand. It think something similar will happen in the US with fossil gas plants put on hold and coal plants continuing to be shut down with or without a carbon price. The change may not come as hard or as fast as here due to different market conditions, but I suspect that the cost of solar will continue to decline and lower US labour costs will result in a solar boom roughly comparable to Australia.

By: Ronald Brak

Ronald Brak — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 06:16:00 +0000

Yes, the immediate effect is to favour gas over coal. But Australia’s gas capacity is also operating at below predicted capacity. This is because efficiency and point of use solar have considerably reduced grid demand. We’ve mothballed down 1.31 gigawatts of coal power since the carbon price was introduced, and switched another coal plant to seasonal load following. Point of use solar is now cheaper than grid electricity in Australia, so this trend will continue.

By: dbr2

dbr2 — Sun, 21 Oct 2012 15:01:00 +0000

The effect is so quick I assume it reflects optimizing the existing generation – ie turning marginal natural gas on, marginal coal off. Presumably over time, the carbon cost changes investment decisions in favor of renewables, etc and the effect gets much greater?

By: Ronald Brak

Ronald Brak — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 14:54:00 +0000

They knew the carbon price was coming on the first of July and prepared for it in June. (Of course things other than the carbon price affect carbon intensity in Australia’s electricity sector. That’s why the line is wriggly.)

By: Chris

Chris — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 12:57:00 +0000

But the decline is before the carbon tax was introduced