Deloitte: Let go of coal and make way for renewable energy   

September 13 2018   
Financial Review


Governments and "coal zealots" need to let go of fossil fuels and embrace renewable energy which is cost competitive with the grid or better and becoming competitive in performance as well, Deloitte energy, resources and industrials partner Michael Rath says.   

Launching the Deloitte Global Renewable Energy Trends report, Mr Rath said that although the National Energy Guarantee had collapsed because of carbon emissions targets, renewables could stand on their own two feet thanks to new technologies such as storage, peer-to-peer energy trading and artificial intelligence.

The report says wind and solar photovoltaic power are the cheapest sources of new energy at $US30-$60 ($42-$84) per megawatt hour and $US43-$53/MWh respectively, their intermittency challenges may be overstated and they can be associated with greater grid reliability and resilience even as they push prices lower. Australia has the lowest cost for solar PV and South Australia is the cheapest location for concentrating solar – which stores solar energy – along with China.

The report says "the case for renewables has never been stronger", demand is inexorably growing and even in countries that are retreating from global carbon reduction commitments such as the US and Australia, cities, communities and corporations are acting in the absence of national leadership.

"They have stepped up to fill the vacuum and demand has continued to grow," it says. 

Mr Rath said the "big concern" in Australia was that subsidies might go back to fossil fuels such as coal and gas. The Morrison government wants to implement a "firm" capacity underwriting mechanism recommended by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to maintain firm supply and lower prices, but some government members see it as a lifeline for coal generation.
Make way for new tech

Mr Rath said he understood the need for an orderly transition but "I do think we need to make way for new technology and allow competitive forces to work". Deloitte sponsors The Australian Financial Review's National Energy Summit 2018 in Sydney on October 10-11.

"What [the Deloitte Global Renewable Energy Trends report) basically says is 'we don't need to worry about subsidies – this form of technology can stand on its own two feet'.

The majority of countries in the world have both wind and solar capacity.

"The big concern is that the subsidies may well go back to traditional fossil fuels. Our policymakers and governments need to allow the market forces to work and then we'll see a transition to cleaner fuels and the emissions will take care of themselves."

Mr Rath said Australia had a choice: It could resist the international trend to renewable energy and be "an outlier"; or it could keep the politics out of it, allow market forces to work and regain the mantle of being "a low-cost energy power".

"I think people holding onto the past – if you like coal zealots – will eventually have to deal with the facts that renewable energy is here, it's now at price and performance parity and should be seen as a mainstream energy source. The levelised cost of energy is becoming comparable to conventional and traditional fuel sources, and should now be seen as a reliable grid integration technology."

The Deloitte report says deployment obstacles and ceilings to wind and solar power are dissolving "as they reach price and performance parity with conventional sources across the world, demonstrate their ability to enhance grids, and become increasingly competitive via new technologies.

Wind is now the cheapest form of new power followed by solar PV. 

"Already among the cheapest energy sources globally, solar and wind have much further to go: The enabling trends have not even run their full course yet.

In wrong section. The union propaganda parrot bloopered.

The scumbag conservatives don't want to change anything and want you to believe that there are no alternatives, nor would they spend one extra cent on any R&D into alternatives. It's just easier and cheaper to peddle the same lies about not being any alternatives to their fake oil based polluting economy !

lee wrote on Sep 15^th, 2018 at 12:07pm:


So when you have burned the last drop of oil and coal what you going to do ? Hopefully someone other than the brain dead good for nothing conservatives will have already figured that out.

This trash from the union propaganda parrot has been put in the trash can.