Origin Energy has today announced it is bringing forward the closure of Australia’s largest coal fired plant \u2013 Eraring Power Station in the Hunter Valley, NSW \u2013 seven years earlier than planned, from 2032 to mid-2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The announcement comes as the price of renewable energy continues to drop, with it already supplying 30% of Australia\u2019s electricity needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Eraring is the biggest of 16 remaining coal-fired power plants supplying the National Energy Market, with seven of those already scheduled to close by 2035 and the last planned to shut by 2051.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The following experts are available for comment (others may be available on request):<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sam Mella, Hunter Engagement and Project Lead, Beyond Zero Emissions, said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOrigin\u2019s announcement today highlights the urgency to ensure our energy jobs are protected. The Hunter has so much expertise in energy and a Renewable Energy Industrial Precinct is the right vehicle to keep the Hunter thriving through the massive changes. All levels of government should be focussed on this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sam is lead author of the Hunter case study in the Million Jobs Plan. She has worked on renewable energy and energy exports since 2011. Sam is available until 4pm today Thursday 17 February.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tim Buckley, energy market analyst and coal expert at Climate Energy Finance, said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOrigin energy today announced the closure of its Eraring coal power station in the Hunter Valley by 2025, that\u2019s Australia’s largest coal power plant in terms of capacity at a notional 2,880 MW. It will be replacing it with a 700MW battery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis follows news last week from AGL that they are bringing forward the closure of their two large coal power stations, Bayswater, which is also in the Hunter Valley, and Loy Yang A in Victoria\u2019s Latrobe Valley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThese announcements underscored the rapid technological, financial and policy changes coming globally with the transition to green energy, which are accelerating and inevitable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt is beyond time Australia actually had a government focussed on planning for the transition to green energy, rather than denying it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dr Amanda Cahill, CEO of The Next Economy, a not for profit that works with business, local government and the community to manage the transition from fossil fuels to clean new industries, said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEarly closure announcements like this are becoming increasingly common. We need to do more to support affected workers and communities years before any closures happen. We need to make sure workers have opportunities to retrain for new jobs or be redeployed to other plants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cCommunities need support to diversify their economic opportunities and attract new investment and industries that can be powered by renewable energy. All levels of government have a responsibility to manage these changes if regions are to prosper into the future.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dr Madeline Taylor, Climate Councillor, Senior Lecturer at Macquarie University, School of Law and energy expert:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cCoal is not a commercially viable industry any longer. Just like AGL last week , this is a commercial decision made by Origin Energy to close its Eraring coal power station seven years early.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSome of Australia\u2019s biggest power companies are not able to compete from a price perspective and policy perspective, as the states and territories cash-in on a net zero future, bringing with it cheaper renewable power, economic investments and new clean jobs. The newly announced Hunter-Central Coast Renewable Energy Zone (REZ) is set to provide 100 Terawatt hours of power by the mid 2020s, which is almost double the generation of NSW\u2019s entire coal fleet. The new Hunter REZ is just one of the state’s four proposed REZs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cCoal is not going to cut it anymore when we have cheap and reliable renewable energy and storage that\u2019s already powering over a third of Australia\u2019s largest electricity grid and providing almost 25 percent of NSW\u2019s power.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Origin Energy has today announced it is bringing forward the closure of Australia’s largest coal fired plant \u2013 Eraring Power Station in the Hunter Valley, NSW \u2013 seven years earlier than planned, from 2032 to mid-2025. The announcement comes as the price of renewable energy continues to drop, with it already supplying 30% of Australia\u2019s … Continue reading “AUSTRALIA’S BIGGEST COAL POWER STATION TO CLOSE EARLY, IN 2025”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newcastle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14955"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14955\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14956,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14955\/revisions\/14956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}