Modern coal fired power stations provide efficient low cost reliable electricity with significantly lower emissions than Australia’s current fleet. Countries such as China and India are building new coal fired power stations, adding network capacity of many times Australia’s coal generation capacity each year.
Despite having worse renewable energy resources than Australia, China is adding far more renewable capacity than coal capacity. In 2024 those figures were 210GW versus 66 GW respectively. We don't need to upgrade the coal power stations, we can and should replace them.
We all want a clean world but at what cost to our economy. China has 1000+ coal plants renewables & nuclear with 2060 targets. India has around 300 coal Plants renewables & nuclear with 2070 targets. When China and India no longer need our coal we will have a huge whole the economy but China and India will be the worlds manufacturing powerhouses thanks to nuclear. To date the worlds uptake of renewables is not producing cheaper electricity and countries are looking to return to nuclear
We need to do all we can to reduce use of fossil fuels, not find ways to keep using them.
We should be moving forwards (not sidewards or backwards) and at this stage of things, I consider this to be a backwards move by 50 years.
Other countries are building new, efficient coal fired plants with carbon capture. we could have the cheapest energy in the world. only government policy prevents this.
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