{"id":5738,"date":"2016-05-09T21:47:48","date_gmt":"2016-05-09T12:17:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/?p=5738"},"modified":"2017-04-18T18:17:49","modified_gmt":"2017-04-18T07:47:49","slug":"coal-power-eliminated-south-australia-help-rooftop-solar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/coal-power-eliminated-south-australia-help-rooftop-solar\/","title":{"rendered":"Coal Power Eliminated From South Australia With Help From Rooftop Solar"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"coal

The last coal miners in South Australia have hung up their helmets, and the last coal fired power station has shut its doors.<\/p><\/div>\n

History has been made with the closure of the Northern Power Station which has eliminated the use of coal in South Australia. And I say good riddance to you, Northern Power Station. I’m sorry you are no longer providing employment for people in Port Augusta or at the Leigh Creek coal mine, but I’m not sorry you are gone because you kill people and I am a firm believer that electricity generation should be death light.<\/p>\n

South Australia is the first state to have washed its hands of an existing coal generation industry and expanding wind power and rooftop solar capacity made this possible. The state now has no baseload generators. Last time this happened was when we had a carbon price and the Northern Power Station closed down during winter.<\/p>\n

The state’s only coal mine at Leigh Creek; which supplied low quality, sub-bituminous, brown coal; closed\u00a0in November. The Northern Power Station was\u00a0scheduled to close in March.<\/p>\n

But since the miners had done such a bang up job of ripping fossilized trees out of the ground in their last few months of work, the power station had enough coal to keep operating for two more months.<\/p>\n

No Baseload Generation \u2013 No Problem!<\/h2>\n

With the closure of the Northern Power Station, South Australia no longer has any generating capacity that operates in baseload mode. That is, there is no generation that runs continuously night and day and only stops for maintenance or repairs. And this is not a problem. We know it’s not a problem because the state has done it before.<\/p>\n

\"bacon\"

Baseload power is like bacon and eggs<\/p><\/div>\n

Some people insist that electricity grids need baseload generators, but I’m afraid those people are as nutty as lumpy chocolate bars and have confused a habit with necessity. It is like someone saying, \u201cI always eat bacon and eggs for breakfast, therefore bacon and eggs are necessary for me to function!\u201d Those people need to chill and eat their muesli. We have had plenty of experience running an entire state without any generators operating in baseload mode in the past, and we will have no problem now. South Australia serves as a model to the rest of the country, and the world, in how to happily run a grid\u00a0without baseload generators.<\/p>\n

South Australia Does Not Import Baseload Power From Victoria<\/h2>\n
\"import

SA does not import baseload from Victoria<\/p><\/div>\n

South Australia is a net electricity importer, which means it takes more electricity from Victoria than it gives back.\u00a0 Large, brown coal, baseload generators produce most of the electricity imported into the state is produced by; but that does not mean electricity imports act like a baseload generator for South Australia.\u00a0 For that to be the case electricity would have to be imported more or less continuously and that does not happen.\u00a0 Sometimes electricity is imported from Victoria and sometimes it is exported to Victoria.\u00a0 Generally, South Australia imports when demand is high and exports when demand is low.\u00a0 So electricity imports act like a load following generator that operates some of the time and not a baseload generator that operates all the time.<\/p>\n

It Was Renewables That Killed The Beast<\/h2>\n

The death of coal generation in South Australia was a direct result of the state’s growing renewable energy capacity. According to the Australian Electricity Market Operator, or AEMO, in the 2014-15 financial year 34% of electricity generated in the state came from wind power while 7% came from rooftop solar. Because South Australia is a net importer of electricity this means around 30% of the electricity consumed in the state that year came from wind and around 6.4% from rooftop solar, for a total of approximately 36% renewable energy.\u00a0 Now that wind turbine erection has commenced again in South Australia after a long politically related rest and rooftop solar installation has continued, the state’s electricity consumption may now be around 40% renewable or more.<\/p>\n

\"wind

The guilty parties<\/p><\/div>\n

Whenever wind and solar power generate electricity, it reduces the amount produced by fossil fuels.\u00a0 This happens for two reasons.\u00a0 Firstly, it would be really stupid to use environmentally destructive fossil fuel generation when there is clean renewable energy available.\u00a0 And secondly, wind and solar have no fuel cost, so it always makes economic sense to use their electricity when it’s available instead of sources that have to pay for fuel.<\/p>\n

Because the fuel cost to produce a kilowatt-hour of electricity from natural gas is higher than to produce a kilowatt-hour of electricity from coal, you might expect South Australia to close natural gas power stations before coal.\u00a0 And to an extent, this has happened, as half a highly efficient modern gas plant is currently sitting in mothballs at Pelican Point, and there are 4 tatty old inefficient gas generators that sit around doing nothing all day on Torrens Island, but the state’s last coal power station was shut down rather than more gas capacity, because wind and solar power are especially damaging to the economics of coal generation.<\/p>\n

Northern Power Station To Grid – \u201cI Can’t Stop Myself!\u201d<\/h2>\n

While the Northern Power plant had lower fuel costs than gas generators, it had a problem in that it didn’t like to shut down. Australia’s coal power plants are all made to run continuously under constant temperature and pressure. They can normally function from about 60-100% of maximum output and that’s it. If they want to go below 60% they have to shut down and coal power stations hate shutting down because each time they do it effectively costs them money because letting the system lose pressure and cool down damages it. Temperature and pressure changes cause metal to expand and contract which weakens it and places pressure on joints and seams which can then break and burst, requiring expensive repairs or potentially even a tragic funeral.<\/p>\n

\"northern

The Northern Power Station: photo Gary Sauer-Thompson<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

Because of this, coal power stations can’t shut down to avoid periods of low electricity prices caused by high wind and\/or solar production. Instead they choose to continue to run at a loss. Two weeks ago in South Australia, because of a warm night and high wind production, the wholesale price of electricity paid to grid generators fell to zero. But because they didn’t want to shut down even though they were receiving no money for the coal they were burning, the Northern Power Station continued to supply electricity which resulted in the grid receiving too much power. Now when this happens, to force generators to stop supplying electricity and to encourage large electricity users to consume more, prices go negative. That means for a 5 hour period the Northern Power Station had to pay money for each kilowatt-hour of electricity it generated.<\/p>\n

Obviously, having to pay money to produce electricity severely annoys coal power stations. In fact, I’m surprised they didn’t just turn it off, saying, \u201cMeh! We’ll shut it down and if it doesn’t start up again, too bad! We’ll close a couple of weeks early!\u201d However, if they were under contractual obligation to supply ancillary services to the grid, that may not have been possible.<\/p>\n

It is these negative price events combined with a general reduction in wholesale electricity prices caused by renewable energy that forced the Northern Power Station to close. Gas power stations are much better at stopping and starting and so they are not affected nearly as much.<\/p>\n

Rooftop Solar’s Reliability Helped Close The Northern Power Station<\/h2>\n

The wind does not blow all the time. However, it does blow most of the time. And because South Australia’s wind farms are fairly wide apart this means that if the wind isn’t blowing at one wind farm it can still be blowing at another. As a result, the AEMO considers wind power in the state to be 9.9% firm in summer and 6.9% firm in winter. This means the state’s windfarms are\u00a0relied upon to produce at least 9.9% of their total capacity basically all the time. That is, as reliably as a coal or natural gas power station.<\/p>\n

In the winter the figure is only 6.9% because the winds aren’t as constant, but this lower amount isn’t much of a problem as maximum demand in Australia occurs in the summer due to air conditioner use. Being able to meet maximum demand is terribly important as people really don’t like it when the grid craps out on them and forces them to sweat to stay cool.<\/p>\n

If a grid has trouble meeting maximum demand then it’s not possible to close down existing power stations because as soon as a summer heatwave comes along a heap of hot and cranky people will be after your hide. The fact that wind power is 9.9% firm in summer means it helps contribute to meeting peak demand, but the renewable energy source that really shines in this area is solar power.<\/p>\n

Solar power is extremely reliable. For as long as the sun is up, it produces power. Cloudy conditions will reduce its output, but there will always be some generation. And since maximum demand for electricity always occurs on hot, cloudless, summer afternoons, solar is always available to help meet it. When it comes to meeting maximum electricity demand, it is far more helpful per watt of capacity than wind. And because of it, there is no problem in meeting maximum demand, so the Northern Power Station can be closed without creating a shortfall in electricity supply.<\/p>\n

The Future Of South Australia’s Electricity Supply<\/h2>\n

With the closure of the Northern Power Station there will be an increase in natural gas use as gas generators fill the gap in supply.\u00a0 And this is an improvement.\u00a0 While natural gas generation is far from good, it is much less fatal than burning coal. The local pollution it causes is far less severe and its greenhouse gas emissions are considerably lower.<\/p>\n

In addition there will also be a slight to moderate increase in electricity imports from Victoria.\u00a0 Since electricity that comes from Victoria is almost all produced from dirty brown coal, using it to replace electricity produced by dirty brown coal is basically a wash.<\/p>\n

But the good news is, the increase in natural gas use and electricity imports should only be temporary. Now that wind turbine construction has started again and as rooftop solar continues to expand, natural gas use will soon be on the downward trend it was on before the coal plant closure.\u00a0 And increased renewable production will mean less dirty electricity will be imported from Victoria and more clean electricity will be exported to it which will make life difficult for coal generators there and help force them to close down.\u00a0 And this is very important as Victoria may have the most CO2 intensive electricity generation in the world.<\/p>\n

The Future Of Australia’s Electricity Supply<\/h2>\n

South Australia is now an obvious rebuttal to anyone who still somehow thinks that baseload generators are necessary for a grid to function.\u00a0 The state has no source of electricity that operates in baseload mode and this includes electricity imports from Victoria.\u00a0 South Australia has also made the way forward clear for the rest of the nation.\u00a0 Keep expanding renewable capacity until it is no longer economical for coal power to keep operating and we can kill coal before it kills too many more of us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

History has been made with the closure of the Northern Power Station which has eliminated the use of coal in South Australia. And I say good riddance to you, Northern Power Station. I’m sorry you are no longer providing employment for people in Port Augusta or at the Leigh Creek coal mine, but I’m not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[65,45,61,32],"class_list":["post-5738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","tag-carbon-tax","tag-global-warming","tag-south-australia-2","tag-victoria","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCoal Power Eliminated From South Australia With Help From Rooftop Solar - SolarQuotes Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The last coal miners in South Australia have hung up their helmets, and the last coal fired power station has shut its doors.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/coal-power-eliminated-south-australia-help-rooftop-solar\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Coal Power Eliminated From South Australia With Help From Rooftop Solar\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The last coal miners in South Australia have hung up their helmets, and the last coal fired power station has shut its doors.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/coal-power-eliminated-south-australia-help-rooftop-solar\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"SolarQuotes Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SolarQuotes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-05-09T12:17:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-04-18T07:47:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/coal-miner-hat.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ronald Brakels\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@BrakelsRonald\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@solar_quotes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/coal-power-eliminated-south-australia-help-rooftop-solar\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/coal-power-eliminated-south-australia-help-rooftop-solar\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Ronald Brakels\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d0ce1779b3f5cb67cb4f146732af2fc7\"},\"headline\":\"Coal Power Eliminated From South Australia With Help From Rooftop Solar\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-05-09T12:17:48+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-04-18T07:47:49+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/coal-power-eliminated-south-australia-help-rooftop-solar\/\"},\"wordCount\":1975,\"commentCount\":22,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/coal-power-eliminated-south-australia-help-rooftop-solar\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/coal-miner-hat.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Carbon Tax\",\"Global Warming\",\"South Australia\",\"Victoria\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Economics Of Solar\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/coal-power-eliminated-south-australia-help-rooftop-solar\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/coal-power-eliminated-south-australia-help-rooftop-solar\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/coal-power-eliminated-south-australia-help-rooftop-solar\/\",\"name\":\"Coal Power Eliminated From South Australia With Help From Rooftop Solar - 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