[HN Gopher] Australia out of natural gas, pays gas companies to ...
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Australia out of natural gas, pays gas companies to export its
reserves
Author : andrewstuart
Score : 16 points
Date : 2024-07-02 21:02 UTC (1 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.smh.com.au)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.smh.com.au)
| andrewstuart wrote:
| Australia pays the natural gas companies to steal our natural gas
| then we run out of natural gas and pay them to buy it back from
| them.
| toomuchtodo wrote:
| Won't the rising cost of fossil gas due to these issues speed
| electrification? Behold the death spiral, embrace the death
| spiral!
|
| (As more fossil gas consumers electrify, an ever smaller
| population must support the network fixed costs, driving up
| costs and continuing to more rapidly push consumers to
| electrify; like bankruptcy, it happens slowly, and then all of
| a sudden)
|
| https://reneweconomy.com.au/new-blow-to-fossil-gas-as-regula...
|
| https://www.asme.org/topics-resources/content/energy-blog-ar...
| guidedlight wrote:
| It will particularly in Victoria, which has highest number of
| residential gas connections (90%).
|
| However, the primary dispatchable electricity generation
| comes from gas fired power plants. To say, Australia has a
| dependance on gas is an understatement.
|
| Unfortunately, there has been considerable in-action and lack
| of investment mainly due to the main political parties having
| competing energy policies. The conservatives previously had a
| "gas led" generation plan, but due to the gas crisis they
| have switched to a nuclear-led proposal (Australia has no
| nuclear power plants, and no expertise in them). The current
| government is pushing renewables and storage, however
| progress has been slow due to land owners being unwilling to
| allow new transmission lines and environmental concerns about
| offshore wind infrastructure.
|
| Meanwhile about half of Australia's energy comes aging coal
| power plants, whose live has been extended, all of which are
| due for phased retirement in the near future.
| toomuchtodo wrote:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40808618 ("Australia
| electricity grid with 100% renewables and 120GWh
| batteries")
|
| https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-03-07/end-of-
| co... | https://archive.today/2owbd ("Australia's rapid
| shift from coal-fired power to cleaner alternatives is
| underwriting a boom in battery projects able to store solar
| and wind energy. The country has at least 250 planned
| battery developments with a potential capacity of almost
| 130,000 megawatt-hours, a pipeline that's second only to
| China, data compiled by BloombergNEF show. While Australia
| still relies on coal for more than half of its electricity
| generation, many major plants are set to close in the next
| decade.")
|
| https://www.ga.gov.au/scientific-
| topics/energy/resources/oth... ("Australia receives an
| average of 58 million PJ of solar radiation per year,
| approximately 10,000 times larger than its total energy
| consumption. However, Australia's current use of solar
| energy is low with solar energy accounting for only about
| 0.1 per cent of Australia's total primary energy
| consumption.")
| guidedlight wrote:
| Yep. This is the current direction. As I said, investment
| uncertainty due to the alternative nuclear proposal,
| issues with transmission lines, and environment issues
| for wind projects are the main barriers.
| XorNot wrote:
| I've had gas service removed from my house and the pipes
| taken out - but that was for environmental reasons - I'm
| committed to only using electrical (i.e. fuel independent)
| appliances.
| toomuchtodo wrote:
| I salute your efforts, onward.
| ars wrote:
| I thought you were exaggerating, but that really is what
| happening (except for the steal part - your comment would be
| better without exaggerating).
|
| So instead of selling the gas externally (because they are
| contractually bound to do so) and then import other gas, I
| would suggest buying gas from elsewhere to deliver to fulfill
| the contract and then use the local gas locally.
|
| It would need an analysis of costs.
|
| The reason for all this trouble is apparently the gas field
| production has gone down faster than predicted.
| guidedlight wrote:
| The challenge is that Australia is big, really big. The
| population is sparse and mainly lives in a few coastal areas.
|
| The parts of Australia that have gas and are exporting it
| (the west and north), are quite distant from the parts of
| Australia that are running out of gas and need it locally
| (the east and south).
|
| In this scenario, it's easier and cheaper to use existing
| export terminals to send ships to those other parts of the
| country that need the gas. Unfortunately the optics of doing
| this is bad.
| tmnvix wrote:
| > except for the steal part - your comment would be better
| without exaggerating
|
| It is hyperbole, but still appropriate when you consider the
| meaning of the phrase 'it was a steal'. As with pretty much
| all extracted resources in Australia, the royalties paid are
| a pittance relative to the value. The abundance of this type
| of common wealth in Australia makes people undervalue them in
| my opinion (to the benefit of the extractors - who have very
| active and successful lobbyists).
| Molitor5901 wrote:
| https://archive.is/oegzu
| Molitor5901 wrote:
| _Brett Woods, the chief executive of gas producer Beach Energy...
| Woods also warned importing gas could increase local prices for
| manufacturers that relied on gas for energy or as a feedstock by
| lifting their exposure to the volatile global commodity market,
| putting local jobs at risk.
|
| He is calling for governments to focus on opening new gas fields
| and building more storage facilities ahead of imports._
|
| Another point for nuclear energy?
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