Latest news with #AidanMorrison
Herald Sun
27-05-2025
- Business
- Herald Sun
Offshore wind generation failure: risks more onshore wind turbines
Don't miss out on the headlines from Victoria. Followed categories will be added to My News. The Victorian government's plan to get nine gigawatts of wind-farm capacity built off the state's coast is falling apart, putting farmers at risk of more onshore developments and transmission lines to offset the loss. Three offshore wind developments have already been abandoned — the 1.5GW Seadragon project off the coast of Ninety Mile Beach, the 0.5GW Vic Offshore and 1.1GW Southern Winds projects located off Portland. Even the massive 2.2GW Star of the South project is still preparing an environmental effects statement, despite having completed five years of scientific and feasibility studies. Last year federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek even rejected a Victorian government proposal to build a renewable energy terminal at the Port of Hastings, which was to be a base to build wind turbines before they were taken out to sea. Centre for Independent Studies energy research director Aidan Morrison said: 'We're seeing (offshore) projects cancelled left right and centre, because they're too expensive. 'Offshore wind developments cost at least twice as much as those onshore.' Yet despite the high costs and uncertainty the Victorian government's renewable energy planner, VicGrid, has incorporated 9GW of offshore wind development in its recently released transmission plan. VicGrid's assumes 500 offshore wind turbines, with an average capacity of 18MW, will be built from 2032 to 2040 to generate 9GW of capacity, equivalent to eight Loy Yang B power stations. VicGrid's plan also factors in 5.8GW of onshore wind farm developments, equivalent to 970 much smaller 6MW turbines. However, if Victoria's 9GW of offshore generation fails to materialise and is pushed onshore, the number of wind turbines that will need to be built across regional Victoria swells to 2470. VicGrid was asked if a shortfall in its offshore generation target meant more transmission lines and onshore renewable developments, but failed to answer the question, simply stating it would be regularly reviewing its plan. Victorian Energy Policy Centre director Bruce Mountain said the Victorian Government large targets offshore wind targets 'pre-suppose significant demand growth'. '(But) both demand growth and the challenges and costs of offshore wind are uncertain,' professor Mountain said. 'There has already been a large increase in offshore wind costs relative to expectations when the policy was adopted.' He said wind development off Victoria's coast 'now depends crucially on federal government support (and) much remains to be discovered'. Originally published as Offshore wind generation failure
Sky News AU
26-05-2025
- Business
- Sky News AU
‘Consequence of the rush': Energy expert attributes rising electricity bills to Labor's ‘unrealistic' renewables push, as regulator reveals transmission cost blowouts
An energy expert has attributed soaring power prices to the Albanese government's renewable energy agenda, with the Australian Energy Market Operator revealing ballooning cost blowouts to the construction of transmission lines. On Tuesday, the Australian Energy Market Operator announced that 500,000 customers nationwide could experience an eye watering 9.7 per cent rise in their power bills. The price hike was revealed in the operator's default market offer, of which serves as a price safety net that limits what energy retailers can charge customers in New South Wales, south-east Queensland and South Australia. Those residing in NSW will incur an even larger price hike than that proposed in the draft form in March and will see their power bills rise by 7.9 to 9.7 per cent, with the average bill increasing by between $155 to $228. The price increase in south-east Queensland is up by $77 or 3.7 per cent and in South Australia consumers should expect a 3.2 per cent rise amounting to a hike of $71. Aidan Morrison, the director of energy research at the Centre for Independent Studies said the trend of compounding power bills was due to the Albanese government's 'rushed' renewables energy rollout. 'I think there's two reasons now why these transmission line costs are starting to emerge, it's just way higher than they were initially ever priced, which is always unrealistic,' Mr Morrison said speaking to Sky News host Danica De Giorgio. 'There was this fantastic idea that we just provide one link into the countryside and then all the other generators would sort of link themselves into the grid. 'What's happened in reality is that link gets expanded, so we pay for the transmission lines to run right into all the generation projects that happen out in the countryside. The market operator outlined in its annual report that the cost for overhead transmission line projects had surged by up to 55 per cent, with substations also rising by as much as 35 per cent. The report concluded that if the $20 billion cost of transmission infrastructure continued to inflate then power prices would rise even further. Mr Morrison said 'the price blow out in the latest report from the market operator makes it very clear that's a consequence of trying to build everything all at once, which is exactly what's happening'. He said the 'rushed rollout of massive renewables, stipulating that everything has to be built before 2030' is causing 'huge competition for all of the materials and all of the contractors'. 'There is a price hike for all the contractors and labouring materials, so the prices go up a lot, and that's what's happening right here. 'It's a consequence of the rush, and it's an inevitable consequence." Chair of the Australian Energy Regulator Clare Savage accepted that 'there are cost pressures in the system' and the regulator was 'seeing that across each of the jurisdictions'. Speaking to Sky News Business Editor Ross Greenwood, Ms Savage accepted cost pressures relating to transmission lines were contributing to the energy price pain experienced by consumers, yet repeatedly defended the government's clean energy agenda. 'We have seen some increased costs in the transmission system from new projects like HomeLink and Project Energy Connect, and they are flowing through to bills in New South Wales in particular,' Ms Savage said. 'What I'd also say is that as we do build out this system of the future and we have greater electrification and more people use electric vehicles, we're going to see increased use of those assets, and that should lead to lower prices over time. Ms Savage reminded consumers that the default offer was used to stop retailers from setting 'unjustifiably high' prices and are 'not intended to be an efficient marker of the best price out there in the market'. 'You don't want to be on the default offer, you do want to be out there, in the markets, shopping around and getting access to the best possible prices. 'I would say though that there are probably nearly 80 per cent of customers who are currently paying more than they need to." She said that people should be shopping around for a new deal every year, and acknowledged that this was an exhausting process. 'I get tired of saying 'shop around', I can promise you, but I do think it's important and probably every year is a good idea." Roughly nine per cent of households and 18 per cent of small businesses receive default market offers.
Sky News AU
15-05-2025
- Business
- Sky News AU
‘Slow motion train wreck': Energy experts tear apart Chris Bowen's renewables agenda, label green hydrogen plan ‘hopeful hand-waving'
Leading energy and environmental experts Aidan Morrison and Graham Lloyd have torn apart the efficacy of Labor's renewable energy policy, while labelling Energy Minister Chris Bowen's green hydrogen agenda as unreliable and 'impractical'. Mr Bowen claimed on Wednesday that a 'silent majority' of Australians supported his green agenda and the Albanese government considered the results of the federal election a glowing endorsement of renewable energy. In an article published in The Australian, Mr Bowen stated there had not been much evidence to support the 'noise' against renewables and the electorate had gone to the ballot box in favour of an 'affordable plan' that was 'backed by the experts'. However, energy program director for the Centre for Independent Studies, Aidan Morrison, slammed Labor's emissions reduction plan and explained the policy faced myriad pressing obstacles. When asked if the Energy Minister's renewable energy revolution could be implemented according to Labor's 2050 timeline, Mr Morrison claimed 'there's just not a chance' and likened the green agenda to a 'slow-motion train wreck'. 'It's like we're kicking around ice on the deck of the Titanic thinking: 'Oh, that was fun to brush up against that'. We haven't taken seriously how badly things are shaping up' he said. Mr Morrison said the tell-tale signs the renewables program was failing were 'all there at the moment', including mounting electricity bills, financing dilemmas and aging coal fired power stations. 'They can't get any private investors to basically completely back renewable energy projects without them being underwritten by the capacity investment scheme', which serves as one of the government's many revenue accelerant schemes for renewable energy projects, he explained. 'That's an open-ended subsidy. We don't know what it's going to cost to force them to do things the market would otherwise not do.' The investment scheme aims for a total of 32 gigawatts (GW) of new capacity, with 23 GW being renewable energy sources, representing an eye-watering $52 billion in investment. The plan also includes nine GW of clean energy dispatchable capacity, representing $15 billion in additional investment. Mr Morrison also expressed fear of grid instability by referencing AEMO's desire to possess 'emergency backstop' powers to switch off rooftop solar systems in every state during extreme situations to avoid 'system collapse'. 'Rooftop solar is about to be curtailed this year. The market operator has told people we have to turn off their solar because there's too much rooftop solar in the system to keep it steady for an engineering system,' he said. Graham Lloyd, The Australian's environment editor, was separately pressed about green hydrogen after metal mining giant Fortescue, headed by billionaire Andrew 'Twiggy' Forrest, axed 90 green hydrogen jobs across the nation on Wednesday. Mr Lloyd said the private sector had formed a consensus the 'green hydrogen boondoggle was a bust', adding the 'government was late to the party in realising that it's throwing good money after bad'. '(Andrew Forrest) is a smart guy, he's packed up his tent and he's gone back to Western Australia to concentrate on trying to make green steel,' he said. 'The difficult part of course is delivering it and there's a lot of evidence that this is more difficult and more expensive than people had hoped, and on that score green hydrogen was going to be a key part of that and we're seeing now power authorities saying grid vulnerability is an issue and that requires a much greater use of gas.' Meanwhile, Mr Morrison described green hydrogen as 'just crazy' and claimed Mr Bowen was 'the last man standing, still putting any hope in it'. 'This whole plan is just built on hopeful hand-waving. Serious engineering has not been done to actually pin this down' he said. 'All of the AEMO hydrogen system stability things are about plans to make studies, to investigate further what the requirements will be. There's no way they can set a cost to that. "The hydrogen thing is just kind of way out there. It's such an impractical gas to be able to store and move around. It's never going to be a useful fuel and a substitute for lots of the things that fossil fuels currently do for us, particularly in heavy vehicles.' Despite Prime Minister Anthony Albanese stating: 'Green hydrogen has a role to play in Australia's future', the majority of touted hydrogen projects in Australia have not moved beyond the concept or approval stage.
Sky News AU
15-05-2025
- Politics
- Sky News AU
Chris Bowen's energy policies are a ‘slow-motion trainwreck'
Centre for Independent Studies Energy Program Director Aidan Morrison argues there is 'no chance' Energy Minister Chris Bowen's energy plan will succeed in Australia. 'There's just not a chance, not a chance that this is going to work,' Mr Morrison told Sky News host Chris Kenny. 'This is a slow-motion trainwreck, it's like we're sort of kicking around ice on the deck of the Titanic, thinking that was fun to brush up against that. 'We haven't taken seriously how badly things are shaping up.'
Sky News AU
14-05-2025
- Business
- Sky News AU
Fortescue axes 90 green hydrogen jobs as Centre for Independent Studies' Aidan Morrison slams 'hopelessly impractical' energy source
Australia's largest green hydrogen backer has axed about 90 jobs working on the energy source, sparking criticism there is "no future" for the energy source as it is "hopelessly impractical" as an alternative fuel. Metal mining giant Fortescue, spearheaded by green hydrogen promoter Andrew 'Twiggy' Forrest, on Tuesday laid off staff members who worked on hydrogen projects across the nation. The workers at Fortescue's hydrogen unit in Western Australia and its electrolyser facility, where hydrogen is separated from water to produce green energy, in Queensland were offered redundances or redeployment within the company. Fortescue's move sparked criticism from the Centre for Independent Studies' energy director Aidan Morrison who said efforts to prop up the energy source, many which are driven by the Albanese government, were futile. "This is what it looks like to see a concerted effort at consensus-farming slowly getting unwound: paper projects being quietly scrunched up and binned at politically convenient moments,' Mr Morrison told 'Green hydrogen never was a thing. It won't be in the future either. It was built on hopeful hand-waving from the outset. 'It's hopelessly impractical as an alternative fuel. It's extremely difficult to store and move. There's limited demand for hydrogen as a chemical feedstock, which is economically met by methane reformation from coal or gas. 'There's no evidence that demand at the volumes that renewables enthusiasts have been spruiking will emerge and there's no way that wind and solar could meet that demand at a reasonable price if it did." A Fortescue spokesperson said the mining giant was focused on developing a green iron industry in Australia with 'green hydrogen playing a critical part in making it a reality'. 'To ensure we can produce the large amounts of green hydrogen we need to make green iron, we are refocusing our efforts into the research and development of new technologies that will deliver green molecules at scale, efficiently and cost-effectively,' the spokesperson said. 'Fortescue has rapidly advanced its electrolyser technology capabilities. The science has now evolved, and we are moving with it.' It is understood the sackings come as Fortescue is looking to its Gladstone, Queensland, facility - called PEM50 - for the research and development efforts. The recent sackings come after Fortescue revealed 700 redundancies in July 2024 in a sweeping restructure of the company that consolidated its mining and energy arms into one division. Mr Forrest has spent years promoting the benefits of green hydrogen, with the company originally planning on producing 15 million tonnes per year by 2030. Labor's net-zero plans include a Hydrogen Production Tax Incentive as part of its Future Made in Australia Act. More than $6.5 billion will go toward the scheme, which provides $2 per kilogram of renewable hydrogen produced between 2027-28 and 2039-40. The policy came a year after Labor announced $2b towards its Hydrogen Headstart program, which looked to invest in large scale hydrogen projects.
