Mixed Greens: Vic coal export success ‘implausible’, says report

The development of a proposed brown coal export hub in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley is looking more and more unlikely to succeed, according to a new report which describes claims that coal industry expansion would create thousands of jobs – and billions in state royalties – as ”utterly implausible.” The Age reports that new analysis by consultants Economists at Large, commissioned by Environment Victoria, has found that higher processing and transport costs would mean a local coal export industry would struggle to compete with the likes of Indonesia, with better quality brown coal and better strategic positioning for trade.

Even if the Baillieu government’s plans to open up vast coal fields in the Latrobe Valley were viable, the analysis has found that the economic benefits for surrounding regions would likely be limited, with industries losing employees to coal companies. The Victorian government – which has dismissed the report’s findings, via energy minister Michael O’Brien, due to Environment Victoria’s “political and irrational opposition to clean coal technology” – is expected to announce whether it will make new coal allocations before the end of the year. The Department of Primary Industries has estimated there is about 13 billion tonnes of potentially economic coal in the Latrobe Valley.

Royalla 1 making ‘significant progress’

The ACT’s Minister for the Environment and Sustainable Development, Simon Corbell, has today praised the “significant progress” being made at Canberra’s Royalla 1 solar project, in getting relevant approvals from the Australian and ACT government in the short time since the contract was awarded. Subject to planning approvals’, Fotowatio Renewable Ventures will build a 20MW fixed-plate solar plant capable of producing enough electricity to power around 4,400 Canberra homes, at around 25c per week per household, or $13 per year. The ACT government expects this cost to fall further to around $9.50 per year by 2020, and estimates a CO2 reduction of around 560,000 tonnes over the 20 year life of the project.

In other news…

Norway last week revealed plans to double carbon tax on its North Sea oil industry and set up a $1.6 billion fund to help combat the damaging impacts of climate change in the developing world. The Guardian reports that Norwegian government has proposed increasing its carbon tax on offshore oil companies by $US72 per tonne of CO2 and an $US8 per tonne CO2 tax on its fishing industry.

Bankrupt US solar firm Solyndra has filed a lawsuit against three US-listed Chinese solar manufacturers, including Suntech Power Holdings, seeking $1.5 billion in compensation due to monopolisation, according to court documents filed last Thursday.

Comments

One response to “Mixed Greens: Vic coal export success ‘implausible’, says report”

  1. MC Avatar
    MC

    Some of these reports seem to be written from what someone else wanted to preach

    Do little to Create Jobs??? Well it sure will cover the unemployment that would have occurred if the brown coal plants had to shut down, plus im sure that there will be additional employment created through the production of BCE (Black Coal equivalent), which is the product that will be derived from the conversion of brown coal.

    Has any of these economists actually done any research into BCE , do they know that it is the process??? Are they aware that brown coal can’t be moved , shipped in its current state?? Moving it in its current state just leads to fireballs, hence the reason why its actually never been exported before and hence the new Technologies out there such as coldry which will now make this possible and open up a massive resource. Australia has the largest Brown coal resource in teh world and 90% of that is in Victoria. Are they aware that the price of black coal is currently making it unfeasable for the black coal mines to shut or to put off expansion?? less goverment revenue??

    It states that –

    “an analysis has found higher processing and transport costs would mean a local export industry would struggle to compete with places such as Indonesia, which has better quality brown coal and is closer to buyers in India”

    Yes, it will cost more to process as it does go from brown coal to BCE and as it has never been shipped before it will cost more to export….BUT – the BCE product derived from it will cost significantly less FOB than the black coal currently being shipped out of queensland….. The BCE produced from LV brown coal will also be considerable more efficient than bog standard brown coal thats dug out of the ground anywhere; the studies and the test reports are there.

    These reports keep going on about cheaper coal out of Queensland – isn’t the bulk of coal exported out of Queensland black. Isn’t the cost of FOB of black coal out of Queensland significantly larger than the BCE FOB cost out of Victoria , even considering Enviromental Cleasn technologies used a greatly inflated cost of $40 per tonne in their report, which in real terms is half that figure. The FOB for BEC (brown coal derived) out of Victora on teh high side works out at about $60 per tonne and once the brown coal has been converted to BCE it has very similar efficencies to Black coal!! and the bi-producted i.e waste , is near potable water! havent the Goverment been dishing out millions on desal plants which have horrendious servicing costs due to corrosion !! For every tonne of brown coal , approx half a tonne of clean water is created

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