“Coal is essential …. when the batteries run dead:” Queensland extends mine lease for second oldest generator

Fresh off hitting new records for renewable energy generation, Queensland is paving the way to nurse its second oldest coal power station through a few more years of life.

The state approved an extra 21 years for the mining lease for the Meandu coal mine which will take the production life “into the 2040’s [sic].”

The extra coal will power the aging Tarong power station, originally due to retire in the late 2030s, and the newer Tarong North plant into the 2040s, mining minister Dale Last said in a statement on Monday. 

“The former Labor government was set to close our coal-fired power stations but under our Energy Plan they will continue well into the future,” he said.

“Coal is essential for energy security – when the sun doesn’t shine, the wind doesn’t blow and the batteries run dead – coal continues to power Queensland.”

But the data shows that, as in other states, coal is beginning not to power Queensland as renewable energy eats away at fossil fuel power stations.

So much so that the owner of the Meandu mine and Tarong power stations, Stanwell, started operating a 300 megawatt (MW), two hour battery at the Tarong site in February specifically to deliver systemic reliability.

“The 300 MW battery will store energy during periods of high generation and then release it into the grid during periods of high demand, responding within fractions of a second to provide essential firming capacity and reliability,” Stanwell CEO Michael O’Rourke said in a statement at the time. 

That came just before the record for renewables penetration in Queensland was broken – in April when it reached 80 per cent of the grid for the first time and the lowest ever generation from coal power stations – records that used to be broken in the December quarter. 

Renewables are now coming for coal in Queensland in the January quarter too, most likely because of the hoard of massive wind projects, approved and started under the previous Labor government, entering the grid, such as the Clarke Creek and Wambo wind projects.

And despite the state’s stated aim to go-slow on renewables, another 1.7 gigawatts of wind power are on their way to joining the grid.

The 254 MW second stage of the Wambo and the delayed 923 MW Macintyre wind projects are in the later stages of commissioning, and the 228 MW Boulder Creek and 285 MW Lotus Creek projects are currently being built. 

Queensland not only tore up its renewable energy target, but via the Energy Roadmap is trying to reverse gains made by renewables by investing heavily in coal power with a plan to invest $1.4 billion to nurse aging coal power plants into the 2040s.

New rules for wind, solar and batteries are are also actively undermining investor confidence, as well as the uncertainty from a spate of call-in notices for wind and battery projects for further scrutiny by the planning minister.

Taking credit

Last and his colleague Deb Frecklington applauded themselves on Monday for providing certainty to the mine workers at Meandu with the lease extension. 

But like with the wind projects the government has been keen to take credit for, there is more than a whiff of the Meandu news being the – controversial – work of the previous government as well. 

While Renew Economy is seeking comment on when the mine lease was set to expire, the 21 year extension suggests the Crisfulli government had to approve the lease or miss out on years of state and federal work.  

Stanwell sought and was granted state planning approval in 2022 under the regional interests pathway to extend the mine by 187.7 hectares and its life until 2039.

It was one of the mines the Palaszczuk government exempted from providing an environmental impact statement (EIS) in 2022. 

Federal approval under the EPBC Act came in February this year, after it was referred in 2021, requiring offsets for 21 hectares of black-breated button quail habitat. 

The minor offset in the context of the almost 2000 hectare mine is because it’s inside the Yarraman state forest, a commercial pine plantation.

Last year, last year, the Crisafulli government killed off the state’s sole forestry wind project, Forest Wind, by changing the law so it couldn’t proceed.

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