It is just remarkable how two of the country’s richest people could have such divergent views on the future of energy.
Andrew Forrest’s Fortescue Metals earlier this week outlined in detail how it proposes to reach “real zero” emissions in its iron ore operations in the Pilbara by 2030. That means burning no fossil fuels and using wind, solar and storage for power and land-based transport.
By the end of the week, long time renewables-critic Gina Rinehart – whose family also made its fortune from iron ore in the Pilbara – was insisting that such a thing is simply not possible.
“The truth needs to be known,” Rinehart told an audience in Port Hedland in the latest stop of the Bush Summit road show her companies sponsor, which is making its way around Australia.
“The so-called sustainable energy can’t underpin our baseload power requirements. The sun doesn’t always shine. The wind doesn’t always blow. The additional capital to try and hook this up will be humongous.”
This is not the shared experience of her fellow Pilbara iron ore miners. Rio Tinto has signed up to the country’s two biggest wind and solar power purchase agreements to support the transition of its Queensland smelters and refineries – the biggest energy users in the state – from coal to renewables, and will be supported by storage.
BHP is looking to double the capacity of its massive copper mining operations at Olympic Dam in South Australia, and expand its refining and smelting operations there. By the time it does so, the state will be operating at more than 100 per cent “net” renewables.
BHP has already a “baseload” renewables contract with Neoen for 70 MW of consistent power from a wind farm, backed up by a battery. It is doing so to save costs and cut emissions.
Fortescue intends to build more than 1 gigawatt of wind and another gigawatt of solar in the Pilbara, backed by up to 5 gigawatt-hours of battery storage.
This will be used to power its local grid and mining operations, and supply the electricity for its electric haul trucks and excavators, saving up towards a billion litres of diesel a year, and a lot of gas.
Yet these achievements, and ambitions, are simply not recognised by the Rinehart corporations, the fossil fuel industry and its lobbyists, and its backers in right-wing think tanks and the conservative media. They, as Rinehart explained on Friday, favour “baseload” coal and gas, and of course, nuclear. And, they want to “drill, baby, drill.”
The experience in the Pilbara underlines that Rinehart’s position is very much in the minority, even among her industry peers. But that hasn’t stopped the Bush summit turning into a sort of caravan of misinformation about the energy transition that is being amplified on a daily basis by Murdoch papers and Sky News.
On Thursday, it even featured a spiky “debate” between anti-renewable Nationals MP and former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce and Matt Kean, the new head of the Climate Change Authority, and the former NSW energy minister.
Kean tried to patiently explain why the cost of energy has gone up – largely due to inflated price of fossil fuels, which in turn has been largely prompted by the war in Ukraine. This is a given, acknowledged by just about every energy analyst and corporate in the world. But Joyce was having none of it.
Asked about Joyce’s performance, gushed Ben English, the editor of the Daily Telegraph, gushed later on Sky News that “it was fantastic.” According to English, energy bills have spiked because of the cost of the transmission needed to support the build out of wind and solar, which is complete nonsense.
One, because – according to the Australian Energy Regulator – the total cost of transmission amounts to just 5 to 8 per cent of bills, and also because hardly any transmission spending has yet been approved, or is yet to find its way to consumer bills.
“The people in the bush are extremely well versed on the issues at play,” English said. “They have to be, and they’re more well versed now that they’ve got better access to Sky News.”
And therein lies the nub of the problem. One farmer featuring at the Bush Summit event in Orange on Thursday said he did not know much about energy, but said he knew – from his readings on the internet – that wind and solar will fill a space equivalent to the state of South Australia.
Which is also complete nonsense, and unchallenged by the Murdoch moderators. No prizes for guessing, perhaps, where he found that information.
For the record, South Australia is already running at more than 70 per cent wind and solar, is about to legislate its 2027 target of 100 per cent new renewables, and is attracting significant new industry, including the proposal by BHP to double its smelting and refining capacity in that state.
Who are the sponsors of the Bush Summit? The Commonwealth Bank, Qantas, Woolworths, and NBN. And of course, the Rinehart companies and Murdoch’s News Corp.
