Just before 10.30 am the button was pushed to close down the Liddell coal generator in the Hunter Valley, Australia’s oldest coal plant.
AGL says it could no longer keepLidell working even if it wanted to.At 51-years-old it had well exceeded its operating life and would be impossible or too expensive to maintain.
The plant will now be recycled.70,000 tonnes of steel - more than the Sydney Harbour Bridge – may come back as wind towers or solar mountings. Or as part of an electric vehicle.
The plant's owner, AGL, plans to replace the site with new, clean technologies after it's rehabilitated.
“Today marks the end of one chapter for the site, but also the beginning of another with our plans to transform the site into the Hunter Energy Hub."
AGL CEO Damien Nicks
The closure of Liddell is a landmark moment in Australia’s green energy transition, but for the people who work here – some for their entire careers – it was a very big day.
“It’s tough," says Graeme McNeill, who worked at Liddell for his entire 42-year working life, and was in the control room when the plant was shut down."I feel like a cry, but I’m worried it might cause a bit of a chain reaction.”