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Category: Electricity Energy and Utilities / Coal / Alternative Energy

Coal still king despite renewable energy growth

Tuesday, 12 Jul 2016 13:43:23 | Stephen Letts

Hazelwood power station in the La Trobe Valley in Victoria's south-east, August 2005. (AAP: Greenpeace)

Coal continues to supply around two-thirds of Australia's electricity generation despite an increase in renewable energy supply, according to figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Non-renewable sources, largely coal and gas, accounted for 88 per cent of Australian electricity generation in the 2014-15 financial year, down from 90.4 per cent in the 2011-12 and 93 per cent in 2008-9.

Renewable power generation increased from 9.6 per cent to 12 per cent over the past three years.

However, coal's market share has slipped only marginally from 65.3 per cent to 64.9 per cent over the past three years of the survey, although it is a bigger pull back from a 70 per cent share six years ago.

Coal has maintained its share, as Queensland produced gas is increasingly exported through the large LNG terminals at Gladstone which are now coming on stream.

The LNG plants are also boosting electricity demand in Queensland which, in turn, is increasingly being supplied by local black coal-fired generation.

Graph showing the sources of Australian energy Photo: Australia sources the bulk of its energy from black coal. (ABS)

The ABS found large scale renewable generation is dominated by hydro power, with 5 per cent of the market and wind with 4 per cent.

However, on a global scale, Australia remains one of the most coal-intensive electricity markets.

A survey from the Paris-based International Energy Agency released last year found coal accounted for 41.1 per cent of global electricity generation in 2013, while renewable energy had overtaken gas as the second largest source of electricity with a 22 per cent share of the 5,130 TWh (terrawatt hours) generated worldwide.

Overall, large scale power generation in Australia has dropped almost 9 per cent from 255,319 GWh (gigawatt hours) in 2012 to 233,212 GWh last year.

The decline in generation has been driven by closures of older inefficient plants and reluctance by the big generators to replace them in the face of declining demand from increased efficiency, as well as shutting down of large scale industrial plants in the aluminium industry.

AustraliaPlus


 

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