Liddell's renewable replacement will flick the switch and come in cheaper than coal

Liddell's renewable replacement will flick the switch and come in cheaper than coal

By Josh Cole  December 21st, 2017

AGL has defied expectations with a replacement to the Liddell Power Station that will be both cheaper and cleaner.

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AGL has defied expectations with a replacement to the Liddell Power Station that will be both cheaper and cleaner. Earlier this year the operators of the Liddell Power Planet were called on by the Federal Government to either preserve or sell the New South Wales coal-fired power station despite warnings that financial and environmental factors made coal a poor long term investment. Instead AGL has announced a replacement based around renewables that would lead to a wholesale price of $83 per megawatt hour, instead of the $106 figure expected if the existing plant was kept in operation for another five years. The replacement package will be comprised of renewables such as wind power supplied by wind farms including Cooper’s Gap and Silverton, as well as solar sourced from the Sunraysia farm. It would also rely on upgrades to the Bayswater power plant and enhanced storage options to ensure grid stability. The issues of cost and grid stability have often been used to promote coal as the superior option, making this announcement by AGL a much needed boost for the renewable sector as well as a turning point for Australia’s electricity industry. AGL’s Chairman, Graeme Hunt, said, “This plan demonstrates that old power plants can be replaced with a mixture of new, cleaner technology, while improving reliability and affordability.” In related news, Planet Ark Power has launched two major urban solar projects this December, the first of which was at Llewellyn Motors in Ipswich, Queensland. The installation is a 323 kW solar power station with a smart battery and dSTATCOM system designed to deliver energy back to the grid according to its needs. Then on December 18 the City of Gold Coast Council unveiled Planet Ark Power’s 312 kW system installed on the Gold Coast Aquatic Centre, with a storage system to be installed in late 2018. These launches follow their November announcement of a $13.9m project with Schneider Electric, the recipient of a $1.9m grant from the South Australian government, which would see a 6MW solar system with storage installed at a distribution centre in North Adelaide. While Australia is a leader in residential solar it still lags in the commercial sector. News like this may mean that 2018 is a bigger and better year for public and business solar projects.

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Sources

AGL Renew Economy Planet Ark Power

Subscribe to Positive Environment News Positive Environment News has been compiled using publicly available information. Planet Ark does not take responsibility for the accuracy of the original information and encourages readers to check the references before using this information for their own purposes.

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By Josh Cole

Josh comes to Planet Ark after a stint in legal communication and from a background in print journalism. He studied Communications and Media as a mature age student in Wollongong where he re-discovered his love for the natural environment.

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