Energy dilemma
In watching the Chanel Seven Spotlight report The Green Dream, which investigated the environmental and human costs of Australia’s renewable energy transition, I was stunned by the amount of arable land that the Victorian Government has mapped for Renewable Energy Zones.
According to the program, it is 8 per cent of Victoria. In trying to grasp what this meant, I googled the following ‘Starting in Melbourne and heading north, in a mile-wide corridor, how far would I be able to go to cover the 1.88 million hectares that is the equivalent of 8% of Victoria?’ The answer was to the northern tip of Greenland in the Arctic Circle.
This is frightening when you consider most of the land designated for renewable energy zones is farmland and that the government recently passed a land seizure provision that gives AusNet and VicGrid the power to compulsorily acquire farmland for transmission line easements before environmental impact statements have been completed.
There is no doubt we have an energy dilemma. In August 2008, the then Minerals & Petroleum Division, Department of Primary Industries (DPI), issued a document titled ‘Our Coal Our Future – Future opportunities for brown coal’ and it concluded the following: “Coal is abundant, affordable, available and reliable and is vital to the world’s sustainable energy needs”.
So I went looking for information about Victoria’s brown coal. Victoria has 430 billion tonnes of coal, the second largest coal deposit in the world and of this, 33 billion tonnes has been identified as economically viable – located under only 10-20 metres of overburden, making it some of the lowest cost coal mining in the world. At our current rate of usage, 33 billion tonnes could last 500 years.
The DPI document went on to say, “With coal being integral to Victoria’s economy, the use of drying, gasification and liquefaction technologies will enable the state’s brown coal to be used to produce key commodities such as diesel, urea, petrochemicals and hydrogen, as well as exportable coal, and in so doing substitute for the conventional feedstocks such as oil, gas and black coal.
“With support from the Victorian Government, these technologies as well as carbon capture and storage opportunities can open direct export markets for the state, whilst ensuring reduced carbon emissions to meet the global greenhouse gas challenge.”
I also learnt that coal derived diesel produces cleaner emissions.
Our race to renewables is at significant human cost elsewhere in the world. The Spotlight story highlighted the use of child labour in Congolese mines extracting essential minerals used in the production of renewable energy infrastructure. Renewables also have significant recurring costs. Renewable energy infrastructure has a finite life. Batteries, in a utility-scale solar farm, generally last between 10 to 15 years before they need to be replaced, while solar panels may last 25 years before having to be disposed of as e-waste.
While we are actively supporting a move away from fossil fuels, we are also ignoring the technological advances that could see reduced carbon emissions from the mining of our coal. This in effect is depriving future generations of the wealth we could generate. Isn’t it about time we started using our mineral, coal and natural gas wealth for the benefit of Australians?
And more importantly protect the natural environment and farmland essential for food security.
Victoria is Australia’s food bowl, producing 62 per cent of the nation’s milk, 40 per cent of its vegetables and 23 per cent of Australia’s gross agriculture production. We need to be protecting farmland, rather than decimating and disfiguring it for renewable energy infrastructure.
Julie Ann Ashley
Member of Protect Our Farms
Priority seating
AS A disabled person I agree entirely with SB of Wallan’s comments (in May 5 letters).
I would like to add that luggage, bicycles etc. in the wheelchair spaces is another major problem. This has been compounded by conductors never sending passengers with such items to the correct door (on VLocitys).
Phillip Chandler
Broadford