Coal use for electricity gone up from 2 to 10%...

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#288826 26-Jul-2021 17:08

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/447679/new-zealand-likely-to-have-record-high-imports-of-coal-in-2021-officials

New Zealand is likely to import more coal this year than it has in any other year, in the midst of a government-declared climate emergency.

Coal accounted for more than 10 percent of the country's electricity in the first three months of this year.

Five years ago it was 2 percent; the proportion has steadily increased since. Coal is the most carbon intensive fossil fuel in the world, around twice as much as natural gas.

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#2750037 26-Jul-2021 17:14

Dry year, stacked on top of natural gas production issues.

The three available coal capable Huntley units have been running hard for months, we have that capability to thank for for keeping the lights on in NZ.

Does highlight the pressing need to reshape the electricity market to move away from fossil fuels. Current market solutions aren't achieving that goal. Heaps of renewable consented power plants, but most of them not progressing because the yield is too low, or the risk is too high, especially with the smelter pulling out of NZ.

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#2750038 26-Jul-2021 17:14

Are you really surprised?

snnet

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#2750040 26-Jul-2021 17:25

More people, less infrastructure, colder weather, more demand for power - the pipe dream of solar farms and wind farms just won't keep up with demand

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#2750041 26-Jul-2021 17:26

Linux: Are you really surprised?

I'm not surprised, I'm just putting it out there

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#2750099 26-Jul-2021 17:50

It's akin to when Germany voted to shut down it's efficient nuclear plants. Now it has to rely on imported energy - 60% of the total it uses.

High ideals are great - but introducing them before you put in place the alternatives required is not terribly bright.

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#2750112 26-Jul-2021 18:34

Well the Coal Power is there for resilience of our power network, being close to our largest population center.

The issue is if this is a long term trend, or its going to go back down as more renewable being built comes on line ?
Seems like its been growing for a while, so hopefully Government is giving those stalled renewable plans a push along.

Not sure if it includes the Dairy Factory Coal use ? That is a different issue.

Maybe we should have gone bigger on Geothermal project in Northland to pump power back the other way.
http://ngawhageneration.co.nz/

Population growth in Auckland is an issue, and infrastructure is not keeping up.

Pumped storage in Southland is probably not an answer for Auckland needing some generation closer I would posit.
Geothermal closer to Auckland ? Well there would seem to be possibilities but I guess there would be objections ?
Wind to the south of Auckland got canned, so ...

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#2750125 26-Jul-2021 18:57

I believe Dairy generation is covered under co-gen (along with other generators). Huntly was down to two coal turbines but brought the third out of storage around Feb.

Transpower live system data or em6live gives a good real-time view of where our power is coming from. The variability of wind is quite interesting to watch.

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#2750144 26-Jul-2021 19:47

cokemaster: Transpower live system data or em6live gives a good real-time view of where our power is coming from. The variability of wind is quite interesting to watch.

Ha, these are very handy, thanks for sharing.

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#2750199 26-Jul-2021 21:50

South Island is still good

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#2750200 26-Jul-2021 22:05

snnet:

More people, less infrastructure, colder weather, more demand for power - the pipe dream of solar farms and wind farms just won't keep up with demand

It has nothing to do with the type of infrastructure - just the lack of it. If we had more solar, wind, tide - no need for coal.

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#2750224 26-Jul-2021 22:46

We're not pushing ahead with solar or wind anywhere near as hard as many other places despite having very good conditions for the latter and reasonable for the former. Saying they can't keep up is very "we've tried nothing and we're all out of ideas".

That said, some amount of fossil fuel generation being needed is a good thing. If we were able to supply everything with renewables, all the time, we've probably over-invested in renewables. The last few percent are the hardest to get and the effort & investment would be far better spent on say transport, agriculture, decommissioning heating etc.

I believe it's now generally more efficient to burn gas or coal in a good power plant and use the power to run a heat pump, than to burn the gas or coal directly to heat your home. So some coal/gas being burnt for power is better than the alternatives if power prices get too high and people use other sources of fuel.

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#2750292 27-Jul-2021 05:08

sxz:

snnet: More people, less infrastructure, colder weather, more demand for power - the pipe dream of solar farms and wind farms just won't keep up with demand

It has nothing to do with the type of infrastructure - just the lack of it. If we had more solar, wind, tide - no need for coal.

I don't believe that is accurate. Solar, Wind, and Tide all have slack periods and you need backup infrastructure to cover those times. The alterative is to have massive battery farms. Both of these options further increases the cost of our energy as we are having to 'double up' on generation facilities or add power storage.

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#2750293 27-Jul-2021 05:17

So we’re all being railroaded into using electric vehicles - so that NZ can burn this dirty coal to get the electricity to charge them. Brilliant.

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#2750294 27-Jul-2021 05:41

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/446845/nz-imported-more-than-a-million-tonnes-of-dirty-coal-last-year

It's pure genius that we don't use our own cleaner burning coal (with our almost certainly more environmentally friendly mining methods). Go Us!

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#2750300 27-Jul-2021 06:30

eracode:

So we’re all being railroaded into using electric vehicles - so that NZ can burn this dirty coal to get the electricity to charge them. Brilliant.

Multiple studies have shown that running a fleet of EVs from a coal plant is still better than running a fleet of ICE vehicles. For one thing, all the pollution is moved to the coal plant where people don't breathe it, and it can be much better scrubbed. For another, the increased efficiency of EVs combined with the efficiency of one giant coal plant compared to a million small engines means less fuel burnt overall. And of course, unlike an ICE fleet, as the electricity gets cleaner, the EVs improve.

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