Hazelwood Ex-Coal-Fired Battery

I watched the Hazelwood coal-fired power station come down a few years ago. I cheered even as I realised that electricity tariffs would go up. 

And of course they did. But also Mike Cannon-Brookes fired the first shot in his wrestling match with AGL to get them to shut down more fossil-fuel-fired power stations. (And proud and happy to say he's won that round despite AGL's opposition.) And tariffs went up. But I realised it'd been inevitable also.

So What Now, Hazelwood? Whither Morwell? 

Naturally, the logical use for an old power station. From Big Coal to Big Battery. If ever there was an act symbolic of ecological awakening, this is it. May there be many more.

Stinky Stacks To Batteries.

So glad that they did this. Nothing's a nicer feeling than shutting down another source of fossil fuel emissions. Unless it's re-using the site to put a new load management battery in. And it's only the start of building in a lot more battery capacity at the site. Battery capacity is going to be increased, and with it Victoria's energy security. 

Why It Makes Sense

A power station already has huge power lines into it. Powerlines can direct energy in either direction equally well. And - while it's a report that shows little understanding of how electricity works, there was a brief spot for it on ABC where the guest said it would store "all the electricity from rooftop solar" I guess he thought there'd be separate pipes inside the power grid just for all those solars to trickle along?

It'll provide employment - perhaps not as much as the Hazelwood power station but then again renewable energy is THE employment growth sector, to be closely followed by recycling quite soon I'll venture. 

The station was designed to have a fifty year lifespan from when building finished in 1971, then in 1996 it was estimated to have forty years' life left. By the oiriginal estimate it should have been shut down in 2021 but when the new company took it over in 1996 they'd pushed the date to 2036, and in fact if memory serves me it was shut down in 2017 and the station was already becoming difficult to keep maintained by then. You see the amount of blue sky fudge factor everyone involved was building into their BS figures... 

Hazelwood was also one of the dirtiest power stations* per kWh - in the world!!! - and a measurably significant portion of Australia's total pollution. Good riddance to it is the nicest thing I can think of to say about it. Here - have a picture of one of PTEC3D's finest Climate Professors, Dr Furgatroyd:

Yes, AI and I made this!

Dr Furgatroyd will at least put a "nnaaaawww" smile on your face. The fight to save the environment is going to be won one power station at a time, one Big Battery installation at a time. And we have to KEEP THE BASTARDS HONEST all the time. 

* - BTW that one power station was truly a killer, pumping megatons of killer particulates into the air for almost fifty years. 

But here's a surprising (to you possibly - to me they have been my enemy for decades now due to my respiratory condition) source of killing particulates - yep, the humble wood stove. 

Every year my respiratory health takes a nose dive for winter, and every bushfire that's anywhere within miles around. Turns out that even when the smoke is way up high, the particulates flow along much closer to the ground and cover even greater distances. 

So while I love the heat from a good old wood fire and being able to simmer meals slowly for maximum flavour and tenderness, and really miss it, I'll be glad when they're made illegal. Sorry all. 

And as the article points out, there is also the matter of illegal firewood operators who destroy habitat and use less than clean-burning wood.