The renewables obsession

Federal Coalition Members of Parliament are again demanding that Australia give up it’s ‘obsession’ with renewable energy with (former Nationals Leader) Barnaby Joyce reported as saying “if the rest of the world’s not doing it, if it has no global effect, then it’s a self-written economic suicide note.”

Coalition Senator Matt Canavan is also suggesting a return the to the construction of coal fired power stations while apparently being open minded enough to be chosen to conduct a review of the National Party’s policy on renewable energy. Another former Nationals leader Michael McCormack stood with Joyce when it was announced that Joyce was tabling a private members bill in Parliament to remove the concept of net-zero from Australian legislation. McCormack then voted against the Government’s motion to actually debate the bill in August.

The thing is that Joyce is fundamentally wrong; the rest of the world is not increasing production of renewable power. While China is still building coal fired power stations, according to the Chinese Government 86% of the new electricity generation capacity that China commissioned in 2024 was renewable. 56% of the cumulative Chinese generation capacity at the end of 2024 came from renewable energy. 

Even Trump’s America is investing in renewable power. The US Government’s Energy Information Administration reports that use of renewable energy is increasing over time. Perhaps the most interesting thing in the US Energy Information Administration report is that they do not classify nuclear power production as renewable. Who knows why, maybe it has something to do with the need to manage the hazardous waste from nuclear plants for thousands of years.

The Australian Clean Energy Regulator reported on 1 August that 19,592 ‘small’ domestic battery installations occurred in July, the first month of the Federal Government’s rebate scheme, While we don’t know the reason that nearly 20,000 Australians chose to install renewable energy capacity and can assume that some did it for the rebates and the ability to arbitrage power costs it really doesn’t matter. The simple fact is that each person storing electricity for later reuse is reducing demand on both Australia’s grid system and the equipment that supplies it. 

According to Open Electricity, Australia was using 20% renewable energy in 2018, is now using 40% and is likely to be at 80% prior to the end of 2030. While there is always a fear of the unknown, we have been using an increasing percentage of renewable energy over the past 10 years – and no one has really noticed.

Those with a renewables obsession are really the small group of people that are calling on the rest of us to further pollute the environment because they understand how a coal fired power generator works and can accept that future generations will have a significantly worse quality of life due to climate change. Another issue they seem to have is that the generation of renewable power can be done by almost anyone, usually you don’t need a large industrial plant spewing carbon into the atmosphere or nuclear waste that needs to be stored safely for thousands of years to make enough electricity for your home. 

And for those who can’t generate their own electricity or public infrastructure like traffic lights, stadiums and everything in between, there is plenty of room in Australia for the installation of the infrastructure such as wind turbines, solar arrays and storage infrastructure to generate power for a grid system. You would actually think the Nationals would be in favour of solar panels in farmland, apparently livestock appreciate the shade, the grasses grow better the the farmer gets a better return while minimising irrigation and fertiliser costs.

One has to wonder if the obsessed really care about their constituency, now or in the future. There are almost 20,000 Australians enjoying reductions in their power bills in the last month because they could install batteries in their homes, the Australian electricity grid is fast losing it’s reliance on the traditional coal fired power generators and the transition is happening. Joyce & Canavan are wrong, the rest of the world is doing ‘it’ as well as Australia and hopefully the world’s ecology can reverse the effects of too much carbon being emitted before the dire predictions of others come to fruition. 

The ALP took a suite of environmental policies to the last election and seem to be starting to implement them. They could do better and certainly have the political capital to spend should they choose or be forced to do so. The position of the obsessed Coalition members is demonstrably opposed to public sentiment and environmental science. Maybe Joyce is partly correct, the longest self-written suicide note in history is written – by a Coalition that can’t accept the reality and therefore seem to be aiming for an increasingly smaller number of people permanently seating on the opposition benches on Capital Hill tilting at windmills (and solar panels).

 

Dear reader, we need your support

Independent sites such as The AIMN provide a platform for public interest journalists. From its humble beginning in January 2013, The AIMN has grown into one of the most trusted and popular independent media organisations.

One of the reasons we have succeeded has been due to the support we receive from our readers through their financial contributions.

With increasing costs to maintain The AIMN, we need this continued support.

Your donation – large or small – to help with the running costs of this site will be greatly appreciated.

You can donate through PayPal or credit card via the button below, or donate via bank transfer: BSB: 062500; A/c no: 10495969