Is cheap electricity costing us?

Published: January 15, 2009 - 02:59 PM

Power Use Under Climate Change Spotlight

The Sydney Morning Herald has reported that despite the rise of climate change concerns over the long-term viability and use of coal power, the NSW state government last year approved an expansion to one of the State's biggest power plants, Eraring.

The SMH does expect that such decisions to expand old power generators will become more rare.

But where will out furture power come from?

Australia seems an obvious candidate for solar energy, but consultancy company Energetics has calculated that to meet just Sydney's needs alone would require some 77 square kilometres of solar panels.

What will be crucial to the future is how the existing electricity and gas suppliers cope with the monumental changes.

Origin and AGL, the industry leaders, are competing to convince the markets they can implement required climate change processes whilst remaining profitable.

TRUenergy, another main generator, has promised to cut its 1990 emissions by 60 per cent by 2050 and ruled out building any more coal plants.

What we can expect is that the cost of gas and electricity supplpy will rise. The process of deregulating the retail energy market must be closely managed by state Governments and consumers must be educated that they should compare electricity companies and gas suppliers in order to find the cheapest electricity possible.

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