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"Clean" coal won't be viable until at least 2030: Aussie report

SYDNEY
2017-03-09 10:37

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"Clean" coal technologies will not be commercially viable until at least 2030, an Australian report has found.

The report, published by Australian energy research firm RepuTex on Thursday, said the idea of clean coal was fundamentally out of sync with the move towards more flexible energy sources.

In the analysis, RepuTex argued that the rising price and the falling cost of energy storage made renewable energy the cheapest source of reliable power in Australia.

In its submission to the Finkel Review, an independent review into the future of Australia's electricity market, RepuTex said technologies such as carbon capture and storage would not reach maturity until 2030 at best, making clean coal impossible.

RepuTex said energy was not the only source of emissions reduction potential in Australia, with the country struggling to meet its 2030 target under the Paris agreement.

"Outside of the generation sector, the effort to reduce emissions could therefore be spread across the economy," the firm said. "This may be achieved via the design of sectoral targets for industrial emitters via the safeguard mechanism, supported by emissions offsets, which would enable companies to reduce emissions at lower cost, while incentivizing investment in cleaner, more efficiency energy technology."

RepuTex was joined by a number of Australian energy heavy hitters in calling for a market signal to be implemented to allow for the orderly retirement of coal-fired generators.

Among RepuTex's suggestions for the market signal cap were an emissions intensity scheme, a legislated emissions benchmark, cap, or target that "better links emissions reduction objectives to the operation of the Australian electricity system."

Alan Finkel, the leader of the review, gave support for an emissions intensity scheme in his preliminary report.

Finkel said the scheme would best integrate "with the electricity market's pricing and risk management framework" and "had the lowest economic costs and the lowest impact on electricity prices."

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