Net Zero? The hypocrisy of the religious clerisy

It is a rootless age when 100 of the leaders of various Christian and other churches in Oceania can pen an open letter to Prime Minister Albanese demanding Australia stop 'approving new coal and gas projects'.

This is not an area where they have any expertise, unlike morality, but whether from a practical or moral angle, this open letter is wrong.

Australia needs to produce more gas for its own use, and more gas and coal for the world's use.

To deny that is to destroy any chance of a pivot to a low-carbon economy and to deny the role fossil fuels play outside the power grid, producing fertilisers, pharmaceuticals, plastics, and other necessities.

Ceasing the approval of new coal and gas projects would be a real death sentence on millions in the developing and developed world.

Take the practical first.

The official Australian Energy Markets Operator (AEMO) plan is for Australian power generation to transition from a mix that is currently 53 per cent coal, 19 per cent gas and 27 per cent renewable to 98 per cent renewable plus storage and gas backup.

Most of this under the federal government's promises is to happen within the next 8 years.

How is this to work? Let's look at exhibit one, the state of South Australia which is the furthest state along the road to decarbonisation, bar Tasmania, which is a one-off because of its extensive, and unique hydro capacity.

South Australia is 61 per cent renewable on average, and has been reported as high as 92 per cent for short periods of time, but if it weren't for the gas-fired backbone, and interconnectors to Victoria, it wouldn't function as a grid. Renewable energy is unreliable, so it requires grid-scale storage and/or flexible, on-demand back-up.

On the storage side, as far as the grid is concerned, batteries are almost entirely absent. Despite boasting the largest battery in the country at Hornsdale, SA only deploys about 0.75 per cent of its electricity from batteries according to the AEMO Data Dashboard.

The only currently viable form of larger-scale storage is pumped hydro. In 2019 there were four potential pumped hydro schemes in SA vying for ARENA funding of $40 million.