Net Zero? The hypocrisy of the religious clerisy

Now there is only one, a project at Baroota with a potential capacity of 250 MW (10 per cent of total state peak demand) and total discharge potential of 2 GWh (5 per cent of South Australia's daily requirement). It was supposed to start construction in 2022, but as yet there is no sign of it, so perhaps it also has been shelved.

In the absence of pumped hydro, the only way of keeping the lights on in South Australia is gas, which currently supplies 38 per cent, the same amount it supplied in 2014-15, although it has been as high as 53 per cent in 2012-13 and 52 per cent in 2017-18.

It's possible it could reduce further with the building of more renewables, but not by much without storage.

There are already so many renewables in the system that on days like Wednesday of last week when the sun is shining and the wind blowing, they can be 95 per cent of output.

In fact, that day there was actually more power being generated than the grid could use, so the price of electricity was negative at -$48.21 (14:14 GMT-10:00).

When power is so cheap you can't give it away most of the time there would be no profit in building more of it.

These factors are recognised in the 2022 AEMO Integrated System Plan which projects a need for 10 GW of gas-peaking capacity in 2050 (p11) supplying overall around 2 per cent of energy demand (p38). In 30 years, the gas to fuel this capacity probably won't come from any wells in existence today, it will come from new wells the government must approve.

So the clerics who demand the end of approvals to new gas projects want to sabotage the market operator's thoughtful scheme to get to Net Zero. Because they know better, or because they know nothing? What is the morality behind this tinkering?

Australia also has a role to play in ensuring Europe doesn't freeze to death because of the lack of Russian gas. Europe uses 400 billion cubic metres of gas per annum, of which Russia supplied approximately 160 bcm.

To replace Russian output to Europe we need to increase total internationally tradable production by 16 per cent. Australia, as the 5th largest exporter with 9 per cent of total volume, has a moral obligation to do more than its part because we have the scale to make a difference, along with the USA, Qatar, Norway, and Canada, the other big exporters. Otherwise, people will die from cold and starvation, and Europe will have to rely on activating mothballed coal-fired power plants, and burning forests, as it is now doing, to keep its citizens alive.

How many deaths do our churchmen want on their conscience? What is the point of their plea if it leads to increased emissions?

They might retort that climate change is killing people today, but the evidence is that many more lives rely on reliable energy for a prolonged life, and to deal with the challenges of climate, than any change in the climate currently threatens.