Another green dream bites the dust

Then the very next day, BP pulled the plug on its $600 million green hydrogen project at Kwinana in West Australia. Oops, so much for PM Albanese and Energy Minister Chris Bowen continually spruiking about Australia's "green hydrogen" revolution before reality and economics started winning the propaganda war.

According to the ABC the federal government had already offered some significant financial support to the Gladstone project, including $20 million from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency for a "front-end engineering design" project, and a commitment of nearly $69 million through the government's Hydrogen Hubs program.

Of that $69 million, $14 million has already been paid out, and government sources suggest that if the project does not proceed, it may seek to recover any unspent funds.

Mr Bowen said the federal government remains supportive of the project…

Well Mr Bowen, it's not just the fact that green hydrogen is taking off like a proverbial Lead Zeppelin that makes your green aluminium plans no more than another green pipedream.

The production of aluminium is an energy intensive three-stage process involving mining, refining and finally smelting. It is this third stage that requires a constant reliable power source which can't be delivered by yet undeveloped green hydrogen, solar, wind or storage batteries with limited capacity. Cut the power supply by more than a couple of hours and the molten metal can solidify, putting a smelter out of action for months. This science site explains why, and it should be essential reading for Albo and Bowen:

The smelting process requires large amounts of electricity. A reliable and uninterrupted electrical power supply is a critical issue for aluminum smelters. Alternating or AC current supplied from the grid must be transformed into direct or DC current, which requires the use of large rectifiers, transformers, and sophisticated monitoring systemslocated adjacent to the potline building. The most inherent risk in aluminum production is a loss of electrical power. A failure of electricity supply lasting more than 2–3 hr can cause the electrolyte in the cells to cool to the point where its electrical resistance is too great when power is restored resulting in shutdown of all cells. It is expensive and time consuming; usually it will take several months to restart a frozen potline because the solidified aluminum and electrolyte must be physically broken out of the cells. Thus, significant business losses will be incurred due to the interruption in the event of a potline freezing. The remaining lifetime of the cathodes will be shortened due to the extra thermal stresses inevitable with shutdown and restart of cells....

I was reminded of all this a few days ago when we had an unscheduled power outage which lasted about two hours from mid-morning in our stretch of Queensland's Sunshine Coast. It was a clear day with no strong winds and several suburbs were affected, so I asked the government-owned power provider Energex what had caused it. They advised me to fill out an insurance claim form even if I wasn't making a claim, and they would get back to me. So far they haven't.

If Labor persists with its push to achieve its seemingly unachievable renewable energy target of 82 percent by 2030, what it probably will achieve is the loss of Australia's four existing aluminium smelters as they head offshore to reliable and affordable power sources.

Gladstone could be among the hardest hit as the industry is a major employer and regional economic driver, with Rio Tinto's Boyne Smelter, the Yarwun Alumina refinery and the Queensland Alumina Refinery potentially at risk.

The federal coalition's plan to keep coal and gas generation in the energy system longer while it transitions to a mix of renewables and nuclear power, seems a much more sensible approach to keep our lights on and the wheels of any remaining industry turning.

Meanwhile for some light relief, I'll turn Freddie back on and hope his lyrics hit the right green targets (figuratively).

Believe it or not - the beat just started pounding and the power went off for about 20 minutes. A sign from the gods or a sign of things to come?