Letter

In response to Climate policy: the widening reality gap

Mitigation and Australia

When the Hawke government was elected in the early 1980s, BHP Steel was contemplating shutting down steel production in Australia. The minister, Button, proposed a modernisation capital injection, that BHP wouldnt repay if they could not be made profitable . It worked, despite Australia being a very small part of world production.

Right now, to replace fossil fuels, Australia has to triple its electricity production, because not only coal, but oil and gas use, need to be replaced by renewables. As the generating cost is currently about $0.10 per kW.hr for coal, $0.05 for onshore wind, and $0.025 for solar, it should be obvious to anyone that the Government should offer a guarantee for any solar installed: to Chinese, Japanese, US, and EU companies, from Perth to Sydney.

Excess capacity replaces storage, as any engineer knows, except those working for Optus.

— Noel Thompson from Sydney (Riverview)