Issue #67: "Baseload" myth-busting
Baseload power is push, not pull
🗳️🗳️ Four more days to the Election. 🗳️🗳️
Had enough electioneering? To spare you even more, I have written about something completely different.
How often have you heard that only coal can provide baseload power? 🏭 🏭 🏭
But have you wondered what baseload power is?
Google’s AI engine explains:
Baseload power refers to the minimum, constant amount of electricity an electrical grid needs to supply at all times, typically met by reliable, continuous power plants like coal-fired or nuclear power plants.
BUT THIS IS WRONG.
It’s another myth peddled by the fossil fuel industry and its supporters.
"The idea of there being an average or 'base' electricity load, doesn't make sense … Things are much more dynamic and the difference between the minimum and the peak amount of electricity we use is huge these days." says CSIRO Energy Director Dr Glenn Platt.
Coal-fired power generators are enormous machines that generally run continuously throughout the year and operate at stable output levels. They cannot easily be turned up or turned down. (Unlike wind, solar, hydro and gas). Any electricity generated needs to be used – excess cannot simply be “dumped” somewhere. (Hence the complex task facing our Australian Energy Market Operator as it responds to changes in demand every 30 seconds, but that’s a topic for another time.)
So rather than consumers demanding a “base” amount of power from the grid, it is really the output from coal-fired power generators that is setting the “base”.
Somehow, this "base load" of supply from coal-fired power stations has been falsely translated as a baseline of consumer demand. But that’s actually more like the tail wagging the dog.
Australia’s biggest consumers of electricity are aluminium smelters.
Mining giant Rio Tinto has signed contracts to repower its Gladstone aluminium operations with renewable energy sourced from wind, solar and battery, to help secure the future of its smelter and refineries - among the country’s biggest consumers of energy. No coal-fired solutions in their future!
And there’s more: the Newcastle coal port, the world’s largest coal shipper, has signed a deal to source 100% of its power from renewables! (That’s irony.)
Even Australia’s largest electricity consumers are moving to renewable electricity sources, proving “baseload” is a myth. We don’t need coal-fired power plants (or nuclear!) to supply a myth.
⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡
We’re all suffering election fatigue, so there are not many actions in the near future. Perennial offender Woodside needs to be reminded that we are not going away - see our 5 minute actions.
What can you do today?
🐝 If you have 5 minutes:
Woodside’s Annual General Meeting will be held on Thursday 8 May. Market Forces is urging Woodside’s biggest investors to be true to their own climate action commitments, and to hold Woodside to account by demanding this polluting company ends its oil and gas expansion plans.
Action: Send an email to your Super Fund, especially if your fund is Australian Super, HESTA or Hostplus. These Super funds have consistently backed all of Woodside’s AGM Resolutions.
“Coal Australia” claims to be “a not-for-profit membership organisation. We represent the people and companies committed to building a secure future for Australian coal.” In reality, they’re coal executives and media producers, some with ties to the pro-nuclear lobby. They’re already meeting with the Qld Government to discuss cutting “red tape” and fast-tracking new climate-wrecking coal projects.
Action: Learn about who “Coal Australia” really is by watching this Qld Conservation Council video. [Facebook, 1 minute 34 seconds]
Australia’s five largest banks all claim to be committed to the Paris Agreement. But Market Forces has uncovered all are funding fracking in the Northern Territory’s Beetaloo gas basin. Macquarie Bank is funding Empire Energy and Tamboran Resources, while ANZ, CBA, NAB and Westpac are funding Santos, and APA Group, the pipeline company working in the Beetaloo Basin.
Action: Sign the open letter to ANZ, Commonwealth Bank, Macquarie Bank, National Australia Bank and Westpac
Last week, Darling Downs Farmers protested Arrow Energy’s Surat Gas Project, which is expanding onto some of Queensland's best farmland. The LNP promised farmers it would strengthen protections of the critically important Condamine Alluvium from new coal seam gas drilling in the leadup to the State Election. Unfortunately, six months on, that promise remains unfulfilled.
Action: Support farmers by emailing your local MP, Minister Bleijie and Premier Crisafulli today.
🐇 If you have 15 minutes:
Join the Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action virtual day of action (tomorrow, Wed 30 April) to send a clear message to politicians: Australians want real climate leadership.
Tomorrow: Sign the Declaration, share it on social media, and send it to your MP and Senate members.
Still undecided about your vote?
In our previous Issue #66: Coping with these weird times, Malcolm included the Climate Council’s election policy scorecard. Parents for Climate offers another tool that ranks the candidates in your electorate based on your views about a whole range of issues. (For me, it ranked The Greens first -no real surprise - Family First equal second with Labor (!) and the Liberal Party dead last, way behind One Nation and the Trumpeting Parrots. That was a surprise!)
Action: Build your ballot to see how your candidates align with your views
Confused about how Preferential Voting works? Our preferential voting system means you vote “1” for who you most want. If they can't win, your vote goes to whoever you voted “2”, and so on.
Action: Read this very clear ABC guide to how our preferential voting system works, or this equally clear but more amusing guide.
💃🏽 If you have 30 minutes or more:
🍾🍾 Celebrate the election result (we sincerely hope)! 🍾🍾
I recently visited the National Archives in Canberra, where I got to view the actual original Australian Constitution. Writing our Constitution took ten years but I can’t imagine that level of cooperation happening in today’s world. 😔😔😔
Also on display was a petition for the release of Adela Pankhurst (daughter of British suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst), an outspoken political activist who was involved in Australian anti-war, anti-conscription and feminist causes. We’ve been signing petitions for many years, and they can be successful!
That’s all for today, folks 👋🏽 Thanks for taking action.
See you in two weeks - Ron
plus Malcolm, Robyn and Jan - The Climate Club Qld team
We live, work and play on the lands of the Yuggara and Turrbal people in and around Magandjin - Brisbane. We pay respect to their Elders, past and present, and acknowledge that sovereignty was never ceded - always was, always will be Aboriginal land.
To help keep these newsletters useful, we’d love your feedback. Email climateclubqld@gmail.com or check out the simple info on our About page.
How cool is that petition!