My electric car no long runs on coal…
I was recently discussing the cost of electricity with a mining engineer at a social event. He knew that I owned an electric car and was interested in how it worked for me.
One of the frequent criticisms I get is that it is running on electricity generated predominantly by burning coal (I am in New South Wales). I have recently sorted that out to some extent by changing my electricity provider to Powershop which is owned by Meridian Energy. They are 100% carbon neutral which is quite reassuring. What impressed me most was the it would only cost an additional $5 (five Australian dollars) per month to change.
Regardless my previous estimates of the cost of charging the car were about $8 per month (I charge it off-peak).
He commented that coal was still cheaper than renewables. I mentioned the “Levelised Cost of Energy” statistics which clearly show that now in fact renewables are cheaper than burning coal! He commented that you can make statistics say whatever you want.
The Levelised Cost of Energy (LCOE) in electrical energy production is the current price of electrical energy, considering the economic life of the plant and all costs incurred in construction, operation and maintenance, and the fuel costs.
According to CSIRO Chief Energy Economist and GenCost 2018 Report lead author Paul Graham, whilst current fossil fuel power plants are competitive given their sunk capital costs, solar and wind generation are currently the cheapest means to generate electricity for Australia compared to any other new-build technology.
The CSIRO has published the LCOEs for Australia, and the numbers are compelling. For instance for 2020 the table is as follows:
And projections for 2030 are:
The study results are similar to those of Bloomberg New Energy Finance. https://about.bnef.com/new-energy-outlook/. Indeed Bloomberg NEF say that wind and solar are now cheapest across more than two-thirds of the world!
I expect that is why Australian energy providers do not want to keep old coal plants running as it is uneconomical (aside from the CO2 emissions and other pollution). It just does not make economic sense to continue with fossil fuels despite what the Commonwealth Government wants.
