Gas for the Hunter

BY RACHEL STORER

The gas-fired power plant at Colongra, on the Central Coast. Image: dailytelegraph.com.au

After the recent power crisis in South Australia, US Energy giant Tesla has stepped in to offer a 100-mega-watt battery which has been met with criticisms.

Managing Director of Weston Aluminium, Garbis Simoninan says that batteries are an expensive, ineffective answer to the power crisis and that focus needs to be on Hunter industries that are already being hit hard by rising gas and electricity prices.

"Desperate people are looking for silver bullets and there is no quick answer. If you really wanted to solve the crisis in South Australia with batteries you'd need at least 30 or 40 of them but that is very expensive and not cost effective."

Mr Simoninan says that a 100-mega-watt battery only lasts for an hour which doesn't solve the problem of prolonged power shortages or address the fact that Australia has some of the highest energy and gas prices in the world.

He believes the answer is gas-fired power plants, which means the Hunter needs a localised gas supply.

"New South Wales at the moment imports 95% of its gas from other states. We need to become independent and develop our own gas which can be done from sites such as Narrabri," Mr Simoninan said.

He thinks that the Hunter need to weigh up the environmental costs with the overall benefits to industries and homes.

"The two issues are fundamentally fracking and the water table. As far as the water table is concerned there is technology and regulations to manage any issues.

"Queensland has been extracting gas for 15 years and there have been no environmental disasters. If they can do it successfully so can New South Wales," Mr Simoninan said.

Ultimately Mr Simoninan warns that unless the Hunter region gets its own gas supply businesses will close and there will be mass unemployment.

Coal Seam Gas expiry comes as a relief for Fullerton Cove

BY JARROD MELMETH

A controversial coal seam gas exploration license in Fullerton Cove has expired with no expression of renewal by its owner.

In November 2015 AJ Lucas brought the licence from its previous holder, Dart Energy. Dart Energy abandoned its exploratory drilling program at Fullerton Cove in 2013 due to community opposition and the government's expansion of the residential exclusion zone to a two-kilometre buffer.

The coal seam gas license covered a 2000-square kilometre area of Newcastle, Port Stephens and Lake Macquarie.

Although the license has expired there is still a chance the license could be once again passed on.

Wilderness Society Newcastle Campaign Manager Naomi Hodgson says there is no legislative protection for Newcastle's groundwater so there is not theoretical reason why the license could be resurrected.

"The overwhelming opposition of the New South Wales community to coal seam gas has proven to be a significant impediment to the industry getting off the ground."

Of the 14 remaining petroleum exploration licenses in NSW, 12 are in north-west NSW.

The Baird government is in the process of establishing a framework for coal and petroleum which will define what land can be used for exploration.

Fullerton Cove Protesters. Photo Courtesy of ABC.

AGL Walks Away from Gloucester

After eight years of protests and poor results, energy supplier AGL has walked away from the coal-seam-gas industry in Gloucester.

AGL had high hopes that the Waukivory pilot would provide 15% of the State CSG needs by 2018 however, it has now decided that number is unobtainable.

Protests have been ongoing since the mine opened

"Unfortunately, the economic returns to support the investment of approximately $1 billion were not adequate" AGL said in a statement.

"Consequently, in the interest of our shareholders and customers, this is the most responsible course of action."

Groundswell Gloucester's Judy Lyford has been a strong advocate against the CSG industry and has welcomed this news.

"AGL were on a hiking to no where with the non-existent Gloucester gas fields because of all the inherit problems."

"We respect AGL's decision, now our focus is on the State Government and the collusion and culpability we fell has been happening for many years."

AGL's pull-out comes after Gloucester Council inquired to NSW Premier Mike Baird and asked to buy the CSG exploration license from the company back in November.

"Coal seam gas was a great concern to many people in our community, the lack of science and tech coming out from all over the world continuing unknown's was a real worry" said Gloucester Mayor John Rosenbaum.

"We need to move forward as a community."

"AGL, I'm hoping will be able to work with us and we're prepared to do that and I think the community will be at looking at the long term renewable energy source."

Ms Lyford says the focus now needs to shift to the conservation of the Gloucester environment.

"We to look at what's happening with the waste water, the holding ponds so there's a lot of work for AGL to do in that space."

"[Coal seam gas is] a shocking industry that has no guarantees of safety its been shown to be polluting."

"It's unacceptable and the State Government are really culpable for everything that's happened."

Meanwhile, Mr Rosenbaum is looking forward to getting on with the job.

"I'm looking forward to promote Gloucester (sic) without having this in the background."

"The beauty of Gloucester we have here, I can see the benefit is that now more people are assured that there's an industry [gone now] that they didn't want to live around, they can come and live here in this great environment we have."

"It needs to be protected for future generations."

Image courtesy of Ray Dawes, via ABC (LINK).