Clean Technica | By: Giles Parkinson | July 11th, 2017:
Chief scientist Alan Finkel says it is clear that investors in the energy market prefer wind and solar because they are cheaper to build than traditional generation such as hydro and coal.
Speaking to the National Press Club 12 days after the release of his Finkel Review into energy security, and a day after the Coalition flagged their interest in a new “state-of-the-art” coal plant, Finkel said wind and solar are clearly the preference of investors, even without subsidies.
“Investors also like wind and solar because they can be rolled out in small steps, say 100 megawatts at a time, then scaled up to meet demand,” Finkel said in his prepared speech. “This minimises the risk that by the time a much larger project is finished the increased demand might not have materialised.”
Finkel’s comments came as the biggest owner of coal fired generation in Australia, AGL Energy, ridiculed the Coalition push for new coal generation, with CEO Andy Vesey saying that the only “baseload” he could see in the future would come from renewables.
Finkel also took note of the huge amount of rooftop solar generation in Australia, and its impact on the grid, and the “stunning improvements” in battery storage capacity and cost.
“This is a grassroots revolution. It’s driven by billions of people wanting their smart phones and laptop computers to last longer between charges,” he said.
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