News
Nuclear power for Central Queensland?
24th May, 2007
Minister for State Development, Employment and Industrial Relations John Mickel today told the business leaders of Central Queensland at Queensland Resource Expo (QREX) that no nuclear power station would be built in the area because it was simply not economical to do so.
Minister Mickel said it currently cost up to $35 a megawatt to produce electricity from coal power stations in the region, $45 mega watt from gas but it would cost between $70 and $90 megawatt at this time to produce electricity from a nuclear power station.
The QREX Conference and Expo has been dominated by discussion of clean coal solutions, with the Minister suggesting that India would be better served environmentally by importing Central Queensland coal which has 40% less sulphur ash content than the coals mined in India.
Much of the discussion at the conference was on the breakthroughs in clean coal technology, particularly in regards to the two new CO2 low emission proposals in region - ZeroGen and CS Energy's Callide Oxy-fuel Project. The CS project investigates ways of converting existing power generating units to be global warming wise. Retro-fitting oxy-firing technology for cleaner fuel burning is being trialed.
The Queensland Resources Council, a co-organiser of the QREX event, also called for a national coordinated search for geologically suitable sites for commercial scale CO2 sequestration.
Queensland Conservation Council Coordinator Toby Hutcheon, who attended the briefing, said his concern was that the Government's prime focus is on investment in clean coal.
"We would like to see similar investment in renewable and alternative energies, such as solar, wind and geothermal energy generation," he said.
Mr Hutcheon is concerned that there is little investment is saving energy.
"At the last election the Labor Government announced an investment of $300 million in clean coal, and $10.25 million in energy efficiency," he said. "My concern is that we are putting all our eggs in one basket, and the coal industry gets closed down in the future, what future is there for the region?"
The Minister responded that there were at least 200 years of coal left in Queensland and up to another 100 years supply with alternative recovery techniques.