I support calls from Dawson MP George Christensen for a coal-fired baseload power station in the North, and believe the ideal location for a power station is at Collinsville.
A coal-fired power plant already exists at Collinsville and offers ready-made grid connection.
Before it was decommissioned, Collinsville’s power station produced about 37 per cent of the power fed into the northern Queensland electricity grid.
It’s also ideally located next to the Collinsville coal mine which supplied coal to the station.
The infrastructure is in place which means it could be up and running within a short period of time compared to building one from scratch.
Ratch Australia owns the site and has received Australian Renewable Energy Agency funding to establish a solar farm.
I believe there is enough land available for the two operations to co-exist.
This is not an argument about coal versus renewable energy. This is about finding practicable and efficient ways to meet the worldwide growing need for electricity generation.
Providing affordable electricity is one of the first steps to improving the lives of many of these people and their communities, and coal continues to play a major role.
While renewable energy is growing, coal will feature prominently in the global electricity mix for decades to come.
Wind farms and solar power cannot at this point provide enough baseload power at a reasonable price to meet the energy needs of Queensland, indeed Australia.
Technology will improve over time and renewable energy sources will become more efficient but no one knows how long that will take. We need to provide for our power needs in the interim.
Many countries want Australian coal because of its high quality, and Australia has one of the largest coal reserves.
Queensland and NSW has plenty of good quality coal to support the building of new coal-fired power stations, and the price of coal has risen again.
We need to safeguard Australia’s competitive advantage in cheap and reliable electricity. It’s vital for investment, growth and job creation.
- Member for Burdekin Dale Last
