The fire burned for 45 days, covering Morwell and surrounding areas in toxic smoke and ash. The evidence heard at the first inquiry into the Hazelwood mine fire found that mine rehabilitation is the best way of preventing coal mines from catching on fire. Only small areas are rehabilitated each year, leaving vast expanses of open-cut coal exposed, increasing the risk of fire and increasing the amount of coal dust being blown onto nearby communities.
Mine rehabilitation across the Latrobe Valley will also create hundreds of secure jobs. The rehabilitation bonds are paid by the mine operators to the government, to cover the full cost of rehabilitation works if the company fails to meet their obligations. ENGIE is under a legal obligation to rehabilitate the mine site, an effort which is unprecedented in size in Australia. Mining companies need to be held to account for this essential component of their operations.
While Australia has enough excess electricity generation capacity to cover the closure of Hazelwood, it is vital Australia has a strategy to transition away from coal, starting by closing the most polluting power stations. Having no plan also means there is no way of knowing for sure where or when the next power station retirement will occur, fuelling speculation and anxiety.
This makes it harder to plan for proper economic diversification and life after coal. It is now widely accepted — by NGOs, unions, the energy industry, analysts — that a government-led plan is needed to manage the phase-out of coal-burning power stations, as part of a comprehensive plan to deal with global warming.
Polling shows that the vast majority of Victorians support such a plan. The Australian Energy Market Operator has estimated that meeting the current very weak federal climate targets will require the closure of MW of coal-burning power stations before The Climate Institute estimates that we need to close one Hazelwood-sized power station a year from now until the early s.
For more details on the need for a plan to phase out coal power stations and to provide transition support for workers and communities, see our submission to the Senate Inquiry into the Retirement of Coal-Fired Power Stations. Environment Victoria.
Who we are About us. Join Us. On this page: What is Hazelwood? How polluting was it? Why did it close? A just transition for the community What does the energy industry say about phasing out coal? What do unions say? How will we meet our energy needs now? Power costs What needs to happen next? What is Hazelwood? When it was built, the engineers thought it would be closed by the year Hazelwood closed on 31 March Before it closed, Hazelwood had the highest emissions intensity of any coal power station in Australia, and possibly in the developed world.
It was the biggest source of toxic dioxin in the country. It used 27 billion litres of water a year — as much as Melbourne uses a month! The rapidly declining cost of clean energy and storage will also mean some coal power stations retire early. A just transition for the community. Refugee with disability says he's sleeping rough after release from immigration detention. Bob Katter slams Morrison government's 'blatantly racist' proposed voter ID laws.
State environment ministers ramp up pressure on federal government to show climate leadership. Liberal senator pledges not to back government legislation in protest against vaccine mandates.
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In it the company stated that "we have not been able to find common ground with the Federal Government on the terms of a closure. See Contract for Closure Program for more details of the proposed buyout program and the other power station contenders. It states on its website that "in recent years, the power station and mine have won a series of awards and commendations for its workplace and environmental performance.
In November Environment Victoria released International Power's "Statement of Compliance" in which the company revealed that it had breached four of the twenty-two conditions of its Environment Protection Authority licence.
The reports also outline that environmental targets relating to gaseous emissions from the smokestacks, including carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide and sulphur trioxide were also exceeded. In a review of the documents for Environment Victoria, the Environmental Defenders Office reported that "it appears that total gaseous emissions from Hazelwood Power Station are not measured.
Rather, emissions from one stack at a time are measured, and this only occurs once every six months. Therefore, based on the annual reports submitted to the EPA which we have been provided, it appears there is limited information on the emissions of CO, NOx and SO2 and on whether Hazelwood Power Station has complied with the limits on the discharge of these gases.
Sinclair stated that the company's "Carbon Reduction Review" identified the key strategies as including major changes at the Hazelwood power station.
Sinclair noted that the power station was the oldest of the Latrobe Valley baseload power stations with the first MW unit commissioned in and that its greenhouse gas intensity was 1. He also noted that as part of the "Hazelwood " plant, the company aimed to reduce the greenhouse intensity of Unit 1 to approximately 1.
Slides included in his presentation flagged the development of three ultra super critical MW units with the first notionally being commissioned in and the second and third being commissioned in and The new power stations, Sinclair stated, would enable emissions reductions of approximately 11 million tonnes per annum to be achieved if the new plants were commissioned and brown coal pre-drying was adopted by all Latrobe Valley power generators.
In a submission to the Offshore Petroleum Amendment Greenhouse Gas Storage Bill submitted by International Power Australia's Regulatory Policy Manager, Patrick Gibbons , the company argued that Carbon Capture and Storage "will be critical to the long term future of the Latrobe Valley's brown coal based electricity production in a carbon constrained world provided the design of the emissions trading scheme is conducive to its development.
The company also cautioned that "depending on the details of the emission trajectory and the pace at which the new emission charge is introduced, it could cause a retreat from brown coal being used as a main fuel source. While stating that "the Bill is likely to provide a template for similar legislation by the states and territories for onshore storage International Power Australia complained that it preferenced "treatment for existing holders of petroleum rights" over "storage prospectors and potential injection licence holders.
While the project sounded large, the major component of it was the installation of a coal-drying process on the oldest megawatt generation unit which the company claimed would "reduce greenhouse gas emissions by an estimated 30 per cent. In its Annual Report International Power stated that the pilot CCS plant, which was commissioned in mid "is successfully capturing up to 25 tonnes of CO2 per day from the flue gas. Despite the hype about the Hazelwood CCS project, it is minuscule compared to the power stations emissions.
The proposed capture of 25 tonnes per day would represent 9, tonnes in a year, representing just 0. The company also stated that the pilot plant "will be regularly reviewed and assessed for its potential for larger scale research programs. In The Age reported that it was planned to establish a trial carbon dioxide to biofuels plant at the Hazelwood Power Station.
It was reported that the proposal by Energetix, a division of the Victor Smorgon Group, would "cover about 60 metres by 10 metres and will sequester only a small amount of carbon. On its website, the company states that it "has the technology to recycle CO2 emissions to produce biofuels through the photosynthesis process with micro-algae" but does not mention any ongoing trials at the Hazelwood power station. The new facility will run until October , and fully replaced the existing debt, which was due to mature in December It's been written down to a million dollars.
And it's certainly not part of our core strategy and we wouldn't plan to repeat an investment like the one we made in Hazelwood. And in fact it would be much cheaper than anticipated to replace all of the power station They can see that the power station has a very limited future and they're also not anticipating much in the way of compensation.
The Age reported that a Commonwealth Bank spokesman had written down its investment due a a reassessment of its market value. International Power's corporate affairs manager Jim Kouts downplayed the impact of the Commonwealth Bank's decision. It's clear that by indication of that, they're not expecting sizeable payments from the government for the closure of the plant.
In its Annual Report, International Power states that the proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme would have limited effect on the company for the foreseeable future. The legislation proposed that the scheme would be introduced from July with a period of ten years where, in effect, no charge will be applied for a portion of emissions from coal-fired power plants, and our Hazelwood and Loy Yang B plants would be eligible for this relief. On November 6, , a group of activists walked onto the site of the Hazelwood Power Station, one of the most inefficient power stations in the industrialised world [48] , to protest Australian inaction on climate change.
Two people stopped and chained themselves to the conveyor belts which carry coal to the power station. The station was due to be decommissioned in but is undergoing rapid expansion to The group posted an explanation of their action, information about the plant, and justification for direct action on a purpose-built blog.
At an Earth Hour protest against the Hazelwood power station Victoria police arrested three protesters and charged them with trespass, obstruction and breach of the peace. Approximately people protested outside the power station against the plant's ongoing operation. Approximately people from the Switch Off Hazelwood Collective erected a mock solar tower outside the Hazelwood power station.
Professor David Karoly told the crowd that "replacing all of Hazelwood would be an important symbol to Australia and the world that we are prepared to take action to clean up our energy supply. But it would be more than a symbol. It would also reduce future climate change and reduce the numbers of people impacted by flooding resulting from sea level rise.
In a media release Environment Victoria Campaigns Director Mark Wakeham said that "over the past 12 months Hazelwood has become the major environment issue of the state election. Ellen Roberts, from Climate Action Moreland, a local climate community group, described Hazelwood as a "polluting old dinosaur" which "spews millions of tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere every year, and the community has had enough.
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