More Visionary Climate Leadership From Aussies - $8 Million To Update 40-Year-Old Coal Plant Turbine

[hatrack]

A controversial Morrison government plan to grant up to $8.7m for an upgrade at a coal plant part-owned by power boss Trevor St Baker has been dropped after the company abandoned its bid for the public funding.

The government allocated the grant for a turbine upgrade at the Vales Point generator, in New South Wales’ Hunter Valley, in the October budget, but told the station’s owner, Delta Electricity, it would need to submit a formal application for the money.

Delta wrote to the government in December to say the likely ongoing delay in its application being evaluated would not give it enough time to go ahead with the upgrade at the 1,320 megawatt plant in late 2022 as scheduled, it was revealed on Thursday. Delta’s managing director, Greg Everett, said the company had expressed interest in receiving the funding to upgrade the 40-year-old plant in early 2019, and the size and complexity of the projects meant contracts needed to be signed last year.

EDIT

St Baker’s company bought the plant from the NSW government for just $1m in 2015. By last December it was valued at $221.7m, with profit after tax last financial year of $134.7m. Delta’s withdrawal from the grant process followed St Baker criticising NSW’s plan to build 12 gigawatts of renewable energy and 2GW of long-duration storage due to its likely impact on his coal plant. The policy passed state parliament with multiparty support in November.

EDIT

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/feb/11/vales-point-coal-plant-drops-controversial-bid-for-government-funding

[marble falls]

1. There's dirty coal and then there's "dirty" dirty coal.