February 11, 2022

Why the shutdown of AGL’s coal-fired plants will probably happen even sooner than power giant says

The two plants selected for early shutdown currently produce about 7% of Australia’s total carbon emissions

AGL’s Bayswater coal-fired plant will shut down between two and five years early. Climate activists say the move is a ‘token effort’. Photograph: zetter/Getty Images/iStockphoto

When AGL, Australia’s biggest electricity generator, announced plans on Thursday to accelerate the timetable to close its two largest coal-fired power plants, environmental groups complained the pace wasn’t fast enough.

Out would go Bayswater, AGL’s 2640-megawatt black coal-fired power plant in New South Wales’s Hunter Valley, between 2030 and 2033, rather than 2035 as previously flagged. And by 2045, the 2210MW Loy Yang A brown coal-fired station in Victoria would follow, compared with a 2048 schedule, the company said.

That at least was AGL’s objective, Graeme Hunt, the company’s chief executive told investors, adding with a flourish: “the path to net zero [emissions] will be the defining challenge of our era. Companies that don’t adapt, that don’t innovate, and don’t set themselves on this path will be left behind”.

Read the full article published in The Guardian 11th February 2022

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