The announced closure of Tiwai Point is welcome news for the clean energy future of New Zealand, and presents huge opportunities in areas such as electrifying transport and developing new, high-tech industries, Coal Action Network Aotearoa said today.
Provided this is not a negotiating tactic, Tiwai’s shutdown should see the closing of the country’s only coal-fired power station at Huntly, which Meridian persuaded Genesis to keep it open as part of the deal it did with Rio Tinto in 2016.
“We now have a massive opportunity to look at where and how we will use the renewable energy that will be freed up: we could electrify the South Island’s rail network, and make huge steps toward electric transport,” said CANA’s Rosemary Penwarden.
Once the smelter is closed, New Zealand’s emissions will drop by upwards of 1.5 million tonnes a year, emissions the taxpayer has been subsidising NZ Aluminium Smelters for.
“At today’s carbon price of $33, the 1.3 million units the company received for free last year would this year cost the taxpayer $42.9 million: we trust the government will use this huge saving to work toward meeting our zero carbon goal,” said Penwarden.
CANA warned against big process heat users like Fonterra converting to electricity for its South Island coal boilers as using electricity this way is massively inefficient, and Fonterra needed to be looking to biomass to switch to.
“We don’t want to lock ourselves into a system that would require new thermal electricity – like the gas-fired power stations being built right now in Taranaki. These should stop,” said Penwarden.
“Today, there are going to be a lot of Southland families wondering about their futures. It’s crucial the Government provides support to Southlanders to transition towards a resilient low-carbon economy. Great South has already been doing a lot of work transitioning away from fossil fuels, and creating jobs in renewables. This experience will stand them in good stead to deal with this new challenge.”
CANA also warned that the Government must make NZ Aluminium / Rio Tinto fully pay for the clean-up of the site and ensure there was full remediation, not least because the plant is right next to an internationally-recognised conservation site.
“We have already seen part of Rio Tinto’s toxic legacy being nearly swept away in the Mataura floods, and the taxpayer is being forced to pay. There is an unfortunate recent history of toxic remediation being left to the government to pay for, and we absolutely cannot let this happen here,” she said.
“Rio Tinto has a very poor international reputation as a good environmental citizen, and we must hold them to account to exit cleanly.”
Kia ora Cindy,
I absolutely agree with you that the closure of Tiwai Aluminium smelter presents a fantastic opportunity to address this country’s dependence on fossil fuels for transport and industry.
Unfortunately I have to take issue with the quote you attributed to Rosemary Penwarden, that Fonterra should use biomass instead of electricity to dry their milk powder.
“Fonterra converting to electricity for its South Island coal boilers as using electricity this way is massively inefficient, and Fonterra needed to be looking to biomass to switch to.” Rosemary Penwarden
I agree with Rosemary Penwarden – Using electricity to heat water in boilers to make steam and then use this steam to dry milk is possibly the most inefficient way possible to dry milk powder.
(The only reason that Milk is currently dried this way is because coal is so cheap).
As well as being energy inefficient, heating water to make steam is an inefficient use of water.
However boiling water is not the only way to use electricity to dry milk powder.
Have you heard of the freeze dry method of making milk powder?
Freeze drying milk powder needs no water at all.
Unlike using the indirect radiant energy of steam pipes to dry milk which often overheats the milk powder causing a loss of nutrients. Freeze drying preserves much more of the natural nutrients and vitamins found in whole milk.
Trying to replace hugely wasteful levels of resource use with the same level of renewables (especially biomass), is not physically possible. Attempts to do so have turned out to be environmentally destructive. A fact made very powerfully in the movie Planet Of The Humans.
Using the surplus electricity released by the closure of the Tiwai to electrify the whole South Island rail system is a good idea.
However instead of continually using more and more energy, ideally we should be cutting back. Which is the other main point of POTH.
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2020/05/18/planet-of-the-humans-movie-review-pat-odea/
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