Nine major Australian cities lay within 1,200 kilometres of Queensland's humongous, high-volatility black coalfields
Ubiquitous deposits incentivize many Australian cities, like Melbourne, to tap adjacent brown coalfields. Strides in ultra-high-voltage long-distance transmission render this strategy obsolete.
The
Belo Monte-Rio de Janeiro transmission line carries 4,000 MW a distance of 2,543 kilometres. The Siberia-Ural line carries 5,500 MW 2,344 kilometres. The UHV (1.1 million volt)
Changi-Guquan carries 12,000 MW 3,250 kilometres.
Nine major Australian cities lay within 1,200 kilometres of Queensland's humongous, high-volatility black coalfields.
Australians should visualize next-gen (15,000+ MW) coal-stations. Imagine robotized arrays of
Arabelle 1,900s, fed by supercritical boilers, nestled into Queensland's richest coalfields, and swirling the world's cheapest electricity across Australia.
GE, Siemens, Mitsubishi, Hitachi, Toshiba et al will gladly sell Australia the machinery; the manufacturing of which Aussies should master. 30,000 industrializing South Pacific and Indian Ocean islands, thirsting for electricity, makes a ready market.
There's also coal-to-oil; or, "carbon-to-x," as coal is now re-constructable into a myriad of commodities, not just gasoline.
South Africa has been exploiting this tech at grand scale since 1950. China is undergoing a
coal-to-x boom.
Why not Australia?
Footnotes
- Albanese's letter to the UNFCCC June, 16, 2022.