Vales Point Power Plant is owned by Delta Electricity, but in September the company announced that the plant is being sold to Czech family investment group Sev.En Global Investments. It was commissioned in 1978 and is located on the southern shore of Lake Macquarie. The decision by the EPA now allows for these conditions and limits to remain in Deltas Environmental Protection Licence, Delta spokesman Steve Gurney said. The power station doesnt currently have a valid air pollution licence. The EPA ruling has fuelled concerns that NSW may face an energy supply crunch in the coming years as coal swiftly exits the market. Publicly owned until 2015 when sold to Sunset International Power for $1 million, the deal capped the new owners site rehabilitation costs to just $10M. Under . the nominal closure of Vales Point . A Morrison government plan to fund upgrades at the Vales Point coal fired power station fell through after the government offered insufficient funding for the upgrades to take place, with owners Delta Electricity warning the plant could close early, documents obtained under FOI show. Delta Energys plans for Vales Point power station at Mannering Park will go unchanged despite the announcement by Origin Energy on February 17 that it will close Eraring Australias largest power station seven years early. Its been a double whammyin the last couple of days first Wallarah 2, which is the Central Coasts Adani, and now this, another coal-fired power station proposal., Read more:Department of Planning gives green light for Vales Point solar energy project. For more detailed local information see the Lake Macquarie Hunter Recreational Fishing Guide Back to top Sev.en Group is a global, experienced and responsible operator of conventional power plants. At home, the National Energy Resources Australia is offering $1.7 million in seed funding for hydrogen business to set up industry hubs, the Clean Energy Finance Corporation has a $300 million fund for hydrogen projects - including those powered by fossil fuels, and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency has $70 million available for green hydrogen projects. The sale reportedly netted Delta $200m despite the company paying only $1m to buy it from the NSW government in 2015, prompting the states opposition to accuse the Coalition of having dudded taxpayers over the sale. (Delta Electricity have also flagged the possibility of the proposed plant being built on the the site of the nearby Liddell power station, which is slated for closure in 2022. We make strategic investments with long-term commitment.. NSW plant closures include the Vales Point power station, scheduled to shut in 2029-30. It is the second instance of the Morrison government failing to secure investment in new coal-fired generation infrastructure by offering insufficient funding support, following earlier revelations that the government had not provided sufficient grant funding to ensure proponents of a coal-fired power station in Queensland could complete a bankable feasibility study. Mr Kean will say the region has strong potential for green hydrogen, fuelled by renewable power sources, due to its access to existing energy infrastructure, sustainable water sources, ports and logistics. It has been announced that the ageing Vales Point coal-fired power station on the Central Coast, NSW is to be sold by the Australian Delta Energy to the Czech fossil fuel investment company Sev.en, owned by billionaire Pavel Tyka. But Delta managing director Greg Everett described the objections raised about the time limits for its application for an exemption as an administrative interpretation issue, not an environmental one. Delta Coal which supplies Vales Point have an active proposal to continue mining largely exploited seams under the lake and ash dump until 2029 and community fears over worsening pollution impacts from this aging facility under this potential new ownership have been made public. The Stop the Sale of Vales Point Power Station and Close It Down petition to Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers & NSW Treasurer Matt Kean was written by Future Sooner and is in the category Currently the sale is under investigation by the Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) with its decision to be announced in mid-October 2022. Coal is carbon. Sev.en has shown a clear interest in energy businesses in Australia, ensuring that it is well-placed to provide reliable generation through the energy transition, he said. The largest coal plant in the state AGLs 2880 MW Eraring Power Station, will be closed in 2025. Sydney, NSW 2000 Billionaire Trevor St Baker will reignite plans for a 20-year extension of NSW's Vales Point coal power station amid fears the early closure of Origin Energy's giant Eraring plant may lead to market volatility and higher prices. Follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook or Instagram. Follow our Australia news live blog for the latest updates, sold the 1,320-megawatt Vales Point power station, likely to cost hundreds of millions of dollars, seeking approval to pay a senior barrister. A longstanding advocate of the need for round-the-clock dispatchable coal power, Mr St Baker said his decision to sell was more to do with wanting to redirect capital into his interests in electric vehicle charging than in any diminished conviction about the continuing need for coal-fired power as the transition to low-carbon power progresses. Future Sooner, local residents and health professionals are deeply concerned if this sale goes ahead it will extend the life of this filthy, old, polluting coal-fired power station and prolong the damage that is already affecting our health, said Gary Blaschke OAM, resident of Lake Munmorah, cancer sufferer and Future Sooner spokesperson. Phone: 02 4352 6111 By 2050, green hydrogen has the potential to drive $350 billion in investment across Australia in current dollars and up to $26 billion per year in additional GDP, supporting the emergence of new decarbonised industries such as green steel and ammonia.. One uses gas and the other uses coal or gas, and for either to be a clean energy source they require carbon capture and storage to stop the emissions from the fossil fuels entering the atmosphere. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Its members include residents and health professionals. One is electrolysis that uses electricity to split water, which can be powered by renewables in an emissions-free process and is known as green hydrogen. Brisbane-based energy consultant Trevor St Baker and coal baron Brian Flannery. Victoria Energy Policy Centre director Bruce Mountain said the Victorian government had struck an entirely sensible deal with EnergyAustralia to bring forward closure at Yallourn, which provided a long lead time of seven years for the market to fill gaps in power supply by 2028. Cockle Creek Power Station was located in Teralba, New South Wales, Australia on the banks of Cockle Creek. The coal for Vales Point is delivered by conveyor and a balloon loop connection to the Main Northern railway line between Wyee and Morisset. Feb 18, 2022 - 5.07pm. We will continue to invest in the station both for ongoing energy needs and for system security, said the spokesperson. Several coal-fired plants in New South Wales have brought their closure dates forward. Environment groups question whether ageing stations exemptions from some pollution standards are valid. The analysis found if power prices continued to decline, Yallourn, along with the Eraring, Mt Piper, Vales Point B and Gladstone black coal plants would be making a loss by 2025. Coal plant closures loom large as NSW backs hydrogen for the Hunter. Vales Point Power Station sale completed December 18, 2022 by Merilyn Vale Sev.en Global Investments has announced it has completed its acquisition of Delta Electricity Pty Ltd, the parent company of the Vales Point Power Station and the Chain Valley Colliery. In a letter obtained by RenewEconomy, Delta told the department that the funding was below the amount of funding the company had requested and left the company carrying too much of the cost. As previously revealed by RenewEconomy, Delta told the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources in December that it would not proceed with a formal application for $8.7 million in grant funding that had been set aside in the 2020 federal budget. It produces about four per cent of the electricity supplied to consumers in the National Electricity Market. The value of the NSW coal power plant was cut to $156 million, down from $732 million in 2017 when power prices skyrocketed after the closure of the Hazelwood power station, documents. The proposal isin response to Federal Energy Minister Angus Taylors call in September for fair dinkum baseload power generation after the Federal Government lost a public battle with generator AGL over the closure of Liddell power station in 2022. The grant was to pay for upgrades to a turbine at the Vales Point power station, increasing its thermal efficiency, allowing an additional 30MW of output for the same amount of coal burnt. It leaves the Morrison governments UNGI program has still having supported no new generation investments, despite being first announced in October 2018, and announcing a dozen shortlisted projects more than two years ago. offsite water contamination from the south-east portion of the ash dump identified in the Environment Protection Licence this year. The NSW EPA noted that environment department modelling found that ground-level concentration of NOx in the community meets national health standards. AGL Energy announced it would move the. At the same time, embattled AGL Energy is struggling to determine its forward strategy and put in place a refreshed board after the collapse of a demerger plan and as its biggest shareholder, software billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes, pushes for a faster exit from coal power to align with the goals of the Paris climate accord. @ Copyright RenewEconomy 2020. The power station's end of technical life is set for 2029. Coal-fired power will be needed to keep the lights on for another couple of decades, said Mr St Baker, who is an investor in fast charging system provider Tritium, which listed in New York early this year, and Evie Networks, among other energy interests. the Liddell plant is owned by AGL which has rejected . The big energy companies are also feeling the pressure from the Morrison government over the proposed closure dates for older coal-fired power stations. While Delta secretary Steve Gurney said the sale of Vales Point was a completely unrelated commercial matter to the emissions issue, Nature Conservation Council chief executive, Jacqui Mumford, said the new owners should be required to slash the stations pollution so that people across NSW can breathe healthier air. Energy Australia will close the Yallourn power station in Victoria's Latrobe Valley in mid-2028, four years ahead of schedule, and build a giant battery instead. A licence granted last year exempts the operators of the Vales Point plant, recently sold to Sev.en Global Investments, from nitrogen oxide pollution standards. News and analysis for the clean energy economy. Find them all here. Origin Energys 2000 MW Liddell plant will close in early 2023. Read more:The power station offloaded by the NSW Government for $1 million suddenly has a future. Two years on from the sale, the facility was valued at $722M. It was a good letter from Anne Aldcroft (CCN380) regarding dog owners not doing their duty. The black coal operators run at a much higher short-run marginal cost and so those nearing the end of their technical lives may be re-evaluating their closure dates, Mr Allen said. In the context of the confluence of the above factors, Delta will not pursue the Vales Point power station efficiency project. When there are renewable energy alternatives available, like the Star of the South project, that will generate clean energy and create local jobs, there is no excuse for building more, big polluting coal projects that pollute our air and make our communities sick, Ms Rivers said. It has previously been reported that the EPA briefed the states environment minister, James Griffin, over concerns about the exemption, as well as seeking approval to pay a senior barrister for advice on the legality of the exemption. Childhood asthma in the region has also been found to be extremely high (50% greater than in Sydney in spite of city transport fumes) and there is strong evidence that students who attend schools within a 10 Km radius of a coal fired power station have a reduction in learning outcomes due to the emissions from burning coal. Officials from the department told Senate Estimates in March that they were aware that Shine Energy was likely to fail to deliver a bankable feasibility study into a proposed Collinsville coal fired power station after an audit undertaken by the Australian National Audit Office found the $4 million in grant funding awarded to the company was not enough to ensure the study could be completed. The Nature Conservation Council of NSW said that, unlike previous exemptions, this one cannot be extended beyond October 2027. A spokesperson for Delta Energy said there were no plans for Vales Point to go the same way as Eraring. It is also harmful to the environment. Leading Edge Energy is an energy brokerage firm in Australia that specialises in energy cost reduction, solar and storage procurement, electricity and natural gas-use monitoring and reporting for commercial and industrial clients. The other legacies of coal power include environmental and community impact that cannot be ignored as the closure of power stations take place in NSW. . The turbines were removed in 1997; the boilers and buildings were demolished between 201114. Michael Mazengarb is a Sydney-based reporter with RenewEconomy,writing on climate change, clean energy, electric vehicles and politics. NSW is facing a potential shortage of reliable power as coal power stations shut down, with the closure of AGL Energy's Liddell plant in the Hunter Valley in April 2023 set to be followed. Leading Edge Energy is proud to be a signatory of the National Customer Code for Energy Brokers, Consultants and Retailers. The pair, who famously bought the generator for $1 million from the NSW government in 2015 and then revalued it at $722 million two years later, agreed to sell their respective 50 per cent stakes in Delta Electricity, the owner of the plant, to the family company Sev.en Global Investments. air pollution exemption granted to Vales Point power station by the NSW EPA was successfully challenged by environment and legal groups. Its also unknown how the sale will impact the rehabilitation responsibilities for the power station ash dumps, she said. The generation table uses eljmkt nemlog to obtain generation values for each year. The map below shows the location of the plant, near Mannering Park, New South Wales. [1], In 2017 it was valued at $732 million, and was estimated to make part-owner energy entrepreneur and former National Party candidate Trevor St Baker a half billionaire. It is also gearing up to invest more in the business as it seeks approval for a license to allow mining to continue until 2029. NSW coal region councils join forces for huge renewable energy mandate, Japans pivot to renewables will kick Australian exports right in the thermals. Future Sooner is a community action group working towards a clean energy future for the Central Coast and Lake Macquarie. 15 December 2021. Im more interested now in what we are doing in electrifying the transport sector, absolutely critical steps forward in the rollout of charging infrastructure, he told The Australian Financial Review. To learn more, read our Privacy Policy. To learn more about how we use information collected with cookies, please read our Privacy Policy. For fossil fuel production to be clean carbon capture has to be tacked on to capture the emissions. Owners of Vales Point power station turn down $8.7 million grant, blaming the Morrison government for taking too long to approve funds for turbine upgrades. If Vales Point power station is allowed to operate beyond 2029, we know it will have continued serious consequences for the health of the community. Access unlimited content, the digital versions of our print editions - Today's Paper, as well as the Newcastle Herald app. Vales Point Power Station February 17, 2022 Delta Energy's plans for Vales Point power station at Mannering Park will go unchanged despite the announcement by Origin Energy on February 17 that it will close Eraring - Australia's largest power station - seven years early. In public comments this week, the current owner of Vales Point, Trevor St Baker, indicated that Sev.en may seek to keep the station open beyond its current closure date of 2029, saying the company had shown a commitment to the sector and an ambition to expand, both in Australia and globally. We do not want this in foreign hands. The Vales Point coal power station was sold by the NSW government in 2015 for just $1 million.