Giga-scale Pilbara wind and solar project seeks to pass final planning hurdle - Renew Economy

A large wind and solar project in Western Australia's Pilbara region is moving toward final planning approval. The article does not specify the project's capacity, timeline, or investment cost.

Where this fits

This is another addition to Australia's renewable capacity without solving the two hardest problems: firming and transmission. A Pilbara project will generate power when sun and wind cooperate, which in the Pilbara means seasonal and weather-dependent output. That output will need either gas plants to fill the gaps, or long-distance transmission to centres of demand, or both. Neither cost appears in headlines about "giga-scale" renewables. The alternative, firm, dispatchable nuclear generation, remains banned by law, so Australia commits to higher whole-system cost and continued reliance on gas for reliability.

What it means

Each large renewable project built without firm backing locks Australia further into a grid architecture that costs more to run, not less. The Pilbara has excellent wind and solar resources. That does not change the thermodynamic fact that weather-dependent power needs firming, and firming in Australia means gas unless and until nuclear is legal. A project that looks cheap per megawatt-hour hides the transmission overbuild and gas-plant cost that makes the full system expensive. Australia is building the renewable capacity faster than it can build the firming and grid infrastructure to use it reliably, and without access to the low-cost, long-lived, firm alternative that every other wealthy nation considering decarbonisation keeps open as an option.