That’s pretty much the message coming through loud and clear in this new report which says importing liquified natural gas to make up for our dwindling local supplies is do-able. But.
You’ll remember how, last year, when we had factories closing and people paying through the nose for their electricity, talk turned to what could be done, especially given we are at-risk of not having the gas needed to generate power.
So the Government brought up the idea of importing liquified natural gas.
Fast-forward a few months and four of the big companies have put their heads together, looking into the practicalities of importing gas. The outcome is this report out today effectively saying we could do it, but there are a few things to think about.
The main ones being the price tag and how long it would take to get it happening.
First up, the cost. Up to $1 billion. That’s to get the infrastructure needed so that we can bring the gas in and store it.
It could be done cheaper, but the gas would be 25% more expensive.
Secondly, if we’re up for that kind of spend, it wouldn’t be an overnight fix. It would be about four years before we started to see the benefits.
Another main point in this report is that we could spend the money and wait for it all to come online, but there could be years when we don’t even need the extra gas.
That’s because power generation in New Zealand uses a combination of hydro, gas, and wind.
And in the years when we have plenty of rain and the hydro lakes are full, for example, we might not need to import gas.
So we could go down the route of spending all this money over the next four years —setting ourselves up— and the demand for gas that we might have now not being the same down the track.
But that’s a bit like pouring money into a fire alarm and sprinkler system and not using it, you know it's there and give it gives you security.
That’s how I see this gas importation business – it would be a back-up. And so-what if it wasn’t needed all the time?
The question facing us now is what do we do now that we have a better idea about the complexities and the cost?
Paul Goodeve, chief executive of the Clarus energy company, thinks we need to ask ourselves whether it’s worth doing without getting obsessed about the cost.
Because as I said earlier, it could be done cheaper —at around $200 million— but that would mean the gas would be 25% more expensive.
I’m no doubt that we have to bite the bullet and press go, and press go on the expensive option.
Because if you or I, or the Greens or whoever, think that this is nuts and we shouldn’t be importing gas and we should all have solar panels on the roof, that’s la-la land.
If you listen to the likes of Greenpeace, they’ll say that importing gas shouldn’t even be an option and we should be going full-bore with solar and wind power generation.
Again, la-la land. Because the reality is, we need a mix of generation options.
And even though it looks like importing liquified gas might not be as straightforward as we might have thought when the government started talking about it last year, what are the alternatives?
Crossing our fingers and hoping for the best? No thanks.
John MacDonald is the Canterbury Mornings host on Newstalk ZB Christchurch. This article was first published HERE
So the Government brought up the idea of importing liquified natural gas.
Fast-forward a few months and four of the big companies have put their heads together, looking into the practicalities of importing gas. The outcome is this report out today effectively saying we could do it, but there are a few things to think about.
The main ones being the price tag and how long it would take to get it happening.
First up, the cost. Up to $1 billion. That’s to get the infrastructure needed so that we can bring the gas in and store it.
It could be done cheaper, but the gas would be 25% more expensive.
Secondly, if we’re up for that kind of spend, it wouldn’t be an overnight fix. It would be about four years before we started to see the benefits.
Another main point in this report is that we could spend the money and wait for it all to come online, but there could be years when we don’t even need the extra gas.
That’s because power generation in New Zealand uses a combination of hydro, gas, and wind.
And in the years when we have plenty of rain and the hydro lakes are full, for example, we might not need to import gas.
So we could go down the route of spending all this money over the next four years —setting ourselves up— and the demand for gas that we might have now not being the same down the track.
But that’s a bit like pouring money into a fire alarm and sprinkler system and not using it, you know it's there and give it gives you security.
That’s how I see this gas importation business – it would be a back-up. And so-what if it wasn’t needed all the time?
The question facing us now is what do we do now that we have a better idea about the complexities and the cost?
Paul Goodeve, chief executive of the Clarus energy company, thinks we need to ask ourselves whether it’s worth doing without getting obsessed about the cost.
Because as I said earlier, it could be done cheaper —at around $200 million— but that would mean the gas would be 25% more expensive.
I’m no doubt that we have to bite the bullet and press go, and press go on the expensive option.
Because if you or I, or the Greens or whoever, think that this is nuts and we shouldn’t be importing gas and we should all have solar panels on the roof, that’s la-la land.
If you listen to the likes of Greenpeace, they’ll say that importing gas shouldn’t even be an option and we should be going full-bore with solar and wind power generation.
Again, la-la land. Because the reality is, we need a mix of generation options.
And even though it looks like importing liquified gas might not be as straightforward as we might have thought when the government started talking about it last year, what are the alternatives?
Crossing our fingers and hoping for the best? No thanks.
John MacDonald is the Canterbury Mornings host on Newstalk ZB Christchurch. This article was first published HERE
12 comments:
And now we have heat pumps and electric cars requiring huge amounts of electricity, (that we don’t have) gas could and should be an alternative. One shakes one’s head at the lack of commonsense now prevalent.
Dont agree with your comment re solar panels on the roof. If solar batteries were affordable, our climate makes this a sensible option. Our solar system has paid for itself in savings, and if batteries were subsidised as they are in other countries, Id cover the roof in panels!
You make good points John. I liken this conundrum to Australia a few years ago where a run of unusually dry weather and dwindling water supply forced the Govt to invest in desalination plants. No sooner had they been purchased and installed, it started raining. It has not let up since and these plants remain idle to this very day.
Our energy shortage in Hobbitville is totally man made, created by ideological driven vandals who prefer being called politicians. They have sabotaged our economy and lifestyle in pursuit of their Net-Zero nonsense and have even used those immortals words “our nuclear moment”.
Access to cheap energy builds strong economies, growth, wages and a prosperous society.
Our current problem is clearly an “own goal.”
Yes we need a LNG import terminal and we need it now.Taranaki has the gas pipeline. So a no brainer. Build the terminal in New Plymouth. Marsden Point also has a gas pipeline. Could be the next best choice. This decision should have been made 10 years ago. We are way behind the rest of the world which is presently using LNG at an increasing rate. Also we
have sacked all our energy workers.So good luck getting the required workforce together.
You make good points John. I liken this conundrum to Australia a few years ago where a run of unusually dry weather and dwindling water supply forced the Govt to invest in desalination plants. No sooner had they were purchased and installed them, it started raining and has not let up since and these plants remain idle.
Our energy shortage in Hobbitville is totally man made, created by ideological driven vandals who prefer being called politicians. They have sabotaged our economy and lifestyle in pursuit of net zero nonsense and have even used the immortals words “our nuclear moment”.
Access to cheap energy builds strong economies, growth, wages and a prosperous society.
This is an own goal.
Better still - re-open the State Mines and restart the coal conveyor to the Huntly power station.
Got to be a better deal than importing coal from Indonesia!
we need an energy policy similar to the fast track legislation which bypasses the RMA etc. A policy that gives gas exploration top priority with a gold plated guarantee from Government that permits will not bee rescinded.
Anonymous @ 2:51
Right on the money ! We have untold gigawatts buried in the ground here.
It's easier to keep ones head buried in the sand than to take action to solve an obvious and growing problem.
We think the cost of electricity is high, wait until maori have control of water, coal, natural gas and geothermal.
And probably claim for sun and wind.
No one mentioned transmission costs. Build a gas or coal plant right beside where ithe electricity is needed and the transmission costs evaporate or it least are minimised .
Surely we can fast track drilling for our own gas? Even if we import LNG, and build storage at New Plymouth, transmission should not be an issue, as there is already pipelines that were built for our own NG
Use our own good quality, cleaner burning coal (instead of rubbish from Indonesia), as a stop gap measure until we can get our own gas reserves on line
NZ used to have hundreds of local gas works where they took locally available coal and burned it to make gas. The gas was then distributed locally powering gas street lighting.This could easily be done on a larger scale and fed into the gas network.
It’s very easy to do but seems to be forgotten.
Why waste money creating a biogas industry when coal gas is much cheaper and easier to produce.
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