The Hazelwood Power Station is a decommissioned
brown coal
Lignite, often referred to as brown coal, is a soft, brown, combustible, sedimentary rock formed from naturally compressed peat. It has a carbon content around 25–35%, and is considered the lowest rank of coal due to its relatively low heat ...
-fuelled
thermal power station
A thermal power station is a type of power station in which heat energy is converted to electrical energy. In a steam-generating cycle heat is used to boil water in a large pressure vessel to produce high-pressure steam, which drives a stea ...
located in the
Latrobe Valley
The Latrobe Valley is an inland geographical district and urban area of the Gippsland region in the state of Victoria, Australia. The traditional owners are the Brayakaulung of the Gunai nation. The district lies east of Melbourne and nestle ...
of
Victoria
Victoria most commonly refers to:
* Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia
* Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada
* Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory
* Victoria, Seychelle ...
,
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
. Built between 1964 and 1971, the 1,600-megawatt-capacity power station was made up of eight 200MW units, and supplied up to 25% of Victoria's
base load electricity and more than 5% of Australia's total electricity demand.
It was a 'subcritical'
pulverized coal-fired boiler A pulverized coal-fired boiler is an industrial or utility boiler that generates thermal energy by burning pulverized coal (also known as powdered coal or coal dust since it is as fine as face powder in cosmetic makeup) that is blown into the firebo ...
. The station was listed as the
least carbon efficient power station in the OECD in a 2005 report by
WWF Australia, making it one of the most polluting power stations in the world.
At 1.56 tonnes of CO
2 for each megawatt hour of electricity, it was 50% more polluting than the average black coal power station in New South Wales or Queensland. Hazelwood emitted 14% of Victoria's annual
greenhouse gas emissions
Greenhouse gas emissions from human activities strengthen the greenhouse effect, contributing to climate change. Most is carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels: coal, oil, and natural gas. The largest emitters include coal in China and lar ...
and 3% of Australia's greenhouse gas emissions.
International Power plc purchased Hazelwood Power Station and the adjoining mine from the
Victorian Government
The Victoria State Government, also referred to as just the Victorian Government, is the state-level authority for Victoria, Australia. Like all state governments, it is formed by three independent branches: the executive, the judicial, and th ...
in 1996 with an expected 40-year life. In 2005, the
Bracks Bracks is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:
*Kate Bracks (born 1974), Australian reality television cook
*Nick Bracks (born 1987), Australian male model, fashion designer and TV personality
*Steve Bracks (born 1954), former Austra ...
Labor
Labour or labor may refer to:
* Childbirth, the delivery of a baby
* Labour (human activity), or work
** Manual labour, physical work
** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer
** Organized labour and the labour ...
Government approved an environmental effects statement (EES) that allowed Hazelwood to relocate a road and a section of the Morwell river to allow access to an additional 43 million tonnes of coal in addition to that allowed under the mining licence boundaries set at the time of privatisation. This was estimated to provide sufficient coal for the plant to operate to at least 2030 (prior to decommissioning plans). The EES also capped its expected total greenhouse output at 445 million tonnes of carbon dioxide over its life, after which Hazelwood may have been made to cease operation.
Hazelwood was jointly owned by
Engie
Engie SA is a French multinational utility company, headquartered in La Défense, Courbevoie, which operates in the fields of energy transition, electricity generation and distribution, natural gas, nuclear, renewable energy and petroleum. ...
(formerly GDF Suez), with a 72% share and
Mitsui & Co. with a 28% share.
In 2014, Hazelwood employed 495 staff directly and on average 300 contractors. On 3 November 2016, Engie announced that the entire Hazelwood plant would be closed at the end of March 2017 giving five months notice of the closure.
The power station closed in March 2017. When the power station closed, wholesale prices in Victoria were up 85% on 2016, according to the
Australian Energy Regulator
The Australian Energy Regulator (AER) is the regulator of the wholesale electricity and gas markets in Australia. It is part of the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission and enforces the rules established by the Australian Energy Market Co ...
, and for the first time in almost a decade, the state relied on energy from interstate to meet its needs.
[Government confident power bills won’t soar after Yallourn shuts]
/ref>
History
Development of the brown coal reserves at Morwell
Morwell is a town in the Latrobe Valley area of Gippsland, in South-Eastern Victoria, Australia approximately 152 km (94 mi) east of Melbourne.
Morwell has a population of 14,389 people at the .
It is both the seat of local governme ...
was started by the State Electricity Commission of Victoria
The State Electricity Commission of Victoria (SECV, ECV or SEC) is a government-owned electricity supplier in Victoria, Australia. It was set up in 1918, and by 1972 it was the sole agency in the state for electricity generation, transmission, ...
(SECV) in 1949 as the 'Morwell Project', which included the Morwell open cut mine, and the Morwell briquette works. The Morwell Interconnecting Railway
The Yallourn 900 mm railway was a narrow gauge railway operated by the State Electricity Commission of Victoria in the Latrobe Valley of Victoria, Australia. The railway was built for the haulage of brown coal and overburden between the Yall ...
linked the power station and briquette works to the Yallourn open cut mine until 1993.
Hazelwood Power Station was approved in 1959, and was to consist of six generating units, giving a total of 1,200 MW of generating capacity. The first unit was to enter service in 1964, and the sixth in 1971. Growing electricity demand saw a review carried out by the SECV in 1963, with commissioning of the generating units moved forward to 1969. Additional capacity was provided when in 1965 two additional generating units at Hazelwood were approved, to be commissioned in 1970 and 1971 respectively.
Hazelwood relied on brown coal deposits from the nearby Morwell open cut mine
Open-pit mining, also known as open-cast or open-cut mining and in larger contexts mega-mining, is a surface mining technique of extracting rock or minerals from the earth from an open-air pit, sometimes known as a borrow.
This form of mining ...
. In 2003, the plant used of coal, while a further of coal was supplied from the Morwell mine to Morwell Power Station Energy Brix Australia
The Energy Brix Power Station was a brown coalfired thermal power station located at Morwell, in Victoria, Australia. The power station was used to supply electricity for the retail market, as well as the production of briquettes in the adjacen ...
2.5 km North East of Hazelwood Power Station.
Privatisation
Hazelwood Power Station and associated mine were privatised by the Kennett government in 1996 after many years of downsizing under a 'structural efficiency' model undertaken by the then state Liberal government. It was sold for 2.35 billion, and it operated as 'IPR-GDF SUEZ Hazelwood', an Australian public company, which was owned by UK company, International Power plc (91.8% share)- part of the GDF SUEZ group - and the Commonwealth Bank Group (the remaining 8.2%). The business office was near Morwell
Morwell is a town in the Latrobe Valley area of Gippsland, in South-Eastern Victoria, Australia approximately 152 km (94 mi) east of Melbourne.
Morwell has a population of 14,389 people at the .
It is both the seat of local governme ...
, east of Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
. Prior to January 2011, IPR-GDF SUEZ Hazelwood had been known as International Power Hazelwood and Hazelwood Power before that.
After privatisation the new owners engaged in capital investment, with 800 million invested in Hazelwood since 1996, such as replacement of boilers, rotors, turbines and the completion of an 85 million project to reduce dust emissions by 80%. If Hazelwood had not been sold to private interests, activist groups say the SECV would have shut the station down in 2005.
EES approval
Before privatisation the power station was due to be decommissioned by the SECV by 2005, as had older plants at Newport and Yallourn
Yallourn, Victoria was a company town in Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia built between the 1920s and 1950s to house employees of the State Electricity Commission of Victoria, who operated the nearby Yallourn Power Station, Victoria, Yal ...
. However, Hazelwood had its mining licence realigned by the Victorian Government along with EES approvals to move a river and a road on 6 September 2005. This agreement ensured security of coal supply to the plant until at least 2030 by allowing access to 43 million tonnes of brown coal deposits in a realignment of Hazelwood's mining licence boundaries that were originally set in 1996. Hazelwood returned over 160 million tonnes of coal to the State Government as part of that agreement.
The agreement required Hazelwood to reduce its estimated emissions by and capped its total greenhouse output at of carbon dioxide over its life, after which point it may have been made to cease operation. However, credits for investment in renewable energy and low emission technology was expected to allow the business to operate within the cap and extend its life. In spite of this, the station was still decommissioned.
Hazelwood's West Field development involved completing a new section of the Strzelecki Highway
Strzelecki Highway is a short 55 kilometre highway that connects the towns of Leongatha and Morwell. It was named after the Strzelecki Ranges, the set of low mountain ridges the road travels through.
History
The passing of the '' Transport Act ...
, replacing over of the Morwell River
The Morwell River is a perennial river of the West Gippsland catchment, located in the West Gippsland and South Gippsland regions of the Australian state of Victoria.
Location and features
Formed by the confluence of the West Branch and East Bra ...
from an old concrete pipe into a natural open channel riverine setting, and acquiring privately owned land which was earmarked for future coal supply. Environment Victoria
Environment Victoria, formerly the Conservation Council of Victoria, is an Australian not-for-profit, charitable group and Victoria's peak non-government environment organisation. It works in collaboration with over 150 groups Australia-wide to p ...
, Greenpeace
Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network, founded in Canada in 1971 by Irving Stowe and Dorothy Stowe, immigrant environmental activists from the United States. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth t ...
and Australian Conservation Foundation
The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) is Australia's national environmental organisation, launched in 1965 in response to a proposal by the World Wide Fund for Nature for a more co-ordinated approach to sustainability.
One high-profil ...
opposed the development approvals, while business groups such as Minerals Council of Australia, VECCI, Aust Industry Group and Institute of Public Affairs welcomed the Government's decision.
Closure and decommissioning
Hazelwood's coal supply would likely have run out around 2009 without the 2005 coal mine extension. This extension, and the associated environmental impacts, have led to significant criticism by environmental groups, and civil disobedience actions (see below).
During 2011 and 2012, the Australian Government considered a Contract for Closure program to complement the Clean Energy Act policy. Hazelwood would likely have been closed under this program had it been pursued. However, this program was scrapped in September 2012 and no plants were closed.
On 3 November 2016, Engie announced that Hazelwood would be closed by the end of March 2017, citing the company's transformational policy of investing solely in low-carbon and renewable energy, as well lower energy prices and oversupply within Victoria. In May 2016, CEO Isabelle Kocher said the company was reviewing its remaining coal plants one by one and would close those with the most outdated technology.
The largest shareholder in Engie is the French government, which owns 33% of the company. The French Environment Minister said ENGIE would 'disengage' from Hazelwood power station during a documentary that aired on French TV in May 2016. The Minister's response came after receiving a petition about the Hazelwood mine fire from Environment Victoria
Environment Victoria, formerly the Conservation Council of Victoria, is an Australian not-for-profit, charitable group and Victoria's peak non-government environment organisation. It works in collaboration with over 150 groups Australia-wide to p ...
.
The decommissioning and rehabilitation of the site is estimated to cost at least $743 million, six times the previously predicted amount. This includes $439 million to rehabilitate the mine, and $304 million to demolish the plant and restore the surrounding area. This is in addition to $324 million payable by the owners for redundancy and leave entitlements over the two years after closure, bringing the total cost of closing the plant to almost $1.1 billion.
In the lead up to the closure, there was insecurity around the numbers of Hazelwood workers Engie would keep employing in the decommissioning and rehabilitation processes, the redundancy packages offered, as well as the future of other workers and the local community in and around Morwell directly and indirectly impacted by the closure of the power station.
On 27 March 2017, units #8, #6 and #4 were permanently shut down, followed by units #2, #7 and #5 on 28 March 2017, and units #3 and #1 on 29 March 2017. Unit #1 was shut down last at 4.56pm. It was chosen to be last because Unit 1 was the first Hazelwood generating unit to come into operation on 30 November 1964.[Rowe, Trevor (29 March 2017)]
"End of generation at Hazelwood"
(Press release). Engie
Engie SA is a French multinational utility company, headquartered in La Défense, Courbevoie, which operates in the fields of energy transition, electricity generation and distribution, natural gas, nuclear, renewable energy and petroleum. ...
. Retrieved 30 March 2017. Decommissioning of mine and power station plant and equipment was expected to take 12 months.
In a press release on the subject of the closure, Engie in Australia's Chief Executive, Alex Keisser, acknowledged the contributions of past and present Hazelwood employees, and the role the power station has played in the Latrobe Valley. "While Friday will be the end of an era and a very sad day for everyone who has had an involvement with Hazelwood over the past 52 years, it should also be a very proud day," Keisser said. "The decision to close Hazelwood was extremely difficult and was made only after we investigated all options to keep the business open. While it was state-of-the-art when it opened in 1964, it has now reached the end of its productive life, lasting far longer than anyone would have anticipated when its life began. Our employees past and present, as well as contractors, local suppliers and businesses, and the broader Latrobe Valley community have all played their part in ensuring that Hazelwood has been a key player in the nation's electricity system over that time. Victoria should be very proud that Hazelwood has continued operating for more than 50 years, producing the electricity that has under-pinned the state's economic development and well-being."
The eight chimneys at the power station were demolished on 25 May 2020.
Environmental impacts
CO2 emissions
The station was listed as the least carbon efficient power station in the OECD nations in a 2005 report by WWF Australia. The WWF reported that the power station produced of CO2 per megawatt-hour of electricity generated in 2004 (official result was 1.55), which was a reduction of 6.6% from the 1996 levels of 1.66 Mt/TWh when the plant was privatised. This is still 50% more polluting than the average black coal power station in NSW or Queensland.
Hazelwood emitted up to 15% of Victoria's annual greenhouse gas emissions and 3% of Australia's greenhouse gas emissions before closure.
With a 60% increase in power generation since 1996, Hazelwood averaged up to of carbon dioxide each year and, after Loy Yang A Power station, was the second highest emitter in the Latrobe Valley until 2015.
Hazelwood had been the site of two carbon capture trials to lower its CO2 emissions (see below).
In late 2008, International Power stated the financial viability of the power station would be in question under a greenhouse gas emissions trading scheme (ETS), unless the company received significant compensation.
Water usage
In 2005, of water was consumed per of power generated. Cooling water for the power station was supplied by the Hazelwood Pondage, built for this purpose in the 1960s. The pondage is supplied with water from the Moondarra Reservoir and runoff pumped from the adjacent mine. Within the mine, water was sprayed onto the coal surfaces to reduce the chance of fire and to suppress fugitive dust
Fugitive dust is an environmental air quality term for very small particles suspended in the air, primarily mineral dust that is sourced from the soil of Earth's pedosphere. A significant volume of fugitive dust that is visible from a distance i ...
.
Public access to the pondage for sailing, boating and other recreational water sports is permitted. Cichlids and other tropical fish that were released into the lake by the public have established populations, including Convict cichlids (''Cryptoheros nigrofasciatus
The convict cichlid (''Amatitlania nigrofasciata'') is a fish species from the family (biology), family Cichlidae, native to Central America, also known as the zebra cichlid. Convict cichlids are popular aquarium fish and have also been the subjec ...
'') and the African cichlid spotted tilapia (''Tilapia mariae
The spotted tilapia (''Pelmatolapia mariae''Dunz, A.R. & Schliewen, U.K. (2013): Molecular phylogeny and revised classification of the haplotilapiine cichlid fishes formerly referred to as ''“Tilapia”''. ''Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolutio ...
''). Other fish include carp
Carp are various species of oily freshwater fish from the family Cyprinidae, a very large group of fish native to Europe and Asia. While carp is consumed in many parts of the world, they are generally considered an invasive species in parts of ...
, goldfish
The goldfish (''Carassius auratus'') is a freshwater fish in the family Cyprinidae of order Cypriniformes. It is commonly kept as a pet in indoor aquariums, and is one of the most popular aquarium fish. Goldfish released into the wild have ...
(''Carassius auratus''), Gambusia (''Gambusia holbrooki
The eastern mosquitofish (''Gambusia holbrooki'') is a species of freshwater fish, closely related to the western mosquitofish, ''Gambusia affinis''. It is a member of the family Poeciliidae of order Cyprinodontiformes. The eastern mosquitofish ...
''), and the native short-finned eel (''Anguilla australis
The short-finned eel (''Anguilla australis''), also known as the shortfin eel, is one of the 15 species of eel in the family Anguillidae. It is native to the lakes, dams and coastal rivers of south-eastern Australia, New Zealand, and much of th ...
'') and Australian smelt (''Retropinna semoni
The Australian smelt (''Retropinna semoni'') is a small, pelagic silvery freshwater fish found in large numbers in waters of the south eastern Australian mainland.
Distribution
The fish is endemic to Australia and widely distributed through th ...
'').
Pollutants
In a 2007-2008 report, the National Pollutant Inventory The National Pollutant Inventory (NPI) is a database of Australian pollution emissions managed by the Australian Commonwealth, State and Territory Governments. A condensed version of the information collected is available to the public via the NPI ...
(NPI) rated the power station's polychlorinated dioxins
Polychlorinated dibenzodioxins (PCDDs), or simply dioxins, are a group of long-lived polyhalogenated organic compounds that are primarily anthropogenic, and contribute toxic, persistent organic pollution in the environment.
They are commonly ...
and furan
Furan is a heterocyclic organic compound, consisting of a five-membered aromatic ring with four carbon atoms and one oxygen atom. Chemical compounds containing such rings are also referred to as furans.
Furan is a colorless, flammable, highly ...
s as "high 100", hydrochloric acid
Hydrochloric acid, also known as muriatic acid, is an aqueous solution of hydrogen chloride. It is a colorless solution with a distinctive pungent smell. It is classified as a strong acid
Acid strength is the tendency of an acid, symbol ...
as "high 87", oxides of nitrogen Nitrogen oxide may refer to a binary compound of oxygen and nitrogen, or a mixture of such compounds:
Charge-neutral
*Nitric oxide (NO), nitrogen(II) oxide, or nitrogen monoxide
*Nitrogen dioxide (), nitrogen(IV) oxide
*Nitrogen trioxide (), or ni ...
as "medium 57", particulate matter
Particulates – also known as atmospheric aerosol particles, atmospheric particulate matter, particulate matter (PM) or suspended particulate matter (SPM) – are microscopic particles of solid or liquid matter suspended in the air. The ter ...
2.5 μm as "low 21", and boron
Boron is a chemical element with the symbol B and atomic number 5. In its crystalline form it is a brittle, dark, lustrous metalloid; in its amorphous form it is a brown powder. As the lightest element of the ''boron group'' it has th ...
& compounds as "low 15".
The 2005-2006 NPI data showed that Hazelwood released of boron
Boron is a chemical element with the symbol B and atomic number 5. In its crystalline form it is a brittle, dark, lustrous metalloid; in its amorphous form it is a brown powder. As the lightest element of the ''boron group'' it has th ...
and compounds into the air and into water. Also released into the air: hydrochloric acid
Hydrochloric acid, also known as muriatic acid, is an aqueous solution of hydrogen chloride. It is a colorless solution with a distinctive pungent smell. It is classified as a strong acid
Acid strength is the tendency of an acid, symbol ...
, of oxides of nitrogen Nitrogen oxide may refer to a binary compound of oxygen and nitrogen, or a mixture of such compounds:
Charge-neutral
*Nitric oxide (NO), nitrogen(II) oxide, or nitrogen monoxide
*Nitrogen dioxide (), nitrogen(IV) oxide
*Nitrogen trioxide (), or ni ...
, of particulate matter 10 μm, and of polychlorinated dioxins and furans. Many pollutants are not measured.
Air pollution from the normal operations of Hazelwood alone had been estimated to kill at least 18 people a year in Gippsland, and make many more people sick. The Greenpeace report attributed 37 deaths in the south-east Gippsland region to pollution from coal plants, with almost half of those in the Latrobe Valley. The estimated annual health burden on the community of Hazelwood's air pollution was $100 million each year, calculated using methodology developed by the US National Academy of Sciences.
Coal mine fire
A fire, commonly referred to as the Hazelwood Coal Mine Fire, started at the mine on 9 February 2014 and was officially considered controlled on 10 March 2014. The Chief Officer of the Country Fire Authority
The Country Fire Authority (CFA) is a volunteer fire service responsible for fire suppression, rescues, and response to other accidents and hazards across most of the state Victoria, Australia. CFA comprises over 1,200 brigades organised in 21 ...
described the fire as "one of the largest, longest running and most complex fires in the State's history."
Thousands of residents in nearby towns were affected by smoke and ash from the fire. On 28 February the Chief Health Officer of Victoria advised the vulnerable groups of people in Morwell
Morwell is a town in the Latrobe Valley area of Gippsland, in South-Eastern Victoria, Australia approximately 152 km (94 mi) east of Melbourne.
Morwell has a population of 14,389 people at the .
It is both the seat of local governme ...
South to temporarily relocate due to the danger of PM2.5 particles. Power lines and connectors at the Morwell substation were washed for ash buildup to reduce the risk of short circuiting. Tim Flannery
Timothy Fridtjof Flannery (born 28 January 1956) is an Australian mammalogist, palaeontologist, environmentalist, Conservation biology, conservationist, Exploration, explorer, author, Science communication, science communicator, activist and p ...
questioned whether GDF Suez was taking sufficient action to keep the community informed and said the fire highlighted the need for better preparation and inquiry into the state of mines around the country, and the risks they posed to nearby communities. On 11 March 2014, Premier Dennis Napthine announced a judicial inquiry into the circumstances and impacts of the fire.
The Hazelwood Mine Fire Inquiry Report was published in 2016 and stated that the community has experienced adverse health effects and may be affected for an indeterminate period into the future. The inquiry found that 11 premature deaths were attributed to the mine fire. Many people and local businesses have experienced financial impacts for a range of reasons including a downturn in business, medical costs, veterinary costs, time taken off work, relocation from their homes, cleaning their homes and businesses, and possible decreases in property value. The Board estimated the total cost borne by the Victorian Government, the local community and the operator of the Hazelwood mine, GDF Suez, to exceed $100 million.
In July 2015, Hazelwood owners GDF Suez announced that the company would refuse to pay the 18 million dollar bill for fighting the fire presented by the Country Fire Authority. According to a statement released by the company, the firefighting effort should be provided to it at no further charge as it had already paid routine taxes and levies in previous years, although the inquiry identified that the areas of the mine which burned were unrehabilitated, whereas rehabilitated areas did not catch fire.
In May 2020 the Hazelwood Power Corporation was fined $1.56 million fine for occupational health and safety breaches associated with the fire.
Asbestos
The rate of pleural
The pleural cavity, pleural space, or interpleural space is the potential space between the pleurae of the pleural sac that surrounds each lung. A small amount of serous pleural fluid is maintained in the pleural cavity to enable lubrication bet ...
and peritoneal mesothelioma among power industry workers was found to be seven times the national average. (Victorian State Government study, 2001). Latrobe Valley power industry workers die 15 years younger than the national average.
The power stations of the Latrobe Valley used asbestos
Asbestos () is a naturally occurring fibrous silicate mineral. There are six types, all of which are composed of long and thin fibrous crystals, each fibre being composed of many microscopic "fibrils" that can be released into the atmosphere b ...
widely in their construction and in the maintenance of the power plant. The substance was banned in Victoria in 2003. However, it's estimated that 146,000 employees and contractors, who worked in SEC plants from 1921 to the 1980s, were exposed to it. Between 1976 and 2008, $52.6 million has been paid to former SEC employees by the State Government insurance authority, and a further $369 million is expected to be paid out by the Victorian Managed Insurance Authority to former employees.
In June 2010, the EPA
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it be ...
confirmed it was investigating reports asbestos could be in one of Hazelwood's smoke stacks. A former worker claims to have lost his job after speaking out about asbestos at a health and safety meeting. Speaking to ''The Express'' newspaper he said, "It is not just in the stacks, it's everywhere, the place is riddled with it, Hazelwood has no duty of care to its workers or the public." Another worker, trained in asbestos identification, said for years Hazelwood management had ignored workers' concerns. International Power Hazelwood spokesperson Neil Lawson has responded, "It is well documented that there is still an amount of contained asbestos material which, if required, is being progressively and safely removed by specialised licensed contractors during major plant outages and maintenance activities." The same newspaper subsequently reported comments by the EPA that the Hazelwood business had no case to answer and that asbestos fibres were not present in its smokestacks.
Criticisms and responses
The Australian Conservation Foundation
The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) is Australia's national environmental organisation, launched in 1965 in response to a proposal by the World Wide Fund for Nature for a more co-ordinated approach to sustainability.
One high-profil ...
has put the 400 million 2005 Hazelwood expansion in context by comparing it to Victoria's five-star energy efficient homes standard, which is expected to save of greenhouse gases per annum. The ACF reasons that Hazelwood's operations would cancel out that benefit every four days. Former ACF Executive director Don Henry Don Henry or Donald Henry can refer to:
* Don Henry (environmentalist), Australian environmentalist
* Don Henry (musician), American musician
* Don Henry, American murder victim in the death of Don Henry and Kevin Ives
Around 4:00am on August 2 ...
said he would follow formal objections with legal action to prevent the grant of 'new' coal to IPRH. Most of the West Field coal reserves were allocated to Hazelwood in 1996 in the privatisation process. The ACF did not mount any legal objection to Hazelwood's allocated coal reserves.
Environment Victoria
Environment Victoria, formerly the Conservation Council of Victoria, is an Australian not-for-profit, charitable group and Victoria's peak non-government environment organisation. It works in collaboration with over 150 groups Australia-wide to p ...
had been campaigning for the closure of Hazelwood power station since 2005 and has pushed for alternative baseload generation through: biomass energy
Biomass is plant-based material used as a fuel for heat or electricity production. It can be in the form of wood, wood residues, energy crops, agricultural residues, and waste from industry, farms, and households. Some people use the terms bio ...
, wave energy
Wave power is the capture of energy of wind waves to do useful work – for example, electricity generation, water desalination, or pumping water. A machine that exploits wave power is a wave energy converter (WEC).
Waves are generated by wind p ...
, geothermal energy
Geothermal energy is the thermal energy in the Earth's crust which originates from the formation of the planet and from radioactive decay of materials in currently uncertain but possibly roughly equal proportions. The high temperature and pres ...
, new combined cycle
A combined cycle power plant is an assembly of heat engines that work in tandem from the same source of heat, converting it into mechanical energy. On land, when used to make electricity the most common type is called a combined cycle gas turb ...
gas fired generation plants, new cogeneration
Cogeneration or combined heat and power (CHP) is the use of a heat engine or power station to generate electricity and useful heat at the same time.
Cogeneration is a more efficient use of fuel or heat, because otherwise- wasted heat from elect ...
facilities, or increased imports of baseload electricity from interstate. In January 2005, the Clean Energy Future Group together with Environment Victoria released the report ''"Toward Victoria's Clean Energy Future"'', a plan to cut Victoria's Greenhouse gas emissions from electricity by 2010. It largely focused on cleaner alternatives to Hazelwood, and warned that continued support of coal-fired power development would lock the State into CO2 emissions that would dwarf any current proposed measures for reducing emissions. Following the 2014 Hazelwood mine fire, Environment Victoria worked with locals in the Latrobe Valley to ensure national attention to the pollution disaster by generating media coverage and urging an inquiry into the fire; releasing a report by Harvard University researchers about the hidden health costs of Hazelwood; appearing at both inquiries, cross-examining both government regulators and ENGIE executives and ensuring mine rehabilitation was on the agenda; and petitioning the mine owner to pay its firefighting bill to the Country Fire Authority. It afterwards entered into a campaign to improve coal mine rehabilitation efforts in Victoria and to ensure that mine rehabilitation bonds cover the actual costs of rehabilitation. in 2015, it started a petition signed by thousands of Victorians to call on the French government to phase out Hazelwood. In May 2016 the petition postcards were handed to French Environment Minister Segolene Royale on TV, which led to her response announcement that ENGIE would disengage from Hazelwood. Environment Victoria
Environment Victoria, formerly the Conservation Council of Victoria, is an Australian not-for-profit, charitable group and Victoria's peak non-government environment organisation. It works in collaboration with over 150 groups Australia-wide to p ...
currently closely follows the Hazelwood closure process, engaging with LaTrobe Valley communities and campaigning for a just transition
Just transition is a framework developed by the trade union movement to encompass a range of social interventions needed to secure workers' rights and livelihoods when economies are shifting to sustainable production, primarily combating climat ...
for the Valley.
Greenpeace
Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network, founded in Canada in 1971 by Irving Stowe and Dorothy Stowe, immigrant environmental activists from the United States. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth t ...
has pushed for a target of 20% clean energy for Victoria by 2020, expecting Hazelwood to have been retired, and to invigorate the Latrobe Valley as a clean energy hub.
In June 2009, an anonymous letter purporting to come from the Earth Liberation Front
The Earth Liberation Front (ELF), also known as "Elves" or "The Elves", is the collective name for autonomous individuals or covert cells who, according to the ELF Press Office, use "economic sabotage and guerrilla warfare to stop the exploitatio ...
was sent to the home of the CEO of the power station, Graeme York. The letter threatened to harm property, but did not threaten physical harm against any individuals or animals, despite being portrayed as such in commercial media due to the ELF activities overseas. ELF media spokesperson Jason Crawford defended the letter, but was unable to confirm that it had been sent by his organisation. The ELF letter was publicly condemned by Greenpeace, whose activists had engaged in nonviolent direct action at the plant six weeks earlier.
In late 2009, in response to the "Switch Off Hazelwood—Switch on Renewables" protests, the State of Victoria introduced penalties of one years' imprisonment for trespass, and two years' imprisonment for damaging, interfering, tampering, or attaching something to electricity infrastructure. This was legislated in the ''Electricity Industry Amendment (Critical Infrastructure) Act'' 2009 (Vic). The legislation has been welcomed by the power industry but criticised by green groups for supposedly criminalising non-violent civil disobedience, and has been compared to the lockdown powers of the ''Major Events Act'' 2009, which has been reportedly used to intimidate and disperse peaceful protesters in NSW.
Protest and civil disobedience at Hazelwood
On 11 August 2005 approximately 50 student environmentalists and Greenpeace volunteers unfurled a "Quit Coal" banner outside the plant while 12 activists occupied the brown coal pit, with two locking themselves to coal dredging equipment. This action drew worldwide attention to Hazelwood's CO2 emissions and their harmful impacts on the global climate.
On 6 November 2008 a group of seven people protesting against Australia's inaction on climate change walked onto the site of the Hazelwood power station and temporarily stopped one conveyor belt which carries coal from the mine to the power station. No production was lost due to adequate reserve bunker stocks of coal.
On 28 March 2009, a group of around 30 people took part in a rally at the power station ahead of the 2009 Earth Hour
Earth Hour is a worldwide movement organized by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). The event is held annually, encouraging individuals, communities, and businesses to turn off non-essential electric lights, for one hour, from 8:00 to 9:00 p.m. ...
. Two protesters chained themselves to a conveyor belt, briefly disrupting the supply of coal between the Hazelwood mine and the power plant. Again, electricity production was not disrupted from the power station despite large community outcry against the plant's operations. Three people were charged by Victoria Police for unspecified reasons. On 21 May 2009, 14 Greenpeace
Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network, founded in Canada in 1971 by Irving Stowe and Dorothy Stowe, immigrant environmental activists from the United States. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth t ...
members illegally entered the site and thought they had temporarily shut down coal production after chaining themselves to an excavator. That 'excavator' was out for routine maintenance and again, no production from either mine or station was lost. All seven were later charged by Victoria Police.
September 2009 rally
A large mass civil disobedience rally, the largest of its kind at any Australian power station, was undertaken by a network of organisations under the banner ''Switch Off Hazelwood''. On 13 September 2009, an estimated 500 people participated in near freezing conditions, with many camping nearby on the previous night on Hazelwood's own property beside the pondage. The rally was supported by organisations and groups including the Australian Conservation Foundation
The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) is Australia's national environmental organisation, launched in 1965 in response to a proposal by the World Wide Fund for Nature for a more co-ordinated approach to sustainability.
One high-profil ...
, Environment Victoria
Environment Victoria, formerly the Conservation Council of Victoria, is an Australian not-for-profit, charitable group and Victoria's peak non-government environment organisation. It works in collaboration with over 150 groups Australia-wide to p ...
and the Australian Greens
The Australian Greens, commonly known as The Greens, are a confederation of Green state and territory political parties in Australia. As of the 2022 federal election, the Greens are the third largest political party in Australia by vote and th ...
. Many of the participants were families and many were professional activists from Melbourne and interstate. In the week before the rally, a community meeting entitled "Clean energy or coal: What future for Latrobe jobs?" was held in the nearby town of Morwell
Morwell is a town in the Latrobe Valley area of Gippsland, in South-Eastern Victoria, Australia approximately 152 km (94 mi) east of Melbourne.
Morwell has a population of 14,389 people at the .
It is both the seat of local governme ...
. A large number of Hazelwood employees turned up to engage the protest organisers in a spirited debate about the reality of local jobs.
Organisers liaised with Victoria Police prior to and during the demonstration and publicly declared intentions to undertake "peaceful civil disobedience" by entering the grounds of the power station to place symbolic decommission notices on the plant building. The organisers also distributed guidelines asking participants to use "peaceful protest tactics" and held a number of training sessions on civil disobedience
Civil disobedience is the active, professed refusal of a citizen to obey certain laws, demands, orders or commands of a government (or any other authority). By some definitions, civil disobedience has to be nonviolent to be called "civil". Hen ...
and nonviolence
Nonviolence is the personal practice of not causing harm to others under any condition. It may come from the belief that hurting people, animals and/or the environment is unnecessary to achieve an outcome and it may refer to a general philosoph ...
prior to the event. The company responded by installing a temporary perimeter fence around the plant, with police helicopters and mounted police patrolling the site on Saturday evening. On the Sunday, police contingencies included a large number of officers on foot deployed within the perimeter fence. Many were issued with handheld video recorders and digital cameras and filmed people attending the rally. Police also deployed personnel in dingies in adjacent pondage lakes. A large number of activists also deployed video recording during the day. The rally began at 11am with speeches from Australian Greens
The Australian Greens, commonly known as The Greens, are a confederation of Green state and territory political parties in Australia. As of the 2022 federal election, the Greens are the third largest political party in Australia by vote and th ...
Scott Ludlam, Dave Sweeney from the Australian Conservation Foundation, author David Spratt and Melbourne based paediatrician Merryn Redenbach, amongst others, with several speakers stressing that protesters had no argument with police or plant workers and emphasising the organising group's calls for new wind turbine, solar water and insulation manufacturing capacity to be developed in the Latrobe Valley. The group then marched to the front of the power station, where several participants, including some dressed in mock Carbon Police outfits, climbed temporary fencing
Temporary fencing is a free standing, self-supporting fence panel. The panels are held together with couplers that interlock panels together making it portable and flexible for a wide range of applications. A common type of temporary fencing is ...
in an attempt to issue a "Community Decommission Order" to the power station.
Part of the crowd advanced on the temporary fencing and some participants and police clashed. 22 people were arrested during the rally, many for illegally trespassing on Hazelwood property after climbing the temporary fence. One person was also charged with assault after a police officer was allegedly "thrown backwards" while trying to stop a protester who was running towards the plant gates after scaling a temporary fence. Many protesters were officially charged and subsequently were recipients of diversion orders and various 'fines'. Many were able to donate their fines to charities of their choice which in some cases included their own activist groups. Supporters of the protest said that nonviolent direct action and civil disobedience was necessary because other avenues to achieve change, such as petitions, letters, rallies and community meetings, had been explored and exhausted. Environment groups had also lodged application to have the impact of greenhouse gas emissions considered in the Environmental Effects Statement which approved the access to Hazelwood's own coal fields in 2005.
The rally was featured in the main group of lead items on every Victorian television and radio news broadcast that same evening, and in Newspapers the following morning. Hazelwood had subsequently installed permanent fencing marking its property boundary.
October 2010 rally
Another rally took place at the station at 11am on 10 October 2010. Approximately 150 people attended, protesters were well behaved and there were no arrests., most travelling on the train from Melbourne. The rally coincided with the International Day of Climate Action. There were two training sessions held prior to the rally for participants in non-violent direct action, these occurred 18 September and 2 October at Trades Hall, Melbourne. In preparation for the rally, around 250 Police officers were stationed around the perimeter of the station. The Hazelwood business had erected several kilometres of permanent fencing in contrast to the previous year's rally, before which only temporary fencing was erected. The march caused local roads to be closed to the disruption of local community. The march to the station began at 11am and upon reaching the station's entrance, participants heard speeches from several speakers including Australian Greens
The Australian Greens, commonly known as The Greens, are a confederation of Green state and territory political parties in Australia. As of the 2022 federal election, the Greens are the third largest political party in Australia by vote and th ...
Eastern Victorian upper house candidate Samantha Dunn
Samantha Dunn (born 18 June 1964) is a former Australian politician. She was a Greens member of the Victorian Legislative Council, representing Eastern Metropolitan Region from 2014 to 2018. She lost her seat at the 2018 state election, and s ...
and Beyond Zero Emissions' Mark Ogge, with Rod Quantock
Rodney Edward Quantock (born 1948) is an Australian stand-up comedian and writer. Quantock is known for his pioneering style of stand-up comedy, which is often politically driven, as well as being the face of bed retailer Capt'n Snooze for man ...
as the MC. Protesters were not allowed access beyond the road reserve outside the station itself. Following speeches, participants then built the largest ever replica Solar Thermal plant.
ASIO surveillance of protestors
In 2012 the media revealed that ASIO
''Asio'' is a genus of typical owls, or true owls, in the family Strigidae. This group has representatives over most of the planet, and the short-eared owl is one of the most widespread of all bird species, breeding in Europe, Asia, North and S ...
had been increasing its activity in monitoring anti-coal protestors. Minister Martin Ferguson named the Hazelwood power station as a focus of key concern. The surveillance measures were described as "intolerable" by then Australian Greens leader, Bob Brown
Robert James Brown (born 27 December 1944) is a former Australian politician, medical doctor and environmentalist. He was a senator and the parliamentary leader of the Australian Greens. Brown was elected to the Australian Senate on the Tasman ...
.
Carbon capture trials
A two-year pilot trial of an algae
Algae (; singular alga ) is an informal term for a large and diverse group of photosynthetic eukaryotic organisms. It is a polyphyletic grouping that includes species from multiple distinct clades. Included organisms range from unicellular mic ...
photobioreactor image:Bioreaktor quer2.jpg, Moss bioreactor, Moss photobioreactor to cultivate mosses like ''Physcomitrella patens'' at the laboratory scale
A photobioreactor (PBR) refers to any cultivation system designed for growing Photoautotrophism, photoautotr ...
was undertaken at Hazelwood in the early 2000s by Energetix, a division of the Victor Smorgon Group. The apparatus housed algae that feed on emissions from the smoke stacks, which were then harvested and turned into biofuels. The technology Hazelwood used was developed at MIT
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the mo ...
and was licensed from Greenfuels. The trial was successful and has now concluded. However, the technology was found not to be commercially viable and was not pursued further.
In July 2009, International Power opened a carbon capture and storage
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) or carbon capture and sequestration is the process of capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) before it enters the atmosphere, transporting it, and storing it (carbon sequestration) for centuries or millennia. Usually th ...
demonstration plant at Hazelwood. The process takes emissions from the power station smoke stacks, extracts and uses a chemical process to turn it into calcium carbonate. The resulting solid can then be stored above ground or sold to industry. The trial facility captures 25 tonnes or 0.05% of daily emissions from the plant, with the possibility to scale up to 50 tonnes per day.
Gallery
See also
* List of power stations in Victoria
The following page lists all active and former power stations in Victoria, Australia. Power stations smaller than in nameplate capacity are not listed.
Loy Yang is the largest Power Station by capacity in Victoria.
Currently active
Coal f ...
* State Electricity Commission of Victoria
The State Electricity Commission of Victoria (SECV, ECV or SEC) is a government-owned electricity supplier in Victoria, Australia. It was set up in 1918, and by 1972 it was the sole agency in the state for electricity generation, transmission, ...
* List of least carbon efficient power stations
This is a list of least carbon efficient power stations in selected countries. Lists were created by the WWF and lists the most polluting power stations in terms of the level of carbon dioxide produced per unit of electricity generated. In genera ...
References
External links
GDF SUEZ Australian Energy - owner & operator
HPS at Environment Victoria
Hazelwood
CARMA database entry
Images of the September 2009 Rally
{{Mines in Victoria
Coal-fired power stations in Victoria (Australia)
Environment of Victoria (Australia)
Gippsland
Former power stations in Australia
1964 establishments in Australia
2017 disestablishments in Australia
Energy infrastructure completed in 1964