After 52 years of service, one of the largest coal power stations in New South Wales has shut its doors for good. As Liddel power station closes, solar officially overtakes coal as the nation’s biggest electricity generator. But the Liddel coal power station closure has many worried about blackouts - with The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) publicly stating that issues with power supply could arise as early as 2025.
The Energy Minister is quoted as saying that the transition to renewables needs to happen "faster" (ABC news). There is little doubt left that a sustainable and affordable future necessitates urgent adoption of renewables such as solar and wind power.
How are Australians affected now that Liddel Power Station has closed?
Liddel power station’s closure has led to strong reactions from government officials, leaders of the energy sector and the community. The greatest fear is the ensuing energy price rises, which would occur on top of the already scheduled slate of energy price rises for 2023 of up to 30%. All this while the cost of gas supply and mortgage repayments is the highest it’s been in years.
But beyond the immediate financial strain of a fallout between demand and supply for power, the second lurking fear is that of having sufficient energy supply to meet the country’s needs at all.
Few who have had to endure the experience of repeated blackouts need reminding how debilitating it is. Blackouts are a blow to the economy, and crippling to daily household function - from cooking, to doing laundry, to being able to charge your devices. Business will and must be prioritised over residential usage to keep the economy strong - and therefore, households are far more likely to bear the brunt of any electricity shortfalls.
Renewables remain an openly available solution, with governments pushing incentives such as STCs and rebates in the race to get homeowners to adopt solar power quickly. It’s now up to the public to take them up on it.
Record number of Australians already turning to renewable power
With the closure of the NSW Liddell coal power station, the uncertainty of the future of energy runs deep. Now more than ever, households are turning to renewable energy to gain independence and protection against rising power prices and power availability. In fact, as of 2023, Australia leads the world in solar adoption and following the closure of Liddel power station, rooftop solar has overtaken coal as “Australia's biggest source of generation capacity, as the rapid pace of new installations accelerates the decline of fossil fuel-fired power” (ABC news).
Will renewable energy fix the problem?
While the possibility of solar systems bring hope to those wishing to decrease their power bill and protect themselves from rising rates, most homeowners still fall into the allure of a “solar panel only” solution. Unfortunately, without government and power company support for feed in tariffs (the monetary rate you get back for selling your generated power to the grid), solar panels alone are barely enough to make a dent in even modest household energy usage. It’s for this reason that we at Reposit Power now only ever sell solar systems to customers that include both solar panels and a solar battery.
For a visual reference, below is a discouraging graph of how feed in tariff rates have fallen over time.
While once a reliable way to trade energy and still offset your household’s usage, Reposit Power no longer stands behind “solar panel only” solutions, especially in times of turbulence. Panels alone cannot store any excess solar power, and have always relied on healthy feed in tariff rates to recoup sufficient funds that they can buy back electricity from the grid later. This is vital for whenever the sun goes down and households once again become reliant on the grid. However, with electricity prices rising by leaps and bounds and feed in tariff returns steadily on the downturn, a more reliable solution is to equip your solar panels with a solar battery so that you can store any excess power generated during the day and use it to fully sustain your household’s energy needs around the clock - instead of selling it back to the grid and trying to buy it back at a premium later. This method is so effective that we use it to guarantee our customers will receive $0 bills, or we’ll pay it for you.
To maintain Australians’ faith in renewables, real protection from the turbulence of the electricity markets is needed, especially at this crucial time of insecure national electricity provision, and the tight squeeze on household mortgage repayments.
Reposit Power is working to close this gap and offer first-in-the-market, completely sustainable solutions to the financial strain put on households as well as the environmental and energy crises.
What is our solution?
As the only company in the country offering a full No Bill guarantee, Reposit supplies homes with their own solar and battery systems, complete with an AI-run Smart Controller to optimise power usage and system efficiency. If you install a solar and battery package with Reposit, you’ll instantly enjoy the complimentary safety net of our No Bill Power Plan - guaranteeing you $0 bills or we’ll pay them for you.
To learn more about Reposit No Bill, click here.
