Scott Ludlam (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Acting Deputy President. You will have a chance to speak, Senator Boswell, and I am so looking forward to hearing your contribution.

Now the LCOE calculations that appear to have completely baffled Senator Boswell's colleague Senator Edwards are just a standard way of assessing one energy technology against another. If you are going to compare the lifetime capital and operating costs of an energy technology in a way that is fair—you can compare a nuclear power station, coal, gas and various forms of renewable energy technologies, new and mature—then you need a metric like the levelised cost of electricity, otherwise you are not operating on a level playing field.

It is a shame that Senator Edwards came in here expressing his bafflement at how these calculations are made, because they are entirely standard in the energy industry. What they tell us is that a new wind farm can supply electricity at a cost of $80 per megawatt hour, compared with $143 or $116 from a new coal or gas fired power station. Senator Boswell, 80 is lower, is less, than 143—

Senator Boswell interjecting—