Blog #5: Macquarie Generation Power Station & Port Waratah Coal Services

After leaving the Hunter Valley YHA, Nigel brought us to a viewing area of a mining station called Mine 1. He had previously worked in the mining industry and gave some valuable insight on the process of mining.  He explained how the coal is located, dug up, brought down to the station and transferred along a conveyor belt  to each station where it is washed and packed up to be brought to places like Macquarie Generation Power Station and  Port Waratah Coal Services. The Power Station showed us the process of turning the coal into electricity ( picture below). These two services in the coal industry matter greatly to Australia’s economy. Port Waratah is the world’s largest coal handling productions. According to Brian, the speaker at Waratah, the company exports the coal to places like Japan (57%), China, South Korea, and Taiwan. They have a total capacity of 113 million tons per annum (Mtpa), which is handled by Kooragang and Carrington coal terminals. The coal industry helps Australia by providing jobs between the coal services and generation power stations and it also helps the global economy because other  there are other countries that  do not have these resources for energy. There is such a high demand for this resource that on the day that we went for a tour of Waratah's facility there were 42 ships waiting in the harbor to be filled with coal even though they were not scheduled to be filled for up to 2 weeks.

This whole industry is very interesting because Australia is one of the country’s most adversely affected by global climate change. However, it is the world’s largest exporter of coal. The article by Louise Hall talked about the issue and how “climate change campaigners say the real impact of the new fossil-fuel burning power stations has been hidden by a government desperate to avoid the power blackouts predicted within this decade”. This view of the government covering things up was also supported by Nigel at the first mining view point. The readings also showed the government’s response to such accusations arguing that “only coal or gas-fired generators could meet the state’s growing demand for electricity”. This is a valid point but does not excuse the practices that do not meet standards to help Australia’s climate. This is a tough issue facing Australia and it would be interesting to learn more about what kinds of things these companies should or could be doing to help create less of a negative impact on the climate from the mining group in their final presentation.