IN the letters page today, a correspondent, Paul Hartcher, of The Junction, writes to thank me for "belling the cat" about hydrogen - a reference to some recent things I'd written, most notably last Wednesday when I'd pointed out the historic problems with harnessing hydrogen, not least of which was its tendency to penetrate and weaken steel and other metals.
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I'd also written that Snowy Hydro believed it could only run 15 per cent hydrogen, maximum, at its Kurri Kurri gas turbine, and then some years down the track, and not 30 per cent "from the start" as Labor had promised during the election.
As readers will presumably already know, Snowy Hydro announced yesterday morning that its Novocastrian CEO, Paul Broad, had resigned his position.
No reason was given but it seems Broad has also been belling the hydrogen cat.
IN THE NEWS:
My colleague Matthew Kelly broke the story online yesterday morning, having learned that Energy and Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen had lost confidence in Broad after a number of discussions that had taken place between the pair and their staffs over the hydrogen side of the Kurri plant.
Snowy Hydro put out a statement soon after saying Broad had resigned his position, but said nothing about why.
Bowen's office thanked him for his efforts, but gave no reasons for his resignation.
Snowy Hydro's chair is David Knox. His Snowy Hydro profile includes his previous roles as CEO of Santos and executive positions with BP, ARCO and Shell in a 30-year career "in the global oil and gas industry" that includes chairing the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association from 2011 to 2013.
If Bowen or the Snowy Hydro chair have lost confidence in Broad, it can't be because of his ability to do his job.
Broad began his career in 1974 as an economist with the federal treasury before moving to the (now defunct) Industries Assistance Commission.
Returning to Newcastle, he then ran Hunter Water before moving to Sydney Water in 1993, Energy Australia (before its privatisation) in 1997, then the private telco PowerTel in 2004, followed by a $500,000 a year job as CEO of Infrastructure NSW in 2011, before his CEO appointment at Snowy Hydro in 2013.
In my opinion, Bowen doesn't need a CEO. He needs a magician.
In that time Broad has worked easily with Labor and the Coalition, and has publicly at least retained the confidence of his ministers because he's been very good at what he does.
But as a proud Novocastrian raised when the city was still a company town more or less owned by BHP, he's kept a rough-edged persona - and there's no way to sugar coat this - built around a "no bullshit" approach regardless of his audience.
I'm not privy to conversations between Bowen and Broad over Kurri, but as Matthew Kelly and I reported this week, Snowy Hydro's problem is that Bowen's 30 per cent green hydrogen promise is not technically possible at this time.
In my opinion, Bowen doesn't need a CEO. He needs a magician.
The climate change debate is a global issue that for better or worse permeates every decision made by our governments.
Even if you believe "the science is settled", the mechanisms for dealing with it are far from concrete. We are literally making it up as a we go along because we have never been in this position before.
As a reporter, it is not my job to endorse one view - the one that says that catastrophic climate change will destroy us all - and ignore all other opinions.
Nor is it my job to uncritically report on every person who claims to have built a better mousetrap.
As I have stated repeatedly in these columns, my pre-journalistic career with the Electricity Commission gave me a basic engineering understanding of the power industry that I use to filter everything that comes before me.
Take the size of the power grid needed to go renewable.
The sun only shines 12 hours a day on average so a solar-based grid needs to produce a full day's power needs in half a day. It's basic maths.
A few weeks ago I quoted NSW Minerals Council chief Stephen Galilee as saying the consensus view was we needed a grid three to four times the current size.
This week, a new think-tank called Net Zero Australia, linked to University of Melbourne, University of Queensland and America's prestigious Princeton University released its first report, a pretty detailed document that says we need a grid 40 times the size of the one we have now!
And investment of $100 billion a year, absolute minimum, every year between now and 2050, to get anywhere near it.
And for hydrogen to play a role in that renewable grid, we need to overcome some very serious technical and engineering problems.
Yes, they may well be overcome, but the "green" hydrogen that Labor wants to use at Kurri does not exist in this country, or certainly not in commercial quantities.
Indeed, on current time frames Kurri's turbines will be installed before the gas line is built, so the plant will have to run on diesel!
In the meantime, power company AGL has confirmed it is looking for a new CEO and a new chairman after plans to split the firm in two were ditched.
A "broad" challenge for an experienced executive?
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Ian Kirkwood
Reporting journalist at the Newcastle Herald since 1987. Editorial writer, general reporter, industrial relations, industry and coal.
Reporting journalist at the Newcastle Herald since 1987. Editorial writer, general reporter, industrial relations, industry and coal.
