‘Energy shortages’: Australia faces a looming power crunch as demand skyrockets

Macrobusiness Chief Economist Leith Van Onselen warns Australia could face severe energy shortages as electricity demand surges while the nation loses significant baseload coal generation. “Australia’s energy demand is going to skyrocket,” Mr Onselen told News24 host Peta Credlin. “We’ve got data centres; we’ve got projected very strong population growth over the next several decades, and also the government wants to electrify the entire vehicle fleet, and we're going to need more desalination plants. “We’ve got a massive ramp-up in energy demand, at the same time as you're going to lose a hell of a lot of base-load coal generation. “That just means we’re going to have energy shortages.”