..cost of renewable energy.against. current energy supply, largely coal dominated, may also be costing us…The policy wonks at the International Monetary Fund have been trying to shed some light on that in recent times. Back in May they released a paper projecting that this year the world would subsidise energy consumption – mostly coal, gas and petroleum – by an astonishing $6.6 trillion…All up the IMF projected Australia would subsidise coal, petroleum and gas consumption by $41 billion in 2015…The IMF finds amid total $41 billion Australian subsidy to coal, gas and petroleum energy use in 2015, global warming and air pollution represents about $25 billion…Other work previously attempted to break down these types of costs to individual power plants. In April a study by two Harvard fellows estimated the social cost of the Hazelwood power station in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley was $900 million a year.

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