Size and worth

Brown coal is a cheap and easily accessible source of fossil fuel for power generation in Australia, and Victoria has a plentiful supply.

It is for these reasons that brown coal power generation underpins Victoria's energy supply, and makes a significant contribution to local and state economies.

Coal mining and electricity supply activities contribute more to the Latrobe Valley region‟s total economic output, regional exports, and value-added to Gross Regional Product (the value of the goods and services produced in the area) than any other industry sector. Its direct contribution to the total Gross Regional Product of the Latrobe area has been estimated at more than 20 per cent.

Estimates say that there is enough economically viable coal in the Latrobe Valley to last between 550 and 800 years at the current rate of consumption.

Total expenditure by coal mining and electricity supply activities on intermediate goods and services from within the region is estimated at $420M pa. In direct terms the coal sector is estimated to generate 6.9 per cent of the region's total output.

Once flow-on impacts are taken into consideration, it is estimated that the sector stimulates up to 10.4 per cent of regional output. For the "electricity supply" sector this is estimated to be as high as 38.4 per cent.