UK withdraws life support for Solar Industry and 94% of orders disappear

Solar subsidies were scrapped in the UK in April, and new solar installations promptly dropped from 79MW a month to 5MW last month, in a 94% fall.

Home solar panel installations fall by 94% as subsidies cut

Jillian Ambrose, The Guardian:

The Labor party accused the government of “actively dismantling” the UK’s solar power industry…

…showing that they don’t understand what “actively” means. If the government was active, solar panel owners would be charged for using the grid as back up, and asked to pay back the subsidy. They could use a feed-in-tariff equal to wholesale coal rates (4c KWh) to pay down their debt. Perhaps one day they’ll compensate other users for voltage surges, damaged equipment, and higher electricity bills too.

It’s not just English, Labor is also struggling to understand “supply and demand”:

Standing in for Jeremy Corbyn, Long-Bailey said solar power had the potential to cut household bills and carbon emissions while creating thousands of jobs.

Studies show every green job created caused two useful jobs to go away, or possibly even four. In Scotland the VERSO study showed for each Green Job created, 3.7 were lost. When electricity costs more, every other business in the country makes less, does less or has less money to pay workers.

“But the government, for some reason, appears to be determined to kill it off, while continuing to cheerlead for fracking,” [Long-Bailey] said.

The Solar industry was a zombie business from the get-go. How can the government kill something that never had a life of its own?

[David Lidington, the Cabinet Office minister] said: “There are 400,000 jobs already in low-carbon businesses and their supply chains throughout the UK and scope for much larger low-carbon growth to support up to 2m jobs in the future.

What’s worse than one green job — 2 million green jobs. Lidington is promising to fix the climate and create green jobs, but he should be explaining why real jobs are so much more useful than green ones.

REFERENCE

VERSO 2011:  Richard Marsh and Tom Miers, Worth the Candle? The Economic Impact of Renewable Energy Policy in Scotland and the UK(Kirkcaldy, Scotland: Verso Economics, March 2011), www.versoeconomics.com/verso-0311B.pdf (accessed March 17, 2011)

h.t GWPF

 

 

 

9.9 out of 10 based on 73 ratings

119 comments to UK withdraws life support for Solar Industry and 94% of orders disappear

  • #
    John F. Hultquist

    Maybe the UK Gov. needs the money to send to the Green Climate Fund of the UN. Actually, I haven’t read if anyone other than Obama ever gave any money.
    Meanwhile, the UK is thinking of flushing most of its wealth down the loo as it tries to reach zero emissions by 2050.

    300

  • #
    TdeF

    What’s odd are the 4% who still think solar makes any sort of sense. I suppose they felt left out or there was peer pressure. Or perhaps remote island locations? As for payin rates, they are fraud too. Industrial and domestic distribution are not connected and solar must be the most expensive swimming pool heater ever invented. It was always stealing from the poor to indulge the rich, fully supported by Labor.

    250

  • #
    PeterS

    The penny is starting to drop and more and more people are seeing through the CAGW scam for what it really is – just a scam although it is also said it’s a deliberate attempt by certain groups to destroy the West, some because they either hate it for ideological reasons and some who are enemies on the attack for ulterior motives. What disturbs me though is our duly elected government is still too soft on renewables and not doing much to encourage coal power apart from talk talk talk. We need action to prevent the light we now see coming towards us at breakneck speed becoming a freight train crashing the economy, which by the way has already started if anyone has noticed. When the US nose dives in the years ahead we will be stuffed well and truly. Let’s just hope the US stays strong for many years to come because we are still doing as much as is needed to destroy our economy on our own accord. We are still stumbling too close to the cliff in spite of Australia making the right decision not to let Shorten become our PM who would have pushed us over for sure. Morrison better take some action soon. He recently stated in response to those in the Pacific who claim we need to do more on climate change “in order to step you have to show up” I would do more and say we are going to step down on climate change and grow up to reality. If they don’t like that approach then they can continue to let China take them over who are spitting in the face of the climate change story. Their choice.

    340

    • #
      el gordo

      Angus Taylor said he would drop subsidies next year and not replace it, so I’m betting on a 94% drop.

      210

      • #
        Robber

        But Qld and Vic govts both still have 50% targets supported by subsidies for solar.

        110

        • #
          PeterS

          In that case let the people decide if their respective state governments deserve to stay in power. As long as NSW keeps stepping away from climate change nonsense we should see a distinct difference in the direction of the respective economies. The socialist states can suffer while NSW keeps booming. The hip pocket is far more sensitive than any alleged climate change catastrophe some 20-100 years away.

          190

      • #
        PeterS

        Good. It should be brought forward to now but I suppose we can wait a little longer.

        90

        • #
          • #
            PeterS

            I hope the penny makes such a loud sound the scam artists scurry away like cockroaches, probably to try and dream up another scam. I prefer though they were caught and imprisoned for life along with other scam artists like Bernard Lawrence Madoff.

            110

            • #
              Dennis

              They have an Electric Vehicle scam in planning with the usual suspects in politics ready to cooperate.

              The Tesla EV marketing plan for the future is a giveaway, they want to lease vehicles and when the leasing period ends recondition them and recycle them converted into autonomous taxi cabs. Former PM Turnbull’s Coalition Government set aside $300 million for leasing firms to encourage EV leasing by fleet operators.

              During the 1990s the company I managed had a medium size vehicle fleet located at various head and branch operations around this nation and we owned all of our vehicles. It was suggested by board members that we consider leasing in future to free up the money invested and to lower operating costs. The model presented was a larger company that had changed from owning to leasing vehicles at the time. We investigated leasing with a couple of leasing firms and could not justify the extra costs. When the report was presented to the board a couple of directors, doubting our report, recommended that a visit to the other company should be organised for discussions, so that they could show us how to profit from leasing. They could not fault our figures.

              And then we realised what they had done, like our company their company’s capital expenditure over a certain amount required capital expenditure board approval, but leasing new vehicles was not. We noted in that company’s carpark that the fleet consisting of a Ford Fairlane sedan and Ford Falcon Ghia sedans for senior executives had been replaced with BMWs, much more expensive vehicles. And when we advised our board the directors who recommended that we consider leasing remained very quiet.

              My point is that the transition to EV is another wealth creation scheme for investors who want governments to follow the renewable energy model and penalise internal combustion engine vehicles to get them off the roads and subsidise replacement with EV. Add the profits to be made tearing down fossil fuel distribution and storage infrastructure and replacing it with recharging points. Maybe shipping redundant ICEV to third world countries, as was done with Holden cars shipped to Indonesia during the 1970s/1980s?

              Government should not penalise consumers by backing private sector business ventures.

              170

              • #
                yarpos

                Nothing wrong with leasing, just make them novated leases so the employee effectively owns the lease, the car and the problems. To the company its just a part of salary.

                40

              • #
                Dennis

                Yarpos, to quote a company director who commented when we explained our position on leasing, in reply to another director who still did not get it, that hire purchase, leasing are for businesses that cannot afford to pay cash.

                It is obvious that leasing firms are not charities.

                50

          • #
            Dennis

            The “Born Lucky” renewable industry investors will be very unhappy.

            Game over.

            90

    • #
      theRealUniverse

      I think they are seeing it hit their pockets more than realizing it is the scam it is through any real knowledge of scientific methods.

      50

    • #
      Mal

      Finally, a little ray of sunshine!

      40

  • #
    Yonniestone

    94% isn’t a drop its a total collapse, crony capitalism comrades.

    240

    • #

      Yes, when has any endeavour that’s been propped up by subsidies or outside assistance not failed in the long run?

      190

      • #
        ivan

        I would go further and say that any green dream that will not exist without government money support will always fail if the government money stops. The government money support includes laws for preferential support as well as actual money for said green dreams.

        190

  • #

    I sometimes confer with the pixies at the bottom of my bamboo grove and they tell me that various visiting elves have spoken of mysterious entities called “green jobs”. We know these entities are around because we see the evidence of their diet: green jobs eat billions of dollars and skeletise whole industries while leaving behind strange monuments such as wave-gen plants and giant whirlygigs that cause mischief in the power grid. So we know they must exist. It’s just hard to glimpse an actual green job.

    That’s all I can find out for the moment. If I can catch a leprechaun he might know more.

    270

    • #
      Graeme No.3

      Carefull mosomoso:
      You will be hounded by the leprechaun protection society which will spring into existance at the mere mention of your threat.

      180

      • #
        Bill in Oz

        Graeme has the Liberal party here in South Australia
        Been inflltrated by green pixies from the bottom of the garden ?
        maybe that would explain Marshall’s commitment
        To continuing the renewable scam economy
        created by Weatherall.
        We sacked that idiot hoping for better
        But got an only slightly modified version in his place.

        150

        • #
          MudCrab

          To expand on Bill’s post, the SA (Liberal) Government is currently pushing forward with their intention to fund battery packs for home solar operators. This, apparently, will help reduce power bills, something the Government claims is an election promise they intend to deliver on.

          So great news* if you already have a solar system. The government is going to offer you money to increase your investment. How this is intended to reduce the cost of electricity across the state is not actually documented. I can see how a solar battery system might reduce the USE of ‘outside’ power for the household in question, but the translation of this reduced power demand into a reduction in the cost of electricity is something I have yet to see documented, most likely because it won’t.

          Any readers in South Australia might like to politely quiz their local MPs on this one.

          120

          • #
            Bill in Oz

            Or even impolitely Mudcrab !

            20

          • #
            Graeme No.3

            Bill & Mud Crab.

            The subsidised batteries are intended to get people feeling grateful to the State Government. That will last until the first blackout after the batteries run down, or the inverter breaks down or even if the battery doesn’t work (because it caught fire and burnt the house down?).
            So all the problems of renewables will now recoil on the heads of those silly enough to push them. There are some in the party stupid enough to believe that even more renewables are better. Bear in mind that many of them have been selected by the Birmingham-Pyne faction.
            “Mr Stevens — a moderate ally of Mr Pyne — won preselection with more than 200 of the 300 votes on offer over female conservatives Deepa Mathew and Joanna Andrew.”

            A battery might pay for itself if charged at off-peak rates or even better with a generator and leaving your solar feeding into the grid at daytime. That way you avoid being charged at a higher rate, still get the subsidy and have a reserve for the coming blackouts. If you don’t get a high subsidy rate for your solar why install it?

            40

          • #
            John in Oz

            I did contact my local member (Dan Cregan) who sent my message on to Dan van Holst Pellekan.

            The response was the usual drivel outlining the Liberal’s ‘major initiatives’:
            – distributed energy resources programs including the home batteries
            – investment in demand management, demand aggregation. Demand response was for the benefit of both consumers and the grid (i.e. turn off your appliances when the wind isn’t blowing. Good idea – NOT)
            – acceleration of the NSW grid interconnector . Another promise that this will put ‘downward pressure’ on wholesale prices

            He made sure to note that the AEMC Review included “also point the way ahead – so we can address challenges and capture the opportunities of the renewable revolution while driving costs down to consumers”

            Just like Labor promised for years, ‘downward pressure’ on prices is a common mantra but we never see lower prices.

            I’m still thinking about my nest missive to them to keep the pressure up

            70

          • #
            yarpos

            I would do that in VIC if it was subsidised enough and came with a fireproof box. I wont hold my breath.

            40

          • #
            ivan

            Oh yes, batteries. The problem is they are not all they what they are talked up – there are many problems with fast charging as well as the fire hazard.

            https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/06/05/liion_battery_scan_charging/

            https://purdue.edu/newsroom/releases/2019/Q2/most-detailed-x-ray-image-of-batteries-yet-to-reveal-why-they-still-arent-good-enough.html

            Something not talked about in green circles or by battery manufacturers, they just want to sell batteries.

            30

  • #
    WXcycles

    … but he should be explaining why real jobs are so much more useful than green ones.

    Great point Jo, one that needs to be hammered a lot more, IMHO.

    170

  • #
    Kinky Keith

    “UK withdraws life support for Solar Industry and 94% of orders disappear”.

    Wow!!

    How good is Reality?

    190

    • #
      ivan

      When you are only in it for the money reality always brings you down to earth with a good solid bump.

      90

    • #
      Another Ian

      But the science is settled! There is no connection!! (/s)

      70

      • #
        PeterS

        Correct. After all if there is a connection then how come the major countries all over the world are turning a blind eye to the climate change scare? It’s a hoax and a scam all in one. Time for Morrison to call it for what it is. The pretence has to end now.

        160

    • #
      yarpos

      How many times has this been echoed in EV sales? when subsidies evaporate so do the buyers.

      60

  • #
    el gordo

    ‘The NSW government has defied Canberra by demanding the resurrection of Malcolm Turnbull’s dumped National Energy Guarantee as part of … ‘

    I can’t get behind Murdoch’s paywall, but reading between the line it looks like premier gladys has lost her script.

    60

    • #
      PeterS

      Yet another reason for Morroson to come out and call the climate change scare for what it really is – a scam. The pretence has to end now. Strike while the iron is hot and keep the momentum going. Otherwise he will find the leaches of the global warming industry eating away his chances of another victory. He will need to re-educate a lot of people who still believe in the climate change nonsense. Reality bites.

      170

      • #
        el gordo

        We may have to wait for the Queensland election to sort the wheat from the chaff, the conservatives should run on Hele and drop subsidies, then it’ll be obvious the people have spoken.

        By the way there is a story in the Abc this morning about the Chinese ships in Sydney Harbour, but going to the link gets you this: SORRY, PAGE NOT FOUND

        Our biggest trading partner is influential.

        110

      • #
        noisemarine

        Morrison won’t do anything even if he wanted to (which I doubt). He saw what happened to Abbott, and Abbott had a huge mandate.

        Given it was really only Qld that kept him in the big chair, he knows a large part of the rest of Australia actually wants this rubbish.

        As a slight aside, now the Chinese are sniffing around the Solomons. The Solomon government are demanding we take action on CC as part of them sticking with us. Do you see Morrison standing up to the alarmists, or playing along?

        120

        • #
          PeterS

          I like to give Morrison some more time but he does need to act quickly and surely sooner rather than later. One event that will call him out one way or another is the Liddell Power Station. It will be a great test for him and his government. He keeps warning the company but when it comes time for Liddell to carry out their plan to shut it down Morrison will have no alternative but to step in and do something very significant. If he doesn’t then he will expose himself as yet another fake politician.

          80

        • #
          el gordo

          Our foreign aid budget incorporates CC, so he will probably give more weight to infrastructure, such as local cyclone shelters.

          China has no ambitions in the Pacific and are amused when the US Alliance gets all hot and bothered. Beijing says clean up your backyard and we jump to attention. Quality of life matters.

          40

    • #
      Graeme No.3

      The shot was fired by Matt Keen, the NSW Energy Minister. He is from the ‘moderate’ side and sounds quite confused; talking about maybe new coal fired generation to replace Liddell, or upgrades to existing stations or actually trying to get more gas, while being in favour of reducing emissions.

      Were he a conservative I would say he was ‘flying a kite’ about a new coal fired station disguised as keeping the lights on, but as he would be a Photios approved Lib. I think he is just babbling.

      60

      • #
        el gordo

        ‘… or actually trying to get more gas …’

        Due diligence would say its not a good idea, most of it has already been sold to multinationals and we are restrained by ‘sovereign risk’.

        Unless its a manoeuvre by premier gladys to lift the ban on fracking, which may work. Yep, they are flying kites.

        20

      • #
        el gordo

        ‘The shot was fired by Matt Keen …’

        After the Coalition was reelected in NSW the premier combined environment and energy, this is a diabolical nasty act.

        20

    • #
      David-of-Cooyal-in-Oz

      G’day e g,
      The SMH has a story on this in its “Latest” section.
      Doesn’t sound promising to me:
      http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/nsw-energy-minister-takes-swipe-at-morrison-government-over-climate-policy-20190607-p51vj7.html?btis

      Cheers
      Dave B

      30

      • #
        el gordo

        Thanks David, this looks grim and my dream of a very fast train simply vanishes. Politicians are not to be trusted.

        30

  • #
    pat

    lots more at the link – read all:

    6 Jun: ABC: Solar innovators forced to seek clearer skies than clouded pilot site of Forbes
    ABC Central West By Donal Sheil
    After years developing world-leading solar power technology in drought-stricken New South Wales, a company has decided to build its new commercial solar plant elsewhere due, in part, to a lack of sun.
    When solar energy innovators Vast Solar began research in the western NSW town of Forbes in 2011, council general manager Steve Loane was optimistic the city would one day be a regional renewable hotspot…

    When he learned the company would be looking outside of Forbes to build its first fully commercial concentrated solar thermal power (CSP) plant though, it was disappointing…
    Boasting a number of large traditional solar farms, Mr Loane said Forbes’ future as a renewable destination was still bright despite still relying on conventional power generation.
    “The traditional methods of power generation are still here for some time into the future, until such time as we can get some baseload power from these alternative sources,” he said…

    (CEO Craig Wood) said the decision not to build in the drought-ravaged town of Forbes was influenced by a number of factors in addition to climate.
    “It’s also partly determined by the amount of support that will be available from State Governments, the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, and also the Clean Energy Finance Corporation,” he said…READ ALL
    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-06-06/solar-innovators-forced-to-seek-clearer-skies-than-forbes/11176968

    70

    • #
      pat

      according to the ABC piece, Vast Solar is considering locations in Queensland (and SA), so they’ll be watching how this pans out:

      6 Jun: RenewEconomy: Queensland court to hear government appeal on Friday on solar rule rejection
      by Giles Parkinson
      The Queensland government is making good on its promise to appeal last week’s Supreme Court ruling that declared its controversial “solar rules” invalid, with the case going to the Court of Appeal in Brisbane on Friday.
      Australia’s large-scale solar industry – both ground mounted and rooftop – breathed a sigh of relief on May 30 after the rushed and widely criticised Queensland government solar rule change that had slammed the brakes on the state’s PV development pipeline was overturned by the Supreme Court.

      The rule – introduced on May 13 – required only licensed electricians to mount and fix solar panels on projects of 100kW and over…READ ON
      https://reneweconomy.com.au/queensland-court-to-hear-government-appeal-on-friday-on-solar-rule-rejection-40368/

      60

    • #
      Bill in Oz

      Bugger they want to come here to South Australia.
      ‘Clear skies’ be buggered.
      They want our money
      By compelling us to buy their expensive unreliable power

      120

  • #
    PeterS

    The Solar industry was a zombie business from the get-go. How can the government kill something that never had a life of its own?

    The obvious answer is even zombies have to be terminated.

    100

  • #
    Hatrack

    So basically the company couldn’t get enough subsidised money to supply subsidised power. Bvgger.

    120

  • #

    Question: Who is going to pay all those new green workers?
    OBVIOUS answer: Energy users who get no more energy for all that added money they have to pay.

    thanks
    JK

    140

    • #
      Dennis

      The “green workers” could be employed on new irrigation farmland crossing from the Old River Irrigation Area in Western Australia through Northern Territory and into North Queensland, an area roughly the size of Western Europe identified by the CSIRO, just add water they reported.

      New dams on northern rivers to harvest some of the wet season rains, dams on the rivers Queensland Labor locked away from development with their Wild Rivers Legislation that was overturned by Prime Minister Abbott and Queensland LNP Premier Newman. The new dams (Australia wide) and irrigation farming northern development the Coalition had in their 2013 Federal Election policies until PM Abbott was replaced in 2015.

      70

  • #
    TdeF

    I read of government ‘subsidies’. Lady Thatcher would roll in her grave.
    There are no subsidies. The government is not spending someone else’s money.

    It is your money, stolen from you in the case of the RET. By far the world’s greatest and hidden carbon tax, $200 a ton for coal, $400 a ton for natural gas.

    Repeal the RET and electricity prices would more than halve over night. I said this to Tony Abbott. It it true. It is also legislated theft by the Federal government, not a tax. They have no right to order electricity retailers to pay cash for worthless carbon LGC and STC certificates. It is these paying for middle class solar panels. Payin rates are another abomination. Cash to the middle classes for nothing useful and added to your electricity bill, with a markup.

    It’s not about saving the planet. It’s about stealing from the poor and destroying Western manufacturing and competitiveness. There are two aims of a modern communist insurgency, control of communications which means the internet or NBN and control of electricity which is the means of production. Both are well underway and even the left of politics is now screaming at the raids by the AFP.

    The swamp is attacking Australia, a socialist insurgency based in Canberra, legislating their control of everything. As in Brussells and Washington and Moscow and Paris and Bonn.

    There is no government money. It’s all theft.

    240

  • #
    Bodge it an scarpa

    Apologies for being off topic, but could someone point me in the direction where I can find the article that exposes and explains the myth where 97% of scientists agree MMGW is due to mankind’s CO2 emmissions ? Cheers.

    50

    • #

      ” where I can find the article that exposes and explains the myth where 97% of scientists”

      Here is my list of debunkings of the 97% lie: http://www.debunkingclimate.com/97percen_%20of_scientists.html

      Here is the one honest survey that I know of: http://www.debunkingclimate.com/AMSSurvey.html

      thanks
      JK

      100

      • #
        Bodge it an scarpa

        Apologies for being off topic, but could someone point me in the direction where I can find the article that exposes and explains the myth where 97% of scientists agree MMGW is due to mankind’s CO2 emmissions ? Cheers.
        Thankyou Jim.
        Hey! I have accidently stumbled on a way to add to and edit my post here.
        Wish I knew how I achieved it lol.

        50

        • #
          robert rosicka

          Bodge the best debunk of the 97% consensus that I’ve seen is Ian Plimer ,don’t have a link but he nails this garbage .
          I was amazed when I heard it was only 77 scientists and even then the way Cook went about getting his 97% is frordulent at best .
          Over ten thousand scientists asked to participate in the survey , and 3126 odd bothered to participate but Cook weeded out 77 who had written papers on the subject , from what I can tell none were asked any questions .
          Cook had the abstract of their research papers sampled and then rated .
          The figures I’ve used are the ones I believe correct but there are many different versions .

          40

    • #
      PeterS

      Please do remember that coming to the truth is not by consensus but by interpreting the evidence correctly regardless of what the majority think.

      70

  • #

    Since when did ‘doing something’ become all just about jobs, or saving people a small amount of money.

    Rooftop solar supposedly creates some jobs, but as shown in Joanne’s text, and pretty much a widely known fact, the jobs created are lost elsewhere, plus extra jobs are lost.

    And the money supposedly saved is in the form of subsidies at fitment, and that’s other people’s money given to rooftop installers, and taken off the cost to the homeowner, after the installer has ‘bumped up’ the price a little, so installers are making the money, and in the long run, the homeowner has virtually paid status quo. Then there’s the FIT, again paid with other people’s money. To cover that subsidy, and the FIT, costs are put up elsewhere to recover that money, the ‘no free lunch’ principle. So, in effect, there is no real saving, anywhere.

    My idea is that you ‘do something’ that actually works in the first place.

    Ask nine out of ten homeowners with rooftop solar when their panels are supplying to the home, and when they are not, and they couldn’t tell you with any accuracy. The homes are still connected to the grid, so there’s always ‘backup’ insurance, so the homeowner thinks his panels are delivering power to his home, or supplying back to the grid, and ask that homeowner how much IS actually being sent back to the grid, and when it is happening.

    The WHOLE of rooftop solar power in its totality here across ALL of Australia will generate power a little less in amount than TWO of Bayswater’s four Units. (or two of any of those 48 coal fired Units across Australia)

    That’s from MILLIONS of tiny little installations spread across the whole of Australia, not two Units at ONE of those 14 power plants across the same area.

    Have those two Units closed at any plant because of all those solar panels? NO!

    Have those two Units even eased back on their power generation? NO!

    Will they ever close, solely because of all those panels? NO!

    Has the price of electricity gone down because of those solar panels? NO!

    Tony.

    370

    • #
      TdeF

      Has carbon dioxide gone down because of all those solar panels? NO!
      Has carbon dioxide gone down because of all those windmills? NO!

      So why are we having to pay for it all? Cui Bono? Not us.

      210

    • #
      yarpos

      Much of the renewables industry is a glowing example of the difference between being busy (doing something) and being effective/useful.

      80

  • #
    pat

    what to make of all the “solar minimum” coverage, almost all of it in the UK MSM?

    6 Jun: Yahoo UK: The sun has ‘gone blank’ as activity hits ‘solar minimum’
    by Rob Waugh
    Dr Tony Philips, space weather expert at Nasa, wrote last month: ‘Sunspots are becoming scarce. Very scarce.
    ‘So far in 2018, the sun has been blank almost 60 per cent of the time, with whole weeks going by without sunspots. Today’s sun is typical of the featureless solar disk…
    But over the past couple of years, they’ve been fading – and are sliding towards a low point expected in 2019/20…

    4 Jun: Metro UK: The sun has ‘reached solar minimum’ and its surface is ominously calm
    by Jasper Hamill
    This solar slowdown often causes temporary cooling in Earth’s atmosphere…
    ***Climate change deniers often hail this cooling as evidence that the heating of our world is about to go into reverse.
    Sadly, this is very unlikely to be true because the sun follows an 11-year cycle, meaning it will simply spring back to life in the coming years…
    When the sun leaps back from its minimum after roughly 11 years, we’re likely to see more and more ferocious explosions on the sun…

    6 Jun: iNews UK: Solar minimum: what the phenomenon means, and how it could affect weather on Earth
    The Sun has been without spots for over a fortnight
    by Alex Nelson
    There’s absolutely nothing to worry about down here on the planet’s surface – the Solar Minimum isn’t going to plunge us into a long, dark winter or anything like that.
    In fact, the Solar Minimum will likely be a welcome thing; as the Earth’s atmosphere slightly cools, our run of sweltering, record-breaking summer temperatures may come to an end.
    ***Climate change deniers often use the lower average temperatures seen during Solar Minimum as evidence that the heating of our world is reversing.
    But that’s not the case, and thanks to the Sun’s 11-year cycle of activity, Solar Maximum will be here again before you know it…

    UK Express has had a multitude of articles, including the one I posted on Jo’s “Midweek Unthreaded”,

    5 Jun: UK Express: Climate change SHOCK: Solar minimum could help SLOW global warming

    6 Jun: UK Express: Solar minimum is HERE: How past solar activity saw temperatures PLUNGE around the world
    A SOLAR minimum of the Sun has begun and with it comes the risk of global temporaries(sic) plummeting for years at a time, space agency NASA has shockingly said.
    by Sebastian Kettley
    During a solar maximum, sunspots and solar flares spike in intensity, producing warmer temperatures up and down the planet.
    During a solar minimum, the opposite is true, with fewer sunspots and longer coronal holes opening in the Sun…

    4 Jun: UK Express: Space Weather DISCOVERY: Sun’s COOLING DOWN linked to planetary alignment
    SOLAR minimums and solar maximums are determined by an alignment of planets in the solar system affecting the Sun’s magnetic field, it has been revealed.
    By Sean Martin
    The Sun can effect the climate on Earth, with a prolonged solar minimum once leading to a “mini ice age”.
    The Maunder minimum, which saw seven decades of freezing weather, began in 1645 and lasted through to 1715, and happened when sunspots were exceedingly rare.
    During this period, temperatures dropped globally by 1.3 degrees Celsius leading to shorter seasons and ultimately food shortages.
    NASA explains on its website: “All weather on Earth, from the surface of the planet out into space, begins with the Sun.
    “Space weather and terrestrial weather (the weather we feel at the surface) are influenced by the small changes the Sun undergoes during its solar cycle.”…

    3 Jun: UK Express: Weather warning: Solar minimum is here and ‘it is a bigger threat than CLIMATE CHANGE’
    AN UNSTOPPABLE cooling of our Sun, known as the solar minimum, is about to trigger a drop in global temperatures – and is considered by some a bigger threat to our planet than man-made climate change…

    on Jo’s previous thread, I also posted,

    6 Jun: Daily Mail: Have we reached solar minimum? The sun has been without spots for 16 consecutive days – and it could lead to magnetic storms that interrupt air travel, satellites and power grids

    the only non-UK coverage I came across, Sputnik, which uses the term “sceptics”, not “deniers”:

    6 Jun: SputnikNews: Solar HAVOC: Sun’s Current State May WRECK Air Travel, Earth Satellites – Reports
    To illustrate the general cooling that the solar minimum typically brings about, given the sun’s decreasing heating capacity, NASA cited an incident from between 1650 and 1710, arguing that Earth plunged into “a deep freeze” at the time. As Earth swung to a high number of sunspots in 2014, with the latter sometimes reaching the size of the planet Jupiter, NASA weighed in, estimating that the minimum would strike from 2019 to 2020.
    ***Climate change sceptics, meanwhile, eagerly refer to the solar minimum as an argument, hailing the cooling as evidence that the allegedly uncontrolled heating of our planet is showing signs of reversing…

    50

    • #
      yarpos

      Preparation for ” the sun is saving us from AGW, but dont be fooled the threat is still there and will be back!!!” eternal vigilence is required and eternal spending now we can move it out another 11 years without question, and the dance goes on.

      30

  • #
    pat

    behind paywall:

    UK net zero emissions target will ‘cost more than £1tn’
    Financial Times – 6 Jun 2019
    Philip Hammond has warned Theresa May that her plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050 will cost the UK over £1tn. … less money would be available for schools, police, hospitals and other areas of of public spending…
    He also warned that the target would render some industries “economically uncompetitive” without huge government subsidies…
    He added that reaching the net zero target would require heating to be almost entirely decarbonised, leaving households having to replace gas boilers with alternatives such as heat pumps, which cost “three times more”…
    Homeowners would also need to spend thousands or tens of thousands of pounds on insulation…
    He also suggested that the government give itself an “explicit review point”, or a get-out clause to reconsider the target if other countries did not follow suit.

    7 Jun: Guardian: No 10 denies claim by chancellor that emissions target will cost UK £1tn
    Philip Hammond said reaching net zero target would mean less money for schools and hospitals
    by Seth Jacobson and Jillian Ambrose
    o 10 said plans to create a net zero carbon economy would cost no more than the UK’s existing plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions…
    Downing Street said analysis from the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) showed that the cost of a net zero carbon economy would “fall within our existing spending plans”…
    May is understood to be keen on having the emissions legislation as one of the ***key legacies of her time in office, and will enshrine the target in law on 11 June, according to civil servants…READ ALL
    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jun/06/cutting-uk-emissions-net-zero-cost-1tn-philip-hammond

    7 Jun: Daily Mail: Theresa May is battling Chancellor Philip Hammond over his refusal to fund her ‘legacy’ commitments after she leaves office, new report claims
    By Claire Ellcott and John Stevens
    The pair are already known to have clashed over Mrs May’s plans for tackling climate change. It emerged yesterday that Mr Hammond warned that her plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050 will cost the country £1trillion…
    In a ***leaked letter to Mrs May, the Chancellor raised concerns that the target would have profound implications for households, businesses and the Exchequer.
    Mr Hammond said less money would be available for schools, police, hospitals and other areas of public spending. He also warned that the target would leave some industries ‘economically uncompetitive’ without large government subsidies…

    7 Jun: Guardian: Fiona Harvey: It is absurd to question whether we can afford to keep our planet liveable
    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jun/06/it-is-absurd-question-whether-we-can-afford-keep-our-planet-liveable

    50

    • #
      theRealUniverse

      As far as the UK gov goes (with the witch leaving this week!) watch this space..? yet unknown territory.

      30

    • #
      Bill in Oz

      Pat, May is history,
      Politically a ‘Dead woman’ walking.
      And the Conservative party itself
      Faces a major meltdown and
      Displacement to minor party status in the UK
      Unless it can sort out a Brexit which the people want.
      And that seems unlikely.

      70

      • #
        Another Ian

        Bill

        Time to repeat – in Len Dighton’s “Bomber” towards the end there is a scene with a pilot trying a copybook spin recovery in a Lancaster with half a wing shot off.

        Seems to me quite descriptive of numerous happenings in politics, including that of May.

        40

        • #
          MudCrab

          To continue the reference Another Ian has made, Treason May has been flying along happily, doing things, chatting with the EU with the correct levels of submission, looking with casual interest at what is happening with the Labour party flying along side.
          “Kettle Drums. Kettle Drums,” said Farage.

          (read the novel if you don’t get the reference 😛 )

          50

      • #
        GreatAuntJanet

        Glumly noting that Johnson, Raab and Gove (potential Conservative leaders) all toe-ing the zero emissions line now. Are they mad? Anyone know about McVey?

        30

  • #
    Enoch Root

    I live in a rental which has solar panels. We are with Alinta, allegedly the best paying provider for solar generated power. We live in Queensland, the so called Sunshine State.

    Second to last bill (during summer) we generated (sarcasm on)astonishing(sarcasm off) 218 kWh. That gave us 3% discount in our bill. O_o

    I thought we could do better. So I went to the roof and thoroughly cleaned the panels. Also I repositioned them a little to make better use of sunlight.

    Last bill we generated 98 kWh. That gave us a 1.7% discount.

    I am turning the damned thing off. I am happy I haven’t had to pay for it (well, I actually paid a part of it from my taxes). End of story.

    190

    • #
      Travis T. Jones

      And, the climate is still beautiful one day, perfect the next, despite the solar panels.

      40

    • #
      yarpos

      Absent how big your system is, and what the period of you bills are, the numbers are pretty meaningless. 218kWh is non trivial, say 10 days use for a high consuming household (ish).

      Without knowing how big your system is , its hard to know what reasonable and if you are being reasonable in wanting more.

      21

    • #
      george4

      Second to last bill (during summer) we generated (sarcasm on)astonishing(sarcasm off) 218 kWh.

      You seem to have a serious fault or bad shading,
      The smallest 1 kW system in Brisbane should generate

      Month kWh
      January 151
      February 114

      March 104
      April 73
      May 51
      June 42
      July 50
      August 70
      September 100
      October 121
      November 141
      December 156
      Annual 1,173

      https://pvwatts.nrel.gov/pvwatts.php

      And most systems are >4kW.

      30

  • #
    Dennis

    2/20/2015

    Economic Systems: The alarmists keep telling us their concern about global warming is all about man’s stewardship of the environment. But we know that’s not true. A United Nations official has now confirmed this.

    At a news conference last week in Brussels, Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of U.N.’s Framework Convention on Climate Change, admitted that the goal of environmental activists is not to save the world from ecological calamity but to destroy capitalism.

    “This is the first time in the history of mankind that we are setting ourselves the task of intentionally, within a defined period of time, to change the economic development model that has been reigning for at least 150 years, since the Industrial Revolution,” she said.

    Referring to a new international treaty environmentalists hope will be adopted at the Paris climate change conference later this year, she added: “This is probably the most difficult task we have ever given ourselves, which is to intentionally transform the economic development model for the first time in human history.”

    The only economic model in the last 150 years that has ever worked at all is capitalism. The evidence is prima facie: From a feudal order that lasted a thousand years, produced zero growth and kept workdays long and lifespans short, the countries that have embraced free-market capitalism have enjoyed a system in which output has increased 70-fold, work days have been halved and lifespans doubled.

    Figueres is perhaps the perfect person for the job of transforming “the economic development model” because she’s really never seen it work. “If you look at Ms. Figueres’ Wikipedia page,” notes Cato economist Dan Mitchell: Making the world look at their right hand while they choke developed economies with their left.

    *****************************************

    Governments are elected to represent the people and to manage the affairs of states and the nation, politicians should refrain from picking the winners and losers supplying us with goods and services apart from regulating business activities in the interest of fair trading competition between competing businesses, free market capitalism the proven system.

    Too many politicians seem to believe that they were elected to rule.

    50

  • #
    Paul

    4c per KWh is the coal wholesale rate, feedins for solar should be wholesale + transmission rate + some of distribution rate since the power is delivered at 415V.
    Around 18c per KWh seems to be right.
    Nonetheless the industry should stand on its own feet.

    41

    • #
      RickWill

      Lunchtime wholesale power has already seen negative prices and this will increasingly be the case as more solar comes on line.

      South Australia is already heading to zero wholesale demand at Sunday lunchtime by 2021. Anyone wanting to add to the mess by sending out power at lunch time will need to pay for the privilege.
      https://www.afr.com/news/solar-power-could-have-to-be-curtailed-to-avoid-grid-disruption-20181003-h1675d

      110

      • #
        Bill in Oz

        The Green thumb mechanism is playing.
        Tried to give one for your comment Ric.
        But I keep being told it’s a duplicate.
        But no green thumbs appearing for your comment.
        That AFR article is from last October.
        I suspect things have not improved here in SA.
        Only got worse !

        20

  • #
    pat

    lots of detail:

    6 Jun: Forbes: How Tesla, Crony Corporate Welfare, And The Green New Deal Portend A Coming Political Realignment
    by Chuck DeVore
    (Chuck DeVore is Vice President of National Initiatives at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. He was a California Assemblyman and is a Lt. Colonel in the U.S. Army Retired Reserve)

    There is a growing, and likely irreparable, rift between elite progressive environmentalists who are accustomed to dominating the narrative within the Democratic Party and — to a slightly lesser extent, within the major media — and blue-collar workers, especially those in the trades that build the nation…READ ON
    https://www.forbes.com/sites/chuckdevore/2019/06/06/how-tesla-crony-corporate-welfare-and-the-green-new-deal-portend-a-coming-political-realignment/#47695eba5a1e

    40

  • #
    Dennis

    And now state governments are considering mini-pumped hydro generators utilising old mining shafts with holding tanks on higher ground nearby?

    How could this be cost effective?

    50

    • #
      Another Ian

      The Speewah Mob were more constructive.

      In the off season they used their bullock team to pull up disused mine shafts, cut them to length and sold them to new selectors for wells.

      20

  • #
    pat

    ditto – lots of detail:

    6 Jun: Edmonton Sun: Heavy reliance on fossil fuels remains despite push for alternative energy
    by Lorne Gunter
    Back in the 1980s, do you know what percentage of the world’s energy needs were supplied by fossil fuels? According to the International Energy Agency, three and four decades ago 81 per cent of the world’s energy came from fossil fuels.

    Do you know what the percentage is today?
    After nearly a trillion dollars (that’s $1,000,000,000,000) has been spent worldwide, mostly by developed nations’ taxpayers, on alternate energy — solar panels, wind farms, biofuels — the amount of energy supplied by fossil fuels is … wait for it … 81 per cent…READ ON
    https://edmontonsun.com/opinion/columnists/gunter-heavy-reliance-on-fossil-fuels-remains-despite-push-for-alternative-energy

    120

  • #
    WXcycles

    We’ve never needed these damned things, we’ve massive amounts of fuels available for 24/7 baseload supply even close to the current ‘renewableunreliable power generation sites that can;t do baseload supply.

    They are mindless ignorant wasteful unnecessary duplications, and terribly incapable of maintaining supply at that.

    i.e. What governments do best and most!

    Australian Energy resources
    https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f4/Australian_Energie_ressources_and_major_export_ports_map.svg/1280px-Australian_Energie_ressources_and_major_export_ports_map.svg.png


    Australian renewable power plants map

    https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/94/Australian_renewable_power_plants_map-en.svg/1280px-Australian_renewable_power_plants_map-en.svg.png

    Note that Australia’s economy is dependent on imported crude oil and petrol with an import dependency of about 80% of crude oil & petroleum.

    https://web.archive.org/web/20110811004448/http://96.0.110.207/?page_id=2567

    Australian Politics has got it’s priorities completely wrong. Our disgusting and treacherous political parties have systematically handcuffed us to the UN’s Climate-Derangement Syndrome ‘action’ agenda and its baseless insanity, and associated dumb agreements. Meanwhile everyone else uses our hydrocarbons and uranium anyway.

    As we go broke due to high power and energy prices in general.

    We are far too insipid and tolerant about this grand national political farce.

    90

  • #
    pat

    5 Jun: UK Register: Bad news from science land: Fast-charging li-ion batteries may be quick to top up, but they’re also quick to die
    By Katyanna Quach
    Scientists studying the degradation of lithium-ion batteries believe fast charging will damage the power packs faster than one might expect.
    Boffins at Purdue University in America say they made the discovery while conducting atomic-level scanning of fast-charging lithium-ion battery electrodes. The team, led by Kejie Zhao, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering, used multiple scanning techniques and computer-aided enhancements to take a deep dive into a particular power pack, and found what may be the Achilles’ heel of fast charging.
    Essentially, what happens is that fast charging seemingly damages the battery’s electrode particles, forcing the device to lose capacity and shorten its lifespan…

    According to Purdue Uni’s Kayla Wiles:
    “Every time that a battery charges, lithium ions travel back and forth between a positive electrode and a negative electrode. These ions interact with particles in electrodes, causing them to crack and degrade over time. Electrode damage reduces a battery’s charging capacity.”…
    VIDEO
    https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/06/05/liion_battery_scan_charging/

    3 Jun: Purdue University: Most detailed X-ray image of batteries yet to reveal why they still aren’t good enough
    WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Electric cars rely on the same lithium-ion battery technology that’s in smartphones, laptops and virtually everything electronic.
    But the technology has been extremely slow to improve. While electric cars can more than handle the average American’s daily commute, the average gas-powered car can still go farther on a full tank of gas, charging stations are scarce and it takes significantly longer to charge a battery than to fill a tank.

    To improve charging capacity in lithium-ion batteries and increase adoption of electric cars, the industry will have to return to the basic science of how batteries wear out over time…
    This work is supported by multiple entities, including the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation.
    REPORT/LINKS
    https://purdue.edu/newsroom/releases/2019/Q2/most-detailed-x-ray-image-of-batteries-yet-to-reveal-why-they-still-arent-good-enough.html

    40

  • #

    Western politicians are showing astounding levels of ignorance

    120

    • #
      el gordo

      Historians will be astonished at how easy it was for free radicals to almost destroy western civilisation. Propaganda through the MSM has been key to their success, but this is now coming to an end.

      120

    • #
      WXcycles

      This political stupor and incompetence seems to be closely related to them not applying themselves properly in their job descriptions due to being constantly distracted from reality by the obsessions with ego involvement in media-grandstanding, and concerted derailments of public debate, especially via NGO’s spreading fake-news and creating a fake-reality, such as with ‘unreliables’ being put-up as a necessary ‘future’ direction. Which they technically, scientifically and economically clearly aren’t at all (see Anti-economic RET/subsidies).

      As I see it we’ll need a form of “Separation of media/NGOs and State“, similar to separation of Church and State from policy and legislative processes, so that politicians must consider and focus on doing their jobs properly and are unable to be so easily distracted by the BS narratives of the day, and undermined by the lies behind them.

      Whilst politicians remain accountable via said media mechanisms, which are much less centralized now.

      We actually need knowledgeable civil private experts who know there stuff (such as Tony et al) advising them again, and filtering wheat from chaff once more.

      Technologies and approaches that demonstrably don’t and won’t work should not still be getting away for a decade of counterproductive toxic effect on public policies, society and economy.

      It should be a competent government holding the media and NGO’s claims to scrutiny and account and not a bunch of skeptics having to constantly point-out how they are being duped, and seriously impairing the people of Australia’s lives and businesses.

      50

      • #
        Serp

        Time was when the public service was staffed by persons qualified to advise the politicians but for the last couple of decades as that cohort of expertise has retired it has been supplanted by a new class which rather than generating expert advice blatantly advocates malign green programs; how to find the road back from this policy quagmire is not at all evident.

        120

    • #
      theRealUniverse

      Look at where they come from and background, ignorance rules in the west.

      40

  • #
    MudCrab

    Mentioned this before, but worth reminding constantly I feel.

    The SA Liberal Government is currently doubling down on solar stupidity and is now trying to subsidise home battery systems.

    Remember, we are yet to reach Peak Stupid.

    if you live in South Australia please quiz your local members on this.

    70

    • #
      Bill in Oz

      Absolutely Mudcrab..
      The Liberal party implementing Greenist stupidity
      Is peak stupid !
      And they have a budget crisis to manage !
      Dumping the Greenist stupidity would make the budget crisis far easier to manage

      20

    • #
      yarpos

      Do you have a more realistic plan given they have been handed a system that is already so far down the rabbit hole in a community that sorta wants still to believe the fantasy?

      Doing something with more and more useless lunchtime power doesnt sound all that irrational to me , once you have been handed the mess.

      We like to say the tough / brave stuff but , like the Greens, we are at no risk of ever having to implement it.

      21

  • #
    Roy Hogue

    So removal of subsidies was also removal of the lion’s share of solar orders. How predictable, except it seems to the UK. Since they are still hell bent on eliminating emissions to save the world you might think they would not want to kill off the solar business. But wisdom is justified of all her children.

    You could get the impression that in the UK they don’t know what they’re doing but are simply thrashing around just to be doing something.

    40

    • #
      Dennis

      Has anybody tried to explain to the UK Government that more CO2 in the atmosphere would result in faster growing foreign country trees to provide “biomass” as fuel for UK power stations?

      lol

      50

    • #
      Sceptical Sam

      Herbert Simon’s bounded rationality and satisficing is alive and well in the UK’s bureaucracy.

      30

  • #
    Lance

    Pleased the UK has cut its losses on Solar/Wind subsidies. AU might want to do the same.
    That is simply one of the issues at hand.

    Further inquiry is necessary:

    The transportation energy equivalent ( oil usage for transport as equivalent electrical energy) is between 80% and 88% of the national grid capacity for US, AU and UK.

    That means if you want to go EVs for transport, double your grid capacity or shut down your nation.

    That assumes a 24 hr charge cycle. For a 6 hr charge cycle, 4 Times existing grid capacity.

    In plain speak, using the US grid value at 5 Trillion for a 1039 GW capacity, AU needs to cough up some USD 100K per person today, if they want to have an EV transportation system that charges in 6 hrs. That’s not including EV cost, batteries, storage, etc. And, there’s the tripling of electric rates to amortize the grid cost when it isn’t being used at peak the other 18 hrs a day. The sun might be free, the wind might also be free, but the means to convert it, deliver it, and do so on a tight schedule, isn’t free.

    To quote John Wayne, “Life is hard. It’s harder when you’re stupid”.

    See as well:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_oil_consumption
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrel_of_oil_equivalent
    https://www.quora.com/How-much-of-the-oil-production-is-consumed-by-cars
    http://mecometer.com/topic/electricity-installed-generating-capacity/
    https://theconversation.com/the-old-dirty-creaky-us-electric-grid-would-cost-5-trillion-to-replace-where-should-infrastructure-spending-go-68290

    All the relevant information is shown.

    Going “Totally Green” is National, Personal, and Future, economic suicide by choice. Only Idiots govern their lives by contrived models and political religion.
    Everyone has a choice. I choose not to be Stupid.

    130

  • #
    el gordo

    Lydia Lynch needs a spell check ….

    ‘Queensland Labor’s green credentials have recieved a much-needed boost from former US vice-president Al Gore, days after he took a swipe at Adani’s controversial Carmichael coal mine.

    ‘Speaking at a climate change and economics lunch in Brisbane on Friday, Mr Gore heaped praise on the leadership of Annastacia Palaszczuk and her target to generate 50 per cent of the state’s energy from renweables by 2030.’

    Brisbane Times

    30

  • #
    scaper...

    OT. Been giving Silly Filly a bit of halter training at the Australian. Gore thread. He is giving Jo a bit of stick. Revealed he copped a flogging here. Had to leave because he is up against real science. I know…shouldn’t pick on idiots but it is so much fun!

    40

    • #
      scaper...

      My comment got binned! Here is his comment.

      sillyfilly
      50 MINUTES AGO
      Ask Jo Nova and David Evans whatever happened to the “climate witchcraft” of their SOLAR NOTCH/ FORCE X fantasy

      Funny how the stupid one refers to “climate witchcraft”. Oh, the projection is so hilarious it hurts!

      30

    • #
      scaper...

      The article I am referring to.

      SARAH ELKS
      QUEENSLAND POLITICAL REPORTER
      2 HOURS AGO JUNE 7, 2019319 COMMENTS
      Former United States vice-president and climate change campaigner Al Gore has challenged Australia to avoid the “dinosaur projects of the past,” but avoided mentioning the controversial Adani coal mine.

      Mr Gore and Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk delivered speeches at a “climate change and economics” business lunch in Brisbane today, ahead of the likely approval of Adani’s Carmichael coal mine by the state government next week.

      Neither uttered the word “Adani” but the $2bn project was the elephant in the room, with Mr Gore previously suggesting Queensland had to choose between the mine or the Great Barrier Reef.

      READ NEXT

      Pell faces new legal battle
      TESSA AKERMAN
      Mr Gore praised Ms Palaszczuk’s “really quite impressive” leadership “to move Queensland” towards renewables on climate change issues.

      “Thank you for your outstanding leadership on these incredibly challenging economic, and environmental, issues that are all intertwined,” Mr Gore said.

      “This is the place where the future is unfolding.”

      Mr Gore said he knew there was a “lot of coal” in Queensland but said the state had made the “choice in favour” of renewables. And he said India was building solar and shutting down coal mines.

      Al Gore. Picture: Getty Images
      Al Gore. Picture: Getty Images
      Towards the end of his speech, he made an oblique reference to Adani.

      “The nation has to make a decision … will you avoid the opportunity cost (of) dinosaur projects of the past, that’s all I’m going to say,” Mr Gore said.

      While speakers at these events usually face questions from the audience, that option was not available to the thousands of guests in Brisbane today.

      A “fed up” Ms Palaszczuk came out last month and ordered her environment department to set and meet deadlines for remaining environmental approvals for the $2bn Carmichael coal project, slated for central Queensland’s Galilee basin and forecast to produce 10 million tonnes of thermal coal annually.

      Environmental officials approved Adani’s black-throated finch management plan last week, and next week will make a decision on its groundwater strategy. The company says it will start early construction works as soon as it has the groundwater green light.

      The Queensland Premier spoke before Mr Gore and began her address by spruiking her government’s commitment to a burgeoning hydrogen industry, and by describing recent natural disasters to hit the state.

      “Queenslanders understand climate change, my government understands climate change,” she said.

      “That’s why we have a target to generate 50 per cent of our energy from renewables by 2030.”

      And while she acknowledged the state’s mining industry, and mentioned metallurgical coal, did not say the words thermal coal, or Adani, in her formal address.

      The Premier finished her speech by saying her government had done more by any other to protect the Great Barrier Reef.

      “We understand how important the reef is to the world, and the need to protect it for future generations,” Ms Palaszczuk said.

      “We understand the need to act on climate change. And we have the ability to do so in a way that will make our state stronger as a world player in a renewables-based economy.”

      20

  • #
    theRealUniverse

    “We understand the need to act on climate change. And we have the ability to do so in a way that will make our state stronger as a world player in a renewables-based economy.” = basically destroy the infrastructure and power grid, which is running quite well on mostly coal, not if she gets reelected.

    60

    • #
      Serp

      Awkward situation for Palachook since the Gore visit hard upon a Shorten victory was calculated to assist stampeding popular support for ratcheting up Australia’s War On Coal but now is highly embarrassing what with her having an election coming next year; rest assured once he’s gone she’ll change her tune.

      50

  • #
    Zane

    Solar in the UK was always a dumb idea. Source: I’ve lived there.

    90

    • #
      Bill in Oz

      It’s a dumb idea in South Australia
      Unless you ‘want’ to create a high priced & unreliable power grid.
      I know because I live in SA.

      90

  • #
    yarpos

    How could you go wrong tapping into the relentless UK sun? a road to ceratin riches surely?

    I recall a quote from Monty Don, a gardening guru, talking about planting something in the UK summer; he quipped “…you know, those three days in July”

    50

  • #
  • #
    Philip in Nz

    If you think solar has problems in Australia you aint seen nothing when you compare it with the UK.
    The futility of Solar in the UK when compared to Australia becomes obvious when you look at sunshine hours. London has 1,633 hours of sun a year, even Hobart has 2,165 hours and the sunniest state capital Perth at 3,229. But it gets worse for the UK as you head north Edinburgh gets to 1,427. But it’s worse in winter, in December London gets 52 hours of sun, Edinburgh 46. The sunniest month in Edinburgh is July at 172 hours compared to Brisbane’s least sunny month June at 198. PS can someone give me the sunshine hours for Alice Springs please.

    10

    • #
      el gordo

      They are on a slippery slope.

      ‘In recent weeks, some observers of the energy scene have been wondering if the long honeymoon of the renewables industry might finally have come to an end.

      ‘EU renewables capacity additions have been falling for years, and have now declined to less than half of their 2010 peak.

      ‘Meanwhile, a wave of insolvencies is sweeping the wind industry as a result of the sharp scaling back of subsidies.’

      Climate Change Dispatch

      10