Since SA was islanded the costs just to keep the frequency stable are as much as the energy itself
Two weeks ago the Australian grid had a major near miss, and South Australia has been isolated from the rest of the nation ever since. It was supposed to be connected again in two weeks, but repairs to the 6 high voltage towers that fell over, evidently will be longer. Strangely, apparently no news outlet has mentioned this in the last two weeks.
While SA has been the renewables star of the world for two weeks, there’s been mayhem in the market. Instead of cheap electricity with 50% renewables it’s chaos. Allan O’Neill explains that the cost of stabilizing the grid has gone through the roof. It’s so bad, and generators have to contribute to balance their output, that solar and wind power are holding back from supply because they can’t afford to pay the costs to cover their share of frequency stability.
But when South Australia became islanded by the transmission line collapse, FCAS requirements for that region could only be supplied from local providers – and there is only a small subset of participants in South Australia who have chosen to offer in the FCAS markets. With a suddenly reduced group of providers, the price of all FCAS products in South Australia leapt from a pre-event range between few cents and roughly $30/MWh (some higher levels on 30 Jan, driven by the very high energy price averaging over $770/MWh on that day), rising to daily average levels mostly over $100/MWh and in a few cases approaching $3,000/MWh after the separation event – remember, these numbers are daily averages!
Johnathon Dyson estimates it’s added up to $90m. He calculates that some solar panel providers are paying as much as 15% of their revenue (in a normal week) on FCAS, far higher than the 1% they would have estimated when they built their projects.
To put that in perspective, five years ago the entire FCAS cost for the whole nation was about $20m, for the whole year.! (FCAS means Frequency Control Ancilliary Service).
The ever rising costs of frequency stability on the Australian grid for the next quarter are about to go “off the scale” in this graph by the Australian Energy Regulator (AER):
The $90m FCAS cost in SA is higher than any single quarter on the whole national grid. | AER
Years ago frequency stability was just a happy byproduct of the large coal fired turbines. The giant 200 plus ton turbines would spin at 3,000 rpm — exactly in synchrony with the 50 Hz grid. They would absorb the ups and downs and keep the frequency tight within safe bounds.
It’s another hidden cost. Imagine the fun if the whole nation was trying to run on “50% renewable”?
If only SA had kept the coal plants running, says Ian Waters:
The Heywood interconnector can normally carry 650Mw of reliable brown coal fired power from Victoria and regularly stops blackouts in S.A. when the renewables are found wanting. The AEMO has been forced to take extraordinary steps to keep the lights on in S.A. and are ready to force shutdowns of solar, wind and gas units if the demand drops. They have taken control of the 3 batteries in S.A. in desperation. It is an !unprecedented! disasterand the whole state is on the edge. Please look at AEMO market notices 73830, 73832, 73838, 73857 and 73858 and you will recognise how desperate they are and how they are running around in blind panic.
It’s all just another reminder of how fragile our “renewable” grids are now. Despite having nearly twice as much infrastructure to make the same amount of electricity, SA can’t keep itself going without help and a lot of extra money. It’s more prone to price swings, spikes and squeezes that serve Big Corporate profiteers very well.
Someone is making a lot of money out of this. It’s a bit of a short squeeze with few frequency stabilizers able to help. And spikes can reach the same cap as energy charges — $14,700
Allan O”Neill:
Historically, FCAS capabilities have been provided mostly by generators as by-products of their main game, energy production, although batteries and certain loads with appropriate controls can also provide some or all forms of FCAS. In an analogous way to energy prices, market FCAS prices are set via bidding and clearing processes, which are fully enmeshed – coöptimised – with the NEM’s dispatch process for energy.
The quantities of FCAS services required are much smaller than the volumes of energy traded through the NEM (like energy, these volumes are measured in MW and MWh).
Usually other states keep SA stable:
The striking feature here is that the relationship between energy and FCAS prices was turned on its head by the separation event. That’s largely because under normal conditions, FCAS can often be supplied from anywhere in the NEM, so the cheapest offers from generators, batteries, or loads in any region can be used to meet AEMO’s requirements. Not all generators are able or choose to supply FCAS (until recently none of the NEM’s large scale renewable generators did so – however that is changing, and this post may show why that’s long overdue). But with a NEM-wide pool of potential suppliers, FCAS prices have tended to be lower – often much much lower – than energy prices.
But when South Australia became islanded by the transmission line collapse, FCAS requirements for that region could only be supplied from local providers – and there is only a small subset of participants in South Australia who have chosen to offer in the FCAS markets. With a suddenly reduced group of providers, the price of all FCAS products in South Australia leapt from a pre-event range between few cents and roughly $30/MWh (some higher levels on 30 Jan, driven by the very high energy price averaging over $770/MWh on that day), rising to daily average levels mostly over $100/MWh and in a few cases approaching $3,000/MWh after the separation event – remember, these numbers are daily averages!
This graph shows just how chaotic it has been in SA — but notice the prices — it’s a log scale!
Note also the prices hit a automated-cap on Feb 1st (hence the flat line keeping them at $300/MWh).
five minute FCAS prices over Friday 31 Jan and Saturday 1 Feb. WattClarity
This next graph is the exact same graph, but without the automatic cap added. So we can see what the prices would have been. Shocking!
This shows prices for many FCAS products jumping about wildly after separation, with extended periods at $14,700/MWh for a couple of products (the “Raise 6 second” and “Lower 60 second” services
FCAS charges Electricity SA, 2020, Graph. WattClarity
No doubt the whole drama will be used as a reason to build more giant interconnectors. Never waste a crisis!
1. Why do these towers fall over?
2. How many other towers are of the same or similar design?
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” why do these towers fall over”
Well Ted, I think it has something to do with age. The towers that run through my rural property were built in the 1930’s. So we are looking at very original infrastuture that surely must have had a design lifespan. Was that lifespan 100 years? If so we are just about there. In times passed these towers were inspected regularly, these days not so much. I’m guessing the towers in western Victoria and S.A. are much the same vintage.
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No !
This interconnector line was built in 1983-4 by the SEC in Victoria
To provide power for the Aluminium smelter plant being built at Pprtland in Western Victoria.
State Labor government policy & inducements to the private owner of Aluminium smelter plant.
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Ted a few factors will lead to towers falling mostly the neglect of routine inspections or maintenance, the hold down bolts/anchors at the base will loosen, corrode, concrete pad breaking down, all connections on the structure will loosen or flog out the holes from movement, metal fatigue will occur and lead to failure of members welds, paint and galvanising to prevent corrosion, location, pollution, salt air.
A good outline of Transmission tower protection from KEHANG http://www.steeltowerchn.com/technical-specifications/steel-tower-corrosion-protection/corrosion-and-protection-of-transmission-steel-structure-tower/
The link has a few technical pages that cover tower construction specifications, I recall the effects of electric currents effecting galvanising over time but have no details, electrogalvanisation is another method that may have links.
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Winds are much stronger due to mankinds pollution of the atmosphere with Carbon(dioxide). Just so you know.
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Lots of reasons Ted. Cement foundations can pull out of wet ground as happened when the transmission line at the top of the SA gulf failed or metal fatigue. But potentially the highest failure rate of the actual structure is due to resonance. Structures bend or vibrate to a certain extend in wind and if the vortexing around the structure is in harmony with its natural frequency then resonance occurs that can lead to failure even in an otherwise perfectly sound structure.
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The conductors are also integral to the structural integrity. Mechanical failure of the conductors on one side of a tower could easily lead to a cascading failure of towers. Annealing failure or corrosion are two possibilities. Annealing failure could be exacerbated by long periods at higher than design loads due to the large percentage or unreliables over-producing or underproducing on the SA side.
Conductors are rated for a certain load. The conductor sizes have weird names like “Pluto” and “Apple”. The design load can be increased from what was originally intended (ie the rating can be upped) if a higher operating temperature is accepted by the operator. These higher operating temps lead to more conductor sag and increased “conductor blow out” distances – or the distance a conductor can swing in the wind.
It would be very interesting to compare the original design spec for the interconnector to what it has been operating at recently. I reckon I know what you would find if you were able to do the analysis.
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On Topic : This is interesting to South Australians Jo.
But I suspect that many of us will not feel much pain
As we are on fixed contracts.
So it’s problem for the power generators not us consumers.
A second item : This Summer aprt from 3 short hot spells has been pretty cool
In fact January was wetter than aaverage
And February been cool
In fact it feels like Autumn already’Here in the Adelaide Hills
Cool mornings with dew on the car windows
As well as lots of rain and cloud cover !
So we have NOT been using the A/C
And I think will not have a huge power bill this quarter.
That will come later when it’s gets colder
And people start using their reverse cycleA/C units to stay warm !
Now who are the dumbnuts shouting shrilly about Global warming ?
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Whew!
Thank Elon for his handy dandy battery packs!
Just as well they are testing Big Lithium Batteries in Perth eh?
https://www.energymagazine.com.au/perth-trials-australian-first-community-battery-storage-system/?utm_source=Energy+Magazine&utm_campaign=5bcba0e09e-Energy+Enewsletter+11%2F02%2F2020_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_d27bc5c034-5bcba0e09e-93698581&mc_cid=5bcba0e09e&mc_eid=0622d8b5dc
But seriously, one would have to wonder how Corona V will impact the Chinese production of Li Batts for a few years & what impact it will have on Tesla’s economics.
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All Tesla “PowerPack” systems ( utility scale battery systems). are manufactured and assembled in the USA ..Giga Factory.
One rare occasions, they also use some cells manufactured by Panasonic and Samsung in Japan and S Korea.
However, this situation will enormously increase the income earned by the Hornsdale battery, and encourage more such installations !
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It appears that the champaigne socialists and hard core communists are in favour of pushing renewables so the grid crashes.
No grid = no middle class.
Up the workers!
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Only the “communists” here in Australia. The communists in China are still heavily into building many more coal fired power stations and some nuclear ones to enhance their grid, not to crash it. We on the other hand are doing the opposite, both LNP and ALP+Greens. I often wonder if we are using the wrong term “communists” here as applied to say the Greens. I think of them as anarchists. In many issues it’s a more accurate description for the Greens. Chinese communists are not anarchists as exhibited by their control of production and social fabric.
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Agreed. In fact theoretical communism is pro-human. On the green side, the idea of anarchy via central control is fascinating, in a horror story sort of way.
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Yes. Green is anti-human. Communists are piggy-backing Green politics. Communists are theoretically pro-human, but really are just obsessed by the beauty of a system. Mass suffering and death is as nothing. Greens and communists are, temporarily, natural bedfellows.
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Anarchy is an internally contradictory philosophy. It can not exist.
In summary, Anarchists want to abolish private property AND abolish the state – an impossible state of human existence. Even tribal societies had a chief (government) and fought over property ownership (land, resources).
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Anarchists until they get total control…their anarchy terminally weakening the host …which they then move in as ‘saviors’ to ‘liberate’…then it’s all over….totalitarianism.
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Renewables are like a virus in the electricity generating system
It has now been contained to SA
Any rational person can see what engineers have been saying for a long time
You need coal fired base load to support the whole electricity grid
This should be a wake up call for the rest of Australia
The definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing and expecting a different result
Unfortunately our current crop of politicians and the idiot ABC and msm are insane when it comes to any rational discussion which conflicts with their ideology
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Totally agree
We here in SA are the victims of dopey dumbnut governments
Infested by unreliable power operators
Out for a big buck !
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“Someone is making a lot of money out of this.”
Who might this be? That will be VERY telling!
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Geoff:
It won’t be told on the ABC.
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Malcolm Turxxxxx?
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Also some leading economists….Ross?
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And Alan K..ler?
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MalEx444.
Johnny Hew
Union Reps “managing Union Super.
Retired FireChiefs lining up for the next few, all expenses paid luxury “conferences, aka Cop26, Cop27, Cop28…
Many others , such as those in the media, whose jobs are justified largely by the need for talking heads to constantly present items about dangerous CO2.
KK
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Bread and circuses and lipstick on the pig.
Today all the patter and pap is about the SPACE industry in SA…to divert the plebs from this chaotic LABOR/Turnbull/Morrison transition of Australia to 3rd world chaos with a Mickey Mouse space industry…a huge and exponentially-growing contract price for dud subs we’ll probably never see …that no one will feel safe to work in …that will be sitting ducks for China’s Navy.
Until then …before we have any subs at all….we’ll be winging it in the ‘dark valley of death’ the debacle has ensured will be inevitable….and to power it all we’ll be the world’s only dumb nation with 100% weather-dependent unreliable unaffordable intermittent electricity….with begging bowl out to our UN masters no doubt.
Maybe they should cancel ANZAC Day this year…all that courage…sacrifice…misery and terrible loss…for freedom and sovereignty… appears to have been all for nothing but giving the Left freedom to put us back long long past square one.
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So someone needs to be asking just how much fuel and emissions the production of spacecraft as well as testing will be emitting maybe?
on a public medium, to rev up the greenluvvies
Just where do they plan to get the rockets?
we can’t even make a bloody CAR nowdays RIP Holden
Russian ones are pretty much the only options unless Elon Musks are proposed?
[snip]
[Typos sort of fixed. Can you get a keyboard Oz? It would help – Jo]
00
Further proof that no amount of renewable energy can prevent any global warming:
Wind and batteries saved the day when storm cut South Australia adrift
https://reneweconomy.com.au/wind-and-batteries-saved-the-day-when-storm-cut-south-australia-adrift-22060/
There is zero scientific observation that shows renewable energy can prevent
climate changeglobal warming.270
Renew economy have been spreading propaganda for a while , our regular lefty blog cloggers have been espousing the magnificence of renewable energy every announcement that renew make .
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fixed
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For the Eastern seaboard…February so far has been mostly wet with RE miniscule…lights would be out 24/7 without coal.
But Renew Economy and WetLibs/Labor/Greens/RE racket have Australians believing they’re powered by windmills and solar panels as we speak.
Lots of Parkinson’s commenters at Renew want the vermin coal gone right now…he has them believing coal’s just a dead weight on their wondrous wind and solar electricity system that would make Australia an energy superpower if only the clunkies would get out of the away.
The lies fester and grow amidst the mayhem because they’re meant to it seems…because the Morrison government silences anyone who tells the truth to ‘quiet Australians’ eg Craig Kelly who was banned by Morrison from appearing on Q&A because he had a list of inconvenient truths he was about to tell…and now appears to be blacklisted by SKYDaytime.
Meanwhile Morrison brags about the huge RE build he’s funding with our TPM….and the $4m for the coal plant feasibility study is reportedly a sop…that the plant will be found ‘not feasible’.
But not to worry! CSIRO’s collaborating very closely with the Chinese Communist dictatorship ..as are Australian Universities….on ‘underwater acoustic centres’..’intelligence and reconnaissance of unmanned systems’…drone tech …all with a Chinese Communist guy in charge both here and in China.
Future Australian submariners will be comforted to know that…if any can be recruited.
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You could use the exact same logic to say without the batteries and renewable power generation, that SA would have been toast when the interconnector fell over. Thats twice! The first time is what spurred the investment in renewables.
Instead of your favourite hobby horse – ask why are the interconnectors falling over? Could it be extreme weather? If so, why was the expected wind loads underestimated in the design?
OR, could it be that the weather is getting worse. And we all know why.
[“And we all know why”. WHY YOU GET MODERATION FOR FOR HOURS????? Dumb. Really DUMB] ED
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Sure Peter. Remember when the theory of man-made global warming said wind speeds would slow and we got “Global Stilling” which showed the theory was right?
Remember when (last week) global warming was a hotter-drier world? Now it’s a wetter one affecting the footings.
So the SA govt could have spent $30m and kept Port Augusta coal going but they chose to spend $500m and got batteries plus the worlds most expensive electricity instead.
But they might make SA 0.00000000 degrees cooler, and if the goat entrails work, they will stop storms floods and droughts as well.
Why do interconnectors matter more now that ever before — because SA is vulnerable, weaker, less self-sufficient and has higher cost electricity. And they have more renewables than anywhere almost in the world (subsidized by the rest of us) and they still can’t make it work cheaply.
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Joanne mentions this:
Imagine that! South Australia consumes barely six and a bit percent of Australia’s power, the second smallest State consumer, and they can’t make renewables work in that small situation. The smallest consumer, Tasmania is virtually all hydro, so no real problems to see there.
The three largest consuming States consume almost 90% of all generated power, all with large amounts of coal fired power.
And yet the only time we hear of any problems, it’s always South Australia and their renewables. They also have the ‘security blanket’ of that Interconnector, and again, every time you hear of a problem, the Interconnector is always ‘front and centre’.
You would think that the renewable supporters would at least be able to add two and two together.
Tony.
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Dear Jo,
All these problems were predictable and they were predicted; for example see here http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/images/stories/papers/reprint/courtney_2006_lecture.pdf
That item is from long ago, is on the subject of
A suggestion for meeting the UK Government’s renewable energy target because the adopted use of windfarms cannot meet it
and it says on its pages 12 and 13
I hope this information is helpful and I ask you to note that it is from 2006.
And I note that SA only achieves more than the 20% limit by using interconnection with adjacent states to obtain use of the stand-by backup of those States as part of the SA system.
Richard
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A great point Richard. I shall look!
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Still waiting for empirical evidence of warming by atmospheric CO2, peter.
Still waiting ! 😉
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“And we all know why.”
Well no, the WEATHER is not getting worse. No evidence of that.
No need to invent a cause for things that aren’t happening, is there now.
Its like watching a “Monsters Inc” movie.
Total fantasy, but full of scary bits. 😉
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Hi Fitzroy,
Big fan of your work, big, big fan however when you write “You could use the exact same logic to say without the batteries and renewable power generation, that SA would have been toast when the interconnector fell over.”
You should know that there was a time that without batteries and renewable power generation each state supplied it’s own cheap and reliable coal fired power and interconnectors were not required, nothing fell over, electricity cost the consumer 18c/kwh, nobody paid an extra $1.50/day for a supply fee, networks weren’t forced to pay renewable generators an extra 89c/kw for power they never used, and Heywood power Station in Victoria supplied more power than all the wind turbines in Australia combined employing 850 workers…
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… and Fitzroy, the weather is actually much, much better than back in the 50’s and 60’s… but I understand it must be difficult for you to accept that to the vast majority your curious beliefs that 4 billion years of natural cycles can be somehow superseded by the actions of humans…
well…
you may be correct… feed the fear I say.. you should take the advice of your peer group and stop breeding so in a generation or two there wont be any little Climate Worriers left to complain and the rest of us will get about our daily lives without giving you a second thought.
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Peter Fitzroy – stop being so stupid.
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But if they spent a TINY fraction on maintenance of towers, and maybe an upgrade to Pt Augusta, that they wasted on renewables, they mightnt BE falling over
weathers not been excessively fouler than normal anywhere in Aus
Summers always have hot [snip] nth wind days and fires.
11
Scurrilous. Spurred on by the “amazing National Climate Emergency Summit last week in Melbourne” the bedwetters are screaming for action.
This is what we’re up against. The initiating signatories say it all for me and only 1200 have signed so far…
I’m told that Ian Dunlop is a member of the Club of Rome.
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Ideological idiots !
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Those signatories are also dangerous in their motives when they ask young people with limited life experience to spurn modern technology for the sake of a wealth redistribution movement based on a failed hypothesis, the same technology that offered them a life of good comfort, health, wealth and peace is now deemed by them dangerous to their futures and must be scrapped.
Its difficult to analyse the thinking of such individuals but when something is this wrong good people should not do nothing, I suggest everything they push for we do the same and confront them with facts and truth, one thing I know is people don’t like losing what they have for no good reason and this will be the main catalyst for pushing back against zealots such as these.
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The greatest punishment should be to turn off their mobile phones.
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I totally agree with your suggestion…we must push back even though we’re the merest of minnows and the forces against us are about as massive as you can get.
Apparently Europe is threatening Morrison that he must sign up to the ‘zero emissions by 2050’ target that the BCA says would cost Australia $22bn per year…every year for the next 30 years…or face financial retribution….so much for ‘non-compulsory’.
This was all part of the plan in the Green Paradox book/essays…with a European/UN consumer cartel against resource countries that don’t comply…coercion and force to the extent that military conflict was posited.
There are apparently also plans for a Democrat administration in the US…should the worst befall them…to do something similar…using threats of financial ruin as the big stick to make countries like Australia comply with the Socialist plan no matter the cost to their people.
Goodbye US Alliance.
What we must do I think is to put out there all the impacts that compliance with Europe will have on Australia and urge Morrison to put to Europe the stark truth of the impacts on them.
If he’s not to be seen as betraying Australia…selling us out to Socialism he has to get tough…forget international kudos and do whatever it takes…pin the UN and Europe down to the commitments they and the whole world would have to make …not just us…and not just empty targets….to have any credibility whatsoever.
Eg…long haul or medium-haul aviation….just to start with….before considering the internet.
We know we’ve got the most to lose and Morrison would have that thrown back at him…but nevertheless he must tell the preaching poobahs that when they set a date…in concrete… for their ban to start on long-haul and medium-haul aviation …ie a ban on international tourism and trade…on foreign education intake…on business travel… on international sports…on Olympics… Tour de France etc…on immigration …only then will Australia even think of curtailing coal use..of course coal exports would be inevitably over if they went ahead and set in motion the destruction of the modern world.
Then he should ask them how they would get all the minerals and components for their turbines….or how would they transport the turbines themselves…until the advent of hydrogen ships…quite a few decades away yet if ever…likewise solar panels….and their CO2-emitting biomass.
How would they get their uranium for their nuclear power…their gas …their food…wheat..rice…dairy etc.
There’s no possibility on the horizon for long haul flight to be powered by electricity according to the experts…so they couldn’t possibly justify continuing them if they truly believe their CO2-induced CAGW fairy story …and if they don’t …and it’s all as we believe…the Left’s latest attempt to herd the world into Global Socialism ….they should think again.
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Deceivers. I know What I would do with these ‘polluters’. I’m not suggesting the hallmark NKVD method , but some would.
30
Remember RED OR DEAD? These people want Australia dead if they can’t have it red IMO.
It’s Fabian Socialism writ large.
Their manifesto reeks of the Fabian elites like Shaw and the Webbs administering the sedatives along with the lies and propaganda to ‘the masses’ …the collective …in a…
[ ‘non-partisan approach that embraces people of all political parties and sectors of society who are committed to science-based policies ‘]
Almost all of the people sucked in by this hallucinogenic drug will be those who were persuaded by lazy incompetent LW teachers that they needed nothing more than ‘vegie maths’ so from there on in and since… had not even a passing acquaintanceship with any science….but have been induced to think they are the scientifically-literate ones because they’ve swallowed the Kool-Aid.
…the elephant question in the room is… as always ‘Who will lead these non-partisans?’
…the answer never known by the frogs until it’s too late.
Nothing as dangerous as this has ever happened to Australia…even in wartime IMO….doubly dangerous because almost all of the MSM are assisting this mob.
RE mogul Hewson is the architect of the expected demise of coal and Australia IMO…since he routinely bragged about his DIVESTMENT propaganda tours around the world’s retirement funds and institutional investors to make coal into Typhoid Mary…untouchable…an investment pariah…uninsurable…stone motherless DEAD…
The MSM is the key though and they will be to blame in the end.
A few questions …on television…to these Socialists to test their knowledge of the issue they’re using as a Trojan Horse for Global Socialism plus questions on why …
[‘It is in Australia’s self-interest to demand far greater global action on climate change, and to lead by acting itself’]…
…when Australia is the only 1st world country that’s already being forced to commit suicide for their hoax…to de-industrialize…to relinquish its sovereignty….to annihilate its security…to deprive our children of their futures….to betray our parents and grandparents who built this country…defended it…saved it…only to have the Fabian Socialists and their Long March through the Institutions airbrush them and their sacrifices clear out of history …to position Australia in the Dark Valley Europe wallowed in between the World Wars…to sell us out to the Socialist Europe our parents fought and some died…to save.
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That forest being ripped down in Germany? It’s for a Tesla factory. Now, it looks like it’s just a pine plantation, so no biggie there. But ask these questions…
Why does the money printing Fed Reserve, neither Federal nor reserve, keep pouring its production into the “market” to support the likes of Tesla and Amazon? (Possible answers: Because these private businesses are actually state enterprises, and not in any good sense, like libraries or lollipop men; because these state enterprises can be private when and where they need to be; and because Elon Musk is not real, except in the sense Joyce Mayne was real.)
Why is all-American Tesla, despite all talk, expanding and building in China and Germany? (Possible answer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zI5hrcwU7Dk)
Why does debt-ridden Australia make or force huge purchases of foreign products we could not possibly need while these futile acquisitions are cheered on by the international conglomerate we call our “free press”? Why did we need GE’s light globes, France’s converted-to-oiler subs (after France was tugged by NATO out of Russian deals), Tesla’s Big Battery, all the green paraphernalia which is crippling our electricity supply…and all the diesel to supplement the green paraphernalia? (Possible answer: Short term plunder and long term control of consuming, easy-going skippies.)
Concerning this farcical situation in SA, I know what some will say: Never attribute to conspiracy what can be explained by mere stupidity.
I say: Never attribute to stupidity what can be explained by massive plunder, complete and irredeemable indebtedness, the destruction of the middle class and the growth of the surveillance state.
Now I shall remove my tin-foil hat and go look at some lush green Australian bushland. Smell what’s rotten, keep eyes on the good. That’s another thing I say.
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🙂 🙂 🙂
50
Also consider with the closure of our Aluminium industry the quality and price of tin foil will be effected making it weaker and expensive.
This will impact on the hats ability to repel government microwaves and price out the average theorist.
121
The man!
40
Here is another opportunity for the LNP to kill two birds with one stone; reduce emissions to whatever level they like, including 0% and provide stable, reliable and affordable power. They should start pushing nuclear and catch-up with the UK who are eager to be 0% by 2050. Of course the activists won’t like it but that’s the golden opportunity to call them bluff. Either they really want 0% emissions by 2050 or not. There is simply no other way to achieve it without crashing our economy.
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Why “kill two birds with one stone” when you can kill many more with one wind turbine or solar farm, all while having your pockets lined by “maaates” (lobbyists, carpetbaggers) along the way and from behind the moral shield of “saving the planet”.
Perhaps we do not really understand why our politicians are there and what motivates them.
Australia is a Kleptocracy. “We” (which is to say “they”, but with “our” tacit approval it would seem) have simply legalised organised-crime across all levels of government, and our various constitutions (State/s and Federal) have been powerless to stop it.
31
I meant to say “call their bluff”. It would be the sort of move that say Menzies would have done if he were alive and PM today. It really is time to get off the renewables-only bandwagon.
81
Renewables interconnected back to the coal grid are like those kids who “leave home” but whose parents pay their rent and do their washing.
180
The Victorian government should use its regulatory and planning powers to permanently disconnect the interconnect(s) to South Australia. That way Vic has more power available and hopefully prices will come down. For SA it would force the state to go it alone and suffer the consequences of their useless government decisions.
130
VIC disconnects from SA, then NSW disconnects from VIC and QLD disconnects from NSW.
Suddenly it isn’t an east-coast grid anymore, but on the plus side, at least the individual states (sans QLD, probably) will be very quickly confronted by the consequences of their ‘oh so very stupid decision-making’ and maybe, just maybe, be called to account by voters at a subsequent election (after much unnecessary destruction and misery caused by rolling grid-failures, of course).
Unfortunately, this is probably the only way to break the cycle (“communication by black-out”), since our “mainstream media” seems stubbornly determined to ensure the public remains blissfully ignorant of the “joys of wind and solar”.
80
“It wouldn’t be a failure if the other states stepped up and delivered on their responsibility of providing endless electricity at no charge. But no, the producers expect to be paid for what they provide. Obviously they have no compassion for the victims of far seeing wise government policy. It is well known that need takes priority over selfish productivity. They have a right for their needs to be fulfilled and only the productive can fulfill them. The productive have so much and the needy have so little. Hence, the productive must be forced to provide and punished if they don’t.” The voice of the improvident collective demanding the right to consume what they have neither produced nor paid for exactly BECAUSE they have neither produced it nor paid for it. The productive are to have no claim to rights exactly BECAUSE they produced it and willingly paid the price for their productivity.
This is the Brave New World your leaders have built for you. Have a good day.
50
Actually Victoria has been a net sink for SA over at least the last year. Victoria acts as a 650MW battery of infinite capacity for SA intermittents. It is the only reason the state can achieve 50+% from intermittent generation.
The loss of the interconnector has removed the battery that is Victoria. Up until today, SA wind generation has been limited to about 800MW, compared with 1200MM when the interconnector is operational.
Yesterday there was some temporary repair that allows some flow over the interconnector. Right now SA is exporting 124MW into Victoria.
50
SA has a windy day today …but mostly this Summer when they’ve been exporting to Victoria it’s been because gas has kicked in …in excess…to rescue SA from either curtailment or absence of RE.
50
AT 3pm yesterday was generating above 800MW in SA. That is the first time it has sustained that output since the interconnector went down.
20
Yep. ACT takes the trick one step further – they don’t even bother generating their own power, and yet they claim to run themselves on 100% clean renewable power.
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I am sure that the Green ACT government would not lie to us John. They must have this terribly clever widget on the border that filters our all the horrible black fossil fuel amps and only lets in wiggly green amps. When the environment is not kind to wind and solar then the widget only lets in bonny blue amps from Snowy Hydro. Ain’t green technology grand?
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Who pays for these increasing costs, and what is the mechanism for the delivery of that cost?
Is it simply in people’s power bills?
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Anyone connected to the grid in South Australia. And yes, eventually finds its way into electricity bill.
How many people in SA have had a reduction in their connection fee and unit cost of electricity in consecutive years? How often do you hear that some project will reduce you annual electricity by $X? How often does the saving show up in the bill?
The other aspect to mention is that not only has SA had a free ride using the big battery that is Victoria but all Australians, paying for electricity, have been subsidising the grid scale intermittent in SA. All the intermittent generation gets credited to SA but the other states are subsidising around half of that generation. A consequence of the interconnector outage is that the grid scale intermittents are forced to curtail.
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“Who pays for these increasing costs…”
Don’t worry. It’s the government apparently…
“and what is the mechanism for the delivery of that cost?”
That’d be 240V power points across the nation, in the first instance…
…followed by a hidden ‘electricity tax’ in every.thing.you.buy.
80
When they cant put the power price up they simply hike the supply charge
Mines gone from 20$ a quarter in 2007 to 115 presently and the biggest rise when when they forced dumbmeters on us
And we were told the ONLY profits from that would be to the generators and they went ahead regardless and now my power bill at 3$ a day is HALF charges
[Are you typing on a phone Oz? Just a request for sentence punctuation (fixed here) so it is easier to read your comment. – Jo]
00
Just heard the 80mw solar subsidy farm is ready to built at Winton in Victoriastan, now that all approvals and funding are through .
20
one decent hailstorm on a pv farm should do the trick
30
Jo said:
You may have forgotten that ElectraNet are already spending $180,000,000 on four synchronous condensers. The first two are planned to be operational mid year. These will provide frequency and voltage stability independent of the interconnectors.
The SA-NSW interconnector has already been approved; another $1,513,000,000 that South Australian and New South Wales electricity consumers will pay up with interest over the next 20 to 30 years.
SA may see the wholesale cost of electricity fall but all this additional equipment will add to the network charges.
I do not recall any of this detail coming out in the Finkel report that endorsed this slowly evolving train wreck.
140
The line of towers across North East Vic were built in the 1950s and went East of Mansfield and spaned the Eildon weir,the second group of towers of a different designe came many years later. They took a different direction at Tommie to pass west of Mansfield to bypass Wilson went. It was several of these newer towers that blew over some years ago with another of them unprecedented winds that happen from time to time
80
The line of towers across North East Vic were built in the 1950s and went East of Mansfield and spaned the Eildon weir,the second group of towers of a different designe came many years later. They took a different direction at Tommie to pass west of Mansfield to bypass Wilson went. It was several of these newer towers that blew over some years ago with another of them unprecedented winds that happen from time to time.
10
According to The Australian the fact SA managed to keep the light on despite becoming an island was a great achievement for renewables
40
That’s like saying every trip you complete in your Tesla without running out of charge or being incinerated is a great achievement.
250
🙂
50
“a great achievement for renewables”… or like every trip a drunk-driver completes without being breathalysed, crashing, killing themselves and/or someone else is a “great achievement”.
80
I’ve just responded, pointing out a few facts, and also raising the FCAS costs issue covered in this blog.
60
Let’s see them do it without gas …or after days of rain as we’ve had this February…and/or days of next to no wind as they’ve had this Summer.
50
According to The Australian the fact SA managed to keep the light on despite becoming an island was a great achievement for renewables
20
The rescue of the Apollo 13 astronauts in April 1970 was also a great achievement but not something you’d want to do every day!
20
Can someone explain how FCAS prices relate to wholesale electricity prices as published by AEMO?
For February, since the interconnector went down, AEMO average price for SA generators has been $72/MWhr, and average SA demand about 1200 MW. Yet daily prices in SA have varied from minus $107/MWhr on Feb 2 to $266/MWhr on Feb 13.
So for 18 days of Feb, total generator revenue calculated as 1200MW x $72/MWhr x 24hr x 18days = $37 million.
How does this relate to the $90 million FCAS cost reported by Jonathan Dyson?
40
Here is a description of the process using South Australia an event on 24th October 2017 as the working example
https://www.aer.gov.au/system/files/FCAS%20prices%20above%205000MW%20-%2024%20October%202017.pdf
In short, it’s an additional cost to retailers on top of the wholesale price.
10
Political Electricity!
The electricity we had to have!
Even a change of government in S.A. didn’t fix the problem because both sides have their hands in the till.
And Australia used to be such a promising country.
KK
110
Even a change of government at the federal level didn’t fix things. Morrison is eager to reduce our emissions more. We have both major parties hell bent on wrecking our once great nation for the sake of reducing our emissions in the effort to solve a non-existent problem. We as a nation are electing our own economic executioners. Collectively we a really a dumb lot.
30
Travis T. Jones – comment #5 – provided Giles/Renew Economy’s official spin about how RE saved the day. however, check the comments, where he is facing some push-back.
figured we’d now see some MSM following Giles’s lead.
Matthew Bruha – comment #17 – writes that The Australian has obliged. I couldn’t open Matthew’s link, but here’s another that worked for me – read all. I particularly like the quote from Mr van Holst Pellekaan about the “brilliant engineers”, not excerpted below:
18 Feb: Australian: Renewables save the day in interstate energy crisis
Exclusive By David Penberthy
The repair job and storm damage have come at significant cost, with a bill of more than $60m to balance the system set to be borne by power companies, government, businesses and households across the two states.
But in a promising sign for renewables, it has emerged South Australia — which had been off the national grid for the past three weeks — was able to meet the bulk of its energy needs during that time through solar power, with the system augmented by the minimum requirement of gas…
The state was producing so much consistent and reliable power from the sun this month that it fuelled itself chiefly through rooftop solar, even turning off its wind farms for fear that the surplus energy being produced would overload and crash the system…
The state was deriving 49 per cent of its power from renewables in 2018, but that figure has since risen to 55 per cent, with AEMO predicting it will reach 85 per cent by 2025.
More stories on this topic
•Libs back climate road map/
•Bezos’s $15bn to fight climate change/
•Business, politics put Morrison in carbon wedge/
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/renewables-save-the-day-in-interstate-energy-crisis/news-story/2de6aa0338d88f65aafdd869ecc646dc
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pat:
Thank you, I missed that garbage (despite being a subscriber to The Australian).
I notice that van Holst Pelicaan (or Pelican brain as some refer to him as) thinks SA is in good hands. With him as Minister for Electricity “butterfingers”.
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The rooftop solar…that was given by government to many SA’ns to buy these bragging rights they’re exercising…is not included in AEMO’s dispatch figures…but if clouds go over …or they have storms or days into weeks of bad weather rooftop solar’s useless without huge storage or gas …if wind is also scarce as it has been much of the time this Summer.
The storage is great so long as there’s RE available to recharge it when needed …before system black.
50
behind paywall, but it would be good if someone with access could finish the bit excerpted:
Anthony Albanese has failed to express his support for coal while in Queensland
Australian – 18 Feb 2020
Albanese: “But the truth is as well that markets make decisions based upon economics. And the cheapest form of new energy in Australia is wind, is solar, there are new…”
30
Sunlight like water supply is a State responsibility. The Qld government owns the water that fills farmers dams and is now considering boosting revenue shortfalls by charging owners of solar panels for the sunlight that falls on them. Also, due to the cost of reducing carbon emissions, a tax on air we breathe is also being considered.
Yes, they even own us by turning us into collateral for the corporate States borrowing programme.
50
As Rowan Callick (Asia-Pacific Editor ‘The Australian’ 5 Sept 2009) observed, the local PNG inhabitants have converted “carbon trading into a cargo cult luring cash from Australian taxpayers, international investors and local villagers alike. This classic 21st-century scam emerging from the global climate change industry is known as ’mani bilong skai’ – sky money – because it appears to be selling air”, he concluded.
50
Albo is a joke…
Straight talking from the master of waffle!
30
A few comments.
*I thought labelling Albo as “each way Albo” was a trifle unfair. Why then does Albo prove, continually, that the label is justified?
*Albo is at the mercy of the watermelons. Nothing has changed since the last election. They will say and do anything to get elected.
*Mr Albanese – with solar and wind now so cheap – get rid of the subsidies. Also, if they are so cheap, why is the wholesale cost of electricity now $10 billion more than it was for the same amount of electricity before they were introduced into the grid?
*The left are base load deniers
*The grab I heard from Albanese this evening really plumbed the depths of obfuscated doublebtalk.
After 60 secs of gobbledygook, it was impossible for me to figure what his position was on coal.
I just must be dumb?
*“Renewables are cheaper.” This statement cannot be correct and must be called out wherever it is made. Renewables require a seperate 24/7 power grid as back up when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow. The real cost of renewables are;
1. Govt subsidies $
2. Actual cost of the renewables $
3. Cost of a full 24/7 back up power system $
4. Earlier replacement costs $
*Coal, gas and nuclear are the only guaranteed way to create 24/7 power. Turbines and solar simply won’t cut it in terms of both cost and secondly performance.
*There are currently more that 1000 coal fired power plants currently being built around the world. None of the countries building these power plants will commit to any net zero emissions targets and it would be peak stupidity for Australia to commit to anything. We would probably be the only country that would, just dump this folly now and start buiilding new coal or nuclear power plants asap!!
*”…the cheapest form of new energy in Australia is wind, is solar….”. Provided you do not count the way power bills escalated when renewables began to penetrate the generating capacity, provided you don’t count the massive Federal and State taxpayer subsidies, provided you don’t count the Large and Small Scale Generation Certificates, provided you don’t count the cost of providing backup power capability like Snowy 2 , big and small batteries and provided you don’t count the cost of out remnant processing and manufacturing being forced to shut down when the grid gets overloaded and the weather isn’t kind to renewables. Then yes wind ad solar are cheaper, provided you don’t worry about the comparatively short life of type and the cost of disposal.
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Also all of the exponentially-growing FCAS costs are to make RE dispatchable and to protect system strength…safety and and stability from the deleterious effects of RE.
Added to that… much of the maintenance required for coal plants is only necessary because they’re forced… by the government’s mandate of priority dispatch for RE…to ramp and cycle in standby mode…and are then compensated by AEMO for sticking around to rescue RE when it fails.
We pay for it all one way or another—they’ll try to snow us by not having it raise our electricity bills if they can…by hiding it elsewhere…but ultimately we pay.
If coal wasn’t nobbled by government it would of course be providing all the generation and with it… just as a matter of course…all other services for system strength and stability.
50
thanks for the excerpts.
20
Not as good as Morrison’s waffle. He does a good job of talking but doing nothing. Keeps on boasting how we will meet and beat the Paris Agreement target, and now he’s boasting how he can do more. Of course he neglects to say how without busting our economy.
20
Why not utilize fly ash from burnt coal to generate electricity?
Coal Combustion: Nuclear Resource or Danger?
Alex Gabbard
Emissions from burning coal include uranium and other nuclear materials—potential hazards and resources.
“………Using these data, the releases of radioactive materials per typical plant can be calculated for any year. For the year 1982, assuming coal contains uranium and thorium concentrations of 1.3 ppm and 3.2 ppm, respectively, each typical plant released 5.2 tons of uranium (containing 74 pounds of uranium-235) and 12.8 tons of thorium that year. Total U.S. releases in 1982 (from 154 typical plants) amounted to 801 tons of uranium (containing 11,371 pounds of uranium 235) and 1971 tons of thorium. These figures account for only 74% of releases from combustion of coal from all sources. Releases in 1982 from worldwide combustion of 2800 million tons of coal totaled 3640 tons of uranium (containing 51,700 pounds of uranium-235) and 8960 tons of thorium…………..…”
https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML0932/ML093280447.pdf
10
nuclear advocate Shellenberger continues to prosecute his case:
17 Feb: Forbes: If They Are So Alarmed By Climate Change, Why Are They So Opposed To Solving It?
by Michael Shellenberger
Nobody appears to be more concerned about climate change than Democratic presidential front-runner Bernie Sanders, student activist Greta Thunberg, and the thousands of Extinction Rebellion activists who shut down London last year…
Last year, Sanders called climate change “an existential threat.” Extinction Rebellion said, “Billions will die.” And Thunberg said, “I don’t want you to be hopeful” about climate change, “I want you to panic.”
But if Sanders, Thunberg, and Extinction Rebellion are so alarmed about carbon emissions, why are they fighting to halt the use of two technologies, fracking and nuclear, that are most responsible for reducing them?…
Today’s power-dense cities require power-dense fuels. Today’s cities take up just 0.5 percent of the Earth’s ice-free land surface. In the U.S., the energy system requires just 0.5 percent of national land. By contrast, achieving 100% renewables would require 25 to 50 percent of all land in the US, notes (energy analyst Vaclav Smil).
The flip side of renewables’ low energy density is their low return on energy invested. Where nuclear and hydroelectric dams return about 75 and 35 times more, respectively, in energy than they require, solar and wind can end up returning just 1.6 and 4 times more. Today our high-energy civilization relies on fuels that on average deliver a return 30 times higher than the energy-invested…
https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelshellenberger/2020/02/17/if-they-are-so-alarmed-by-climate-change-why-are-they-so-opposed-to-solving-it/#2d6d5f766b75
18 Feb: UK Times: Fury as Extinction Rebellion activists dig up Trinity College’s lawn
Residents in Cambridge have accused the police of allowing “mob rule” after Extinction Rebellion activists blocked roads and vandalised the lawn of one of the university’s colleges. … Rod Bishop, 65, an accountant, said the protests were bizarre and ridiculous and called for the activists to be arrested…
18 Feb: GWPF: UK Times: Mob Rules In Cambridge As Police Allows Extinction Rebellion Activists To Dig Up Trinity College’s Lawn
Residents in Cambridge have accused the police of allowing “mob rule” after Extinction Rebellion activists blocked roads and vandalised the lawn of one of the university’s colleges…
***The anti-climate change group was given police permission to stop traffic, including ambulances and buses, in a week-long demonstration in the city that began yesterday…
More than a dozen activists, including undergraduates, dug up a lawn at Trinity College citing its investment in fossil fuels and plans to turn a farm in Suffolk into a business park. One person chained themself to an apple tree grafted from the one said to have inspired Sir Isaac Newton.
Cambridgeshire police, who did not make any arrests, explained that the force viewed moving the demonstrators off the road as a violationof their human rights.
However, residents criticised the group as well as the police. An online petition, which attracted more than 4,200 signatures, urged officers to remove the roadblocks on Fen Causeway and Trumpington Road, which were granted using emergency powers…
Rod Bishop: “Personally I think the police should keep roads open and discourage vandalism by making arrests whether the college wants them to or not,” he said. “The police need to act to let people go about their daily lives.”…
The Metropolitan Police were criticised last year for initially failing to stop disruption to the capital during protests, which ended up costing the taxpayer £37 million in police staffing and overtime.
A spokesman from Extinction Rebellion said that only ambulances flashing blue lights would be allowed through the Cambridge blockade, otherwise they would have to re-route…READ ON
https://www.thegwpf.com/mob-rules-in-cambridge-as-police-allows-extinction-rebellion-activists-to-dig-up-trinity-colleges-lawn/
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follow-up to comment in moderaton re Shellengberger/nuclear and XR etc:
18 Feb: UK Independent: Storm Dennis: ‘Bleak irony’ as youth climate change conference cancelled due to extreme weather
Expert says heavy rainfall from storms ‘100 per cent’ linked to climate change
by Conrad Duncan; Additional reporting by PA
Youth climate change activists in the UK have been forced to cancel their first ever national conference due to flooding brought on by Storm Dennis.
The conference in Staffordshire was due to start on Sunday but police have advised that the event should not go ahead due to safety concerns, according to the UK Student Climate Network (UKSCN)…
Sophia Coningham, a 15-year-old climate activist from London, said there was a “bleak irony” in the conference being shut down by extreme weather.
“This kind of last-minute cancellation is particularly difficult for young people without the financial resources to travel across the country whenever we choose,” Sophia said.
“We are now living in an age of climate storms – where the most extreme weather of the last century is becoming the norm in this one,” she added.
“This is an emergency that’s now being felt across the world – from Staffordshire to Sri Lanka.”
Earlier today, Dr Michael Byrne, a lecturer in climate science at the University of St Andrews and research fellow at the University of Oxford, warned that more water in the atmosphere is “an entirely inevitable consequence of climate change.”
“When you warm the planet, the atmosphere holds more water. In many parts of the world, including the UK, rising temperatures go hand in hand with more rain,” he said in the wake of two major storms (Dennis and Ciara) in recent weeks…
“These storms are nothing new, going back 100 years, but, because we are now more than 1C warmer as a whole versus pre-industrial times, every degree means 7 per cent more water in the atmosphere and more rain in these heavy rain events,” Dr Byrne said.
“When they come, they bring more rain, 100 per cent for certain, because of climate change.”…
https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/storm-dennis-climate-change-youth-conference-floods-uk-student-network-a9340841.html
18 Feb: UK Telegraph: James Lovelock at 100: ‘The new generation of eco-warriors are too emotional’
The ‘maverick’ scientist explains why protest alone won’t save the planet
By Robin Pagnamenta
James Lovelock takes a sip of tea and glances out of his window overlooking Chesil Beach. “If we are going to solve the problem, then it’s the nest of humans who are going to solve it,” the 100-year-old scientist and futurist says quietly, as rain lashes down outside over a windswept English Channel.
“I’ve got my own view on this thing: we’re in a fairly desperate position.”
He compares mankind’s current predicament with the challenge facing his own generation between 1939-45. “It’s an incredible choice before us,” he says. “Do we want life as usual now, for a few more years – and then crash?..
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2020/02/18/james-lovelock-100-new-generation-eco-warriors-emotional/
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18 Feb: AFR: Victoria sidesteps slow reforms to boost transmission
by Angela Macdonald-Smith
Energy users have voiced alarm at the Victorian government’s move to push ahead unilaterally to boost transmission and storage to shore up its power grid, saying consumers will pay through higher prices and increased risks.
Lily D’Ambrosio, Minister for Energy, the Environment and Climate Change, said on Tuesday the government would amend its state electricity act to give Victoria the power to unlock renewable energy projects and improve reliability of supply.
The move means Victoria would go ahead with projects such as the upgrade to the power cable connecting Victoria with NSW without going through the lengthy regulatory investment test required for regulated transmission and distribution investments…
“These reforms will help keep our energy system resilient as we face hotter summers, longer bushfire seasons, and increasingly unreliable coal-powered generators,” she said…
The move comes after Victoria’s transmission link with South Australia was cut last month after a mini-tornado swept through the west of the state, toppling transmission towers. A temporary and partial fix enabled the states to be reconnected on Monday but the permanent repairs are expected to take up to 12 months…
Victoria’s summer power supply was also threatened by extended outages last year at key coal and gas power plants, triggering warnings from the Australian Energy Market Operator of potential forced blackouts…
Energy producers also voiced concern that consumers would then pay the price for poor investment decisions, and noted that no industry consultation had been carried out on the proposed bill…READ ALL
https://www.afr.com/companies/energy/victoria-sidesteps-slow-reforms-to-boost-transmission-20200218-p541rb
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18 Feb: PV Mag: Smart Energy Council rallies industry to halt decline of Australia’s renewables market
Renewable energy developers and investors have told Australian industry body the Smart Energy Council ‘they’re done. The sovereign risk in Australia is too great,’ according to the organization’s government relations manager, Wayne Smith. With prospects, employment and energy prices in jeopardy, the trade organization has vowed to petition policymakers for a bankable plan.
by Natalie Filatoff
A renewable energy industry crisis meeting held by webinar on Friday saw Australian trade body the Smart Energy Council (SEC) call out the federal government and regulators for failures to enable clean power to fire an healthy economy.
The meeting was called by SEC chief executive John Grimes in response to the accelerated flight of investors and engineering, procurement and construction services companies after the Australian Electricity Market Operator’s (AEMO) curtailment last year of renewable generator output to the grid.
The gas and electricity market regulator this month compounded industry concern by refusing to connect several solar and wind farms due to system strength issues in southwest New South Wales and in Victoria – despite the fact renewables developers had followed due process and been assured grid connection…
Multiples of renewable capacity required
“The industry has the ability to deliver what Australia needs, which is rapid build-out of renewables,” said Yates, who emphasized Australia will require not only 50% renewable energy by 2030, as the government has conceded, but 100% and then ‘200%’.
“We have to deliver multiples of what we have,” said (Oliver Yates, former CEO of green bank the Clean Energy Finance Corporation CEFC)…READ ALL
https://www.pv-magazine.com/2020/02/18/smart-energy-council-rallies-industry-to-halt-decline-of-australias-renewables-market/
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Speaking of wind power…
Those long in the tooth in the climate debate may remember John Brignell for his widely cited 800-item “Complete list of things caused by global warming”. Perhaps less known was his continual opposition to all claims that a flying wind turbine could ever be possible. He summarised the issues on his web site, paying special attention to the design of the anchoring cable. http://numberwatch.co.uk/cables.htm
Many years later in 2014, the BAT flew.
https://imgur.com/gallery/7tHNxZi/comment/1807287199
The Altaeros Bouyant Airborne Turbine used conductive tethers to fly a helium-filled balloon and turbine 600m above the ground, intended to generate up to 30kW, which was glowingly described in a Jan 2019 article on RenewableWorld. https://renewableworld.net/altaeros-bat-floating-wind-turbine/
Now, just one year after that article was written, the link to Altaeros’ energy page no longer works, and their web site does not promote energy generation as a product at all. There is only one reference to it in the company’s history page: “After initially focusing on harnessing high altitude wind energy using its innovative aerial platform, Altaeros pivoted in 2015 to focus on a better solution to provide modern, high-speed connectivity to un-served and under-served rural communities.”
One year from being touted as “the next generation of wind power” to being a wind Voldemort in its own company.
Yet I’m left wondering, was Brignell wrong about the cable and did BAT fail for reasons other than the cable?
It looked like it was physically functioning.
30
Andrew:
Remember wind turbines destroy bats, lots of bats. Obviously this BAT committed suicide.
40
My general impression of it is that it was something of a metaphor for the CAGW madness….but in its case …sanity eventually prevailed.
10
19 Feb: RenewEconomy: Murdoch media headline shock: “Renewables save the day in energy crisis”
by Giles Parkinson
Yes, really, that is what the headline in Rupert Murdoch’s The Australian newspaper said on Wednesday: “Renewables save the day in energy crisis.” And it was, as the headline suggests, a very positive story about renewables in South Australia.
It outlined, as RenewEconomy had done the week before, how renewables played a critical role when storms tore down the towers supporting the main transmission link between Victoria and South Australia, and left the renewables state “islanded”. And placed it at the bottom of page 4.
And yes, it got a few critical things wrong:
For a start, it claimed an “exclusive”, which suggests the Murdoch folk do not read RenewEconomy quite as closely as they should.
RenewEconomy published its story last Friday, and it was read by more than 20,000 people…READ ON
https://reneweconomy.com.au/murdoch-media-headline-shock-renewables-save-the-day-in-energy-crisis-44867/
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pat:
It seems to have been a fleeting visit only. Cannot find it.
Given the likely comments I would think that (if it were published) that there was a rapid reappraisal of the article.
00
Oh, and I should have added “if renewables were so wonderful why did the AEMO shut so many down?”
And there has been a slight re-connection to Victoria through the damaged interconnector which has been heralded by reneweconomy as a full repair. No wonder I don’t normally bother reading (description moderated)it.
10
19 Feb: AFR: Letters: Nuclear solution decades too late
The AWU’s Daniel Walton wants the ALP to embrace nuclear power as a way of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, yet offers no financial and economic case (February 18) (LINK).
A carbon price is a far more economically responsible and environmentally effective option.
Nuclear as a solution is decades too late. Both AEMO and CSIRO now price nuclear at five times the cost of renewables with storage. Plus, nuclear would take around three times as long to build. A carbon price would drive a shift to cost-effective, low-emissions production without the pitfalls of politicians picking winners.
Walton would be well advised to refer to Ross Garnaut’s excellent book, Super Power, for an optimistic and far more realistic vision for new manufacturing and regional economic activity that would reap the rewards of a global shift to a low-carbon economy. This taps the available low-cost emissions technologies, as South Australia’s ‘Iron Triangle’ is poised to do, without any need for nuclear.
Jim Allen, Panorama, SA
Wind, solar, batteries the superior options
The Energy Minister and Prime Minister’s opening of the door on the “nuclear option” to the ALP is nothing more than a political wedge tactic.
The already lower and still falling costs of wind and solar combined with batteries makes nuclear a non-starter. Reliable base load power can be delivered by today’s renewable technologies more cheaply, projects developed much more quickly and plant operated without the long-term environmental and safety risks of nuclear.
Jens Wentrup, Clovelly, NSW
Transition from fossil fuels inevitable
As is occurring in other countries where national governments are recalcitrant in acting on energy management and climate change mitigation, it is states, cities and communities that lead the way.
A diverse and stellar cast of informed and committed presenters and 2500-plus people at last weekend’s National Climate Emergency Summit in Melbourne focused on positive and practical action. Elephants not in the room were the federal government and federal Labor. They are still mired in shallow ideological arguments about the costs and benefits of fossil fuels, wistfully dreaming about new technologies and nuclear power to save us from their rejection of evidence and their indecision (“Labor’s bipartisan support for nuclear a must: AWU”, February 18). It is no longer a question of if rapid transition from fossil fuels – coal, gas, and oil – to cost-effective alternatives can happen, it is only a question of when.
William Chandler, Surrey Hills, Vic
Nats need a rethink on climate change
Michael McCormack may well declare a net zero carbon by 2050 target ‘unworkable’ (‘‘Nats threat to derail 2050 carbon plan’’, February 17).
He should, however, reflect on the fact that every state and the ACT has already adopted the target, and that action on climate is supported by over two-thirds of the public.
It has always been an error to consider the 2019 election as a climate election – it was a tax election. The winner of that election knows it and he knows he cannot afford to follow Malcolm Turnbull’s path of forgoing action for the whim of a minority.
The Liberals could successfully govern as a minority government without the Coalition – and should do so if the Nationals invite it.
Dave Havyatt, Corrimal, NSW
https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/letters-nuclear-solution-decades-too-late-20200218-p541wz
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Why would the cost of nuclear be a barrier if the aim is to save the planet form a global warming catastrophe even if it’s a myth or a scam? No the real reason we are not adopting nuclear like many other countries already have is because we are a backward nation who has a fear of nuclear. That’s fine. So the only other option to reduce our emissions as much as possible is move to renewables, which will cost far more than nuclear.
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19 Feb: South Australia Govt: A powerful argument for another interconnector
by Dan van Holst Pellekaan MP
https://www.premier.sa.gov.au/news/media-releases/news/a-powerful-argument-for-another-interconnector?utm_source=miragenews&utm_medium=miragenews&utm_campaign=news
forget democracy:
18 Feb: AFR: Technology road map avoids a 2050 emissions target
by Phillip Coorey and Mark Ludlow
Liberal MPs believe a technology road map to be released next month will sideline pro-coal Nationals and enable Australia to reach zero net emissions by 2050, all without having to mandate the target…
Speaking on condition of anonymity, they believed the road map should include goals for certain technological advances, such as a date by when a certain percentage of new cars sold should be electric…
Rebel Nationals led by Barnaby Joyce and Matt Canavan are pushing a pro-coal agenda and are vehemently opposed to any 2050 emissions target.
Liberals believe a road map containing sufficient goals for clean energy technology would be “the best way to go around Canavan and Barnaby”.
“They would be left in the rear-view mirror having yesterday’s discussion,” said one…
Business and clean energy groups cautiously welcomed the concept of a road map…
Renewable investment, which is already at record levels, would need to double to reach AEMO’s forecast of 30 gigawatts of new renewables by 2040 and an additional five to 21 gigawatts of firming capacity.
“This replacement capacity will not be built by the National Electricity Market without the introduction of major policy reforms,” the BCA said…
https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/technology-road-map-avoids-a-2050-emissions-target-20200218-p541r1
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pat:
that second interconnector is to provide an outlet for excess generation when the wind blows. At the moment the wind farms are being disconnected a lot to save the (islanded) grid. Even when the main interconnector to Victoria was operational they were still being restricted – the CF had dropped from 30% to 27%.
When the wind blows strongly there is a rush to get output out by dropping the price, to zero if necessary, because they get almost as much as the full price with a RET Certificate – no sale, no certificate. So the new interconnector will enable the very cheap excess to be exported and the price will rise. When the wind doesn’t blow, well NSW is a net importer and may not be able to spare any, but if they do, it will be at a higher price. The result for the south australian user will be a higher electricity bill. This talk of a reduced bill is waffle (that should get through the Mod rather the word(s) I would like to use).
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This just reinforces my reasons for being reluctant to sign the Kohler petition.
I simply don’t trust Morrison…and we can be absolutely certain that if he dudded the ‘quiet Australians’as he’s done many times….ie if he made sure the terms of reference would deny a real voice to sceptics/conservatives….he would become the hero of the LW journalists like Coorey….who would make the betrayal a triumph for Morrison because out of the whole Australian population…we are the ones they have the most visceral contempt for.
30
With “leaders” like Scomo and Albo who needs enemies? As long as the majority of voters sit back and let one or the other “manage” the nation with a majority rule we will continue to slide down into the abyss.
40
PeterS when it comes to power generation we have three greens parties who toe the ABC line , interestingly we have a number of Libs, Nats and Labor who are realists in this area and I wonder what their numbers would be if they all split and either formed a new party or merged with one nation .
By my reckoning it would be close .
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17 Feb: NS Energy Business: Profiling the seven biggest nuclear power plants in China
by James Murray
China has one of the largest nuclear fleets in the world, with 48 reactors currently in action and a further nine under construction…
Here, NS Energy lists the seven biggest nuclear power plants in China…
https://www.nsenergybusiness.com/features/top-nuclear-power-plants-china/
NS Energy Business: Barakah Nuclear Power Plant, Abu Dhabi
The 5.6GW Barakah nuclear power plant (NPP) is under construction in the Dhafra Region of Abu Dhabi. Barakah is the first nuclear power project in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as well as in the entire Arab world.
The project is being jointly developed by Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (ENEC) and the reactor supplier Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO)…
Construction on the £19bn ($24.4bn) nuclear power project started in July 2012. The first reactor unit of the planned four 1.4GW reactors was completed in May 2017 and Nawah secured the operating license for the same from UAE’s Federal Authority of Nuclear Regulation (FANR) in February 2020…
https://www.nsenergybusiness.com/projects/barakah-nuclear-power-plant-abu-dhabi/
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18 Feb: Wind-Watch:from The Australian: Neighbours take Bald Hills wind farm to court over health complaints
by Graham Lloyd
Australia’s first group legal action for noise and health impacts from a wind farm has been lodged in the Victoria Supreme Court against the 106 megawatt Bald Hills project in Gippsland.
A judge and jury in the coalmining centre of Morwell will be asked to hear the complaint about health and financial impacts and a failure by the wind farm’s owner to take action to stop it.A group of 12 residents is seeking orders from the court to have the development curtailed or shut down, and for its owners to pay them compensation.
Bald Hills Wind Farm is expected to lodge its defence next month, with a directions hearing due in April. A trial could take place later this year.
The complainants are from four properties – the Fairbrother, Jelbart, Uren and Zakula residences. The group’s statement of claim says the wind farm has caused them “to experience great discomfort, distress, inconvenience, disturbance and upset including headaches, earaches, neck aches, tinnitus, unpleasant pulsing sensations, disturbed sleep, stress and annoyance, and have rendered the affected properties unhealthy and uncomfortable to live and work in”.
They also claim the value of their properties has been affected by the wind farm.
The noise from the wind farm has “caused a substantial and unreasonable interference with the use and enjoyment of the affected properties”, the statement says…READ ON
https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2020/02/18/neighbours-take-bald-hills-wind-farm-to-court-over-health-complaints/
19 Feb: SolomonStarNews Solomon Islands: Fire left families homeless
TWO families in Gilbert Camp, East Honiara are now homeless after their two homes were burnt down by fire around midday on Monday.
The cause of the fire is still unknown but neighbours and surrounding communities suspect it must be a fault from the battery charger using a solar panel…
http://solomonstarnews.com/index.php/news/national/item/22748-fire-left-families-homeless
18 Feb: WHAV 97.9: Haverhill City Councilors to Hear Proposed Changes to Siting Residential Solar Panels
By Tim Coco
Haverhill city councilors are expected to move a bit closer tonight to keeping residential solar panels from blighting neighborhoods…
A new zoning article would better address such issues as panel setbacks away from streets, use of vegetation and fencing to diminish “commercial impacts” and access roads that could accommodate fire trucks…
https://whav.net/2020/02/18/haverhill-city-councilors-to-hear-proposed-changes-to-siting-residential-solar-panels/
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Govt concerned jobs, electricity grid ‘in trouble’ if Liddell is not handed life support
19/02/2020|7min
Sky News Political Editor Andrew Clennell says the federal government is concerned New South Wales’ electricity grid will be “in trouble” in terms of “supply and reliability of energy and the price” if the life of AGL Energy’s Liddell coal power station is not extended. In August, Energy Minister Angus Taylor announced the formation of a taskforce to consider an extension or replacement for the plant. “That’s the pressure Angus Taylor’s putting on,” Mr Clennell said. “He’s saying give us an extension of Liddell or show us how you are going to replace that energy. “We revealed last month that a taskforce involving federal and state bureaucrats found that to extend the life of the plant from 2023 to 2026 would cost $300 million and would have to be subsidised by the federal and state governments.” Mr Clennell also said he was told Tomago Aluminium, which his serviced by Liddell, is concerned about the future if the plant closes — which includes 1,100 jobs. “State government is apparently not very keen unless you’re John Barilaro.” NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro earlier told Sky News “when our network relies on a large consumer of electricity, like Tomago smelter in the Hunter, to switch off and switch down so that we don’t black out Sydney in the summer, when we have that sort of arrangement in our network we have, of course, a policy failure.” “We will need Liddell to continue on. There is a gap that is coming that you can’t firm up with renewables.”
SKY
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This chaos is a very good thing and exactly what Australia needs. There is some minor chance it will instill some common sense in people.
50
‘Quite clear’ government won’t be adopting net-zero 2050 emissions target
18/02/2020|6min
Sky News Political Editor Andrew Clennell says it is “quite clear” the government will not be adopting the target of zero net emissions by 2050 — which the Coalition has “very little enthusiasm for”. “To deliver on his promise to the Pacific Islands Forum, the prime minister is commissioning Emissions Reduction Minister Angus Taylor and his department to look at the potential cost of such a target,” Mr Clennell said. He said reports the government had been looking at implementing a technology investment target to avoid committing to an internationally imposed emissions target is “not quite right” and instead is looking to have a “technology roadmap”. The government said the new plan – set to be presented at this year’s United Nations summit in Glasgow – was the best way to meet the Paris Agreement without costing the economy billions each year. Mr Clennell said Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese has made it clear that he is looking at a “long-term target” and Shadow Minister for Climate Change Mark Butler is “incessantly” talking about that zero net emissions target by 2050 which looks like a “likely target for Labor”. “Some in shadow cabinet are concerned about a pathway for justifying that target, how you can actually show it’s achievable,” he said. Image: News Corp Australia
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That is the Paris Agreement CO2 emissions target.
Why?
30
19 Feb: CarbonPulse: EasyJet, Harrods breach EU ETS rules as UK issues record £5.6m in fines
Low-cost airline EasyJet, luxury department store Harrods, and a renowned British architect were among those to be penalised this month for violating the rules of the EU ETS, as the UK government issued its largest batch of non-compliance fines to date…
—
on collision with “environmentalists”! so what?
18 Feb: Sky UK: Glencore support for coal at odds with global climate goals
Sky’s Ian King says Glencore’s arguments for thermal coal production leave the firm on a collision course with environmentalists.
The latest big name to unveil its ambitions in the sector was BP last week (LINK).
The big focus during the last year or so has been the challenge of reducing so-called ‘Scope 3’ emissions – those caused by a company’s customers, for example through the production of power of the production of steel, rather than by the company itself.
It is a subject on which, until today, Glencore had remained silent…
Among all of the world’s big diversified mining companies – BHP, Rio Tinto, Glencore, Anglo-American and Canada’s Teck Resources – Glencore stands out as being the biggest exporter and producer of thermal coal.
That might suggest it has more to do than some of its competitors in when it comes to reducing ‘Scope 3’ emissions.
Not so, according to Ivan Glasenberg, the company’s chief executive.
Reiterating the company’s commitment to transitioning to a low-carbon economy, he said on Tuesday that the company was projecting a 30% reduction in Scope 3 emissions by 2035…
South African-born Mr Glasenberg said that, unlike competitors such as Rio Tinto, the company would not be selling its coal assets.
He added: “We are not selling coal assets to get Scope 3 off our books. If you sell the assets, get rid of them, spin them out, Scope 3 will still be occurring.”
He insisted Glencore would not stop producing thermal coal because demand for the higher-quality coal it is producing in Australia remains strong among Asian steel producers and power plant operators.
He said demand for the company’s South African-produced coal was also holding up due to strong sales to India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, which account for three-quarters of Glencore’s South African coal output…
But his insistence that the company will carry on producing coal, provided it remains profitable, is unlikely to win him many friends among environmental campaigners…
https://news.sky.com/story/glencore-support-for-coal-at-odds-with-global-climate-goals-11937275
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16 Feb: Deutsche Welle: How has the Kyoto Protocol impacted climate change, 15 years on?
by Tim Schauenberg
In principle, industrialized countries still have obligations under the Kyoto Protocol, but a later treaty, the Paris Climate Agreement of 2015, has now superseded it. Under the Paris Agreement, all countries of the world agreed to reduce global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels…
But so far, hardly any country has met its targets.
Global greenhouse gas emissions have risen by 41% since 1990 and continue to rise. If CO2 emissions continue at current levels, the earth will warm up by about 3 degrees Celsius by the end of the century.
“The consensus principle has failed,” said (climate scientist and lawyer Hermann Ott.” “Fossil fuel states such as Saudi Arabia, the US, Russia and Australia are blocking any real action. Therefore a new treaty is needed — a fast lane for those states that really have an interest in climate protection.”
https://www.dw.com/en/kyoto-protocol-climate-treaty/a-52375473
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14 Feb: NewIndianExpress: Tough diplomatic act for Indian-origin UK minister Alok Shamra in UN climate talks
With the latest data showing global warming-causing emissions still on the rise, this year almost 200 countries are set to submit present strengthened national climate plans.
by IANS
…Britain-based Christian Aid’s Global Climate Lead, Kat Kramer, said “Taking on the delicate and grave task of ensuring these crucial talks succeed is a huge responsibility for the UK and its role on the global stage.
“It would have been a big task had Alok Sharma been in post from the beginning, rather than coming in late in the process. It’s now vital they work very closely with the backing of the Prime Minister to both get other countries to commit to new pledges to tackle the climate crisis.
“For developing countries this will require technological and financial support so they can leapfrog our dirty development path and increase their resilience to climate impacts. In order to be a credible host, the UK needs to rapidly step up efforts to reduce emissions at home, not just boast about its 2050 net zero target.”…
In the last climate talks in Spain, India, China, Brazil and some developing countries had failed to convince the world to evolve rules for trading internationally carbon credits which help them decarbonize economies at a lower cost.
There was also a total collapse on drawing a roadmap for long-term finance from developed to developing countries.
In the last COP the countries failed miserably to agree unanimously on Article 6 of the crucial Paris Agreement rulebook concerning the carbon markets system as the two-week lengthy negotiations concluded two days past the official deadline.
Article 6 of the Paris Agreement provides guidelines as to how international climate markets will work, as a key component of the world’s economic toolbox for addressing climate change…
Several countries like India have been demanding to carry forward the old carbon credits earned also by companies to meet new climate targets…
As per rough estimates, nations hold close to 4 billion unsold certified emission reductions (CERs). India has a depository of 750 million and China has much more than India.
One CER equals to one tonne of carbon dioxide. The CERs help companies earn billions of dollars by trading them. Currently, there is market but no political platform.
Climate experts said that the only saving grace for India, China and Brazil was that they did not allow the developed nations to completely reject the carbon trade mechanism, still a key component for the full operationalization of the Paris Climate Change Agreement…
eeling much more needs to be done, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has set 10 climate priority areas for this year.
These include securing commitments from the main emitters of more ambitious national commitments, all countries coming forward with 2050 carbon neutrality commitments, increasing the ambition of national commitments in sectors that were not fully taken in account in the past and curtailing current coal capacity ***and ensuring no more new coal power plants are built after 2020…
https://www.newindianexpress.com/world/2020/feb/14/tough-diplomatic-act-for-indian-origin-uk-minister-alok-shamra-in-un-climate-talks-2103316.html
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18 Feb: Vox: Why the world’s third largest economy is still betting on coal
Japan is pushing ahead with a fuel source that’s exacerbating climate change.
By Umair Irfan
The prospect of more coal has been looming for years: In 2018, Japan proposed adding 36 new coal plants to its fleet. Earlier this month, the New York Times reported that Japan has revised that plan but is still on track to add a total of 22 coal-fired power plants at 17 sites in the next five years. Some 15 of these plants are already under construction.
If all 22 plants were to come to fruition, Japan will install enough new coal power capacity to emit an additional 74.7 million metric tons of carbon dioxide each year, more than the total emissions of countries like Norway and Sweden.
This coal buildout would make Japan, the world’s fifth-largest greenhouse gas emitter, the only G7 country building more coal power plants domestically and the largest G7 financier of coal generation in other countries…
As a resource-poor island country, Japan relies on imports for more than 90 percent of its energy, so the government is concerned with securing reliable sources of fuel. Coal that Japan buys from regional allies gives some parts of the government peace of mind.
Coal power is also a pillar of Japan’s export strategy. Its banks finance Japanese-designed and -built power plants around the world…
While Japan has been deploying more renewable energy — it was 17.4 percent of the energy mix in 2018 — more than half of Japan’s electricity comes from coal and natural gas…
As a densely populated island country, Japan has run into land use constraints around deploying large-scale wind and solar plants…
Over the long term, the government remains skeptical that renewables can meet Japan’s economic and climate goals at the same time…
Environmental activists see this as a decision motivated more by saving money than trying to improve energy reliability. “It is true that renewable is still more expensive than coal, and coal is one of the cheapest options in Japan, but it is also true that without building new coal power, we have no problem in electricity supply in Japan regardless [of the] nuclear shutdown,” said (Kimiko Hirata, international director of the Kiko Network, a Japanese environmental advocacy group)…
About two-thirds of Japan’s coal is from Australia, a country that is also facing climate-linked disasters and is struggling to curb its economic reliance on coal…
China is using coal power financing as a key element of its Belt and Road Initiative to expand its economic and political influence throughout Asia and Africa. Both Japan and China are now racing to secure lucrative construction contracts in developing countries to expand their strategic reach…
Meanwhile, Japan has a rising rivalry with another growing regional power, South Korea. Seoul has made nuclear power a key plant of its export strategy and is also targeting many of the same markets as Japan, like Vietnam, Indonesia, and Thailand.
However, Japan’s coal exports are eroding its international standing…
The question now is what Japan will bring to the table later this year in Glasgow at the COP26 meeting…
And if Japan shows up empty-handed again, it could sap other nations’ enthusiasm to step up their ambitions.
https://www.vox.com/2020/2/18/21128205/climate-change-japan-coal-energy-emissions-pikachu
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19 Feb: RenewEconomy: Morrison recycles old tactics in bid to avoid zero emissions targets
by Michael Mazengarb
Morrison’s claim ignores numerous assessments (LINK) that show Australia would be more prosperous if it took ambitious action on climate change, including assessments from the CSIRO (LINK) that said the portion of Australians would spend significantly less on electricity under a shift to 100 per cent renewables…READ ON
https://reneweconomy.com.au/morrison-recycles-old-tactics-in-bid-to-avoid-zero-emissions-targets-71373/
18 Feb: EurekaAlert: Solar technology breakthrough at the University of Queensland
A new world record for the conversion of solar energy to electricity using quantum dots
University of Queensland
Professor Lianzhou Wang, who led the breakthrough, said: “Conventional solar technologies use rigid, expensive materials. The new class of quantum dots the university has developed are flexible and printable…READ ON
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-02/uoq-stb021420.php
10
pity:
19 Feb: TheDiplomat: Australia, France Reaffirm Commitment to Attack-Submarine Program in Joint Statement
Australia and France have reaffirmed their commitment to the Royal Australian Navy’s Future Submarine Program.
By Franz-Stefan Gady
Australia’s Minister of Defense, Linda Reynolds, and her French counterpart, Florence Parley, reaffirmed their “full commitment” to the Royal Australian Navy’s (RAN) SEA 1000 Future Submarine Program in a February 15 joint statement (LINK)…
https://thediplomat.com/2020/02/australia-france-reaffirm-commitment-to-attack-submarine-program-in-joint-statement/
10
Just listening to ABC Greens propaganda radio and I have learned at the moment with the interconnector down South Australia are running on 100% solar and are enjoying the cheapest prices evah .
I also learnt that solar panels are 100% recycled.
No radio was harmed while listening and I know it’s true because the advice came from interviewing Sarah Hanson Young .
Now I have to go and be sick .
70
Oh and I also learned India are not importing coal after 2022 – 2023 !
50
robert rosicka –
thermal coal, that is.
from Australian Govt website:
Coal in India 2019 Executive Summary
Australia is currently not a significant supplier of thermal coal to India. In 2018, Australia exported just 5 million tonnes of thermal coal to India — 2.3 per cent of Australia’s thermal coal exports, and just 4.5 per cent of India’s thermal coal imports. There are a number of reasons for limited Australian thermal coal exports to India…
The commencement of Adani’s 10 million tonne Carmichael mine could triple Australia’s thermal coal exports to India — although from a low base. The development of other Indian-owned mines in Australia, and the prospect that Indonesia and South Africa may not meet all of India’s thermal coal import needs, could further boost Australian thermal coal exports to India…
18 Feb: EconomicTimesIndia: India to stop thermal coal imports from FY24: Prahlad Joshi
By Sarita C Singh
New Delhi: India will stop importing thermal coal from financial year 2023-24, coal and mines minister Pralhad Joshi said on Tuesday. The minister said that ideas to transform Coal India into an integrated energy company by allowing it to set up pit-head thermal power station have also been mooted at a brain storming session in Gujarat…
Joshi said various ways and means were discussed with key stakeholders to achieve One billion tonne coal production target by Coal India by 2023-24. The ministry will coordinate with Indian Railways and the shipping ministry and enable Coal India, captive and commercial miners evacuate more coal by 2030, he said…
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/energy/power/india-to-stop-thermal-coal-imports-from-fy24-prahlad-joshi/articleshow/74189630.cms?from=mdr
20 Jan: Reuters: India thermal coal imports fall for three months in a row
India’s thermal coal imports fell for three straight months for the first time in over two years, government data reviewed by Reuters show, as an economic slowdown stifled demand from industries such as cement and sponge iron…
Still, thermal coal imports during the ten months ended Oct 30 was 12.6% higher at 163.86 million tonnes, the data compiled by the Ministry of Coal showed, despite registering a decline during the months of August, September and October…
30
behind paywall:
Premier Palaszczuk open to blocking planned coal-fired power station at Collinsville as Albanese says study funding is ‘hush money’
The Australian – 5h ago
Clennell with Kieran Gilbert; more proof Murdoch media goes along with the anti-coal CAGW scam, despite what theirABC/Guardian & others say to the contrary:
VIDEO: approx 3m: 16 Feb: Sky News: ‘Question marks’ over govt’s support for Collinsville coal plant
Sky News Political Editor Andrew Clennell says the proposed coal plant in Collinsville would be underwritten by government, not subsidised, but questions whether “political purposes are at play” given the state’s rigorous energy supply.
“Government money in itself would not be going there,” Mr Clennell said, but there are “real question marks here about whether the government’s support for this is based on political considerations.”
He pointed out the Australian Energy Market Operator found in 2019 “a negligible level of unserved energy across all scenarios in Queensland, which has a surplus of capacity and a relatively large pipeline of committed and proposed renewable generation developments”.
“George Christensen, the Queensland LNP MP, told the party room that five seats in Queensland were dependent on the construction of the coal-fired power station.”
The development comes after Prime Minister Scott Morrison unveiled a $4 million feasibility study into the coal-fired power plant.
https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_6132876393001
following is about Olive Downs coal mine; don’t know who is being quoted:
Morrison government ‘holding up’ $1bn Queensland coal mine, State Labor says
Morrison government ‘holding up’ $1bn Queensland coal mine and vital resources jobs, by unreasonably delaying environmental approvals for the project
The Australian – 5 hours ago
“Not one environmental group put in a negative submission against this coal mine during consultation on the EIS (environmental impact statement)”…
… that the central Queensland Olive Downs metallurgical coal mine, …
“This great project, meeting all environmental (approvals) can start this year but it hinges on an overdue approval from Scott Morrison and his government, enough is enough.”…
4 Oct 2019: Qld Resources Council: 1000 coal jobs a step closer with Environmental Authority for Olive Downs mine
The Queensland Resources Council (QRC) has welcomed the ongoing progress on development of the Pembroke Resources Olive Downs coking coal mine, bringing up to 1000 jobs closer…
Mr Macfarlane said Olive Downs will be one of the largest open cut coking coal mines in the world and more importantly a significant contributor to royalty payments which build the vital infrastructure which benefits all Queenslanders…READ ON
https://www.qrc.org.au/media-releases/1000-coal-jobs-a-step-closer-with-environmental-authority-for-olive-downs-mine/
20
on Sky, Paul Kelly from The Australian tells Peta Credlin how the Business Council position…
“is that Australia needs to spend ***“at least” $22billion ***a year on new investment in technology to reach the target.”
Georgie Dent doesn’t blink, but she has a go at Matt Canavan for knowing, from his years looking at these issues, that industry and jobs would be lost.
unfortunately, Peta Credlin repeated the $22 billion bit, but didn’t say PER YEAR. she left the impression that was to cover the years to 2050.
that’s the problem with these big CAGW figures. hard for people to grasp the true horror.
18 Feb: WomensAgenda: PM Scott Morrison’s new plan to avoid a target for net zero emissions by 2050
by Georgie Dent
An exclusive report in The Australian (LINK) on Tuesday indicates the Prime Minister Scott Morrison will avoid Australia signing up to an internationally imposed requirement for net zero emissions by 2050, by setting a technology investment target instead…
***The position of the peak body for big business, the Business Council of Australia, is that Australia need to spend ***“at least” $22billion a year on new investment in technology to reach the target…
Moderate Liberal MPs including Trent Zimmerman, Jason Falinski and Katie Allen have all expressed support in recent days for more concrete climate action…
“I think if you go down that path, what you’re going to do is send factories and industries offshore, send manufacturing jobs offshore,” McCormack told the ABC. “That’s not the Australian way. Regional Australia is more than doing its fair share, its fair share as far as making sure that we have lower emissions.”
Nationals Senator Matt Canavan, who earlier this month resigned from Cabinet to support Barnaby Joyce in the leadership spill, is also vehemently opposed to a net zero target.
“I haven’t looked at the modelling or costs and benefits of net zero emissions closely because it just seems so fantastical to me,” he told Sky News.
To have determined a firm policy position without regard for modelling or costs seems an extraordinary admission but Canavan is not deterred. In an op-ed in The Australian on Tuesday he warned jobs and industry will be lost if a net zero emissions target is adopted…
https://womensagenda.com.au/latest/pm-scott-morrisons-new-plan-to-avoid-a-target-for-net-zero-emissions-by-2050/
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Well I was cynical about Peter but the Mods comment proves that he was “contributing” after all.
You can’t get a refund if you haven’t contributed can you?
KK
[Actually, to his credit Peter has contributed. I was surprised and grateful. – Jo]
[All of this subthread is about moderation so I’ve removed it. Better done in private. – Jo]
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Good!.
10
a MUST-WATCH. monoxide? dioxide? whatever. Nye brings up the children! nice.
Gunesekara may or may not be returning to the EPA, depending on whether or not WaPo’s anonymous sources are correct – see below.:
TWEET: Mandy Gunesekara, Former Sr. Trump EPA Official
Bless both their hearts. I’m happy to give @BillNye the “Science” Guy and @HardballChris a lesson in climate 101, but something tells me they both are more interested in the TV ratings of their bogus tv shows.
***VIDEO 1m35s
18 Feb 2020
https://twitter.com/MississippiMG/status/1229801026317963267
14 Feb: CO2 Coalition: Washington Post: She pushed Trump to exit the Paris climate agreement and roll back environmental rules. And she’s returning to EPA as chief of staff.
By Juliet Eilperin and Brady Dennis
Gunasekara shares a key credential with other senior EPA staffers serving under Trump, including Jackson and Administrator Andrew Wheeler: They all have worked at some point for Sen. James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.). Inhofe has been an outspoken critic of climate change regulations and the author of a book titled “The Greatest Hoax: How the Global Warming Conspiracy Threatens Your Future.”…
Upon leaving the EPA last February, Gunasekara wrote in a resignation letter to Trump that “working on your America First agenda for the past two years was the honor of my life.”
She praised Trump’s decision to withdraw from the international Paris climate agreement and scale back regulations on everything from gas-mileage standards to carbon dioxide emissions from the nation’s power plants.
“Historic resistance from Democrats, the media and even some Republicans has made your accomplishments even more monumental,” Gunasekara wrote, adding, “I am increasingly concerned with the rhetoric from the far-left supportive of Venezuelan-style socialism, government take-overs and crony ‘green new deals’ that do little for the environment and threaten our economic success.”
The group she subsequently founded, Energy 45, does not disclose its donors…
https://co2coalition.org/2020/02/14/she-pushed-trump-to-exit-the-paris-climate-agreement-and-roll-back-environmental-rules-and-shes-returning-to-epa-as-chief-of-staff/
aw…Bill is “concerned”:
18 Feb: Newsweek: Bill Nye Concerned by Reported New EPA Chief of Staff Pick, Says She Has Two Young Kids That Will ‘Inherit This Earth’
By Aristos Georgiou
Science communicator Bill Nye has cast doubt on the credentials of Mandy Gunasekara, a former top air policy official at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)…
Appearing on MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews, Nye said Gunasekara’s environmental policies were “striking” given that she and her husband have two young kids who will “inherit the Earth.” He noted that these children are going to have to interact with their mother, who has been a strong advocate of “putting more carbon dioxide” into the atmosphere…
Nye also questioned appointments that have been made at the EPA over the course of the Trump administration, some of whom, like current administrator Andrew Wheeler—a former coal lobbyist—have ties to the fossil fuel industry.
“What they do — very common in the people that they have hired, the environmental protection agency of late, including Mr. Wheeler — is confuse or try to blur the idea that carbon dioxide, although not a traditional pollutant, is a problem,” Nye said. “Carbon dioxide is the problem. Yes, methane is a problem, some other greenhouse gases are the problem. But because there is so much carbon dioxide, it is the main thing that we need to address.”…
“When young people are running the show, all this stuff is gonna change. These people, the Gunasekaras of the world, are going to be throwbacks, they’re not going to be able to stay in business,” he said…
“Article 1, Section 8, Clause 8 of the U.S. Constitution refers to the progress of science and useful arts. We all like to talk about what the Founding Fathers had in mind, well they had science in mind everybody, and carbon dioxide being put into the air by the burning of fossil fuels has been shown to make the world warmer, faster than ever in Earth’s history with the exception of asteroid impacts,” he said. “So we can fix these problems, we can innovate. Clean water, renewable electricity, access to the internet for everybody in the world. That’s what we need.”
In response to a request for comment regarding the reported appointment of Gunasekara and Nye’s comments, the EPA provided Newsweek with the following statement: “Ryan Jackson is Chief of Staff at EPA until February 21, at which time Michael Molina will serve as Acting Chief of Staff.”
This article was updated to include a statement from the EPA.
https://www.newsweek.com/bill-nye-epa-chief-staff-two-young-kids-inherit-earth-1487742
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Finally someone is calling their bluff.
Students demanded divestment from fossil fuels, a professor offered to turn off the gas heating
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read all, incl comments:
17 Feb: NoTricksZone: Is “All-Time Antarctic 20.75C Record High Temperature” Just A Sensational Hoax? Station Data Show Only 16C
By P Gosselin
comment:
LeedsChris 19: Meantime the media don’t report the all-time record low temperature for Greenland recorded at the Summit Camp weather station on 2nd January 2020. The temperature fell to -64.9.
https://notrickszone.com/2020/02/17/is-all-time-antarctic-20-75c-record-high-temperature-just-a-sensational-hoax-station-data-show-only-16c/
indeed. read all:
17 Feb: Breitbart: James Delingpole: Why Is Boris Johnson Allowing Eco-Fascists to Run Riot in Britain?
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/02/17/boris-johnson-is-allowing-eco-fascists-to-run-riot-in-britain/
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Renewable Energy.
The whole enabling theory behind the use of, so called, Renewables is that less CO2 per kWh of generated electricity will be “emissioned” than with coal fired power stations.
Any qualified person would look at total mass of each material used in construction, its CO2 “carry on” and lifespan within the two systems being examined.
Cradle to grave analysis for renewables to put out A/C of equivalent amount from coal fired plants would be illuminating.
Why hasn’t it been done?
The economies of scale inherent in Coal Fired power stations are obvious, and yet the ridiculous claim that Renewables produce less CO2 is allowed to continue without criticism!
KK
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The truth is Astounding!
Coal fired power plants emit less CO2 per kWh than Renewables.
Construction, operation and eventual decommissioning make Renewables CO2 emitters of the highest order.
The lie continues.
KK
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Labor’s Joel Fitzgibbon was on Alan Jones/2GB this morning. what a waste of air-time.
he is against the Collinsville coal plant in Qld, because Qld already has more than enough energy!
(forget Qld exports energy south. ignore all the RE dreamers who want Australia to spend tens of billions of dollar on excess “renewables” to export overseas so we can be a world leader in RE)
like Albanese – see Treeman comment #25, Guardian article – Fitzgibbon is against the whopping $4 million (lol) the Federal Govt has allocated toward a feasibility study into Collinsville.
(the piddling $4m is total rubbish. just get on with it)
Fitzgibbon refused to say Labor would stop subsidies for RE should they win back Govt eventually. says REs need incentives so we can transition when those “ageing” coal plants shut down, of course.
(if you don’t build new coal plants, of course the old ones will be “ageing”).
and this guy is considered pro-coal?
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A great video explaining how temperature data is manipulated.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSg3h_eIvBw&feature=em-lsp
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19 Feb: WA Today: Emissions for Australia’s second-heaviest polluter fall after outages
By Nick Toscano, Business reporter for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald
Prolonged outages at large coal- and gas-fired power stations in Victoria and NSW contributed to a sudden drop in the greenhouse gas emissions generated by Australia’s second-heaviest polluter, new data shows.
Emissions from power giant EnergyAustralia – operator of the Yallourn coal-fired power plant in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley, the Mt Piper coal-fired plant in NSW and several gas plants nationwide – fell by 1.6 million tonnes, or 7 per cent, in the year to June 30.
Coal-fired power companies are Australia’s worst carbon emitters, according to the Clean Energy Regulator, with the top five alone contributing 116 million tonnes of carbon equivalent in 2017-18.
EnergyAustralia’s emissions drop last financial year – from 21.7 to 20.1 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent – was largely driven by a 9 per cent decline in output from unplanned outages and planned maintenance outages across its big generators.
An emissions fall is also likely to be reported by AGL, the nation’s biggest generator, after a unit at its Loy Yang A coal-fired plant in Victoria was forced out of service in May due to an electrical short and was not brought back online until December.
***”All of this emphasises the fact that replacing coal is the quickest and most urgent thing we need to do to cut emissions,” said Jono La Nauze, chief executive of Environment Victoria, the state’s peak body for conservation groups.
“It’s no good for anyone that it’s happening in a haphazard, accidental way, when clapped-out old power stations give up the ghost. Sure it reduces emissions, but it leaves everyone without reliable power and drives up the cost of doing business.”…
New research from progressive think tank the Australia Institute finds Victoria’s ageing coal-fired power plants are the least-reliable and most failure-prone on the east-coast energy grid. Loy Yang A and Yallourn were ranked the two worst-performing, suffering 67 breakdowns between them over 2018 and 2019…
https://www.watoday.com.au/business/companies/emissions-for-australia-s-second-heaviest-polluter-fall-after-outages-20200219-p542ak.html
00
lengthy, detailed:
20 Feb: HeraldScotland: Outrage as wind farm revolution offers just 6% of Scots ministers’ jobs forecast
Exclusive by Martin Williams
SCOTLAND’S forecast of a jobs bonanza from the offshore wind farm revolution has been described as “a pipe dream” as it emerged it has created just 6% of the 28,000 direct jobs predicted by this year.
New official estimates state that there were just 1,700 full-time jobs in the offshore wind sector in Scotland, a fraction of the numbers projected by ministers by 2020.
The Scottish Government’s low carbon strategy published in 2010 which described the large scale development of offshore wind as representing the “biggest opportunity for sustainable economic growth in Scotland for a generation” with Scotland having an estimated 25% of Europe’s offshore wind potential It said there was a potential for the creation of 28,000 direct jobs and £7.1 billion investment by 2020.
A Unite Scotland source said: “It is scandalous. These figures are truly unbelievable.”…
The latest jobs figures have come off the back of the “scandal” of Scotland’s green revolution being increasingly placed in foreign hands…READ ALL
https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/18247331.outrage-wind-farm-revolution-offers-just-6-scots-ministers-jobs-forecast/
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20 Feb: Daily Mail: We’ve only got 10 years to save the planet, warns Prince Charles on the 50th anniversary of landmark speech he gave on plastic pollution and other threats to the environment
By Colin Fernandez
‘We really do have to pull our fingers out now because the theory is we have got this decade left,’ he declared…
In 1970, he had warned about the problems of plastic waste, chemicals being discharged into rivers and air pollution caused by factories, cars and planes. This was regarded as ‘completely potty’, said the Prince…
Speaking in an interview on the Sustainable Markets website, the Prince said: ‘Everything we are doing has been to destroy our own means of survival, let alone the survival of everything else we depend on…
He recently launched his latest project, the Sustainable Markets Initiative and Council, supported by the World Economic Forum.
The initiative aims to bring together leading individuals from the public and private sectors, charitable bodies and investors to identify ways to rapidly decarbonise the global economy.
The Prince added that scientists and evidence indicate that people are causing a ‘much more rapid rise in temperature and a much more rapid destruction of the Arctic and now the Antarctic’…
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8017939/Weve-got-10-years-save-planet-warns-Prince-Charles.html
worth remembering:
25 June 2019: Bloomberg: Wind Power Drives Record $437 Million Income for Queen’s Property Company
By Jack Sidders
The Crown Estate manages the seabed off England, Wales and Northern Ireland, where thousands of wind turbines are being built…
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-06-24/wind-power-drives-u-k-crown-estate-s-437-million-record-income
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24 Jan: Spiked: The prince and the profiteers
Prince Charles has found a new role for himself as a globe-trotting convener of ‘green finance’.
by James Woudhuysen, visiting professor of forecasting and innovation at London South Bank University
Prince Charles gave a seemingly interminable address (LINK) to the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland this week. He and his speechwriters caught the green zeitgeist among the global elite with great precision. Charles called for ‘nothing short of a paradigm shift’ and action ‘at revolutionary levels and pace’.
The speech marked a shift in the prince’s own thinking as well. In 2009, Charles warned that mankind had until just 2017 to save the planet. Only last year he argued that mankind was probably too late.
But before meeting the bankers and Greta Thunberg at Davos this year, our king-to-be had changed his tune. The prince now wants to ‘kickstart a decade of action’ alongside his newly enlightened friends in high places. Partly in the hope that the Thunberg generation will no longer ‘accuse’ him of ‘doing nothing’.
According to Charles, what has changed is that in the past two or three years, more of the world’s money – sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, insurance and asset portfolios – has gone into green technologies, on which returns are more and more out-performing those on traditional investment portfolios. Many central banks and financial institutions have also committed to ‘integrating climate risk into stress-testing, supervision and disclosure’, with mandatory disclosure coming next…
HRH envisages a ‘convening role’ for himself in all this. He will get to most, if not all, of this year’s major global meetings – the G7 summit, the G20 summit, certainly the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, maybe even the 2020 United Nations Climate Change Conference. He will do his utmost ‘to ensure that the message of urgency, systemic change, collaboration and integration is heard’…
The prince’s forthcoming interventions will be part of a much wider Sustainable Markets Initiative, which he will run with cash from the WEF…
The new green era promises to be a great climate for royals and business people, but it looks a bit less rosy for the rest of us.
https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/01/24/the-prince-and-the-profiteers/
11 Feb: UK Express: Prince Charles ‘far more dangerous’ to crown than Meghan Markle and Prince Harry
PRINCE CHARLES is a greater “danger” to the future of the Royal Family than the newly-independent Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, opinion columnist Rita Panahi claimed.
By Aurora Bosotti
VIDEO “OUTSIDERS” 55sec
Ms Panahi suggested Charles’ tendency to be “political” could affect his future reign…
Ms Panahi insisted the Queen should make arrangements for Prince William to succeed her to keep the Prince of Wales from “polluting” the Royal Family with his political views…
Prince Charles was heavily criticised in the past after he was revealed to have had an intense correspondence with Cabinet ministers and politicians over his reign as Prince of Wales.
The “Black Spider memos” included discussions on a wide range of issues including climate change, farming, and sustainability…
PIC: Some members of the public have called on Charles to have his eldest son William become King (Image: GETTY)
The Prince of Wales has emerged through the years as an outspoken advocate for the environment and last month launched a new scheme with the World Economic Forum to promote efforts to create more sustainable markets…
Despite his calls for a revolutionary overhaul of the global economy, including the introduction of “green taxes”, Prince Charles chose to travel to the 700 miles (1,100km) to Switzerland on a private jet.
A poll conducted by Express.co.uk last month found a majority of the 13,547 respondents think Prince Charles has become “too political” for his role.
https://www.express.co.uk/news/royal/1240157/Charles-Prince-of-Wales-news-Royal-Family-Meghan-Markle-Prince-Harry-latest-news
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Some municipalities (including the ACT government) have declared that they are already buying 100% “renewables”.
I used the Hornsdale wind farm as an example to see how any group could survive if 100% dependent on Hornsdale with a nameplate capacity of 316 MW. You may remember that Hornsdale also has one of the world’s biggest batteries with a capacity of 129 MWhr i.e able to deliver 100 MW for about 80 minutes.
Hypothetically, let’s say that our municipality has an average electricity demand of 100 MW, equal to the average output of Hornsdale, but with a peak demand of 150 MW from 6-8pm.
On Feb 17 Hornsdale generated an average of just 20 MW. So to meet demand on that day would require a battery of 1,900 MWhr (80MW x24 hrs), and capable of delivering at a peak rate of 150 MW. That would require a battery 15 times bigger than the current system.
At the other extreme, on Feb 18 Hornsdale generated an average of 260 MW. So if you had a big enough battery, you could put the excess of 4,200 MWhr into storage. But that would take a battery 32 times the size of the current Hornsdale battery. With a smaller battery the wind generators would have to be restricted in output.
Therefore, to be completely dependent on “free” wind from Hornsdale and proudly 100% “renewable”, you would need to invest about $600 million to build the wind farm, and then about $1.3 billion to provide 15 times the current battery capacity. That gives you reserve to cover one day of no wind. Want insurance, with cover for two windless days? That will cost $2.6 billion.
Alternatively, as SA did you could compromise on your 100% renewables commitment, and buy diesel or gas generators as backup. SA spent $340 million for 276 MW of diesel generators. In our 100 MW municipality, we require 150 MW peak capacity, so that will set us back a mere $185 million. But now on windless days we will be 100% fossil based – a big fail.
Now tell me again how “cheap” renewables are, and how it will be so easy for Australia to move to zero emissions yet maintain reliable electricity.
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Thanks for this Robber.
An exercise like you have done here is always an invaluable thing.
What it does is to highlight how a seemingly large power installation can be proved to be almost insignificant.
You think of a power plant as being large, and you are told that, on top of that, a ‘LARGE’ battery is then being added to the (in this case) wind
farmplant. Without the knowledge and understanding, the ordinary person thinks this is then a large supply of power.But when it is isolated out (as you have done here Robber) and explained, it actually becomes almost small by comparison, unable to cover even a small area, and hugely expensive on top of that.
Therein lies the real explanation of how they get away with something like this.
If it WAS done in isolation, then the real truth of the matter would become evident, and people would see it for what it really is, a huge cost for very little.
However, they get away with it because it is ….. connected to the grid. That gives the impression that it is a secure, reliable constant source of power, and anyway, the average punter knows little else anyway, just that power is always there, so the assumption is that this small (by comparison) wind plant and its battery actually can supply the needed power.
Hundreds of little plants like these are attached all across the vast and huge grid, but the percentage of the power all those tiny plants deliver is almost negligible, it is sporadic in nature, there when it may not be needed, absent when it really is needed, and very costly, and all of that is neatly covered by ….. THE GRID, the huge overall total that is always there, and because it is always there, then the impression is that the little tiddlers like this are doing their bit to contribute.
Once upon a time, it was all so simple. Now, with all these tiny little plants all over the Countryside, the grid has become a hugely more complex thing to operate smoothly. They come, they go, with their power, and the average person has no idea how often that happens, and how little they deliver, all neatly covered up by the grid.
Tony.
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