The land that is the Renewable Crash Test Dummy is holding its breath
This time last year, the Australian energy market turned into a kind of Hunger Games spectacle with daily feeding-fest at dinner time where prices were so burning hot that unhedged smaller retailers begged their own customers to leave them and then the whole market was suspended. The bonfire was so big we’re still paying for it, and retail electricity prices are set to rise another 25% in a few weeks.
So it’s no surprise that as the cold weather arrives downunder, everyone involved in energy is “on edge”. Suddenly Australian corporate leaders are telling it like it is — the Alinta Gas chief says there is just no way we can build enough renewables in time — he can’t even “see a way” of building enough renewables to compensate for the coal units that are being closed.
The man who used to run the Snowy Hydro Scheme agrees (and then some) — saying we need to build a “Snowy” every year, and we are being lied to (his words) and it will take not 8 years, but 80 years to get there. The head of EnergyAustralia says shutting down the Liddell coal plant means the system is “exposed”. These are people at the top (or formerly) of our biggest energy companies.
A year ago the new government won with a pledge to bring electricity prices down. Instead prices just keep rising and are set to remain high “for years”. To appreciate just how like the Starship Enterprise the nation is, going where no nation has gone before, we have a roughly 30GW grid, and in the next eight years 8GW of coal power is scheduled to be lost. But in reality the AEMO estimates that 14GW of coal power capacity will flee the rigged Australian market by 2030.
The cost of the rushed transition-we-don’t-have-to-have is estimated to be $120 billion which is $4,500 for every man, women and child or about $20,000 for a family of four, who could have gone to the Bahamas instead. As it is for $20k, they will get expensive unreliable electricity, lose jobs to China, and reduce world temperatures by 0.00 degrees C.
These are quite devastating quotes:
Power bill misery has years to run
Colin Packham and Nick Evans, The Australian
Alinta chief executive Jeff Dimery, head of the country’s fourth largest energy retailer, said he could not see a way of building enough renewable energy sources to compensate for the loss of coal, which still generates about two-thirds of Australia’s electricity.
“We’ve had one battery reach a final investment decision in the last quarter – one battery,” Mr Dimery said.
“Snowy 2.0 is delayed, VNI West [interconnector] is coming in 2031, three years after Yallourn comes out. The whole transition is not lining up. We are so far off track.
The transition may not happen this century…
Paul Broad, who ran Snowy Hydro until resigning shortly after Labor won office last year, said the challenge of the huge pumped hydro expansion under construction could not be overstated, adding that was just a tiny fraction of new green-energy supplies needed.
“We need a Snowy every year, but it’s extremely difficult,” Mr Broad said. “We are being lied to that this is achievable; the transition will take 80 years.”
Power grid precarious as winter looms, warns EnergyAustralia
Colin Packham, The Australian
Australia’s electricity network is precariously balanced going into a peak demand period, the head of one of the country’s biggest energy companies has warned.
Mark Collette, head of EnergyAustralia, said recent fossil fuel closures, including the shutting of AGL Energy’s Liddell coal-fired power plant, had left the national electricity system exposed… If there were outages or supply shocks – we notice them”.
The Australian Energy Regulator last month approved bill increases of about 25 per cent for households and businesses across the east coast from July 1, which it said was predominantly driven by the increased cost of generating electricity in winter 2022.
Meanwhile the resolutely green AEMO (Australian Energy Market Operator) forecasts an improved winter outlook but says “risks remain”. Translated, they’re saying that things are slightly better than the bottom of the barrel and if nothing else breaks, we might get through the winter without the same trainwreck we had last year. Maybe.
But ponder that since last winter 400,000 immigrants have moved to Australia. It’s not clear the generation has even kept up with that.
We’ve added a lot of wind and solar power since last winter, but it didn’t improve the graph at all. It’s not dispatchable generation.
At this rate there will be no need to turn off the lights as the lights will turn off by themselves.
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Surely all the ‘light and heat’ you need will be provided by that incessant and all-encompassing
elect-trick-all glowing warming
which has enveloped the globe like a warm glove. 97% of fat-chequers say this is indisputable con-sense-us! Just believe.
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And the sooner it is switched off and the longer it stays off the better. Let us just hope the Green seats and the Teal seats and the ALP inner city seats all feel the pain and lots of it. Few people in the city will have their own generators. It will take a disaster for the woke to wake up. Loss of signal might even wake up the brainwashed school strikers. Sounds harsh but some things are better getting over as quickly as possible.
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The brainwashed school strikers will be fine right up to the part where their phone runs out of charge and the charger is obviously broken because the phone is not showing the little lightning bolt thingy!
The charger is obviously broken because when they crawl out of their parents basement and the moon is up surely that’s enough to work the solar panels??
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There are very clever and wicked propagandists at work Lawrie.
When the inevitable disaster happens it will be cleverly marketed as a “failure of coal” and there will be an urgent national program to build even more useless bird choppers and solar subsidy farms.
The Lamestream media and politicians won’t allow it to be seen any other way. And it will be called “disinformation” if anyone questions the Official Narrative. That’s why the Australian and other governments are now cracking down on supposed disinformation i.e. the truth.
That why Australia has an Orwellian Counter Disinformation Branch already.
https://www.directory.gov.au/portfolios/foreign-affairs-and-trade/department-foreign-affairs-and-trade/central-office/international-security-division/counter-disinformation-branch
SEE? The plan is all coming together.
The LibLabGreenTeal Uniparty voters don’t have a clue.
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Indeed. Just as the meejia was aghast when the Callide generator in Qld suffered a major failure.
There is rarely any mention of how the unreliables reliably fail to generate power EVERY SINGLE DAY!
Also rarely mentioned is the fact that unreliables require backup.
The lack of nous amongst our current crop of politicians and meejia is embarrassing.
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It’s not lack of nous …
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We will worship the large portrait of the Dear Leader for rescuing us from the great disaster created by evil Capitalism. This is a managed decline of our economy, traditions and social institutions. No one with any brains would make the decisions being made believing they were improving our way of life.
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inner city seats? If they aren’t getting enough electricity, all they need to do is put more sockets in the wall. That’s where their electricity comes from.
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An extraordinary outline of a tragedy: thanks Jo.
The way out of this is to reestablish the type of society that enabled the incredible post World War Two development of Australia that is now just a faded memory.
You might say that the self interest of too many of our politicians is behind the destruction of our society but that’s only part of the problem; the driving force is that Truth, Honesty and Accountability are totally absent.
So much rot to be hacked out of our superstructure and no means of achieving it.
The Klub of Rome is victorious.
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The absolute standout issue around politics everywhere in the western world is that of accountability. The people at the helm of all those ships of state are well aware that no matter how much they trash our freedoms and undermine our society, they will always escape having to take any responsibility for their actions.
A cursory glance at recent events with regard to career parasites like Ardern, McGowan, Fauci and others shows how they are able (and most willing) to avoid facing justice.
You need to complete a course to qualify you to drive a car, dig a trench or even to climb a bloody ladder, but anyone can run an entire country with no qualifications at all. Your only prerequisite is to get yourself elected. If you have the right connections, that does not appear to present a problem.
I carry millions of dollars worth of public liability insurance to run my small business, but still face losing everything if something goes badly wrong and others are affected.
I don’t have a problem with that inasmuch as it helps prevent substandard work practices, etc., but surely,SURELY, people making decisions affecting whole populations and getting it horribly wrong should face severe penalties for their actions.
I know the contrary argument that if politicians were to be held to account, nobody would put their hand up for the job. I believe the opposite – that we would finally get somebody worth voting for.
Until we get this issue sorted, we will continue to be screwed over, until the final confrontation.
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🙂 🙂
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Australia is committed to destroying its infrastructure, just like the Nero Decree (Nerobefehhl) of the National Socialists (not implemented because Albert Speer refused to follow orders).
Australia had so much and is destroying it all.
Australia isn’t even lucky enough (and contrary to myth was never really the Lucky Country*).to have anyone in a position of power who has the guts to speak out or refuse to follow orders.
* Donald Horne, 1964:
* Donald Horne, 1976:
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Costco in Australia have started selling emergency ration packs of food, sealed in a container and with a shelf life of 5 years and with 100 meals.
Do you think they and their suppliers know something we don’t?
Just think what happens when the grid goes down as it will. All refrigerated food in warehouses and shops will be thrown out. Think of the shortage that will create. And on top of that, the Australian Government has a war against farmers. Look how much canned food in the supermarket now comes from China or Third World countries.
I myself have started stockpiling long life food in preparation for the inevitable.
It won’t end well.
And Uniparty voters don’t have a clue.
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Meanwhile in little old Godzone a 1000 miles to the east of Australia, Contact Energy NZ Ltd has been drilling and tapping geothermal sources under small lakes around Taupo for the last 20 years. Its just the luck of the draw that Australia doesn’t have any geothermal resources. Also natural gas from the Maui Gas Field has powered a 950MW station at Huntly for the last 50 years so it can be done. Just an observation from Godzone, your energy wars are of course political. The Neo Marxist agenda is actively deconstructing Australian energy infrastructure with impossible clean energy deadlines and suicidal decommissioning of coal fired power stations with no reliable fallback generation. The link for the geothermal resources article: https://contact.co.nz/aboutus/our-story/our-projects/tauhara
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Interesting to know re Costco, thanks. Those packs are typically expensive but maybe better at Costco rates.
We started with minor food prep just for short durations like bushfires or flood road closure but have slowly expanded to having a few months supply now. Wont help when the zombies come I guess but nice to have a buffer against the more likely events in our region.
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I believe this is the one selling at Costco or at the following non-Costco link.
https://www.fairdinks.com.au/liveready-emergency-food-supply-3-7kg/
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My friend wants to know if there is a vegetarian version.
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Eat the packaging.
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When the grid goes down your friend should be lucky that they will be able to get any food at all….
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There’s loads of prepper channels on uselesstube promoting imminent disaster, and of course they’re typically wrong.
I won’t name them.
“Stock up on long-life ration packs NOW, while you can!”
Costco are just catering to perceived demand.
As a sidenote, I have a few of the Oz army daily ration packs (as a curio now, but they’re around 20 years old) and it’s just incredible how BAD they were (are).
The weight, bulk and frivolity is incredible.
Totally different to what I’d be packing for a week…
I have a 6 month supply of food and other items at any time.
Solar power, 2 inverters, 10 years worth cut/dry wood, unlimited water and other goodies.
For the prepared, if the mains power goes down, you can plug your freezer into your own supply…
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John. There are many who have rooftop solar including me. When there is a blackout or planned interruption our solar is turned off to prevent powerline workers being electrocuted which I can understand. What I do not understand is why there is not some device which allows the solar to be redidected to the house bypassing the grid. It would make perfect sense to be able to use your own solar power in times of blackouts. I currently have a device which directs my surplus solar from the grid to my hot water system so that I always have abundant hot water.
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The new inverters which allow for the addition of battery storage (Australian certified of course) should have the capability of isolating from the grid inputs. more expensive than the panels.
I wonder if you self isolate from the grid and add a generator set in its place ……….. Not likely to met Australian Standards?
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Just keeping us up with the “Joneses”
“Thank the green-energy cult for major blackouts this summer”
https://nypost.com/2023/06/05/thank-the-green-energy-cult-for-major-blackouts-this-summer/
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If the transition takes 80 years,but the turbines and solar panels only last 15 years, doesn’t that mean we’ll never get there?
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I have been waiting for media reports on original wind and solar installations now reaching removal and replacement time (20-25 years maximum) and the shareholder’s reaction and decisions regarding investing in renewal.
How many will do that when they are given the capital expenditure approval costings?
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Depends on the subsidy settings and previous results. They did it the first time.
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So take away renewables RET subsidies and lift the handicaps to profitability imposed on coal fired power stations.
As US multi-billionaire Warren Buffett once observed, no subsidies and not worth investing.
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I need to go to Bunnings.
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The Elites won’t be freezing, starving, in darkness, without personal transport or eating insects like they expect of the rest of us.
That is certain.
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Indeed; I am just curious as to why somebody would “dislike” your comment – do the Elites read this blog?
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You people just dont understand. Reported in the Herald on line this morning that the Arctic will be ice free by 2030, which is much earlier than expected. So, somehow 2030 is earlier than 2000, 2007, etc and I for one demand that something be done.
Do I need the sarc/ –
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Here is a nice assortment of failed climate predictions including ice ages, no artic ice , sea level rise, peak oil/no oil and a whole raft of other stuff that never happened. All with source links.
https://www.aei.org/carpe-diem/50-years-of-failed-doomsday-eco-pocalyptic-predictions-the-so-called-experts-are-0-50/
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WUWT also has a nice compendium of “FAILED” predictions
https://wattsupwiththat.com/failed-prediction-timeline/
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Weaponizing and politising billion year old global phenomena….Science as science is finish. Climate changes every second, it is what it is. Just get over it, this is our human reality.
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Just for fun, ask your local political “representative” what it plans to do when the grid goes down and there are food and liquid fuel shortages, brought about by the energy policies it voted for.
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And how many of those will work in the private sector and be productive wealth producers and net taxpayers rather than being life-long welfare recipients or parasitic public serpents?
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Even if they are productive, we havent built the extra houses, roads and dams. How many Australians are homeless now because they can’t afford to rent?
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I believe the correct term is ‘hunter gatherer’. Many out of work professional Californians adopted this lifestyle over the last 20 or so years. After attempting to return to their pre-graduation work in the service industry and finding they were ineligible due to a failure to speak fluent Spanish, they have resorted to sharing knowledge of food sources such as fruit trees ripening on median strips in order to survive.
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I live in Little India (Queen’s Park), Perth. Nice hard-working people and no problem with that. But each family appears to have non working, elderly grandparents, with little English, doing the baby sitting. I wonder if they (the grandparents) are permanent residents and given welfare and Medicare?
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or whether they qualify for a carer’s pension?
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The proper care of children is essential for survival of families and for culture. God created Grandmothers for that purpose.
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You do realise, don’t you, that there is no plan to fix any of this?
What we are seeing IS the plan.
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David there is a plan. The government plan to build yet MORE useless windmills, solar farms and batteries to overcome the problem. Work that out ?
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The Greens and their cohorts in Communistic Labor are deliberately destroying Australia exactly the same as Biden and the Demonrats are the USA.
The question remains, WHY? Either they just plain hate us, our county and everything about us to come to this disgrace. Why have so may people voted Labor in across the states and federally when we saw their shameful behaviour during the Plannedemic? Why is no one much even raising a whimper about the useless Reserve Bank torturing the population when they manufactured the whole mess by dropping our interest rates to nothing. I think it is a well coordinated plan to reduce Australia to a third world status. Why are people still locked out of their professions because they didn’t take the death vaccine? The amount of lies we have been told in the last few years on the climate change myth, electricity, vaccines and Covid staggers the mind. I often feel like there is a race on for who can tell the most outrageous lies!
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Good one Dave.
And, “The amount of lies we have been told in the last few years on the climate change myth, electricity, vaccines and Covid staggers the mind”.
There’s also the huge belief system related to Gender Dysphoria that is pressing on society; facts and reality hidden behind an impenetrable wall of woke and creating permanent damage and mental distress for no benefit.
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Genuine cases of gender dysphoria are real but exceptionally rare. Today, transgenderism is a social trend brought about by a social contagion and endless 24/7 Leftist propaganda and lies.
They are lying to children that you can change sex and become a functional member of the opposite sex. And they don’t tell them their new “parts” are not functional and that they are sterilised and mutilated for life. It’s a tragedy of mass mutilation and indoctrination on an astronomical scale.
Back in the day, along the normal spectrum of behaviour some girls would be tomboys and some boys would be effeminate and that was fine, they were allowed to develop as they did. Today such children are immediately declared “trans” and urgently submitted to life-destroying hormones and surgery.
A further tragedy, or really a moral crime, is that Leftist media suppresses most of the large numbers of stories of transgender regret.
And anyone who questions any of it is silenced, cancelled, defunded if an academic, sacked/fired and declared a “transphobe”.
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Another way to see it is that the Left are surgically reinforcing extreme gender stereotypes. And yet in another stunning contradiction they claim to be against such stereotypes. Bizarre and tragic.
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A good summary David.
It’s obvious that many of the heroes posing as “gender reassignment” experts are just after the fame and fortune and don’t really know the full picture that they’re meddling with.
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Mr. M: Here in the States, a dem in Maryland reached a new low, calling muslim kids “white supremicists” or something, for telling her about religion. Also, glanced at a 2006 PDR to confirm that it was a disorder before the left watered that down. And it’s happening in broad daylight.
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Considering that the destruction is co-ordinated on many fronts and co-incident with a wall of Marxist cultural analysis critical of industrialisation, mass-production, consumerism and a working class culture and that the MSM are hypersensitive about suggestions that there exists a conspiracy of “Cultural Marxists”, I expect the explanation is most likely to be found in the pervasiveness of that ideology among the global elite corporatist class and their camp followers.
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Why ?
One explanation is that the covid and climate nonsense has allowed the transfer of massive wealth from the 99% to the 1%. There will be no downside to any of this for the 1%.
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Marxists. Yes. Of course it’s the Marxists.
Why do most commenters here keep on asking the same question and ignore the answer when it’s given.
The answer is: Marxists. In Australia it’s not the Bolsheviks so much as the Fabians.
They are determined to put capitalist Australia down like a faithful old dog but they know they ‘ave ta do it slowly, comrade.
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Thanks again Jo for highlighting our well earned mess.
I watched the Bowen loony grinning on TV last night and he couldn’t see a problem with his so called green energy plans and I thought this donkey is crazy.
He looked like he was well pleased with himself and the situation and even yapped about cheaper energy sometime in the future.
I suppose he means the TOXIC offshore wind disasters they are going to build off the coast of eastern Australia?
The offshore disasters have a shorter life than onshore wind and we’ll be pulling them down in about 15 years and burying the TOXIC mess in landfill. Unbelievable but true and no change to our weather or climate at all.
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At 6pm last Saturday night across the AEMO grid (from OpenNEM):
Electricity Demand 25,000 MW
Solar 125 MW
Wind 2,074 MW
Batteries 268 MW
Quickly, Mr Bowen, Minister for Climate Change and Energy, build more unreliables imported from China.
And shutdown those nasty coal-fired generators that delivered 15,600 MW, and don’t allow any new gas generators that produced 2,300 MW to keep the lights on.
Meanwhile, around 90% of black coal energy production is exported, along with 75% of domestic natural gas production.
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How many renewables does it take to illuminate a light bulb ?
N+1, where N is the total of all renewables you have at any point in time.
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That “the transition is not lined up” is hilarious. The transition is impossible so lining it up is nonsense.
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I agree with you Dave.
The elitist green left of Australia have a total disdain for the rest of society.
They believe that we are too well off and we have too much freedom.
They want to take us down to the level of of 2nd and 3rd world nations just to suit their intellectual sensitivities.
But their kama kamikaze actions are destroying the country and I fear that this brainwashed nation don’t understand the decline that is taking place . .
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But where is the paradise these elites think they will be in? They live on the same planet as us plebs, and the destruction they have wrought will not miss their houses too.
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But, as many have stated here, those activists are being rewarded in the here and now by the cash flowing from manipulators like Mr Soros.
They have no concern for the future.
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But, as many have stated here, those activists are being rewarded in the here and now by the cash flowing from manipulators like Mr S
They have no concern for the future.
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I think, KK, that the comment by GreatAuntJanet was referring to the engineers, not the sweat rags. I have also pondered the same question – what is the end game?
If the intention of the elite cabal is to take over the world and re-mould it to their requirements, surely you would rather inherit a wealthy, robust economy and not the smoking ruin we are fast becoming. Seems somewhat of a Pyrrhic victory.
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Yes, I jumped in too quick.
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Yes and Yes!
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why do we rely on third rate dumb politicians to run our electricity system ,any competent electrical engineer would surpass these idiots in advising and running this system.
come on australia get of your asses and tell these idiots “stop screwing australia” and start building a real power supply system not putting billions into airy faery green dreams.
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What can you say? even the critics are talking about it as a timing issue, as if this so called “transition” can actually be achieved with the current technology set and without nuclear. This is delusional or they are just caught up in the BIG LIE now with nowhere to go.
Meanwhile, in Victoria, we are still waiting for the fruits of Dan Andrews and Lily D’Ambrosio’s “downward pressure on prices” that their beloved “renewables” were supposed to exert. Of course they will never be pressed by the loyal media on the topic but I am sure they would just vomit up the usual phrases about perfect storms, external factors, the Feds etc.
How a country sitting on a mountain of assorted energy resources ends up in this state is a testimony to the bizarre nature of humans, democracy and perhaps our innate stupidity.
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During the blackout in summer of 2017/18 Lily D’ Ambrosio also blamed the “unreliability of coal”. They love that one. Lily makes Bowen look like Einstein. Since that time the 2 main Victorian coal plants (Yallourn W and Loy Yang B) have been pumping out electricity at 100- 110% output month in , month out. Yep, really unreliable. 🙁
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The King island lunacy is relying on Diesel again this morning and their so called green energy shows wind dancing the jitterbug as usual and solar is missing in action again.
The clueless battery never rates ever.
But don’t worry we can’t use their TOXIC W & S to supply power for just 1700 people, but we’re sure we can provide power for 26 million people and no need for silly BASE-LOAD energy like coal, gas or ?? SARC.
Shouldn’t we require a basic kindy maths test for our leaders or a lesson in very simple logic and reasoning?
But who cares if we waste TRILLIONs of $ for decades for no measurable change? Anyway their CSIRO has assured us that the entire SH is already a NET co2 SINK.
Somehow I think something doesn’t add up.
https://www.hydro.com.au/clean-energy/hybrid-energy-solutions/success-stories/king-island
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[Meanwhile on Flinders they push their battery as much as they can. I intended the following as a general comment but value attaching it to yours. Cheers]
“dispatchable generation” the all important crux of the issue.
Flinders Island clearly demonstrates the challenges of being an intermittent source and not a dispatchable generator as also faced by all renewable installations.
Great example yesterday, 6 June, on Flinders Island where the recurring challenge of being green ie without dirty diesel and being 24/7 operational ie only because of dirty diesel was yet again on display.
7:22am diesel off and the battery backup contributing 40% supply as wind generation drops.
It must have been a cloudy start to the day because solar wasn’t getting above 2kW generation the whole time – so not included:
7:28:32am – Wind 672kW (68%)/Battery 311kW (32%)
7:28:53am – Wind 597kW (56%)/Battery 472kW (44%).
7:30:58am – Wind 407kW (51%)/Battery 480kW (48%) Diesel 8kW (1%)
7:31:02am – Wind 514kW (47%)/Battery 465kW (42%) Diesel 121kW (11%)
7:31:48am – Wind 693kW (66%)/Diesel 360kW (34%)/ Battery alternates between off/charging/discharging as power supply becomes more predominantly wind/diesel combination.
For the rest of the morning, it became the wind/diesel show with not only diesel generated power enabling the recharge of the battery but also recharging the fly wheel and the resistor.
NB variations of the above 9 minute window extract consistently play out 24/7 reinforcing that we are a very long way from being able to celebrate the greenness of wind/solar with a straight face.
This morning we have:
Wind 64kW (9%)
Solar 39kW (6%)
Diesel 591kW (85%)
Battery off
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Love how the King Island link contains the two phrases – hybrid energy SOLUTIONS and SUCCESS stories. Keep repeating the obvious subliminal lie and the masses will succumb.
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History suggests one effect of El Niño is warmer temps in Australia.
The AU BOM has shifted to El Niño ALERT, indicating a 70% chance of El Niño forming this year.
See: http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/enso/
Gaia may help out this season. Lucky Australia.
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They are praying desperately for an El Nino…
… because they KNOW it is where the only actual large-scale warming comes from. 🙂
It is actually an admission that they KNOW CO2 does not cause any warming.
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Alas, dont worry, the good old CSIRO comes to the rescue again. They have recently been chirping that future El Nino/ La Ninas will be even more extreme under the effects of man- made climate change. How do they know, well their models tell them so, of course.
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So BOM folks must not understand Gambler’s Fallacy. They miss that the sun has no memory.
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Another great article from the Spectator Australia exposing the TOXIC W & S disasters and the extreme increase in Aussie electricity prices over the last 23 years.
The ABS graph shows SOARING electricity prices compared to all prices since the year 2000.
But I’m sure the Bowen and Albo donkeys wouldn’t or couldn’t understand this very simple data.
https://www.spectator.com.au/2023/05/coal-the-missing-link/
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Neville – thanks for posting that. The price chart makes it so darned obvious which way round cause and effect are.
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“Make electricity unreliable and unaffordable and you’ll soon turn your economy to ashes. Australia is on the brink of a major recession, and energy costs are front and centre.”
https://stopthesethings.com/2023/06/05/wind-solar-transition-turning-first-world-economies-into-first-order-disasters/
“Back in the early 2010s, electricity was coming out from almost entirely real power stations, at a wholesale cost of around $30 to $40 a MWh, from SA to Queensland. In 2022 it was between $80 and $160; in 2023 so far $105 to $150; and who knows what in 2024.”
https://stopthesethings.com/2023/05/28/australians-count-cost-of-wind-solar-transition-power-prices-jump-25-30/
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Two things are outstanding.
Firstly that coal generation is being shut down and blown up, destroyed when that is entirely unnecessary. A properly managed transition would maintain parallel sources. After all there is no investment needed in coal. So what’s the rush? Blowing it all up without a plan needs a rational explanation.
Secondly that the language of disgust is being used to vilify coal. A transition to Clean Energy. As if a terrible source of pollution is being removed. There is nothing the slightest bit dirty about CO2. Every human is totally dependent on it, made from it, eats it, is powered by CO2 and sunlight. And now it is ‘dirty’. That is unbelievably deceitful. Hitler used the same emotive language to vilify his opponents, the untermenschen, the Jews. Because it works.
And there is no talk of how why anyone will be better off or a bright new future. Because we won’t be and the future is destitution. And no one is promising prices will drop or that ‘renewable’ energy is free.
So when people finally realise their government has blown up their birthright of cheap, reliable electricity and gas, there will be nothing they can do about it. Backsliding to ‘filthy’ coal and gas will not only be illegal, it will be impossible. Which leaves it all in the ground for China.
Then the focus will be on filthy gas, filthy wood, terrible fracking, nasty nuclear and meat is murder. The vilification of everything but Chinese windmills is amazing. Why?
The only certainty is that Australia will be helpless and broke. The first to stop will be the electric cars. Then manufacturing. Then the trains.
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Nearly all those things are already highly restricted or banned in Australia’s most communist, most Chinese Communist Party loving state where the Premier goes to China and doesn’t allow the media to go, not that they even bother asking him any difficult or unexpected questions.
The only thing not yet banned or restricted for non-Elites is meat. But I have no doubt Dictator Dan of Vicdanistan will try and remove that from the menu as well, to be replaced by insects or perhaps Soylent Green (for non-Elites).
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The power stations were blow up out of spite. Plain and simple as that, like the act of a schoolteacher throwing a childs poems in the rubbish bin. (Remember ‘just another brick in the wall’) And the brainwashed and braindead public take it all lying down.
Because they are too busy doing other things like drinking coffee and playing with their iPhones.
It’s only when the coffee runs out they will perhaps wake to the cold reality of life without energy ..
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No, it’s a deliberate plan to destroy Australia’s ability to fight a war. No energy, no manufacturing, no hope. So is mass uncontrolled migration. And glorification of gay people. Plus demolition of our history and our non racist Constitution. It is a fifth column running through all Australian politics, fully supported by the media.
191
More BS and fraud from the CC con merchants and many more billions of $ from so called rich countries that cannot be accounted for, but who cares?
Some of their so called CC mitigation spending is bizarre and certainly hurts the poorer taxpayers in the rich countries.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/06/06/climate-finance-saving-the-planet-one-ice-cream-at-a-time/
90
Bowen’s targets for net zero:
22,000 new solar panels every day,
40 large wind turbines every month,
28,000 km of new transmission lines.
How much has he actually achieved since the election after 1 year?
We Australians deserve to get a progress report don’t we?
After all, we are all paying for it.
140
Oh Geez dont ask Bowen to do that. It will be like Daniel Andrews and his level crossing replacement program in Victoria. For the last 10 years we have had endless media events at some of the sites with he and his cohorts dressed up in the hi-vis and hard-hats. So from now on, all we will see is Bowen doing the same every time they install a wind turbine etc.
90
BloombergNEF in promoting “investment opportunities” estimates that to achieve Net Zero by 2050 Australia will need to spend $413 billion on renewables and their back-up, plus $300 billion on transmission. The existing coal-based supply would cost only $80 billion on plant plus maybe $30 billion on transmission. Like Warren Buffet I’d be looking at the subsidies !
60
The brainwashing is pretty well complete. This morning I see someone has posted on social media a snippet of the ABC Q& A program. After the show, audience member Steve Fordham shared his concerns over the Hunter Valley’s coal industry shutdown and lack of investment into the region. During his very passionate comments about the shutdown in the mining industry ( in this case, coal) even he made the comment that there needs to be more investment in renewables. In other words, that the “transition” needs to be smoother and better managed. Clearly Steve was either a contractor or business owner in the region and probably about to lose his livelihood. Yet, here he was, still effectively saying renewables are good.
120
The Greens have cornered the market in ‘dog in the manger’ with their attitude to Australia’s huge wealth of energy resources. They don’t want to use these resources themselves but they deny them for use to the majority of Australians who desperately want to benefit from cheaper,
dependable energy.
70
The Left love the word “transitioning”.
Whether “transitioning” to the opposite sex or unreliables, they are both non-sensical, highly destructive and physically impossible.
120
SUCKED in Australians, this is what you all voted for, enjoy…bwahaha.
90
Actually we didn’t. Albo is the least popular Prime Minister, a lower vote than loser Bill Shorten. But with coast to coast Labor governments he is now moving to cement his place as Trotsky, President for life with ‘The Voice’ and a committee which will override parliament. Why else do it? ‘The Voice’ could be legislated tomorrow but Constitutional change cannot be undone in a lifetime. The best way for communists to defeat democracy is to white ant it, from within. And it’s going well.
221
“….you all voted for”
is it comprehension or numeracy that is the main struggle?
30
Australia, it’s time to “Send in the Clowns”.
https://youtu.be/SdR28iKgE6o
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The trouble is David, we already have the Clowns along with the Circus………………….
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Just madness, the everyday Joe has no idea of whats coming. They seem to think the answer is build more wind turbines and solar farms and we’ll be alright.
You say to them OK, so when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing, where is the power coming from, they say. “batteries. You tell them that batteries are not a source of energy, they are just a store, and you ask them where will the batteries get their energy from when the wind is not blowing and the sun isn’t shining. They have no idea.
So let’s build the 30.000 or more turbines, the thousands of hectares of solar panels, install mega batteries and then shut down all the coal and gas power generators.
When the blackouts start, they can no longer blame coal for the systems failure. It won’t matter how many renewables you install, they are only at a CF of ~30%. You can put in millions and only get 30% of their “supposed(name plate)” capacity, but when their is no sun and no wind 30% of 0% is still %0.
I don’t understand why people don’t get that!
130
Batteries … an interesting fact via WUWT: “The annual output of Tesla’s Gigafactory, the world’s largest battery factory, could store three minutes’ worth of annual US electricity demand. It would require 1,000 years of production to make enough batteries for two days’ worth of US electricity demand.“.
120
Liberator, that is exactly what they think. Just build more solar panels and windmills. They also fall for it with the idea of vast open spaces of desert full of solar panels and it’ll be all good.
Very dangerous imagery
80
Given many Australians think you can just build heaps of solar panels in the deserts, can anyone explain why we can’t just do that? You have a limit of 30 seconds speaking time (the attention span of a listener), and must be convincing.
50
Remember the Sun Cable proposal, the world’s longest extension cord, 4,200km, connecting a solar farm in the NT to Singapore.
No real engineer or properly managed country like Singapore would ever think that’s a good idea, and they didn’t!
And yet this same insanity continues to be forced on Australia.
100
Everyone could have seen this coming years ago. None of them said a word. But it really is not their fault!
To speak out was to lose their job. Only now, when the disaster is so clearly and immediately upon us, is it starting to be safe to speak out.
The guilty party is the Australian government, and the guilt began before Anthony Albanese but continues with him. Here is an interesting quote from the Australian Government: “some states may seek to characterise legitimate debate and commentary that is objectionable to them as disinformation or misinformation“. I submit that “some states” means “some countries” and includes Australia.
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Australia is not a democracy or even a representative democracy. It is a minocracy. Here is the definition from Urban Dictionary.
Minocracy
Is a system of social imbalance where a minority (or many minority groups) dictate and set the rules for the majority to follow.
90
Perhaps a mix of things. Surely one or more apply.
Idiocracy: a society governed or populated by idiots
Kakistocracy: a government run by the worst, least qualified, or most unscrupulous citizens.
Kleptocracy: where the government seeks personal gain and status at the expense of the governed
80
Anyone seen recent footage of that Higgins Lehrmann case will see directly inside government advisor departments. Full of 23 year olds advising ministers. I find that absolutely shocking. Is the energy department the same? Judging by their lack of wisdom, I’d say so.
40
Most Australians genuinely don’t know where electricity comes from or the sheer magnitude of the size and power output of power stations.
The output of any solar or wind subsidy farm is trifling, random and unusable compared to the output of a typical coal, gas, nuclear or hydro power station (not SH2).
140
Just like with children (and some Adults) who think that milk comes from Woolies, Coles, Aldi, IAG and the Milk Bar !!!!!!!!!
50
What amazes me is that most people do not realize how much financial pressure they will be under for everything with electricity price rises. Not just for the power that they use but the cost of everything they buy or transport will go up to cover the costs. inflationary pressures here we come.
80
When the rolling blackouts occur and last more than 6 hours, all the refrigerated food is of questionable quality.
Not only in homes, but in wholesale/retail distributors. Same for refrigerated pharmaceuticals.
Unreliable or unaffordable electricity has very serious social costs. Food spoilage, traffic lights out, oxygen concentrator failures, dialysis and other medical issues, water and sewage failures, loss of internet/cell phone/comms , the list is endless.
The shelf life of society is about 3 days without power. After that, things devolve quickly into dark ages scenarios.
I’m not so sure a majority of people understand how quickly they can be tossed back 175 years or more.
160
Not to worry “Blackout” Bowen commented recently, when asked about the unreliable supply of wind and solar, replied that somewhere there will always be wind turbines and solar panel operating.
110
When the lights and refrigerators go out there’ll be electricity and food riots.
During covid all Australian Governments introduced dictatorial laws to give themselves virtually unlimited powers without the consent of the people and these laws were mostly not rescinded.
Police also showed their willingness and even joy in assaulting old ladies, pregnant ladies etc. And spraying people as though they were insects with chemical weapons like capsaicin which is actually prohibited in warfare under the Chemical Weapons Convention. The police showed very clearly they were not on the side of “the people”.
And Australian police also answered a question for me. I could never understand how National Socialists could perpetuate their evil as Germans seemed to be a relatively civilised people like Australians. I now fully understand how this can happen, even in a supposedly free, egalitarian country like Australia once was.
Covid put all the machinery in place for the dictatorship required to control the masses once the grid goes down and the food supply dries up.
See how it all fits together?
100
Thousands without power in Adelaide due to wild winds.
Early this morning in SA wind was generating 85% of electricity demand per OpenNEM, with just enough gas to synchronise the grid.
And spot prices were negative – is that known as a windfall sale?
According to Anero.id, Port Augusta wind farm has been operating for most of the day at 95% capacity factor, but has shown some sudden drops in output for an hour or two.
From AEMO:
“The synchronous generating units currently expected to be synchronised in SA from 2100hrs 07/06/2023 will be inadequate to maintain a secure operating state in SA.
AEMO may need to intervene by issuing a direction requiring one or more SA synchronous generating unit(s) to operate or remain synchronised to maintain power system security in SA.”
90
And during high winds the bird choppers are shut down and power stations need to be brought online.
50
A lot of nuclear energy generator information at this link;
https://www.smrnuclear.com.au
50
Same with this blog by BF Randall. Excellent reading.
https://substack.com/@bfrandall
40
“Blackout” Bowen claims nuclear to be too expensive, not true;
https://www.smrnuclear.com.au/_files/ugd/c733f6_323d92b6a9ea4313b3d1d4ae85e0a794.pdf
20
Need to remove their added CCS component from gas and coal energy for a true comparison. I’ve done this, and SMR nuclear comes out as slightly more expensive than CCGT gas or USC coal. Of course, solar and wind are more than twice as expensive.
30
In my opinion the ageing coal fired power stations should be upgraded or replaced because they are the most cost effective option for us with the abundance of coal supply.
Ultra super critical thermal boiler power plant technology produces lower emissions than high energy low emissions technology.
On the other hand, if eliminating emissions is essential nuclear energy, SMR technology installed at existing coal power station location sites.
30
” the ageing coal fired power stations should be upgraded or replaced ..
And for those who give two hoots about CO2 emissions…
… because of the huge efficiency gains with modern coal fired power, they would almost certainly give a greater drop in CO2 emissions than could ever be achieved but using wind and solar with coal and gas back-up.
40
You will own nothing, have no power, but you will be happy (sarc).
60
Maybe create Lords of Land/Estates and they create villages with tiny rent-free dwellings and village green allotments for us to grow our vegetables, and in return we become farm labourers and manor servants?
We could volunteer as builder’s labourers to construct cathedrals for the Church of Climate Change.
50
Australian politicians and public serpent decision makers are among the dumbest in the world, but Klaus Schwab tells them what to think and do. The following is where they get their ideas for wind power:
Blah. Blah. Blah. See link for rest.
50
“Australian politicians and public serpent decision makers are among the dumbest in the world, BECAUSE Klaus Schwab tells them what to think and do”
“Dumb and evil” leading the even dumber.
10
It’ll all be the least of everyone’s worries by 2030, it really will…
40
Re EN5048
53427 just now, still on page 7:
https://www.aph.gov.au/e-petitions/list
Cheers
Dave B
20
Cannot access the link from Europe due to WAP block. Mr Schwaaaab said it was verboten.
20
I wonder if that block was initiated at this end or yours?
10
Bodies sucking on the government teat, particularly AEMO and CSIRO, have captured Establishment thinking and they have allowed ideology to corrode the hard science.
This is quite disgusting. I can list from memory a dozen Australian papers that CSIRO should have ripped apart, starting with the heatwaves papers of Perkins Kirkpatrick et al and the B-grade scary stuff from the Australian Academy of Sciences on the diabolic effects of a 1.5 C temperature rise here.
I suspect that the next couple of years will see electrical shortages and blackouts that will harm many people and kill some. This will cause mass public revulsion and rejection of perceived wisdom that should be getting called out NOW.
If we started a petition calling for the retraction of the worst Australian papers, would people sign it?
Geoff S
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