Wednesday

9.4 out of 10 based on 8 ratings

90 comments to Wednesday

  • #
    tonyb

    The UK govt is desperately trying to persuade us-with large bribes-to rip out our gas boilers and put in heat pumps.

    https://dailysceptic.org/2024/03/18/heat-pump-rollout-is-failing-because-people-dont-want-them-ministers-told-by-national-audit-office/

    We have an old housing stock and it would cost a fortune to upgrade many houses so people aren’t biting.

    Presumably in Oz, a/c would generally be considered more important than central heating? What sort of systems do you use?

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    • #
      CO2 Lover

      What sort of systems do you use?

      In the People’s Republic of Victoriastan roof-top evaporative cooling systems are common since when it is hot there is generally low humidity (although yesterday was quite humid).

      https://www.sustainability.vic.gov.au/energy-efficiency-and-reducing-emissions/save-energy-in-the-home/reduce-cooling-costs-at-home/choose-the-right-cooling-system/evaporative-cooling

      In Queensland and NSW it is generally too humid for evaporative cooling and so reverse-cycle airconditioning is the norm.

      In Queensland the socialist goverment can remotely reduce your airconditioner to half power (demand management) if wind and solar cannot provide sufficient energy on hot windless summer days.

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      • #
        Steve of Cornubia

        “In Queensland the socialist goverment can remotely reduce your airconditioner to half power … ”

        Only if you are fool enough to accept their ‘rebate’ offer to install a unit that has the remote throttling facility. If you install a conventional unit, they can’t fiddle with it.

        Guess which type we have.

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        • #
          OldGreyGuy

          > Guess which type we have.

          The same type we have. One without a remote throttling feature. 🙂

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        • #
          John PAK

          To-day I refused to allow Energy Australia (Energy China really) to enter my property to install the Smart Metre which is required for them to be able to interfere with my appliances. None of my appliances are Smart Metre friendly as they are all so old. They claimed there was a fault in my metre so they were doing a routine upgrade. This is rubbish. My power works just fine, as it has for the past 30 years.
          Clearly, they want everyone on a centrally controlled system. One of their excuses was that they have to pay a metre reader to visit once a year so I told them I’d send them a dated photo each 1st January.

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          • #

            In WA it’s possible to get a smart meter installed but refuse to have the network chip. So after badgering us for two years, they installed the meter and then took out the chip and gave it to me. Someone will still have to come out and read the meter.

            But anyone installing solar panels has to have the smartmeter and the networking now so the government can switch those panels off.

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            • #
              ozfred

              Hopefully they will only be able to turn off the export of the excess solar generation to the grid.
              That excess combined with the underlying a/c power draw might force a glitch in total demand they might not expect.

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            • #

              I’m interested to find out how they can switch my panels off, as surely they can only control my export power to the grid, not my panels feeding my residence?
              I wouldn’t care if my export was disconnected at 7c/unit, it makes virtually no difference to the payback period. And if that’s required for grid stability, I’m happy with that.

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              • #

                I’m interested to find out how they can switch my panels off,

                …Its a function of the inverter ( newer units ?)
                It enables the grid service supplier to disable the panel feed thus forcing the householder to use only grid power.
                Deemed necessary for those peak solar periods when the grid generators are forced to shut down due to lack of demand, and risk system shutdown.

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          • #
            MP

            In QLD there was an Opt out option. Got the old “when they fail story” never had a failure.

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          • #
            Vicki

            Ever since smart meters were installed at our farm, and then in our city residence, we have had bill inconsistencies or problems. At the farm – where we have a 10kw solar system & sell power back to the company, we have had to remind them to pay us! Money does not seem to come into our account at the rate of the bills for grid energy for evening power.

            Since the smart meter was installed in the city house (only for the last billing period) we have been charged for amounts power far in excess of what we have been charged in the past – & yet our periods of residence have been the same.

            I recall reading that when smart meters were installed in the UK there was a flood of complaints about inconsistent energy usage. I just don’t know what one can do about it. We have challenged the reading in the city to no avail, and have to remind the energy company to pay us for power we have supplied to them in the country!

            This energy issue seems to be a racket.

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    • #
      Kalm Keith

      Various actors in the wokeism game have been busy here in the land down under.

      The imposition of the magic “heat pumps” first occurred for people building new homes in which only electric hot water systems with heat pumps would be allowed.

      Many of these integrated marvels stopped working after a year or two and cost money unnecessarily.

      No doubt these heat pumps were conceived of and made in China.

      Yes, there’s energy in the atmosphere around us, but it’s a thermodynamic nonsense to believe that it can be usefully extracted and used without great cost.

      Does anybody else get the feeling that our governments have been infiltrated by “foreign interests”.

      Home building requirements have been going woke here in NSW for several decades and the products required to “comply” are all sourced from the same foreign country.

      The employed compliance officers are well paid for their scientific input in controlling the masses.

      If only we could import or discover some common sense.

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    • #
      RickWill

      Household natural gas is all-but outlawed in Victoria. You can get other people’s money to convert to electrical appliances. My next step to go off-grid is to use subsidies to replace gas cooktop and gas hotwater with electric. The electric hotwater will likely be a heat pump. Most of Victoria where people live rarely gets below 0C so heat pump hotwater works well and they have improved in reliability. If off-grid it would be timed to run when the sun is shining. My current gas hotwater is 30 years old so reasonable life.

      The other consideration for those stuck on the grid is that lunchtime load is now a precious commodity and households are being plied with zero cost lunchtime tariffs to switch consumption to the hours of 11am to 2pm. This helps stabilise the grid. So a standard electric hotwater timed to operate on free energy would also make sense.

      The Australian grid is now flooded with rooftop solar. So much so that there is almost no opportunity for grid solar to operate and it is also impacting wind.

      Without more storage, there is no point adding more grid scale WDGs. New ones just lower the capacity factor of existing ones.

      I confirmed yesterday that I can go off grid and be free of any service charges. So as more businesses and households abandon the grid, the rapidly increasing costs of all the NetZero goodies gets spread across fewer consumers.

      We were advised yesterday that the wholesale price was down by 25% y-o-y after the gas price was capped. That will enable a reduction in the retail default offer of 6%. It will be interesting to see how retailers respond. If retail prices come down, it will be bucking the trend.

      The other aspect that comes out of this is that any household with a battery can now get access to free energy but they still need to pay the ever increasing connection fee.

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      • #

        Rick Will mentions this: (my bolding here)

        The Australian grid is now flooded with rooftop solar. So much so that there is almost no opportunity for grid solar to operate and it is also impacting wind.

        I have to agree with this now, as it’s actually showing up in the data recording I do on that daily basis.

        Now having records for five and a half years, I have definitely seen that drop off in wind generation.

        Where it shows up is in the second of those ‘indicators’ I have for Capacity Factor (CF) for those Industrial wind plants. I have two of those indicators, one of them for the full long term, (five and a half years) and the second for the most recent 52 week yearly CF. (where the equivalent week from last year ‘drops off’ the data recording, replaced by the same week this year)

        Now, while that CF is up and down, albeit by the smallest fraction of a percentage point, with some consecutive weeks down, offset by some consecutive weeks when it’s been up, it has been relatively stable around that 30% mark for all this time.

        However, in recent times, it (CF) has been falling consistently, now falling EVERY WEEK for the last 22 weeks now.

        Okay then, the nature of mathematics is that with the recording time for the full long term, it would show very little change on a week to week basis, changing by barely 0.02% on a week to week basis. So even then, that drop in CF, now 22 weeks has fallen from 30.42% to 30.18%, and during that time (unlike every other year) there has not been one week when it has risen.

        However, at that time when the long term CF was that 30.42%, the most recent year (52 weeks) CF was 30.12%.

        Now, what has happened across those last 22 weeks is that the yearly CF has fallen to 29.44%. (at the end of last week) So that’s a fall of almost 0.7%, and that’s actually substantial, with the gap between the two now coming in at three quarters of a percent.

        Now, while I’ve been watching and recording that data, luckily I use Andrew’s Aneroid site, and I can ‘see’ it on that daily basis.

        So there’s something happening here which would cause that fall, and you would only see such (what is basically) a minimal fall IF you were recording that data on that daily and weekly basis.

        Now, it’s logical to expect that as newer wind plants come on line, then they would be (supposedly) of better technology. (if you actually DID believe what green wind supporters always say) That being the case, then it logically stands to mathematical reasoning that the most recent CF would increase as those newer plants show up in the data ….. and that would drag both of those CF figures higher.

        However, what IS happening is the exact OPPOSITE.

        I could just leave it as it is, but I wonder about it, so, what I did was to go back over the DAILY load curves for wind generation for those last 22 weeks or so of that fall in CF percentages. (and that Aneroid site is the only place where you can do this)

        And what I have seen is that RickWill is basically correct in what he says.

        You can see the drop off in power generation from 10AM (almost) each day, except weekends, (when power consumption around that middle of the day period, (and for all day in fact) is ALWAYS lower) so wind generation on those weekend days is what I might normally expect to see.

        And when I checked back for last year around this same period, it was similar, only this year it has been markedly more pronounced.

        Note now (after having said all of this) that those most recent 22 weeks of the falling CF percentage have been those Summer Months, and with the increase in the number of homes with rooftop panels, (across this last year) it only stands to reason that is the cause in this drop off.

        I would (sort of) expect the CF percentage to start rising, albeit slowly now that the Summer period is diminishing the total generated Energy from those rooftop panels.

        The ONLY way this would even show up, other than anecdotally, is if that data is recorded on that basis.

        I have also done the exercise for industrial solar plants, and exactly the same thing is happening there as well. My interest was piqued, so having access to both sites, I could do that exercise for the 365 days as well.

        Again, I apologise for this being so long, and I hope that I have explained the ‘Maths’ behind it all in a manner which is easy to understand.

        Oh, one last thing.

        Overall power consumption in the warmer Months around that Midday period is higher (well, way way higher, in the vicinity of 8000MW+) than in the cooler Months, and the main reason for that is something not many people take into account …… HVAC in tall buildings, (HVAC is the acronym for Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning) and until you actually think about it, you can see why no one ever mentions it. For a basic look at what it means take the following link back to my BASE LOAD Series back in 2017. Scroll down till you see the image of the Sydney Skyline, and read from there on.

        Australian Base Load Electrical Power – Week Ending 14th October 2017

        Tony.

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        • #

          Didn’t realise that you were still recording the wind CF Tony – many thanks for doing so. It appears that your CF figure is now being accepted by many commentators and journalists, so very well done.
          I’m wondering as to possible causes for this CF reduction:
          1. Is what has happened overseas – the need to derate the turbines – now starting to happen in Australia?
          2. Or is it just that adding more wind turbines doesn’t seem to add the expected amount of energy to the grid?

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          • #

            Have you ever done something, and you have no idea why at the start, but later, it’s become something that means so much more.

            That was how it was with that second CF calculation I started, the most recent 52 week yearly percentage.

            For so long now (well forever really) wind supporters didn’t believe even the long term figure of 30%, and that’s why I even started it all in the first place, to see if the figure I had been using for seven. eight years was correct, as all those supporters said that there was NO WAY it could be that low.

            Then when they saw I was right, the comeback (in almost every case) was that as newer plants were added, it would improve that CF figure out of sight, and in a very short space of time in fact. Now, if you understand mathematics, something like that is all but impossible, and any rise would have to be long term, well, very long term.

            The most recent 52 week percentage was something I added right at the start, not to prove them wrong, but just to see if it happened, and how long it might take.

            It’s been 87 weeks now since that 53 week figure was higher than the long term figure in a sustained manner. There have been a few weeks when it bumped marginally higher, but they were few and far between, and were not sustained. In that time, wind Nameplate has increased by around 2000MW, so all that new added Nameplate has actually resulted in a drop in that 52 week percentage, by more than 1.5% in fact, and that’s a large drop, when increases are so incrementally tiny.

            Maths always tells the truth, eh!

            Tony.

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            • #

              And I didn’t believe your 16.26% CF for solar – thought it was too low. So I did a quick calculation for my solar in sunny Perth, and found that for February the CF was only 23%, which will now fall every month until rising again in spring. An incredible low value for Australia, and makes one wonder why solar would ever be used in less sunnier countries.
              And GenCost is still over-optimistically assuming wind and solar CFs way above the actual figures you have recorded, and obviously still refuse to acknowledge your actual CF numbers. What’s more, they then claim that these CFs will increase! Another major error with GenCost.

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            • #
              Geoff Sherrington

              Tony,
              Excellent recording of data.Thank you.
              I have not studied it nearly as much as you, so please excuse this question if it is stupid.
              I am most concerned about Aussie energy consumption dropping because of the large reduction of domestic manufacturing. A few days ago I started to list industries we no longer have or have been heavily reduced, but I got depressed and gave up.
              Is the capacity reduction you show related to curtailments because of creeping oversupply? What are the main types of generation cutting because because demand has dropped? geoff s

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      • #
        Annie

        Rick, it might not often get below 0C where you live around Melbourne. That is not true of lots of rural Victoria. We regularly get frosts in winter. This last winter we often had -3 and -4C. Other winters we have had -5 and -6C, which damages the citrus fruit and causes it to rot. The hard frost is very pretty though.
        To Tonyb; we need winter heating here more than we need summer cooling most years. The stove was on for a very long winter last year. We are in North Central Victoria, on the edge of what Sambar describes as the low part of the high country.

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    • #

      tonyb
      ” … cost a fortune to upgrade” …. indeed!

      Well – at – https://retrofitskills.org they reckon £17,000 million [over 10 years] for 635,000 houses [dwellings] – in South London ONLY.
      And Government projects, especially if subcontracted out to any cowboy with a screwdriver and an email address – never EVER cost a penny more. Do they?

      Total cost for the UK – Arm-waving ten to twenty times that – £170,000 million to £340,000 million.
      Plus that Government cost uplift ….

      And I guess the tax-payers will foot the bill, as well as upgrading – under threat of excommunication or worse – their own ‘mansions’.
      “Ah – you can afford a pint of milk – you must insulate your house!”

      Madness.
      And Madness under a ‘Tory’ [Tory In Name Only, surely] Government – almost unbelievable.

      And will Labour be better? Under the Soundbite Knight, the Beige Baronet?
      I fear not!

      Auto

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    • #
      Yarpos

      This question usually starts a semantics argument about heatpumps and ac and split systems. In my area , Victoria, split systems for both heating and cooling seem to dominate. Heating is via fan unit indoors rather than circulating hot water for hydronic heating.

      I notice more evaporative cooling when you move away from the coast, and the weather is hotter and drier. Evap cooling is much cheaper to run (basically just fan and running water) but does not match the cooling power of ac

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  • #
    tonyb

    I don’t know if Trumps “there will be a bloodbath If I don’t win the election” was widely reported in Oz? Certainly the US press deliberately tried to misrepresent it and a few left wing sources in the UK were economical with the truth.

    https://dailysceptic.org/2024/03/18/conservatives-fume-after-deceptive-headlines-take-trumps-bloodbath-comment-out-of-context/

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    • #
      Strop

      Not widely reported. But there was a combination of misleading reporting and the context.

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    • #
      Honk R Smith

      It’s Pavlov Media at this point.
      They just hear a bell and the conditioned response is triggered.
      Doesn’t matter there’s no real food.
      The TDS instinct kicks in.
      ‘Pandemic’ was rife with conditioned response.

      Just this morning I observed a person in a surgical mask walking outside alone with a dog.
      The dogs leash was visible.
      The person’s not.

      Easy to guess the person’s trained response to the Trump bell.
      T

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      • #
        Philc

        Honk

        I don’t believe it is pavlovian, it’s on purpose as most media companies are owned or directly influenced by the same companies (Blackrock, State street and Vanguard) all are on the same WEF/UN agenda and having Trump back in the Whitehouse puts a serious block in their plans for a U.N controlled one world government

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    • #
      CO2 Lover

      The Main Stream Media were quick to claim that the Russian elections were rigged!

      During Putin’s first two terms as president, he signed into law a series of liberal economic reforms, such as the flat income tax of 13 percent, reduced profits-tax and new land and civil codes. Within this period, poverty in Russia reduced by more than half and real GDP has grown rapidly.

      13% flat income tax! No wonder Putin is so popular.

      Since 2020, the Russian Constitution has explicitly outlawed same-sex marriage.

      Putin would get my vote anyday. Standing up to the Obama/Biden proxy war in the Ukraine that Putin is willing to settle.

      If Trump is allowed to win, the war in the Ukraine will be over the next day.

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  • #
    tonyb

    Surely with all your space these micro apartments will just be a brief reaction in the face of the huge number of migrants currently coming to Australia with the resultant surge in House and rental costs?

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13207883/Is-future-housing-Sydney-Inside-micro-apartments-395-week-renters-enough.html

    Somebody wrote here yesterday that the rate of influx in Australia was currently double that of America’s much better publicised surge in migrants.

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  • #
    David Maddison

    Interesting videos about African cars and aircraft.

    Australia’s future if we let the Government/Left ban the sale of new ICE cars?

    Remember, it’s up to us.

    https://youtu.be/n5PBEdRCilU

    And a video from the same author about an African made car and “aircraft’.

    https://youtu.be/oNZktfZICTY

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  • #
    David Maddison

    Interesting video about Hawaii’s power grid although, note, the author is a true believer in unreliables.

    https://youtu.be/bbECmVdyWlQ

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    • #
      CO2 Lover

      Hawaii – the 10,385 GWh net consumption in 2022 includes 1,573 GWh generated by customers (roof top solar) and 8,812 GWH utility electricity sales.

      World’s most advanced battery energy storage system comes online, speeding Hawaii’s transition to 100% renewable energy

      The battery plant’s specifications include:

      135 MW / 540 MWh of capacity and energy (0.54 GWh)

      The KES battery project, located on 8 acres of industrial land on the southwest side of Oahu near Honolulu, uses 158 Tesla Megapack 2 XL lithium iron phosphate batteries, each roughly the size of a shipping container

      This provides 27 minutes of back-up power for overcast days with low wind. This compares to 4 minutes of back-up power provided by “Big Batteries” in Australia.

      https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/worlds-most-advanced-battery-energy-storage-system-comes-online-speeding-hawaiis-transition-to-100-renewable-energy-302032803.html

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      • #
        Yarpos

        Once the get to 100% “renewables” the will wonder why they were ever in a hurry (gee, we never used to have to huddle around candles before)

        Reality will bite long before 100% though.

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  • #
    David Maddison

    A video by Naomi Brockwell from three years ago how due to censorship on YouTube many smaller creators are going to Odysee.

    https://youtu.be/1CjDL1B1qrE

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    • #
      CO2 Lover

      Odysee is a video-sharing platform similar to YouTube, created as a subsidiary of the file-sharing site LBRY.com. It was founded by a group of Silicon Valley cryptocurrency enthusiasts including LBRY’s former CEO Jeremy Kauffman, according to the report.

      Though the site’s interface is similar to YouTube’s, Odysee uses blockchain technology to host its videos instead of centralized servers controlled by one company, according to a 2021 report by the Global Network on Extremism & Technology.

      The site says this makes videos “censorship resistant” because the files are not owned, held or controlled by a centralized company. In a 2019 blog post, Kauffman described LBRY as “ the most censorship-resistant system to ever exist.”

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  • #
    Peter C

    Some Good News

    A message must be sent!

    Climate protesters who blocked the Westgate bridge in Melbourne appealed their jail sentences. Sentences almost tripled on appeal!

    https://amp.theage.com.au/national/victoria/message-must-be-sent-jail-terms-almost-tripled-for-climate-activists-who-shut-down-west-gate-bridge-20240319-p5fdh5.html

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    • #
      CO2 Lover

      My God – What is happening in the People’s Republic of Victoriastan?

      Dictator Dan would have presented these eco-terrorists with medals!

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    • #
      David Maddison

      Somewhat good news but both offenders have extensive histories of committing such crimes.

      Two months is not nearly enough. People could have died, a woman had to give birth in a car, and other emergency vehicles were delayed.

      It should be around 3 to 5 years each.

      And for the next offence, which they will undoubtedly commit, 15 years each.

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      • #
        Peter C

        15 years should be enough.
        By the time they get out the whole thing will be over one way or the other.

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  • #
    CO2 Lover

    According to our esteemed Minister for Energy and his mates at the CSIRO “renewables are the cheapest form of electrcity”

    Did the clowns at the CSIRO factor in ‘Constraint Payments’ in their modelling on demand for Chrissy Bowen.

    UK’s Wind Industry Gets £1 Billion in ‘Constraint Payments’ For Producing Nothing At All

    https://stopthesethings.com/

    https://www.facebook.com/story.php/?story_fbid=356324013964454&id=100087605745792&paipv=0&eav=AfbfAhCpAxXL7Z2jLeBvFIM_sW0vxwhBpe_zKKTJOUh6KnMx1sS_mnWIQcy3E-QxxiM&_rdr

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    • #
      David Maddison

      (sarc)

      Don’t worry.

      The country is in the hands of the simpleton Chrissy Bowen, Australia’s finest power systems engineer.

      He must be mustn’t he?

      If what he was doing was wrong, other engineers woukd speak out wouldn’t they?

      (/sarc)

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    • #

      Did the clowns at the CSIRO factor in ‘Constraint Payments’ in their modelling on demand for Chrissy Bowen.

      In Australia it is called..”Curtailment” .!

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    • #

      The CSIRO folks that developed GenCost seem to have very misguided thinking in their many statements about how we can go forward, so it’s not surprising that they wrongly claim that renewables are cheaper.
      They also make many assumptions and don’t explain how they arrived at these assumptions.
      You can pick almost any part of GenCost, drill into it, and then wonder how they could make such statements with such faulty logic.

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  • #

    Habeck wants to shut down gas networks: what that means for consumers

    After the miserable debates about the heating law, Robert Habeck is concerned with the next step in climate-neutral heat supply. The overarching goal is to ensure that Germany has a completely climate- neutral heat supply by 2045.

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    • #
      Graeme No.3

      So his idea is that consumers won’t get gas and rely on electricity generated by gas?
      He seems to be very similar to our idiot in charge of electricity supply.

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      • #
        CO2 Lover

        A certain contingent of go-to insults have a history of clinical use which makes them less desirable to use than others.

        Idiot, imbecile, and moron were, not so long ago, used in a psychological classification system, and each one was assigned to a fairly specific range of abilities.

        Idiots. —Those so defective that the mental development never exceeds that or a normal child of about two years.
        Imbeciles. —Those whose development is higher than that of an idiot, but whose intelligence does not exceed that of a normal child of about seven years.
        Morons. —Those whose mental development is above that of an imbecile, but does not exceed that of a normal child of about twelve years.
        — Edmund Burke Huey, Backward and Feeble-Minded Children, 1912

        So never make the mistake of calling Chrisy Bowen an Imbecile or a Moron.

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  • #

    The Conclusion Humans Drive Atmospheric CO2 Increases Is Undermined By Carbon Isotope Data

    From modern instrumental carbon isotopic data of the last 40 years, no signs of human (fossil fuel) CO2 emissions can be discerned.” – Koutsoyiannis, 2024

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  • #
    another ian

    “Unscientific American”

    “In this line of work, we frequently have occasion to make use of articles from a variety of scientific journals when researching topics of interest. One of my favorite sources over the years has been the journal Nature, which covers a wide variety of science topics. Science journals can be of value, at least in part because they tend to cut through all of the partisan opinions and brouhaha and rely on actual data… or at least they used to. These days, however, it seems as if some science journals are getting a bit less “sciency” and dipping a toe into the woke culture world.”

    More at

    https://hotair.com/jazz-shaw/2024/03/19/unscientific-american-n3784965

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    another ian

    An interesting point –

    “Sexual Lobotomies”

    “Progressives claim that sex is merely a “social construct” set forth by “colonizers,” and therefore reproductive organs do not determine a person’s gender. But activists simultaneously insist that modifying (sometimes entirely removing) genitals is necessary to achieve a gender identity. The contradiction is obvious: If “gender” is divorced from sex, then why would medical interventions like surgery be necessary to affirm gender? The LGBTQ movement — given its current myopic focus on the “T” — is struggling with what we might call “Schrödinger’s sex.” Just as the cat was dead and alive, sex organs are affirmed and denied. …”

    https://hotair.com/headlines/2024/03/19/sexual-lobotomies-n3784988

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    • #
      Kim

      They contradict everything that they say so I don’t pay them much attention. I just get on with life.

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    • #
      CO2 Lover

      Pope urged to apologise for Vatican castrations

      Revelations that the Vatican encouraged the castration of choir boys in the name of art for hundreds of years have prompted calls for a papal apology.

      Human rights groups, historians and Italian commentators said the Pope, a singer himself, should ask forgiveness for his predecessors’ role in the mutilation of castrati singers.

      New research suggests that the employment of castrati was tolerated by the Vatican as late as 1959, long after other states had banned it as barbaric.

      https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/aug/14/humanities.highereducation

      Alessandro Moreschi (11 November 1858 – 21 April 1922) was an Italian chorister of the late 19th century and the only castrato to make solo recordings.

      Hear “him” sing here:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLjvfqnD0ws

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  • #
    KP

    Oh, the irony- Our Govt censor here in Australia wants Tik Tok banned because it won’t cooperate with her by not cooperating with the Chinese Govt.

    “TikTok, which has 8.5 million users in Australia and more than a billion globally, has become the subject of heated political debate due to a US push for its Chinese owner, ByteDance, to divest the company to reduce national security risks as companies in China are obliged to co-operate with the Chinese Communist Party.”

    The biggest problem seems to be that users are showing Israel’s reality in Gaza.

    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/tiktok-lags-on-extremism-as-mps-call-out-graphic-content-on-platform-20240318-p5fd91.html

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    CO2 Lover

    Pumping Salt Water onto Arctic sea ice

    Yesterday the latest Climate Cultist scheme to “Save the Planet” by pumping salt water onto the top of arctic sea ice to “thicken it up” was a topic of discussion – using solar panels or wind turbines no doubt.

    But never let the facts get in the way of another taxpayer funded scam or research grant.

    Arctic sea ice above average

    As with Antarctic sea ice extent – see above – the upper part of the world is doing exceptionally well, considering that this is the “hottest year in the last 125,000 years”.

    The official data shows that Arctic sea ice extent is well above the multidecadal average:

    https://notrickszone.com/

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    another ian

    FWIW

    “Of parents, inheritance, and greed”

    https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2024/03/of-parents-inheritance-and-greed.html

    Obviously never heard of “Being of sound mind I spent it”

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    Philip

    Any advice on hot water systems? You folk seem pretty wise and objective.

    I’m up for a new one, and I suspect the heat pump savings are exaggerated. We have a heat pump now, so don’t qualify for the socialist subsidy (I assume, NSW), so considering putting in straight electric, but getting an electrician to put a timer on the board to make it off peak only.

    The Dux Aeroheat we have doesn’t save as much as they claim I suspect. Problem is over the winter months, with our showering habits, 3 showers at 9 pm, the thing runs all night in cold air. Then always decides to come on at 5 pm at peak power cost. I don’t think they consider this when they do their savings mathematics. My mother has a standard 250L electric and her hot water cost isn’t that much, just one person. I haven’t had a straight electric for about 15 years now, so I’ve lost touch.

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      Philip

      …and btw, all we use hot water for is shower, literally nothing else, so we are not churning over large volumes of water for washing machine etc.

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      CO2 Lover

      “wise and objective.”

      The Dux Aeroheat was probably designed by a Pommie based on one shower per week!

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      My neighbour has just organised for his electrician to install a DIN timer module (Hager EH010 228010) on his switchboard. He has set the timer module to turn off his hot water system after they have used it in the evenings, until the morning.

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      Yarpos

      We use a system that heats water via vacum tube elements on the roof, the water is then recirculated via a temp sensor control pump to keep the tank at target temp. Works well even in cold weather is there is direct sun and resists frost (used in ski resorts) Has been running for 12 years now. OEM Apricus or rebadged as Thermann via Reeces.

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    CO2 Lover

    What would Donald Trump think of Anthony Albanese?

    Donald Trump has slammed Australia’s ambassador to the United States, former PM Kevin Rudd – describing him as ‘nasty’ and ‘not the brightest bulb’.

    Gota love the Donald.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13216161/Donald-Trump-issues-brutal-assessment-former-prime-minister-Kevin-Rudd-Not-brightest-bulb.html

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    John Connor II

    Saudi Aramco CEO: ‘The Energy Transition Is Failing. Policymakers Should Abandon the Fantasy of Phasing Out Oil and Gas’

    The climate alarmist cult is in planetary disarray, with their once-unquestionable ‘scientific theories’ and ‘environmental policies’ getting rejected at a rapid pace in many parts of the world.

    European farmers and Canadian Provincial Premiers and conservatives everywhere in the western world are getting increasingly vocal about the shortcomings of the so-called ‘Green New Deal’.

    In this context, it’s reassuring to see some measure of pushback from people who have real skin in the game, like Big Oil moguls.

    ’In the real world, the current transition strategy is visibly failing on most fronts as it collides with five hard realities’, Nasser said during a panel interview at the CERAWeek by S&P Global energy conference in Houston, Texas.

    ‘A transition strategy reset is urgently needed and my proposal is this: We should abandon the fantasy of phasing out oil and gas and instead invest in them adequately reflecting realistic demand assumptions’, the CEO said to applause from the audience.”

    Nasser said oil and gas demand is unlikely to peak in 2030 or any time soon, and pointed out that these projections only account for the demand in the U.S. and Europe – but needs to focus on the developing world as well.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/03/saudi-aramco-ceo-energy-transition-is-failing-policymakers/

    Everyone go “Aaaaaawwwwww…..” 😎

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      CO2 Lover

      How many narcissists does it take to change a lightbulb? Just one. He holds the lightbulb, and the world revolves around him.

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    CO2 Lover

    Finland is the happiest Country in the World

    Australia rises from 12 to 10 – cannot understand why.

    Nuclear power in Finland provided about 34% of the country’s electricity generation in 2020 and has recently increased. So the Finns are not unhappy about this.

    This new reactor coming online is a good sign for both energy costs in Finland, and the country’s energy security and independence. It is especially worthy of note given the very different reality for energy elsewhere in Europe as Germany has voluntarily hobbled its own energy independence.

    Finland has also recently finished construction on the world’s first geologic repository for spent fuel, further solidifying the future continuation of its nuclear fleet.

    Will Chrisy Bowen be taking a visit to Finland?

    https://catalyst.independent.org/2023/07/12/finland-reactor-lowering-electricity-prices/
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-13214025/Worlds-happiest-countries-revealed-Finland-Britain-US.html

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      CO2 Lover

      “man made climate change”

      To understand “man made climate change” one has to look through the lens of religion and politics to make any sense.

      Applying real scientific analysis (and not that for sale as provided by the CSIRO and the like) one can quickly determine that it is “crap”.

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      Yarpos

      Agree, their is monumental human arrogance in much of the alarmists rhetoric.

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    another ian

    FWIW

    “Aussie Security Committee Madness: Spy Agency Chiefs Kicked Out, Replaced by Climate Head”

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/03/19/aussie-security-committee-madness-spy-agency-chiefs-kicked-out-replaced-by-climate-head/

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      CO2 Lover

      The Albanese Governmemt has reached peak woke.

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      Skepticynic

      Spy Agency Chiefs Kicked Out (of National Security Committee meetings)

      Naturally!
      In our glorious new regime those who speak inconvenient truths must be cancelled.
      Wasn’t it ASIO head Mike Burgess who revealed an anonymous politician was owned by the CCP?
      ASIO’s public announcement of the truth prompted a hilarious offended outburst from CCP defender Keating, but silence from Sam Dastyari himself and silence from all the other compromised politicians.

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    another ian

    Another discovery –

    “Sorghum: The Ancient Grain For Modern Health”

    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/sorghum-ancient-grain-modern-health

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      another ian

      Isn’t stirring up a war an indication that things internally are worse than “Their ABC” is telling us?

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    another ian

    FWIW

    The “Peacock Throne” moved to Paris?

    “SITREP 3/19/24: French Military Openly Floats 20,000 Troop Deployment”

    https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/sitrep-31924-french-military-openly

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      another ian

      Isn’t stirring up a war an indication that things internally are worse than “Their ABC” is telling us?

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      KP

      Ah, so much stupidity, so many targets! Of course there are French soldiers in Ukraine, and British, and German, and American.. they have all been identified when killed or captured, so Macron doesn’t need to announce it, he just sends more. No-one really believes you could quickly train Ukie soldiers to use highly sophisticated NATO weaponry and let them loose. The Yanks have even admitted they are doing all the targeting for the Ukrainians, the British doing the drones.

      What happens? Well, the Germans sent their tanks and the Russians put a bounty on them. Kill a Leopard, get paid a bonus.. The British sent their Challengers, the same thing happened, and now they are not allowed near the front. The Yanks have their Abrams in there too, same result. So what will happen with foreign troops? The Russians will put a bounty on them too! When you hear Zelensky whining about a hotel being pulverised by a Russian missile, you know where the NATO troops were.

      After Macron announced troops for Ukraine one of the Russian diplomats said that seeing the North Africans had just kicked the French out, they would invite them to Ukraine to do the same thing…

      Its a complete waste of lives and living standards, all to prop up the Yanks, and what did they say? “Fck the EU” and that is what they are doing.

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    Geoff Sherrington

    Tony,
    Excellent recording of data.Thank you.
    I have not studied it nearly as much as you, so please excuse this question if it is stupid.
    I am most concerned about Aussie energy consumption dropping because of the large reduction of domestic manufacturing. A few days ago I started to list industries we no longer have or have been heavily reduced, but I got depressed and gave up.
    Is the capacity reduction you show related to curtailments because of creeping oversupply? What are the main types of generation cutting because because demand has dropped? geoff s

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