By Jo Nova
Brown coal is the best kept secret in Australia
Imagine, in this cost-of-living crisis, if the nation discovered a 430 billion ton deposit that could produce electricity at a tenth the cost of gas and hydroelectricity? What a bonanza — the people could live like kings with heated pools, large homes, indoor spas and businesses would flock to the state to set up production lines. The state would become a trade giant and a mecca for tech.
Then imagine they let themselves be spooked into not using it for fear it would cause bad storms in a hundred years? Like the country is run by teenage girls…
Despite the costs of everything rising in 2024, the brown coal plants in Victoria are still offering to supply wholesale electricity at $8 per megawatt hour (which is 0.8c per kilowatt hour). That’s the average winning bid from brown coal plants across Quarter 1, 2024.
In the chart below of the last five years of quarterly prices, we can see that every single quarter brown coal power is the cheapest source of electricity there is bar none. (Wind and solar power, with their crazy negative prices, don’t count because they’re subsidized up-the-kazoo. Their real cost is paid through other hidden means. It’s either that, or the negative prices tell us wind and solar power are so awful you have pay people to take those toxic electrons away…).
In the last quarter brown coal set the winning bid price about 15% of the time. These were the times when there was enough brown coal power in Victoria that the grid managers didn’t have to buy any black coal, gas or hydro power at all.
The more coal power Victoria has, the more often the wholesale price will be insanely low…
Because of the way the auction works, the highest successful bidder sets the price for everyone. In theory, generators are supposed to bid the lowest price they’d accept and then the AEMO takes the cheapest offers first until it meets the full demand.
And it’s the same all across the Eastern Coast of Australia — in New South Wales was getting bids from brown coal generators at $12 per megawatt hour. In South Australia, $11. In Queensland $13, and in Tasmania $7.
DATA
The AER has the data on the price setting bids. NSW | QLD | Victoria | SA | Tas
A Brown Coal SuperPower
Australia’s CO2 emissions are around 1% of global emissions so reducing this to ZERO will have no measuable impact (assuming CO2 is a problem) Likewise doubling it to 2% will have no measurable impact.
So what is the problem with being a Brown Coal SuperPower with the benefit of all that free plant food?
Am I missing something?
The Hydrogen Energy Supply Chain (HESC) is a project jointly run by the Australian and Japanese governments to take brown coal from the Latrobe Valley and produce liquid hydrogen to then ship to Japan. The pilot project was completed last year, with just 2.6 tonnes of liquefied hydrogen delivered to Japan.6 July 2023
If ths is scaled up the CO2 is to be disposed somehow in Bass Straight.
Why not keep our low cost brown coal power stations and disponse of their CO2 the same way?
Not sexy?
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Why not just burn the goddamn coal, scrub the harmful emissions and forget about the CO2?
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Skepticynic, the Victorian brown coal is a young coal which is low in ash, very low in sulphur, and has unmeasurable amounts of metals (eg there is no Hg) other than FeO, Al2O3, CaO & MgO in the ash. The relatively low burning temperature means there is very little NOx produced in the combustion. Scrubbing in normal engineering parlance means cleaning with water. That is very old fashioned. There is no water used at for gas cleaning at Victorian power stations. They use Electrostatic Precipitators to remove the small amount of ash to less than 100mg/m3 in the exhaust which goes up the stack. One can not see the tiny particles at this level. Yes, the CO2 should be ignored. The gas helps the grass grow for cattle and kangaroos. The ash has the same composition as soil and is put into worked out parts of the open cut mine.
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Suppose the current atmospheric CO2 is 420ppm.
About 4% of that is of anthropogenic origin, so 16.8ppm.
1% of that is 0.168ppm.
So of Australia stopped burning hydrocarbon fuels, the level would drop from 420ppm to 419.832ppm or by 0.04%.
China is by far the world’s largest producer of CO2 and would have a much more significant effect but they have no CO2 restrictions and are increasing rapidly.
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Its hard to fathom just how stupid the Victorian state government may be?
Even the CO2 if captured would be valuable.
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I can’t resist the famous Gumpism! Stupid is as stupid does! Eat your heart out the other Forrest!
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The easiest fix is to make AEMO buy in 4 or 8 hr blocks, not the ridiculous 5 min that favours unreliability.
Then solar and wind will have to stabilise their supply before it hits the network.
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Unreliables should never have been able to connect to the grid until they invested in whatever is needed to provide a stable supply of electrons without any need to get someone else to provide frequency control and makeup when the wind/sun slackens off, but being as how our utilities are not run by engineers any more, the resultant chaos is what we end up with.
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One hour blocks would have the same effect. Bigger blocks would mean mandated battery subsidies. Let them pay for it.
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Energy Security!
The driving factor behind the decision is the fear of energy shortages driven by the Russia invasion of Ukraine, and the lack of imported fossil gas from Russia.
https://reneweconomy.com.au/in-germany-a-wind-farm-is-dismantled-to-make-way-for-expanded-lignite-coal-mine/#:
Where is Labor on energy security? Chinese made (and operated) wind and solar farms will be our future according to Commrade Bowen!
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Best use of a windmill farm ever. !
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“Where is Labor on energy security? ”
Bending over with their pants down right in front of the same people who blew up Germany’s Nordestream pipeline so they couldn’t get Russian gas.. It really shows how much the Yanks think of Germany as an ally, and they think a lot less of us.
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The Left are at war against the conveniences of modern life, including inexpensive electricity, motor vehicles and anything else that is good, nice, fun, decent, moral, freedom-providing, good food like meat and eggs etc..
They want non-Elites to return to a time before the Scientific and Industrial Revolutions and Age of Enlightenment.
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Wrong??
Maybe a certain premier made a lot of money helping to shutdown brown coal energy generation to replace it with privately owned renewable energy selling at huge profit margins!! 🤔🤔🤔
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We definitely know a certain Prime Ministers son had huge investments in windmills and daddy pushed things to achieve more profits to them, white elephants like SH2, among others.
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Dictionary….Non_Elites see Proles… Dictionary…Proles…see Orwell.
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The Left have successfully demonised brown coal or (lignite) by claiming it’s especially polluting (they falsely claim CO2 is pollution).
It’s CO2 production is higher per unit of weight than other forms of coal simply because it’s wet. Successful and efficient methods of drying it have been developed.
There is no problem with it but it has the advantage of being very cheap. Vicdanistan has heaps of it which the Uniparty intends to leave in the ground along with most oil and gas.
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David, as Cinty Allan is now premier we should rename the socialist republic “Vicintystan”.
Many years ago I tried to catch Cinty’s attention on the street but she ignored me.
First impressions!
Her Grandmother Rita would be very proud of her.
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Certain electricity companies offer only “green” sources of electricity.
Alternatively, I want to buy mine from brown coal sourced supplies. And at the correct price.
Sadly, Australia’s electricity supply system is designed to make electricity expensive. The differential of price between cost and consumer is harvested by the subsidy harvesters such as the Commie unions and Chinese who own the wind and solar plantations.
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Anything would be cheaper than wind turbines.
The recent shattered blade episode in the “Vineyard” offshore wind farm is a warning of what’s to come.
The bits of glass fiber floated by the foam interior of the blade has devasted the local environment: the stuff is everywhere and probably also inside the the local fish dish.
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Come come KK, those Greenies will see this as a challenge and dram up even more costly fantasies.
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NANTUCKET – The rest of a giant broken Vineyard Wind turbine blade fell into the sea off Nantucket, Massachusetts Thursday.
“Remaining portion” of turbine blade down
The town said in a statement that the “remaining portion of the blade had come down at approximately 6:40 AM.”
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There was a young lass from Nantucket,
who went to sea in a bucket………..
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Ruari…where are you?
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Remember how India wanted to buy a heap of lignite from Vicintystan and the order was cancelled by the Government?
For their own good of course.
The Government doesn’t want India to develop. Isn’t that racist…?
Anyway, India will have the last laugh because they will rapidly surpass us and the rest of the woke West.
https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/government-shelves-coal-export-plans/news-story/ba046c3ff1ef6aa4b10d4423c5f8fa9d
Incidentally, the Minister responsible for this was Peter Batchelor. He makes Albo and Bowen look like geniuses. He has never had a proper job where he had to do anything productive.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Batchelor?wprov=sfla1
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Peter Batchelor still walks the earth otherwise more might be said.
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>It’s either that, or the negative prices tell us wind and solar power are so awful you have pay people to take them away…
Well, that shattered my serious train of thought.
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Here is a video from 1948 talking about a brown coal power station, Yallourn, in Vicintystan’s Latrobe Valley.
https://youtu.be/eWXFnVT5Wj0
(3 mins)
Back in the day, it appeared that Australia had a bright future.
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But Melbourne is 100km from Yallourn so the greenies can ignore what goes on there, while throwing money away on fantasies.
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There are certain people wrecking the country from inside. These idiots need to be held to account.
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‘Useful idiots’ I believe is the term for them.
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https://www.primergysolar.com/posts/historic-gemini-solar-energy-storage-project-reaches-commercial-operations-in-nevada
Gemini’s 1.8 million solar panels can generate up to 690 megawatts, powering approximately 10 percent of Nevada’s peak power demand.
But only when the sun is at peak positioning relative to the SPs. Comes complete with four hours of battery storage. View the link to see the 100’s of acres of land required. Sure it’s a remote desert but it requires massive connector cabling to deliver to users. All in it’s a four billion $$$ heavily subsidised “investment”. Primenergy Solar is talking to our very own Blackout Bowen
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>Imagine … if the nation discovered a 430 billion ton deposit
Can’t imagine that here in NZ but can imagine this:
New Zealand Coal Fields – New Zealand Petroleum and Minerals [Map]
https://www.nzpam.govt.nz/assets/Uploads/our-industry/minerals/new-zealand-coal-fields.pdf
Mokau is an interesting one (see map above). Here’s some history from Sir Robert Stout 1844-1930 (don’t know actual date of pamphlet):
The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 71
(2) Mokau Coal-fields. [c. early 1900s]
https://ndhadeliver.natlib.govt.nz/webarchive/20210104000423/http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-Stout71-t15-body-d1-d4.html
See – Mokau South Resources (MSR), Incorporation date: 19 Jun 1947 – next.
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Details of Mokau South Resources permit are:[3]
Record 37089 Coal Mining Licence
…
Duration: 25 years and 11 months
Commencement Date: 09/11/1990
Expiry Date: 01/10/2016
Mining method: Opencast coal
See – Coal Action Network Aotearoa (CANA) is a group of climate justice campaigners committed to fighting the continuation of coal mining in Aotearoa New Zealand.
The Coal Industry Wants To Strip Mine The Mokau. Help Us Stop Them.
https://coalaction.org.nz/coal/coal-industry/the-coal-industry-wants-to-strip-mine-the-mokau-help-us-stop-them
# # #
We gotta “Keep the [Mokau] coal in the hole”.
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Poor old “Aotearoa” the land of the long dark cloud.
Still the most beauiful place on earth IMHO, but like finding a half eaten slug in your lettuce, the whole thing ruined by the system
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Just Stop Oil Co-Founder Jailed For Five Years Over Plots To Block M25 Motorway
https://climatechangedispatch.com/just-stop-oil-co-founder-jailed-for-five-years-over-plots-to-block-m25-motorway/
Prosecutors alleged the protests, which saw 45 people climb up the gantries, led to an economic cost of at least £765,000, while the cost to the Metropolitan Police was more than £1.1 million.
They also allegedly caused more than 50,000 hours of vehicle delay, affecting more than 700,000 vehicles, and left the M25 ‘compromised’ for more than 120 hours.
Prosecutor Jocelyn Ledward KC told the court that a police officer suffered a concussion and bruising after being knocked off his motorbike in traffic caused by one of the protests on November 9, 2022.
Supporters aghast – next.
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CCD report:
TV naturalist and Just Stop Oil supporter Chris Packham was outside the courthouse.
Speaking to protesters he said: ‘At this point, I feel physically sick, and I don’t think I’ve ever felt that in this way ever before.
‘I’ve just watched what can only be described as judicial thuggery, a total disregard for any mitigation circumstances when it came to sentencing. Disproportionately high sentences given to peaceful climate protesters in a world which is on fire.
‘In a world which is burning and flooding. In a world in the midst of a biodiversity crisis.‘.
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Sounds like he hasn’t learned any thing useful. Wonder if he’ll be next?
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Years ago we stopped watching Springwatch and Autumn watch because we couldn’t stand Packham’s smug stupidity, nor the mincing minnie who pranced around in unsuitable gear for the countryside. We’d switch on just in time near the end to see Adam Henson’s slot
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Never forget that even their ABC has warned us that the Aussie so called energy transition will cost trillions of $ and has to be backed up by Gas generators.
And all this must be met by 2050 and will definitely destroy our land and sea environments forever.
Yet people still want to vote for Labor + the Greens + the Teals. If this isn’t barking mad then what is it?
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-04-19/australias-energy-transition-needs-gas-safety-net-report-finds/102236352
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Don’t forget that Australia’s contribution to the CO2 in the atmosphere is a whole .168 ppm( Thanks DM),
For that we get to trash our economy, devastate manufacturing, denigrate farmers and make the cost of living impossible unless you are very well heeled.
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Economic Suicide.
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There is a strategy behind the low bidding by coal. As the renewable intermittent wind and solar only get the same price. And they need more complex hedging to deal with the intermittency. However the regulators give renewable a leg up by requiring retailers to buy rising amounts of renewable electricity. When it’s available.
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Bloomberg’s monster report about the global cost of their so called energy transition is now well above 200 trillion $.
Their cost for our so called Aussie transition is about 1.9 trillion $, but we can be sure that guesstimate will explode over the next 26 years.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-05-21/key-takeaways-from-bloombergnef-s-new-energy-outlook
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Not only is there is 430b tonnes of coal in Victoria, most is easily accessible and the infrastructure is already built. Before Hazelwoid power station was closed down it was chugging out 1600 megawatts 24/7. All it needed was an upgrade to take it from 1950’s to modern day tech. Possibly only costing a couple hundred million $. What a bargain!
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Brown coal and black coal are near identical. Brown coal is 66% water. Peat is 80% water. But dried they are almost the same in calorific content.
So this talk of brown coal being the ‘dirtiest’ form of energy is nonsense, peasant ignorance. But then politicians have no science. They are generally even innumerate.
And then there’s fracking, a simple way to get the gas out of our vast shale deposits. And not a single accident in the world, unlike Nuclear.
So in Victoria exporting Brown coal is banned.
Using brown coal is being shut down.
Exploring for gas is banned.
fracking is banned.
Nuclear is banned.
Even picking up firewood in the forest is illegal.
And all our money, given we have more debt than NSW and Queensland combined, is going to China to buy windmills because we are not allowed use our own vast natural resources. $200Bn in spending for trains under Melbourne which no one wanted and a ‘tunnel’ under the Maribyrnong river which is mostly in the air.
Whose ideas are this? And how do Victorians benefit? Where is the money going?
Or are our politicians legislating seppuku on behalf of their masters in China?
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The ones who benefit are China, union gangs like the CFMEU and certain corrupt politicians (there are a lot of those in the Uniparty).
Plus, they get to make non-Elites freeze in the dark without affordable energy and living and dying in a state of energy poverty. It’s quite deliberate.
And Australia is one of the most energy rich countries in the world. It’s criminal.
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Picking up firewood in a forest is banned.If the govt of Vicdanistan gets its policy through there will be no accessible forests in the state.Search GFNP.They plan to lock us out of our forests and have them managed by the original owners.
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The original owners burned forests to the ground regularly. I suppose we should respect their ancestral methods, no matter how much damage that causes.
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Now Jo, you’ve fallen in the trap again. Bid prices (or pool prices, or wholesale prices) or whatever you call them are not the real prices that generators receive for their product. They are merely the prices used to ensure merit order dispatch of the generators. The real prices are set by the market for contracts for differences between the parties. These prices are seldom revealed as they are private. It can be assumed though that they have some relationship with the pool prices, because if these are consistently low, then contract prices will also tend to be lower.
Brown coal power can therefore be the fuel of choice but not at the ridiculously low price that seems to be indicated by spot prices. These are low because the generator has to ensure that it’s generating to ensure it receives the contracted price. Some times they have to bid negative prices to achieve dispatch.
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Now Jo as a corollary to this, wouldn’t it be interesting to know how many retailers spouting green credentials have contracts with Brown coal generators to lower their input costs? That would really tell us what is going on. But I doubt that you’d be able to find this out, because as I said before, these contract are private.
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So, can we have situations where someone signs a contract for electricity with a brown-coal generator, then uses more power for an hour in a day than that generator is putting out? They buy solar electrons at brown-coal prices?
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Gerard, there is real information in these bid prices, and these are the winning bids, not just the gambits. These winning bids do determine the payout for 15% of the spot market supply in Victoria. They are a leading indicator. There is a reason gas and hydro generators are not bidding in at $8/MWh. And when these spot prices rise — like they did in June 2022 — it shows up fairly quickly in the futures prices. The hedging contracts follow the spot. And that’s followed by retail price adjustments.
The negative prices that wind and solar dump on the market are causing real mayhem, and driving real coal generators out of business.
They’ve now started charging solar home owners in Sydney small fees for exporting at lunchtime. It’s taken years for those spot prices to translate into some market mechanism, but finally it’s cracked the Soviet-AEMO-market.
If we had a real free market most people would never have added the solar panels in the first place.
But sure, electricity charges are hideously complex (doesn’t that suit the parasites?). I’m aware the coal plants are cleaning up with very nice income when gas or hydro wins the bid, but it matters that from 1995-2005 the average winning bid was about $30/MWh.
The real price of electricity supply is probably those private direct contracts, and 6 or 7 years ago a Chinese Crypto was able to buy wholesale electricity in NSW for 8c/kWh.
Australians need to know how much their government agencies are costing them. It’s a scandal.
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Hi Jo. This simply means that 15% of supply is not contracted and subject to the pool price. Well good luck to them if they can reap them while the sun shines. This is hardly all the time, so retailers will have the bulk of their purchases at contracted prices. Now this all focusses on the part of the electricity price that is energy. What about the rest? The price of transmission, distribution, retail, ancillary services, subsidies, etc. The are not subject to competition but are regulated. What percentage of total final cost do these represent? The bulk I would suggest.
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The choice is windmills or nuclear. Coal is dead in Australia. Schoolgirls in charge want windmills, the school boy captain wants nuclear.
I find it amusing yet tragic, that the affirmative speaker for this in Australia is our very own reverse Greta, a 17-year-old schoolboy. Fitting though, because this is the level of thinking Australia has regressed to.
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…and even funnier that the likes of Andrew Bolt criticise the use of teenage Greta, then the reverse comes along and they fall over themselves to get them on.
(I use Bolt as a generic term, I like Andrew).
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It is Australia’s destiny to be Hong Kong MkII
The energy debate will not change this.
China wants our Iron Ore, Coal, Gas and Uranium. Add farm land and Labensruam as well.
Start learn Mandarin.
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And Premier Jacinta Allan of Vicintystan quite literally sounds like an over-excited ten year old school girl, but less knowledgeable.
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I see that ridiculous SUN Cable Project has got govt approval, to supply Singapore 4300km away.
Not sure if this is old news.
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