The Northern Territory is a test case for renewable energy and it’s a bonfire
In 2016, the new Labor Government waved a magic wand and commanded they would be 50% renewable by 2030. The experts said it was doable and would save $30 million a year. They gave out the permits for large solar installations, which began construction in 2019, but then suddenly changed the rules in 2020, and wouldn’t let the solar plants connect to the main Darwin-Katherine grid. Unbelievably, 64 megawatts of solar panels that cost $40 million dollars have sat, doing nothing, for four long years.
“It’s just reflecting back into space, not being used to power the grid and to substitute for diesel and gas turbine production,” said local vet Peter Trembath, who leased his land to energy company Eni Australia for the solar project.
“It’ll be some technical issue, but you’d reckon they would have sorted that out before Eni spent $40 million to erect it.” — Max Rowley, ABC News June 2022
It’s always the Grids fault…
The reason they couldn’t be connected was that the Territory government suddenly rewrote the rules in February 2020 and insisted the solar generators had to operate like fully scheduled generators, not semi-scheduled ones. Cruelly, they would have to make accurate predictions of what they could supply 30 minutes ahead on a rolling 5 minute basis. This meant they would need their own battery backup with the equivalent of 80% of their capacity and storage that lasted 30 minutes. They’d also need “weather forecasting” ability to predict cloud cover.
The solar owners, Eni, protested that this would cost them $20 million (at least!) making the project unviable. And to make things even worse, the government was saying they had to build the battery at the solar plant, and reserve it to back up their own panels, so they wouldn’t be able to build the battery in Darwin, and use it to help the grid at other times, which would defray the costs. It all seems quite bizarre. (Who would want to run a business in the Northern Territory?)
Why didn’t the renewables industry protest these belated draconian conditions louder? Probably because they didn’t want to highlight the reason for the Territory government’s sudden flip. It suddenly makes sense when we look at the timing.
The panic-attack about connecting solar power came just after the Alice Springs black start
The NT government didn’t appear to realize that there were risks in adding 64MW of solar power to a grid that was roughly 250MW in size until 13th October 2019 when the whole Alice Springs network serving 29,000 people collapsed due to a cloud. It was the third blackout in four years, and it must have terrified the management in Darwin, because Alice Springs didn’t have much solar, yet the system was so unstable. Only 13% of the town’s total electricity comes from solar panels, but one cloud was enough to knock that little grid over and it took over nine hours to get it restored. By December 2019, an inquiry was set up and both CEO’s of the Power and Water Corp and the Territory Generation lost their jobs.
Presumably the new CEO’s were not going to risk the collapse of the larger Darwin-Katherine Grid, hence the sudden rule change in February 2020 which left the solar operators high and dry.
The ABC and others insist the blackout had nothing to do with solar power, and was just due to incompetence, but all the new grid managers grabbed their electrical garlic and acted exactly like solar power was the vampire. How else do we explain that these perfect solar plants have been sitting there doing nothing for four years?
So 64MW is too much for Darwin, but lets build 4,000?
Clearly grids need their armour before anything so risky as a large solar plant can be connected, which is all the more poignant considering the Australian government just approved (again) the humongous SunCable plant, what will be the “largest plant in the world”, at 4GW, and it’s going to be in the Northern Territory. It’s 60 times bigger than the 4 Eni plants, but is supposedly going to send most of the green electrons to Singapore, a mere 5,000 kilometers away, which is lucky, because the whole Darwin-Katherine grid only uses 250MW at peak, so SunCable would eat it alive.
The people will pay for the solar debacle
The new NT Generator Performance Standards were trying to make sure that the Territory’s consumers wouldn’t end up footing the bill for the backup and wouldn’t suffer a blackout. But the Territory Government has paid $45 million to build a battery in Darwin anyway, and looks like it will try to buy out the four idle solar plants from Eni. So the citizens will be whacked for the cost one way or the other for the magical wish-fairy thinking that renewables would be easy and cheap.
As it happens the people of the NT get to vote tomorrow in the Territory elections. Lets hope there is some salvation. Though on the media apparently the major issue is not about keeping the lights on, or whether the NT is a basketcase for investors, but whether people can keep crocodiles as pets. No, seriously. (And they’re talking about the Saltwater kind which eat people, and grow to 6m and 1,000kg.)
There are only about 250,000 people living in the Northern Territory. There are two separate grids and several microgrids. All of these are perfect test cases to showcase renewable energy, as I keep saying, and none of them are managing to do it.
When will we get the message? If a town of 30,000 can’t live off the sun and wind, why would anyone bet the whole nation on it?
h/t CO2 Lover
As always:
FOLLOW THE SPILLAGE!
210
Bruce – you have got it in one.
Follow the Do££ar$ …
Auto
190
Adding a battery to a solar system that is recharged from a hugely variable current input would also be expensive.
Why do any of this when there is vast amounts of natural gas available on a 7/24/365 basis? This gas occurs as methane and hydrogen. It will last forever as it is renewable resupply driven by our sun and gravity.
260
Yes, plus no end to this Leftist debacle. The squandered $millions is totally wasteful. No wonder we have sky high inflation
230
I have become so used to the word “billion” that I did a double take when I read the word “million”. What a welcome blast from the past.
As for the NT stuff up, the truth will always find a way out. Little by little and long after the damage has been done, but truth will always find a way out.
And just to check on my favourite “success” story. King Island is on 90% diesel as I type.
https://www.hydro.com.au/clean-energy/hybrid-energy-solutions/success-stories/king-island
340
In off-grid Windorah, Qld, they built a solar farm costing around $200,000 per household to replace their old diesel generator which used ~ 100,000 litres per year.
But wisely they kept the diesel gen for back-up.
Guess how much diesel it uses now?
That’s right, 100,000 litres per year.
220
Hi FG, No matter what I do, King Island always shows up as 60% in my iPad, even using your link. I know the problem is at my end, but I can’t find out why!
10
Empty your cache
20
I see that 60% diesel every time I go to that site. It must be their static start screen or something.
Give it a few seconds though it livens up and the numbers start to change and the arrow lines blink.
I have only ever looked at it via a PC with Win 7 and either Firefox or Brave browser (that are always set to clear cache , cookies etc on closure, so it is a fresh start each time I look at this site)
00
$40 Million was not ‘spent’.
It was transferred.
Or redistributed … mostly upward.
Some of it is probably purchasing some nice beachfront property somewhere.
Renewable energy is like vaccines.
You have to invest at the right time.
Mandate, and then get out before the public becomes aware of the problem.
It helps, at least temporarily, if you can get your friends in government to threaten people that notice the problem.
490
Honk,
Ponzi scheme . And the usual suspects are still pushing it . You cannot taper a ponzi scheme….
90
These idled panels will deteriorate, whether producing useable electricity or not. Thus one-quarter, or, worst-case, one-third of their productive lives has been squandered, and no remedial action is imminent. Perhaps in another 11-16 years, the whole thing can be dismantled, and used to build an Inca-like structure near the Ghan rail line, so that passing tourists can marvel at the stupidity of both the people who proposed it, and those who approved it.
50
I doubt if it will be dismantled. It will probably be left to rot.
20
People really are stupid. Lazy, willfully ignorant, ill-informed and the rest of us have to pay for it.
380
If you are paying for other people to be lazy … then just perhaps they aren’t the stupid ones.
140
What is the average power consumed on the Darwin grid?
And is ENI currently the only solar plant that cannot connect to the grid? There used to be two solar installations that weren’t allowed to connect.
70
Thanks again Jo for trying to educate us, but Sky News is very doubtful about SunCable ever building or connecting to Singapore.
But trying to educate the average Aussie or NT voter about toxic, unreliable W & S is an impossible task. And govts have very deep pockets and are able to tell more lies and and use more con tricks every day/month/year as required.
330
Neville, seriously, have I ever said a kind word about the SunCable fantasy?
https://joannenova.com.au/2023/01/big-solar-goes-big-bust-largest-solar-plant-in-the-world-dies-before-it-can-be-built/
“So this was ambition-on-steroids, and had economies of scale up the kazoo, and possibly as much sunlight as any place on Earth, but it was still obscenely uneconomic and expensive. Allegedly, environmentally, it would have achieved the equivalent of taking 2.5 million cars off the road each year, in other words, virtually nothing or even less. For $30b they were reducing the small Australian car fleet by… 12%.”
PS: IS your email still working?
160
This is the hot version of Snowy 2.0
240
Snowy calls in reinforcements in new bid to finish tunnel
Snowy Hydro is importing a fourth giant tunnel boring machine amid fears tougher than expected ground conditions may derail a 2028 timeline for the $12bn energy project.
Snowy Hydro is acquiring a fourth giant tunnel boring machine to overcome tougher-than-expected ground conditions, which may jeopardize the 2028 completion timeline for the $12 billion Snowy 2.0 energy project. The additional machine will cost around $75 million and is expected to help the project stay on track.
After a succession of delays and dramas, Snowy Hydro has been forced to acquire an additional tunnel boring machine to make sure the $12 billion Snowy 2.0 pumped hydro project is completed on time.
Repeated problems with an existing machine named Florence, combined with “initial design immaturity” to deal with geologically complex terrain, prompted the re-calculation of what it would take to complete the tunnelling works.
Snowy 2.0’s costs have already blown out by $10 billion and its start date pushed back six years.
Fault Zone Surveying and Florence’s Performance
Recent surveying of a fault zone confirmed the need for an extra machine, and the disappointing performance of Florence, one of the original tunnel boring machines, was a contributing factor in this decision. Although Florence was initially expected to excavate a 17-kilometer tunnel, its slower progress has necessitated the introduction of a fourth machine.
Approval and Environmental Impact Assessment
The use of the fourth machine is subject to approval from the NSW government, which will need to modify the environmental impact assessment to account for the change. Snowy Hydro’s CEO, Dennis Barnes, emphasized that the company has carefully considered various options to overcome the geological challenges and believes the additional machine is the best way to meet the project’s target completion date of December 2028.
Follow up
. How will the addition of a fourth tunnel boring machine impact the overall project timeline and budget?
. What specific geological features in the fault zone are causing the slower-than-expected progress for Florence?
. What measures will Snowy Hydro take to minimize environmental disruption caused by the extra machine and modified excavation plan?
🌐
abc.net.au
Snowy Hydro buys another boring machine, hoping to make up for lost time – ABC News
🌐
abc.net.au
Snowy Hydro tunnel boring ma
190
Just curious , if Florence isnt right for the terrain and we are buying a fourth machine, what are the other two doing?
300
Rescuing Florence!
20
Interesting that Perth was able to successfully drill a long rail tunnel under the river and through sandy soil with only one cave in.
100
As a young geologist I worked in the Murrumbidgee-Eucumbene Tunnel and on the Tantangara dam site, have “muscle memory” of the rock behaviour from my hands-on experience with it 60-odd years ago, and am still active as an expert on rock excavatability and TBM performance prediction. I offered this expertise and the ability to apply complex TBM models to the young Snowy Hydro 2.0 people but was ignored. The performance predictions for Florence appear to have been based on simple rock tests and simplified criteria, unlike what I now still offer to industry. A case of “silly old fart, what would he know?”
250
Someone probably read this blog and asked Snowy 2 team to confirm if my maths was correct i.e. 850m of 17,000m in 3.5 years extrapolates to 70 years. So completion early 2090s.
Having confirmed the maths and suggesting it unacceptable they now need another TBM. That could halve the time. So looking good for 2060s. Chine might have fusion by then!
130
Old Ozzie I too am an old geologist and have in my distant past worked on many tunnels, including some early works for the channel tunnels – which is really three tunnels through the lower chalk One of the main problems in tunnelling is dealing with fractured ground through fault zones which have a nasty tendency to collapse on you. The way to deal with it is to drill ahead and grout the area to hold it together. Even then – running an expensive tunnelling machine through such an area is risking complete failure – and once stuck, the machine can only be bypassed with a second machine – but then that will hit the same fracture zones. It should be noted that Snowy 1 was constructed using conventional drill and blast mining methods – so once you are past such an unstable zone – and have it supported – you continue tunnelling. I agree that perhaps those doing the design were probably not thinking sufficiently about these issues.
10
They also may run into copyright issues: I’m sure there’s already a band called Florence and the [Fourth] Machine… however I’m not a music lawyer nor a tunnel engineer. NB. For entertainment purposes only.
PS. Your country’s become a basket case – who’s running the joint? Oh…
190
” Your country’s become a basket case –”
Take it easy, who’s defending their Americas Cup and can’t even do it in their own country?? That is a bloody terrible decision, it really shows that Americas Cup has become a money-making spectacle, no longer a sporting fixture. Barcelona has a citizen’s group opposing it & saying the money it will bring is all for the very rich anyway.
31
And who can forget the Hot Rocks project of Geodynamics.
Another Flannery fail: geothermal project scrapped
50
Agreed. Surely there’s a pumped hydro scheme in the northern NT that could be used a viable `Big Battery’ for these solar plants, if not there is no economic way these solar power units can operate successfully.
00
“Though on the media apparently the major issue is not about keeping the lights on, but whether people can keep crocodiles as pets. ”
Great idea, sounds like they need a bit of a cull of idiots.
260
If people want to keep saltwater crocodiles as pets,fine. It will sort itself out.
230
I’ll have a crocodile sandwich. And make it snappy.
231
I’m sure that Western Australia had a similar law that solar had to have a backup to keep the grid stable about the same time that the NT made their new rules .
80
Apparently the project is intended to supply 3,000,000 homes, which presumably means Singapore, but if that link doesn’t get up, the solar farm will be the whitest of green elephants.
250
Just another ‘saving the planet’ Pallid Pachyderm. Being Green means never having to say you are sorry (as long as you can fill your pockets with other people’s’ money!!)……
210
Except taxpayers will be asked to build a transmission line to Tasmania.
90
Waddya mean “asked”? They will be forced.
190
It is vital that sun cable and cannon Brooke’s in particular are forced to do what all other mines and utilities have to do, namely set aside provisions for removal and recycling of all panels and then remediation of all the land used. That would have to be 10 to 20% of original cost but would need to be indexed over the next 20 years. Better still the land councils should require a bond or bank guarantee.
280
Apparently, this Project has yet to be given the green light by Cannon Brooke and his fellow Cronies. It may never get off the ground (hopefully). Twiglett Forrest has already pulled out of this crazy venture.
200
And Forrest commented that the project wasn’t viable. As you say, as yet they haven’t made any move towards trying to raise the capital, and apparently don’t plan to do so for another couple of years.
90
but but but shouldn’t Cannon-Brookes be financing the whole thing himself? He’s a billionaire, courtesy of his Atlassian software.
60
When the subsidies run out or the new NT government sees the light on renewables, that will be the end of these big schemes that waste taxpayer’s money and are a burden on inflation. It is obvious that gas is the real alternative here, if politicians are too frightened to push the button on SMR nuclear power after the Jabaluka debacle earlier this month.
10
I have to agree with Andrew Bolt that BO Bowen is the most dangerous loony in the Albo Labor govt and that’s a very big claim, because we’re spoilt for choice.
But if Labor sacks him I’m sure he could get a job advising the Harris and Walz air heads in their race to the White House.
Over to Andrew Bolt.
https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/blogs/andrew-bolt/sky-news-host-brands-chris-bowen-the-most-dangerous-man-in-the-albanese-government/video/46f8c57fe57e813cd24e7441c97d4f16
260
Neville, thoroughly agree on the mental capacity of our dear Minister for Energy and Climate Change. But, I think it doesn’t matter who is the minister, all these loony policies emanate and are supported by the public service department underneath him. He’s just the PR spokesman for the department, after all. Furthermore, if the Fed Labor Govt was booted out tomorrow and replaced by the LNP, all the same actions and policies would most likely continue. Angus Taylor (previous LNP Minister for Climate Change & Energy) was just as big a “loon” as Bowen.
251
Ross,
If they were accountable for these schemes and their success was funding their salaries and pensions it would be a different story . For them its always someone else’s money . Same with all the carpetbaggers promoting these schemes , like Twiggy and Cannon-Brooks . You don’t get rich by losing money.
60
You are dead right `Old goat’. The public service and socialist or `progressive’ politicians are no longer accountable for failure, they are on too good a wicket now and feel they are doing the right thing, so nothing else matters! The fact that the whole country is going down the toilet with this climate change crap and
resultant unnecessary renewable energy transition, which is wasting hundreds of $Billions of our hard earned, has to finally wake up the public to this inflation and recession causing debacle. The sooner the better for OZ so we can get back to reality and a safe, clean fossil fuel future!
30
When so-called “engineers” can’t do simple calculations to establish whether a project is viable or not, it’s time to review the entire profession and their educational process.
Similarly review the jobs, salaries and competence (or lack thereof) of supposed “experts” that advise politicians and who tell them what to think.
330
My eldest son has just commenced work on a very large civil construction project. As part of the induction process, he was required to undertake what are termed ‘v.o.c.’s, or verification of competency for every qualification he holds. this would include things such as licenses for excavator, non-slewing crane, dogman, rigger, etc. When operating in a potentially dangerous, confined environment, management need to ensure that just because someone has a ‘ticket’, that does not automatically confer competence. This can really matter. Perhaps extending periodic verification of competence to other professions would help to weed out the incompetent.
230
“Perhaps extending periodic verification of competence to other professions would help to weed out the incompetent.”
And the downside to that was yesterday’s article about the American Medical regime, where an unelected body set itself up as the gateway to any doctor wanting to work in a hospital then expanded their checking of credentials into a vast financial sea of expensive licence renewals every year and endless paperwork each month that Doctors had to pay for. With some highly over-paid directors and completely opaque financial records, their main use of their power has been to disbar any Doctor disagreeing with the official narrative of Covid.
Its always a case of ‘who guards the guards?’
140
Interesting!! Got a link to that article KP?
10
If they make sure they hire competent people then it might even stay civil.
Thing is that Australia has made the transition from a high trust society to a low trust society … people now fully expect that each new person they meet is trying to scam them.
60
Many years ago, while working in the Australian pest management industry, I headed up a working group to completely change the evaluation of whether a new technician in the industry was able to perform to a recognised standard from written exams (from a variety of training organisations) to a one-on-one “competency assessment” from a competent examiner. The change in quality of graduate was dramatic. Over the last 20 years, I and a small team including my ex teacher wife, have trained over 1,500 fumigators and quarantine officers from the Middle East, through India and the Pacific Region to China in quarantine fumigation techniques that meet Australian quarantine standards. Examination included an oral, one hour, assessment and a practical examination working in a small team. The improvement in the reduction of exotic pest to this country was significant.
30
And the regulators who make up the rules are totally lacking in technical skills. There is no technical reason to make a storage system be located on the same plot of land as any kind of generator, solar or not. It is a legal mechanism to sort out payment issues.
30
The situation described in this post is obviously not an engineering issue.
NO engineer would ever design half an aircraft or half a space shuttle; this situation is purely about distraction and obsfuscation to hide the real purpose of the project; guided “leakage”.
The mess that awaits cleanup is gargantuan and somebody knew this was inescapable.
210
Everybody wins, except the workers, electricity users and taxpayers.
https://joannenova.com.au/2013/05/banks-and-trading-houses-bought-two-thirds-of-carbon-permits/#comment-1279188
130
Good article Jo and CO2 lover. Great use of the words “solar plant” rather than solar farm in the main body of the article. But then you made the mistake of captioning the photo with “solar farm”. But I suppose that’s excusable if the NT government use that nomenclature or the photo you borrowed also used that wording. Amazing isn’t it, after all that wasted money, the NT could have just remained running on diesel generators.
140
Nah. That was a 5am slip. Meant to be Solar industrial eyesore or something … 🙂
“Fixed it.” Thanks. Though suggestions for captions are welcome. What do you call a former farm full of solar panels doing nothing?
140
Solar wasteland?
80
Snap! I thought that before I scrolled down enough to see your comment.
30
Solar compost?!? Solar mulch?!?
40
Pollution?
40
These huge solar plantations are also potential aviation hazards by reflecting sunlight into pilots’ eyes.
171
Saw an hilarious license plate on an EV today. It said…wait for it…
COAL BRNR.
A truth. Renewables can’t cut it.
210
Spot The Odd One Out: EV Adoption By State
In 2023, sales of electric vehicles (EVs) passed the 1.6 million mark.
To visualize where EVs are the most popular, Visual Capitalist’s Bruno Venditti maps the number of registered EVs per 100,000 people by state as of June 2024.
The vehicle registration data is sourced from the U.S. Department of Energy, while population data is from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Only all-electric vehicles are included on the map.
60
So how do we repair the damage from Toxic W & S and at what cost?
How do we repay the full cost of connections of all the poles and wires.
We know that we are about to waste trillions of $ to replace cheaper, reliable base-load energy and of course zero change for climate by 2050 or 2100 or….
Even Dr Finkel told the Senate there would be no change even if we stopped all co2 emissions today and yet we still destroy our natural wild areas for nothing. Why are we so ignorant, blind and stupid?
270
We cannot. We still have concrete emplacements from at least 80 years ago, if not earlier. These concrete bases for the turbine towers will be so big that they will remain there for a very long time, if not forever.
And the failed batteries, solar panel and turbine blades will be buried where they will leak toxic chemicals into the groundwater for a very long time.
120
Someone whom the government like is making a motza. In Labor’s case they are petrified the Greens will steal their seats so they don’t care how much of your money they need to spend to keep Albo and Tanya in parliament. Canon Brookes will spend whatever to keep the Teals in parliament to ensure he can gain huge subsidies with dud schemes. Just as Burke sucks up to terrorists to keep his seat the rest of Labor are not concerned about you the voter but are concerned about remaining in power. Australia be damned.
90
The transition to renewables is not going to plan and the indications are that it will become a disasterous mess of equipment lying around and partly constructed plus great scars on Australia’s natural beauty and agricultural land. Huge amounts of our money have already been squandered on boondoggle schemes like ‘green hydrogen’ where the non-government partner canned their investment and pulled out. How will this debacle resolve? Assuming the Coalition even squeakes in next Federal election as a result of awakening voters, what are they likely to do to remedy the mess and stop our money, resources and landscape disappearing over the event horizon into the black hole Albanese and his Labour crony capitalist mates have created.
100
“what are they likely to do to remedy the mess and stop our money, resources and landscape disappearing over the event horizon into the black hole Albanese and his Labour crony capitalist mates have created.”
Nothing! They will embrace it just as their WEF masters tell them to. Anyone who thinks things will change because the Govt changes is a fool.
61
>Anyone who thinks things will change because the Govt changes is a fool.
To paraphrase Kerry Packer, when you have an election it’s only the politicians that change, the government remains the same.
80
It’s nothing to do with Singapore.
The Dutch, English, Greeks, Spanish, French used windmills for two things. Pumping water and grinding ‘corn’. But the moment there were steam engines, they abandoned windmills. Why?
As we saw from the graph of solar power in Australia, it is available at most 30% of the day. Now you need to find what needs power only a specific 30% of the day?
It’s madness to say we have all this power but cannot do a thing about the other 70%. Most of the day there is no power at all. It solves no problems.
210
Say we used only solar for 30% of our needs, 9am to 5pm, the saving in CO2 is 30%. And that was the only point of solar as we have plenty of coal. And could have obtained up to 50% simply with HELE generators without building any more power lines and with a vastly greater life expectancy. So why is it being done? We are not building for the future. It’s only a short term partial solution to nothing in particular at enormous expense. What is the point? It’s like going half way to the moon for no reason.
170
But if you go halfway to the Moon, Acme Spaceships, and General Space Suits, and Spaceley Sprockets, etc., all make a mint.
And their ‘advisers’.
And fixers….
It’s taxpayers’ money, so it’s practically unlimited.
Same with bat-busters & slaver panels.
Oddly.
Auto
No controls.
No responsibility [see 19.1.1].
20
Nervously contemplating another wind-powered boondoggle:
https://files.americanexperiment.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/electric-chair-meme.jpg
80
That is hilarious, in a macabre way.
10
Why do we still want to waste trillions of $ on their so called dangerous climate change for a rock solid guaranteed zero return?
Why don’t we only spend our money on cheaper, reliable, base-load energy that can last for about 5 times longer than toxic, unreliable W & S?
Just think how much easier we’ll be able to adjust to any bad weather if and when it occurs?
So far our SLR proves that there’s little change since 1900, so let’s abandon their silly , delusional fairy stories and spend our future resources on more rewarding, secure jobs and a much higher standard of living in the immediate future.
150
And why when the Southern Hemisphere is rapidly cooling are we trying to prevent warming? Shouldn’t we be spending to heat the place and prevent Climate Change?
98% of all CO2 is generated outside Australia, so why are we paying the price for China’s output of 40% of all CO2 and they pay nothing?
Shouldn’t we be levying Chinese goods to cover the cost of compensating for their CO2?
We only have a few more coal power plants to blow up and they are building one a week.
And where is all our cash going? To China to buy more solar panels and windmills?
Paul Keating says this is a very good thing. For whom?
140
[…] man kaum mehr überschätzen:https://joannenova.com.au/2024/08/solar-plants-sit-idle-for-4-years-in-nt-because-the-grid-wasnt-rea…EEG bei uns […]
10
If the owner of that land wanted to chop down all those trees for the solar “farm ” in the photo above, the council would have refused his request. How is chopping down 1000s of trees good for the environment? This era of the GREENS BLOB, will be known as the beginning of the end of our environment.
160
Developers of coal power plants have to pay for restoration of the landscape. For Yallourn, this was $2.5Bn. Who is paying to remove and reforest the vast solar farms when they die in 20 years? Is there any obligation on the ‘investors’?
190
Surprisingly the latest UN projections tell us that the average person in 2100 will be either 4.5 times richer than us poor slobs today or CC might hurt our great grandkids and they may only be 4.36 times richer in 76 years. Shock horror, I bet that so called suffering really worries most of Jo Nova’s bloggers? S
Here’s Lomborg’s quote and the full link. Certainly different than the loony head of the UN telling us we are already boiling in 2024?
That so called climate cost in 76 years is of course more BS and lunacy and the average person today would be very happy suffering that so called penalty.
https://financialpost.com/opinion/opinion-ipcc-global-warming-report-is-more-chill-than-you-have-read
Here’s Lomborg’s quote at the end of his Financial Post article.
“Ultimately, this is why the scare stories on climate impacts are vastly overblown and not supported by this new climate report. One of the clearest ways to see this is through climate economics”.
“Because of economic development, the UN estimates that the average person in the world will become 450 per cent as well-off by 2100 as they are today. But climate change will have a cost, in that adaptation and challenges become somewhat harder. Because of climate change, the average person in 2100 will “only” be 436 per cent as well off as today”.
“This is not the apocalypse but a problem to which we should find smart fixes”.
“Bjorn Lomborg is president of the Copenhagen Consensus and visiting fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution”.
41
Neville,
The thing about Lomborg is that he likes to highlight what the wasted money could be used for instead of wasting it . That makes him one of the few “sane” voices in the debate . The potential for improvement in the human condition is only limited by stupidity .
60
But Lomborg still believes the IPCC scientists and at least once, called us Climate deniers. He’s not that sane.
210
Jo,
The climate change debate has been derailed by hyperbole . The climate changes and that’s not up for debate . What causes it is the problem that is what you and many others are highlighting . People who deny that the climate changes are also wrong and history proves that . Lomborg has stated that all the CO2 reduction strategies are essentially pointless and that the money can be better spent elsewhere . Thats my take on it…
70
Agreed. He’s not a ‘denier’. But he is an economist at the head of a team who grade world problems and find Climate Change is very low on the priority list and incredibly costly. It’s simply a waste of money compared with say overfishing.
100
His book “False Alarm” is quite good, as I believe that it does a very good job of detailing where all the alarmist claims are clearly wrong. And he backs these statements with solid research and very good references.
However, he then goes on to suggest some solutions, and there I think he is quite wrong.
But overall, his constant debunking of alarmist claims is I think good stuff.
40
Lomborg’s comments on economics are excellent, my point is that he tried to save himself by throwing us under the bus. It’s the cowards way. He doesn’t have to say one word about science. He just needs to say “I assume the IPCC are correct, and work from there…” I would respect that.
He fed us to the crocodile and doesn’t realize we are the ones who are his main allies when the crocodile comes to eat his research centre. I wrote in support of his UWA centre, even after he called us deniers. I wrote article after article. We stand up for free speech. He doesn’t.
Hence, I do promote his work sometimes, but mostly I don’t. I’d rather support those who passed the real test.
He gained no protection by throwing us under the bus. They still called him a denier anyway. All he achieved was to burn off some allies.
10