…
By Jo Nova
It’s all so unfair. They just wanted to save the world and be treated like heroes, but nothing is working out.
The CSIRO has suddenly stepped back from promises of a Green Utopia. Only last week the AEMO (which manage the grid) admitted we’d need to keep coal plants running ’til 2049. Now, in a double shock, the CSIRO says we won’t reach a 100% renewables grid, because eliminating the last 10% of emissions is too expensive.
Don’t miss what a huge backflip this is:
— Suddenly, the CSIRO experts are saying that fossil fuels are an essential part of the Australian grid, in order to reduce costs.
— Suddenly gas is not just a short bridging fuel to get us to the land of pure renewables.
— Just like that, Net Zero Electricity is dead. If the land of the baking sun and roaring forties can’t make it work, who can?
They don’t specify what the last 10% of non-renewable energy is, but without nuclear power, it has to be fossil fuels, doesn’t it? They just can’t bring themselves to say “10% fossil fuels”. Holy green electron!
If only they could have told us that a few years ago before we wasted all the money, or even in April before we had the election?
Either they didn’t know — an astonishing failure of foresight — or they did know, and chose not to tell voters before the election. Their excuse is that costs have “unexpectedly” risen. Building gas plants is now 32% more expensive, they say, “amid soaring turbine technology costs”. And this comes on top of the seismic 55% rise in transmission costs which the AEMO — coincidentally — announced four weeks after the election.
Funny how the Blob agencies don’t seem to notice the bad news in time to alert the voters?
Who could have imagined that the whole world would want cheap fossil fuels again, and Australia would be left begging for gas plants, because we ruined our manufacturing base when we threw away the cheap coal power we used to have. I mean, apart from almost all the engineers in the country, who knew?
But it doesn’t make sense anyhow. They say the price of gas plants went through the roof, but if the grid was pure renewables, we weren’t supposed to need any gas? So they’ve slid that in there, the excuse that never was, hoping we don’t notice. And if a 10% fossil fuel grid is OK because it’s cheaper, why wouldn’t a 15% or 20% proportion be fine too? This could be just the first baby step out of the ideology.
Green energy transition faces an upheaval as investment stalls and costs rise
By Perry Williams, The Australian
Australia faces a blowout in the cost of gas needed to back up a renewables-dominated electricity grid, while the prize of fully greening the system by 2050 is undermined by challenging new economics that make it difficult to stack up.
A joint report by Australia’s national science agency CSIRO and market operator AEMO concludes that achieving 100 per cent zero emissions from electricity generation is more expensive than a framework that targets 90 per cent emissions reduction from electricity, and relies on abatement for the rest.
They find decarbonising power generation is economically compelling, just not at maximum intensity. That is because expelling the last 10 per cent of generation emissions comes at a high cost.
The bill for building gas power plants has soared by 32 per cent over 2025-26 amid soaring turbine technology costs, the science agency found in its draft report, with gas costs not projected to return to normal levels until 2035.
Ominously, they are not even pretending renewables will reduce electricity costs anymore. Instead there is word salad about returning to a “normal cost path” — whatever that means in a technology that’s still developing and has never been rolled out en masse. There is no “normal”, only models that pretend they know the answer:
“Our current view is that it may take longer than 2030 for technologies to return to a more normal level of costs … if a technology has not already started to show strong signs of recovery it will not return to their normal cost path until 2035. This includes technologies such as onshore wind, coal, gas and nuclear,” the report said.
The most interesting point, which they don’t have the honesty to say, is what really shook them into the realization that 100% “renewables” wouldn’t work? Was it the utter failure of the hydrogen gas plants; the pathetic progress of Snowy 2; the deaths of two transformers at the Waratah super battery, or the collapse in investor interest in building wind farms, or the organized resistance of farmers to stop the high voltage transmission lines, or all of the above, plus the Spanish blackout?
Or was it the shocking price rises of the last two years which proved that everything they said about renewables being cheaper wasn’t true?
Soaring gas turbine technology prices?
Something, something, Supply, something, something, Demand.
The underpinning ideation of Net Zero is its complete ignorance of even the most basic of economic knowledge.
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It’s not only the soaring cost of building a Gas fired Power Station but the extended lead times for getting all of the equipment to build the Gas fired Power Station in the first place, especially those important turbines.
Anywhere up to 3 to 5 years for the turbines.
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That’s the long way of saying that Demand has outstripped Supply…
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There is the fiasco of the proposed Newcastle gas fired power station in Tomago, which was cancelled because they said big batteries could do the job.
Its been a huge waste of time and money.
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AGL should have kept Liddell coal fired power station operating.
Four generator units of combined installed capacity 2,000 MW
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Umm, too late now
Demolition reconstruction (4.28 minute video)
I bet an equivalent Nameplate Wind plant (umm, does not exist) wishes they had a footprint this small.
Tony.
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Build Back Better?
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Musk didn’t have to wait 3-5 years. Built a huge gas-powered data centre in 120 days.
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During the second world war, when Australia had a population of 7 million, we could manufacture big things and complex things like artillery, tanks and aircraft. Now we cannot manufacture a hammer, although we do make some good mattresses. There was a time we could make the components of a turbine and generator and a good government would make sure we could do those things. We may lack the skilled tradesmen for the moment but surely it would be easier to import them than the machines themselves. We can import potential terrorists so a craftsman should be no trouble.
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Some commentators in the industry say its 5 to 9 years now…
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There could be a world-wide demand for turbines, as countries recognize the folly of Net Zero!
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What about the complete ignorance of even the most basic of scientific knowledge?
But what else is there to this story?
This posting is dated 17thDecember. When was the headlined capitulation announced?
If dated 15th, 16th or 17th it could be interpreted as an attempt to belittle in the eyes of the electorate the unspeakable tragedy that occurred in Sydney on Sunday.
Even if only a few heads roll in the turmoil that we are now facing, we will see a wholly new federal government with a whole new list of priorities. So let’s hope truth at last gets a look in.
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Does Australia have a domestic gas turbine manufacturer? Here in the U.S. the suppliers are booked up for the next 5 years.
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We have become used to the government and its agencies lying to us we sort of accept it. That is why few people take any notice of the horror news anymore. Those of us who were blessed with a decent education learnt that socialists lie and that lying is acceptable in order to attain a “greater good”. Albo told many lies leading up to the election and when he doesn’t lie he deflects. He is deflecting by talking of weapons when the problem is his failure to stop the anti-Jewish actions and rhetoric as well as his importation of a non- compatible group of people. It is only natural that government agencies, such as the CSIRO and BoM, follow the government lead.
A competent Opposition should be calling for the closure of the CSIRO. If it cannot tell the truth then it is not a scientific organisation so why should the taxpayer fund a decidedly left wing political advocacy group?
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I would love to know what this “greater good” consists of.
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Lawrie, No!!!
You should have been a woolgrower or a wheatgrower instead of a dairyman. Then you would give the CSIRO as I do the rank of Fairy Godmother. Many were the problems that the CSIRO sorted out for us.
Dairymen get up too early.You must have been catching up on your sleep when in December 1986 Hawke put his own brand of “social scientists” in charge of the real scientists at the CSIRO, with Neville Wran as chairman.
That is where the garbage comes from. But the CSIRO is still there.
“The Dish” at Parkes is run by the CSIRO. Built over 60 years ago it has been maintained with the latest technology to keep it at the leading edge of world science.
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Meanwhile after all the lies and wasted billions of dollars, when will they start to follow the data and admit we are now living in the safest period in Human history.
Death rates from extreme weather events have dropped by at least 98% over the last 100 years and even Lomborg’s team manage to quote the latest data.
Dr Koonin has won all his debates and he also agrees with the latest death rates data etc.
Why can’t these stupid donkeys spend 5 minutes at OWI Data and then admit they’ve been wrong for decades.
We should be building only BASELOAD energy from today and again turn our energy security into national security.
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Here’s OWI Data death rates from extreme weather events and in 1900 just 1.6 billion population and today 8.2 billion at risk, yet death rates have dropped by at least 98% over the last 126 years.
Very few Aussies understand this data and very few seem to want to understand it.
Just unbelievable but true.
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/natural-disaster-death-rates?country=Flood~Extreme+weather~Wildfire~Drought~Extreme+temperature
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It’s all of those things, Jo. But it’s worse than that. These ideologically driven failures are from one end of our economy to the other, from one end of our society to the other. They are baked in and structural now. They are all related, even Bondi is a pet of this, yet our PM shrugs and makes excuses. Our Opposition Leader says a lot of the right things but is hardly Statesman (statesperson?) like.
Ok, this may be the beginning, but this Great Country has a lot of Soul searching to do yet, a lot of pain to deal, and a lot of lessons to relearn. The situation is not yet desperate, but that is coming.
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I knew we were cooked when a long time ago my electricity bill arrived in the mail and it had a graph of the greenhouse gases my house produced. Not sure I used the term back then, but it was the equivalent of WTF!!!!
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Net Zero – Zero manufacturing in Australia, unless funded by even bigger Government through more taxes.
In 2015 coal supplied 76% of demand, in 2025 53%.
And in NSW, ex generator prices were $35/MWh, last year $128. Then add rapidly rising network costs to complete the disaster.
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This is their exit strategy.
Don’t fall for it.
Their promotion of the “renewables” scam was at best pure scientific incompetence and more likely far worse than that.
It is simply not possible to be a competent scientist and come to the conclusions they did about the need and desireability and supposed low cost of renewables.
Their job and duty was to give honest impartial advice which they failed to do. Their dishonest advice has done enormous damage to the country.
Don’t forgive. Don’t forget. Prosecute.
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But, but, but …
I wonder what line the defence will take in the prosecutions…
We were only following orders?
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They were ordered to say Yes Minister
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Straw-man argument. Nobody ever said the goal was 100% renewables. Net Zero means some offsetting has to occur against emissions. Global surface temperatures will continue to increase until Net Zero is achieved.
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Plant a tree in Africa.
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In this text, does ‘net zero’ mean in the entire world (195 countries), or just in Australia?
“Global surface temperatures will continue to increase until Net Zero is achieved.”
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John.
“Global surface temperatures will continue to increase until Net Zero is achieved.” They will. Until nature makes them go down again. When I paddle I can see the restructuring work of the last flood. In two days nature accomplished more that even the Chinese could do in years. They are very foolish people who think that man has any profound effect on nature.
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They greatly overestimate the power of man!
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Is your position that the only reason temperatures have increased is because of human caused CO2 emissions? Seems to be the logical inference from “temperatures will continue to increase until Net Zero is achieved”. “Increase until” seems definitive. No room for that they may continue to rise, even if at a lower rate?
Seems an odd position to take given you shared a link a couple of days back about all the factors contributing to temperature rise without CO2 being mentioned.
As for offsetting, how does that work? We still get to emit CO2 but we pay someone else not to? (This is not really net zero. It’s just pretend)
Or do we sequester CO2? Use vegetation and other CO2 capture? If so, this is great news. Because Australia is already a net sink. (some debate that based on bush fires) So if it’s valid that CO2 capture is effective then we’re already there.
BTW, net zero is not simply the electrical grid. It’s all sources of CO2 emissions.
Do you actually appreciate the magnitude of net zero? Aus is currently only about 4.5% below 2005 emissions, despite all the money poured into renewables. You can spend billions on changing our electrical grid for little difference. Other means to achieve net zero just drive up electrical demand, and our current demand won’t be met by the targets.
(I know. The ABS shows Aus emissions are down by 29% since 2005. But that includes all the rubbish credits claimed as part of the Paris agreement / Kyoto and the like. Smoke and mirrors. Like offsets when you pass the buck to somewhere else and keep emitting. Transport emissions are up 21% on 2005 levels.)
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‘ … temperatures will continue to increase until Net Zero is achieved.’
Temperatures won’t be increasing, it was a Hunga Tonga glitch which the scientists didn’t predict.
Net Zero is folly when China emits 50 times more CO2 than Australia, its only virtue signalling.
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“Nut Stupid Zero” is already here in Australia.
However, all the Climate Alarmists don’t count the CO2 sink of the Vegetation and the Continental Shelf Waters of Australia that use and absorb CO2. If they did, then it would be “Nut Stupid Zero”. Maybe even negative.
In fact, the whole of the Southern Hemisphere is a CO2 sink. It;s the Northern Hemisphere that pumps out most of the CO2.
Not a problem anyway as CO2 is a Plant Food and represents not very much of the Earth’s Atmosphere.
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Its not an argument Simon, its what your idols at the CSIRO said.
You are the one deflecting and look squirreling talking about argument.
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Simon,
Unlike others, I think you know everything.
As I am a slow learner, can you tell me how much CO2 is the right amount to have in the atmosphere?
So what is the ideal atmospheric level of CO2 (ppm) that will stop the hailstorms, floods, droughts, heatwaves, Cold snaps and our “global boiling”?
is it 0.00 ppm? 250ppm? 309ppm? 500ppm? or some other amount
You must know the answer. Please enlighten me.
I look forward to your reply
Will X
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Be a better bot!
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Is Simon advising us to remove ALL the CO2 from our fridge?
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Simon, the CO2 that “they” want to reduce is us…. since you’re all in on the agenda, you go first …
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That last 10%, (in their words and numbers), will undoubtedly arrive on a windless night.
What will be the cost per MW then? $50,000 or maybe $100,000?
If the government legislate that the generator cannot set a price/ransom level event, then why would a generator want to operate? When the generators realise that they can only operate for a few hours per month but can’t recover their costs, they’ll close down.
And then, on the next windless night, what is plan B?
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Most nights are windless, unless there is a storm blowing in. That’s just how it works. When the sun rises it begins to heat/stir the atmosphere. This causes the winds. The wind blows in the day time and it becomes more calm at night. Hence the phrase: “The still of the night.” It’s elementry school science. They used to teach that back in the last century.
Too bad the sun doesn’t shine at night either, when everybody is heating their homes against the chill of the night (or in some cases running their Air Con so they can sleep), and charging their electronic devices, and their EVs. Good thing hardly anybody wants EVs.
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The sun is always shining somewhere (goes the mantra) so more solar panels will ensure reliable power (won’t it?)
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The sun is always shining somewhere is the mantra of uneducated fools who do not comprehend the relationship between longitude and time.
One hour broadly matches 15 degrees of longitude. Australia is roughly 45 degrees from East to West, three hours. Unless a night, sunset to dawn, is shorter than three hours, no sunshine!
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That’s my reasoning about subsidies. Dump the subsidies and net zero will suffer a chronic heart attack and will be stone dead within minutes.
The operators won’t close down they’ll cease to exist.
WARNING :- Don’t get in their way of their rush to the airport!
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Australia is still unwilling to drop the whole scam so even with this slight backing away, it will still mean high, economy-destroying electricity prices.
Someone has to have the cajones to stop this ridiculous and cowardly fence-sitting and return things to how they were before 1997 when Howard embarked on the destruction of Australia’s energy supply and every Uniparty government has followed ever since.
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Let’s call it Asymptote Energy.
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Hence the CSIRO’s daft report.
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Read that as DRAFT report, thought it was more on wind energy
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Perhaps DRAUGHT?
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I’ll have half…
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The CSIRO knew full well that the net zero target they were spruiking was unreachable but as dependents, fully relying on a BOB stipend, they decided to keep Stumm.
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Don’t forget, just as there are dishonest and incompetent ideologically-driven activist judges and senior public serpents, this also applies to some “scientists” as well.
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As above all of these categories are filled with those who are only following orders.
Orders that they themselves drafted and pushed through the decision making processes.
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The systematic destruction of our energy supply started in 1997 under Howard.
The fact that the lights are still on, although industry has fled or what remains is usually subsidised, is testament to how robust Australia’s electricity supply once was and is a testament to Sir Joh Monash and many other pioneers of Australia’s electricity grid. It has survived 28 years of systematic destruction
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John, not Joh. Edit function didn’t cone up.
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You’re always informative Dennis; perhaps you could supply a link to the document from which the quote is taken.
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I have one word for the CSIRO- hubris.
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The glory days of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s of CSIRO are long gone.
It’s now fully woke, dumbed-down, DEI-driven and an instrument of Government policy and will give our stupid and ignorant politicians whatever answer they desire.
They no longer serve a useful purpose.
Shut them down.
Save taxpayers a billion dollars per year.
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Plus the ABC….winners all round David !!
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CSIRO spent millions trying to eliminate sheep shearing, it’s now 2025, how are they shearing sheep nowadays, shearers, some female ones now.
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Get the CSIRO to develop a Robot Sheap Shearer and let’s see how it goes.
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It’s only a couple of weeks short of 39 years since a CSIRO meteorologist informed me that in March of 1986 atmospheric CO2 levels had reached “run away greenhouse levels”.
I’m still waiting to see the effect.
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The CSIRO has used rubbery figures for years to make the cost model for RE fit the political narrative. It’s only now that people and businesses are being forced to the wall that they have backtracked and it’s hardly a backtrack to reduce the target to 90%. We all know that every watt of RE drives up power prices and we know that these new figures are still wrong, because not one single cost model has been remotely close to reality since the RE transition began. This is all about creating a fake business case that the government can use to maintain their ideological course towards economic armaggeddon. The only unanswered question is how far down this path will we continue before we reach total collapse.
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Nobel prize winner 2022, Dr John Clauser puts it best, which applies to the CSIRO-
“In my opinion, there is no real climate crisis. There is, however, a very real problem with providing a decent standard of living to the world’s large population and an associated energy crisis. The latter is being unnecessarily exacerbated by what, in my opinion, is incorrect climate science.”
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The admission that green dreaming will cost too much and deliver too little is very important BUT the politicised managers of CSIRO will horse trade to keep their gravy train of funds and prestige. The most outcome of “fossil fuels are an essential part of the Australian grid” is the politicised managers will double down, call for more research funding, call to lengthen the timeline and advocate for media campaigns to sell the public it is a wonderful thing to live in like a medieval peasant.
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When is the price of electricity going down? Or was that always a lie?
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That was a lie and man made climate change was always a scam.
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Exactly. My point. Everyone knows that. The CSIRO knows it. AEMO knows it. Chris Bowen knows. Which is why the question should be asked. Again and again.
At present the CSIRO are arguing that at 4x the price of electricity and climbing with $1Tn of debt not paid, they will reach 90% CO2 free electricity and save the planet while China opens two new coal power stations each week.
We are presented with insane logic and obvious lies as professional advice from 6,000 salaried scientists?
Fire the lot of them.
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Numbers and data are pretty much meaningless these days, but sometimes, you can look at them from a different perspective, and I’ll show that perspective after showing some data.
Last year’s (2024) power delivery comparison
Solar power plants – 104 of them – Nameplate – 10714MW – Energy delivered – 15,933GWH
Wind power plants – 91 of them – Nameplate – 13460MWMW – Energy delivered – 28,199GWH
Coal Fired power plants – 16 of them – Nameplate – 21000MW – Energy delivered – 120,252GWH
So Coal fired plants with only 87% of the Nameplate of Solar and Wind (COMBINED) delivered 2.73 times the energy of those 2 Renewables of choice.
That’s probably what I expected, so then, here’s the perspective.
To replace that equivalent Energy, they will need to construct 3.1 times the current Nameplate of those two Renewables of choice to replace that same power delivery.
Then, keep in mind that the Solar power is only available during the day, so they will need to construct an almost Solar equivalent of Batteries for that power to be deliverable during the night, and ON TOP OF THAT, the power plants to charge up those batteries.
So that’s around a further 400 Wind and Solar plants (there’s 200 already existing Wind and Solar plants) PLUS the batteries and charging plants to replace that coal fired power.
OK, so how many new plants per year, and then extras to replace existing Wind and Solar which become time expired during that time.
Now, imagine the cost of ALL of that, and the time it will take to do it. (and just where that sort of money will come from eludes me)
As I have been saying all along, coal fired power has a long life ahead of it.
Heads will turn in the direction of new coal fired plants, and quite soon I think.
Tony.
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And Tony, that 120,252 GWh from coal would have been much more if not limited by the favouring of renewables as and when they are working
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Many are soon going to find that the light at the end of the tunnel is actually an oncoming freight train. When the Renewables choo choo is bloodily plastered and mangled over the nose of the Reality locomotive from Hell is when new Coal/Gas/Nukes will truly be contemplated. Then there will be “Gap Analysis” and other nice words that mean “we screwed up, you need to pay us to fix it.”
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Tony, even worse than that, the battery capacity you mention will have to accommodate both a wind drought and simultaneously low or no sunlight for many days in winter. I’m not sure how many days, maybe ten before the lights go out?
In any case, it’s an infeasibly large amount of battery storage which is why they’re trying to hide it by encouraging households to install and pay for it. Even then, I doubt most household batteries would last longer than 24 hrs before they go flat.
Essentially the only way to save the grid is for everyone to go off-grid with batteries, solar and their own diesel generator to take them through solar droughts in winter.
Unfortunately, going off-grid is not feasible for apartment dwellers. They’ll need a central generator to power their blocks when the grid goes down.
So then we’ll have an entire country run on diesel generators. Bizarre isn’t it?
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I hope the govt has increased the Fire Brigades equipment and manning accordingly.
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Years ago, when I started all this, a year later, in 2009, I was actually looking for ways to (huh, as if!) replace coal fired power, I spent time researching an old technology, Combined Heat and Power, (CHP) and I’m sure most of you remember that iconic image of Marilyn Monroe and that billowing white dress. (two links, image and Post, both from earlier, in 2008) Back in the time of that Marilyn image CHP was supplying 384 separate sites with a Nameplate of 6000MW.
The technology is still the same, because a hundred years back, New York City used coal fired generators to supply CHP, only now it has been updated and improved, and is now referred to as Cogeneration and Trigeneration.
The principle is the use of a small natural gas turbine driving a generator to deliver power. The waste heat from the gas turbine is then used to drive a smaller turbine/generatoe Unit to increase the power. Now that’s enough, but the waste heat from the secondary turbine operates a unit for heating and cooling.
Now, the whole size of ALL of this is the same as two (rail) Containers, and can be parked in the underground car park of any large building, be it an office building or apartment accommodation.
See how there’s nothing new in the World, as I wrote about it all 16 years ago, and the link has links to three Posts, if any of you are interested. Judas priest, I’m an absolute nobody, and I found way back then.
What Is A Green Building
Tony.
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Hi David,
I have run the numbers, AEMO wind plus solar plus rooftop supplying the actual demand for the period of the two calendar years 2023-2024.
The storage requirement is 45 days, plus or minus not much.
That’s an awful lot of batteries.
I can provide the details.
Oh, at 2025 BESS prices, I calculated that the cost was some 4 times Australia’s GDP.
That is, it’s a great way to bankrupt the nation.
That’s the level of stupidity that we’re having to deal with in Bowen and Co.
And, even assuming that this amount of BESS could be provided, there is no chance it would actually provide both the necessary storage AND the all-important Synchronous Inertia requirement.
This NetZero nonsense has to be stopped.
Paul Miskelly
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Hi Tony,
A critical factor overlooked is that neither solar or wind can produce electrical power or every little,during the passage of a line of thunderstorms whilst the coal fired power stations and nuclear can.
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or on a calm night
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Guaranteed dispatchable output from W&S is ZERO.
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Reminds me of Robin in the 1960s Batman TV series. You can imagine Albo and Bowen as the villains in this video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chdm7xRSlho
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However, I think Penguin and Joker, even though villains, are still more honest and competent than Albo and Bowen.
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LOL.
Keep Off Atomic Pile – Super, High, High, High Voltage.
I bet.
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I was thinking of Bowen’s claims taking big hits with the recent AEMO and CSRIO announcements.
Renewables are the cheapest form of energy- POW!
We’re on target to reach Net Zero by 2050- WHACK!
Australia will become a renewables superpower- BAM!
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The cost for building a new gas power plant has soared by 32 per cent next year. And that is the reason why our power price went up 37% in the last year???
I want this federal government out. If that takes a general strike or pitchforks in the streets, so be it. We can’t wait for the election cycle to take its course.
There is one small problem, though – I don’t want the Libs back in. What a mess.
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Let’s not kid ourselves, the whole thing is still driven by emissions reduction. This is from the CSIRO page for the draft 25-26 Gencost report:
Unlike the levelised cost of electricity (LCOE) metric which compared costs of individual technologies, SLCOE considers the mix of technologies and transmission that deliver the lowest-cost electricity system across varying electricity emission abatement scenarios to 2050.
So they now realise that LCOE is not a meaningful basis fort analysis but they still think there will be an electricity grid. The estimates for new coal include carbon capture so are meaningless numbers that are way over the top.
The grid is no longer an economic entity until bidding excludes non-dispatcahble sources. And that is a step way too far.
There is no point looking at anything from the CSIRO climate zealots. The organisation needs to be sent packing. Sell of what can be sold.
No one in AEMO or CSIRO or government are looking at what is actually happening in the NEM.
None of these people contemplate burning coal in the long term. There is not a moments thought for any technology that does not reduce carbon emissions.
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I’d like to pick up some of their HP/Agilent test gear…cheap.
And some of the custom cryogenic apparatus I once used for measurements I once made.
E.g. https://pubs.aip.org/aip/jap/article-abstract/72/10/4677/496174/Variable-range-hopping-in-polypyrrole-films-of-a
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There has been quite a few letters appearing in MSM publications recently lamenting the job cuts at the CSIRO (I buggered up the acronym in a link above). It mirrors the Left’s reaction earlier this year after DOGE digitally gutted USAID. These letters cite accomplishments such as the Black Box and Wi-Fi as well as numerous agricultural developments. It’s a great history but what has the organisation done recently to justify its funding?
If the CSIRO was continuing to be relevant and producing world changing advances in technology rather than spruiking vague climate prognostications, most people on this blog would be saying the same thing about the job cuts.
The CSIRO is now a shadow of itself methinks.
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“Normal cost path”?! Whatever that gobbledegook is meant to mean.
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It’s enough to con the standard Voter into believing something is being understood and done.
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More like “Up the Garden Path”.
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File with “downward pressure on prices” “firmed generation” and almost anything stated about EV real world range.
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Don’t let let any promoters or advocates for the “renewables” scam walk away from it.
They can’t be allowed to have trashed an entire country and get away with it, especially as the damage is not reversible any time soon, if ever. This is nation-destroying stuff, and fundamentally treasonous.
No excuses accepted. They knew what they were doing.
Don’t forgive. Don’t forget. Prosecute.
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Elsewhere: Solar, wind form least-cost generation mix in draft GenCost.
Daft GenCost, more like.
And they’ll keep on flogging offshore wind until some sucker bites, or the government guarantees returns.
https://esdnews.com.au/major-step-for-australias-most-advanced-offshore-wind-project/
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I read a long time ago that if wind and solar supply sources are to be installed that no more than 30% of an electricity grid supply should be from those sources and with 100% controllable generator capacity back up firming?
And of course subject to a cost-benefit analysis before proceeding.
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And all our Gubbmints have followed that advice to the letter.
Oh! Oh?
I wonder why not.
Is there an intention to destroy Australia, UK – and much else of the West?
The Duck Rule suggests to me that here MUST be.
Perhaps strap the guilty to an electric chair powered by a bat-buster … it will work. Eventually.
Metaphorical, I wouldn’t do that.
I have no electric chair …
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Here is an interesting way to look at things.
In generations gone by Australians used to drink there beer from 5/7/10oz glasses so it wouldn’t get warm while you were drinking it.
The current generation has a strong tendency to drink from schooners and pints, ie 15 & 20oz glasses, but they don’t drink the volume any faster.
Why? Because with pretty much universal air conditioning the beer doesn’t get warm as fast. If they keep going down this moronic “renewables” track they’ll be back to drinking from the smaller glasses and the pubs will be using old fashioned hand pump taps.
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And with candles for lighting.
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Hand pumps, or ‘beer engines’ are still widely used in English pubs, particularly for dispensing Real Ales. The cask conditioned ales are drawn up from the cellar by suction, saving the use of carbon dioxide and thus saving the planet!!! That’s why I drink real ales. Job done.
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In a few years they will be lamenting why “everything” is getting worse. The answer is simple: they put up the cost of energy and destroyed the key thing that made our society work the way it did, and they had no answer to that but even more expensive energy.
No doubt they will also say: “why didn’t anyone warn us?” And claim “No one knew” … that it was going to be a disaster. And, some of them have always been so deluded they might actually believe it.
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I don ‘t understand that.
The technology of Gas Turbines matured 20 years ago. The LM 2500 gas turbine used as a generator power source is at least that old. So whence the increased cost?
The gas itself might cost more since we have a ban on exploration.
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Labour costs and general increase in overhead costs…( energy, Materials, rates, tax etc)
…..and the old demand vs supply issue !
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“demand vs supply issue”
Is that still a thing in the world of the magic money tree?
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But the model shows it will be cheaper at 82% renewable
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Maybe Whitehall and Westminster have – a little belatedly, perhaps – got the message.
Tonight [UK time]
“Pillowcases to filter water and no alcohol: Advice to Britons in event of national power outage”
https://www.itv.com/news/2025-12-17/pillowcases-to-filter-water-and-no-alcohol-official-advice-if-uk-loses-power
I am sure the utterly unbiased BBC has this too. Somewhere …
It’s not in Climate, Business, Politics, Culture.
Nor in UK – though there is ‘Ho ho no! Four ways to stop kids’ Christmas meltdowns’; timely. I suppose.
There is a link to the full Government advice.
I wonder if a few bums – in W & W, above – are getting a tiniest bit squeaky.
All due to trying to save the planet.
When China is still burning 13,000,000 tonnes of coal a day.
And responsibility for this parlous situation …
Ahhh …
UK doesn’t ‘do’ responsibility.
It’ll be peerages, MBEs and index-Linked Pensions [Our money being spent] all round for the guilty.
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