It’s a creative South Australian solution to an unstable, expensive grid: close large factories and have less blackouts. If they can close enough, it’s guaranteed to succeed:
Holden closure will help Energy Market Operator manage SA’s blackout risk, report finds
Part of the soon-to-be vacated Holden factory in Adelaide is about to be transformed into a temporary power station to help stave off load-shedding blackouts this summer.
But the car industry’s closure will help the authorities manage the risk of blackouts in another way.
The exit of a once powerful manufacturing sector will see the state using less electricity, particularly during the all-important summer peak.
The information is contained in the latest Electricity Forecasting Insights published by the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO).
From a story last year:
The closure of Holden’s Elizabeth plant is expected to result in 13,000 job losses across the company and its supply chain.
Energy use in SA is set to fall from 3,116MW to 3,035MW in summer peaks. Even so, they’ll still need more temporary generators (time to cut more jobs?):
Nevertheless, AEMO is forecasting widespread shortfalls of reserve power over the next two summers, prompting the State Government to invest in temporary generators.
The ABC and other green-fans think this next point is a bonus:
“Minimum demand in South Australia is expected to be negative by 2027-28, as rooftop PV generation is expected to exceed customer demand in some hours,” the report stated.
They don’t realize that the lack of any demand during the middle of the day makes it very hard for any baseline power generator to invest in the South Australian market. That means SA is utterly dependent on either the interconnectors to ugly brown coal in Victoria or to government owned expensive temporary generation.
Last year the Premier of SA was blowing up cheap coal fired generators, and he was travelling to the US to beg for money from Holden:
Mr Weatherill has used a meeting with GM officials in Detroit to implore the carmaker to give the state a $5 million “community fund” as an “act of goodwill”.
And this is how you make a poor state that needs GST subsidies from other states.
h/t Mark M, Pat, Andrew, Dave B.
Closure of the Holden plant in South Australia was already a done deal after numerous bailout attempts. The fact that this helps SA’s overall power crisis is coincidental.
A victory for those who seek to ‘de-industrialize’ the world nevertheless.
This summer will be the moment of truth, when the wind stops and there is no power available from the interconnector. Not living in South Australia, I look forward to the puppet show that will then be played out by SA’s current trend-setting leaders, and pray that other states intent on rushing into the same abyss reconsider their options and do a U turn back to sanity.
310
No worries at all … Elon “Work Super Hard” Musk is on the job!
110
Just a thought .can the Musk super battery be manufactured from wind ,solar or dare I say it from battery stored electricity?
150
I think its made of political promises and fairy dust….and unicorn horns…
190
And an unknown quantity of taxpayers’ money.
90
Anyone have any idea just how big this Big Battery is going to be?
40
Some calculations I did earlier…
http://joannenova.com.au/2017/07/electricity-cost-train-wreck-arrives-in-australia/#comment-1923960
00
This is the perfect solution to SA’s energy issues (perhaps to Australia’s), just shut down all energy intensive production. In one fell swoop, Australia could save the world from climate doom and be hallowed the world over. What’s not to like?
250
9 coal plants shut down in 5 years the final solution is well under way bemused
130
Power station eugenics in action?
90
It is all so pointless and harmful to the citizens. How sad that SA leadership is leading the state to such hardship and damage.
110
Asap,
Lucky you’re not a conspiracy theorist.
22
Okay, I live in the US and have bugger-all knowledge of what Australian politics is like, but, after reading all the comments [when they were 63], it is obvious that the horse they were designing is as useful as a legless camel. What the hell is wrong with you people [advised used; maybe should be us people]? The world needs fewer do-gooders and more do-doers, but the tax penalties of being a provider versus a consumer are too high. The government taxes what it doesn’t want, and subsidizes what it wants; ergo, incomes are a capitalist-induced no-no, and the dole is the Utopian-leftist ideal. As a generality, do-gooder-ism is the gift that keeps on taking. So, to quote some unnamed know-nothing, “Someone should fix this!” And how is it possible that all of this angst can result from a hoax supported by mass-hysteria, that a country can spend its valuable resources pushing the Sisyphian rock up the mountain, over and over, with no chance of success?
140
South Australia is, de facto, a one-party state. The Liberal opposition has opposed nothing. It moans a bit—not much—and has just one policy regarding energy: a uniform, national RET. End of story, end of South Australia.
90
We’re actually going to start practising the same policies as Obama. We’ll shut down all industrial activity to save the environment.
70
Didn’t Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber, also want to “de-industrialize” the world? The last I checked, Ted was still in a US prison; but for all I know he has escaped and is now hiding in SA.
80
Who needed manufacturing industry, “big business”, “bosses”, “the rich” and their “banks” were all out to get us.
Without us they would not have businesses.
130
Don’t worry … SA will keep getting billions funnelled to it by the CGC GST re-distribution as long as idiot states like WA keep working to generate it.
140
If we keep rewarding failure and penalising success this country will end up in the abyss dragging down even the successful ones. Time for WA to secede and do it seriously rather than talking about it. The GST rort has to stop.
220
Feel free to put in a submission to the Productivity Commission on the GST mate. I read the entire submission from WA and it focuses on such points. I am off topic here, but it is indirectly related. As you say, the GST swindle keeps propping up failing models and states which refuse to promote development at the expense of states working hard to get ahead. It is a socialist’s wet dream.
120
If a company handked things as badly as the SA state gummint,the CEO would be sacked in a heartbeat….food for thought…
110
WA didn’t complain about preferential funding from the federal government to poorer states during past decades when they were the beneficiaries. Only complaining now when the shoe is on the other foot.
Having said that, the GST formula does need to be changed to account for the current financial situation of a state, rather than the previous year’s.
31
Bull, can you please explain the terms and where the money comes from? GST swindle?, Sorry to say I don’t understand the terms or what you are saying.
21
With such levels of spin put on the death of the (South) Australian manufacturing industry, it is a wonder that there have not been claims that 13000 unemployed people will all get “Green Jobs”, or some sort of ‘study’ that shows how unemployed people are better for the environment than those with jobs..
190
Some will not doubt go to the hydro store,and grow some wacky tobacco. Adelaide has about 100 hydrponics stores. Perfect for the grower. Now that is the example of a ‘green’ job!
40
James, unemployed people ARE better for the environment. After a few months or so, they all die from starvation or something else, and dead people stop breathing CO2 and using “things” that create it as well. I think that is the logic – if there is any. They’ll all get “green jobs” as dead folks can “push up daisies” as fertilizer.
sounds coldly sarcastic, but the sad part is it also may be prophetic as well.
40
The de-industrialisation of Australia takes a another step forward. And remember, rising power costs were part of the reason for Ford/Toyota/GM all shutting down manufacturing in Australia.
The Marxist agenda includes power rationing per capita and for capitalist industry, and Weatherill is well entrenched in that ideology. Pity poor SA.
220
Who needs enemies when we have people like Turnbull to encourage the economic collapse of our once great nation?
191
.. and soon Shorten to accelerate the decline.
190
Has anyone factored in the impact of 13000 unemployed people being at home with the Air Con running mid summer?
70
That’s if there is any power left to run A/C and the 13,000 have sufficient handouts to pay for it.
50
Dear SA,
Another notch to the brilliant planning by South Australian politicians and their voters. Congratulations to all.
Best wishes from
The eastern states.
P.S. Thanks for the industry.
110
Holden-closure-bringing-benefit, South Australian
version of the Broken Window Fallacy.
90
You have to seriously wonder about the people who write this, where Joanne quotes the ABC
The minimum demand in South Australia is always around 1100 to 1300MW, and that is at 4AM, long before the Sun comes up in South Australia.
Note also that this (I guess) journalist only thinks of electrical power consumption in the terms of what is used in the homes of people, the Residential sector.
South Australia consumption in that Residential sector is 25% of all power used across the whole year, around 3150GWH.
Rooftop PV currently supplies around 900GWH a year, and expectations say that ‘might’ rise to around 2000GWH by 2025/6, so even that is not enough to cover the Residential sector, considering half that power is used by the house with the panels and the other half is fed back to the grid as a whole. Peak rooftop generation is for an hour either side of Midday, so even that will only cover part of the Residential sector at that time, even if you isolate it just for the residential sector, and that does not include the remaining 75% of consumption in the Commercial and Industrial sectors.
Rooftop solar will never exceed customer demand.
Keep in mind also that this is for a State which only consumes 12.5% of Australia’s total power consumption, and only Tasmania consumes less. Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane EACH consume more that the whole State of South Australia.
You can bet that the journalist who wrote the above wouldn’t even blink with embarrassment if any of this was pointed out to him.
Tony.
Oh, and the Source
381
Clarification for understanding:
Power consumed in the Residential sector is that figure of 3150GWH per year. Overall power consumption for the State for the whole year is just under 13,000GWH.
Tony.
221
Something suggests to me that Tony doesn’t get all dreamy eyed over Elon’s proposed battery farm.
160
The sad thing about the battery is that it is looked upon as ‘new power’.
It isn’t. It has to be charged by, well, something else, and that’s a case of you either use the power as it is being generated, or diverting it to charge the battery, if they use South Australia’s wind power, but they want to sell that for the best price they can get, not use it to charge a battery on the cheap and then sell that battery power at a profit.
There are losses going in and losses coming out for the battery, so you get less power than was being originally generated anyway.
My guess is that they will charge the battery overnight, well, after Midnight anyway, probably relying on the Interconnector to Victoria and their brown coal, but hey, they pay a premium for that anyway, even when the power is at its cheapest, and then they’ll try and game the system to sell it during the Peak period at a profit the following day, and if they do charge it at that time, it’s actually raising the minimum consumption for the State.
As a sidelight, I notice the Premier of SA on the news last night spruiking the new diesels, mentioning the, umm, situation that was ….. “forced upon us.”.
Hey Jay, want to know who forced that situation on you, well look in the mirror, mate.
Tony.
291
Similarly, Snowy 2.0 is seen as new power but it is just another battery (pumped hydro) which I fully expect to be recharged with coal power.
153
The only way Snowy 2.0 could possibly work in a reasonable way is if:
1) It was forced to operate in a free market.
2) It had to purchase power for pumping at free market prices.
Neither of these things will happen therefore the “feasibility study” is just a huge waste of money. It will however provide the Government with the answer it wants so the project will almost certainly proceed along with the huge waste of money that entails.
60
Tony
But if the battery is drained down low each day, or at any time, it is no longer in a position to help with cold starts.
I thought that its best management plan was to keep it fully charged in case of a sudden need.Geoff.
80
Geoff:
I think you are starting from a false premise; i.e.. that Weatherill is rational and knows what he is doing.
80
Wind + battery is a system which can work. It has been in use for generations.
The problem is, what is the cost?
Although I expect the SA system to be unaffordable, I will be watching with interest to see just what it does cost. It should leave shysters with nowhere to hide.
90
I think the true costs of the Big Battery will be hidden.
101
That’s convenient
No matter what happens you can claim that it has been hidden. Sheesh
15
Gee Aye:
Obviously you aren’t from SA or you would know that in SA as much as possible is hidden. Watch out for some comments on the new (and very, very expensive) new hospital which will be quickly hidden until people are injured or die.
If you cut all the corners you wind up with a circle.
70
The ambulances won’t fit in the ambulance ramps, they have the simplest of things wrong
40
Crakar24,
Where did you hear/see that? Haven’t come across that before . . . . .
20
Tony
About lithium for batteries
http://euanmearns.com/lithium-reserves-use-future-demand-and-price/
In comments highlights that cobalt supplyis likely more critical
And
http://euanmearns.com/lithium-reserves-use-future-demand-and-price/#comment-31570
looks at an all-ev situation
50
Tony,
This way over the top for anyone who was conceived in SA.
Remember when we used to laugh about inbreeding within the Royal family?
110
What about those of us where were smart enough to leave the state? I hope you do not include me in that statement!
20
Yep because everyone will have left by then…it will be the California of Oz….
60
Tasmania learned at least three decades ago that the key to limiting demand for energy is to get rid of the industries and the people that use it. South Australia is just catching on.
110
Oh good Lord !!! Won’t somebody axe the ABC, for the love of God!
This talking point is morbidly perverse. The ABC never ceases to make me vomit.
Imagine being a laid off Holden or Ford worker, sitting at home now on the dole whilst your power bills are skyrocketing, watching the ABC which your taxes have funded your whole life, celebrating your job loss, attempting to sell the collapsing economy as a good thing because your overpriced power also might not go out this summer defrosting your comfort food !!! So sick.
This is gulag archipelago material.
No wonder the male suicide rate is so high with the loss of so many manufacturing and industrial jobs (mostly male for obvious reasons), being ***celebrated*** by inner city childless latte sipping trust fund baby champagne socialists who think part-time office work or occasional column contributions in left-wing rags — including having no wish to raise a family — is ‘living the Australian dream’. Yeah, you’d have to be a socialist to find this dream enjoyable, watching worthy Australians get shivved and marginalized.
‘Green jobs’ means a fresh plot at the local cemetery pushing up daisies.
I pray for this country, but we must have done something seriously wrong to deserve this fate.
90
Recommended reading: Atlas Shrugged
A prescient guide to how this all turns out.
For those wishing for a more immediate reflection, Clive James never fails. His essay, Mass Death Dies Hard furnishes us with his incisive wit and observations regarding the morphing of the failed Green Cult to their next catastrophe.
Now, watch with disgust and revulsion as the politicians scramble for chairs when the music stops.
130
Do you sometimes wonder what mass media would have been like in Romania or Albania during, say, the 1950s? Check out Australia’s ABC in 2017 and wonder no more.
200
another example.
here’s a perfect opportunity for the businessman and Liberal National Party leader Tim Nicholls to point out the folly of renewables, so what do they do instead?
1 Aug: Toowoomba Chronicle: Tom Gillespie: Toowoomba business owner slams state power prices
A TOOWOOMBA business owner who uses solar panels has slammed the State Government over rising power prices.
Big Tyre director Bruce Louden, who invited Opposition Leader Tim Nicholls to his site in North Toowoomba yesterday, accused the ALP Government of “hypocrisy” on the renewable energy debate.
Mr Louden said despite watching electricity prices rise nearly every year since 2007, the State Government had failed to incentivise businesses to use more solar power.
“We put a 100-kilowatt, $200,000 system in with solar and LED lighting and automatic switching to save power, as early as November,” he said.
“We’ve followed all these initiatives, but we were forced to buy a zero-export system (that does not send excess power to the grid), because Ergon will not pay us any money for the energy we produce.
“The thing that’s hit us is the hypocrisy in the system.”…
Mr Louden said on top of offering subsidies, the State Government should bring in a commercial solar rebate scheme to encourage more business owners to invest in solar…
Mr Nicholls slammed Labor over the rising cost of electricity, despite Queensland enjoying cheaper average prices than in Victoria and South Australia.
“A 70% increase in the wholesale price of power means that businesses like Bruce’s here can’t employ more people,” he said.
“It holds them back from expanding and makes their lives that much harder.”
https://www.thechronicle.com.au/news/toowoomba-business-owner-slams-state-power-prices/3207085/
50
surprised BBC is reporting this:
1 Aug: BBC: Why has Centrica raised British Gas electricity prices?
The claim: British Gas has been forced to increase prices because of rising distribution costs and government policy.
Reality Check verdict: Most of the increased costs came from Centrica having to pay extra costs for renewable energy.
British Gas announced on Tuesday that it would be raising electricity prices by 12.5% from 15 September.
Iain Conn, chief executive of Centrica, which owns British Gas, initially said the increase was not due to the electricity being more expensive, blaming the increase instead on the cost of getting the electricity to people’s homes and the cost of government policy.
British Gas said that while its wholesale cost of electricity had fallen £36 per average domestic customer since 2014, its other costs had risen by £98 per customer.
Late in the day, Centrica said that £53 of that £98 was due to its need to buy Renewables Obligation Certificates (ROCs), which are certificates that companies need to buy in order to meet their obligations for generating energy from renewable sources…
Centrica’s release on Tuesday gave a bit more detail of the reason for the rise in electricity prices, saying: “The price rise reflects increasing delivery and environmental and social policy costs since 2014, and also the growing additional costs related to the UK smart meter rollout.”…
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-40792151
50
From the link in Jo’s article
“South Australian power stations will prevent blackouts this summer, SA Government says” Link here
The Government has bought nine new General Electric aero-derivative turbines through US company APR Energy. Then it adds that
So for two years they’ll be run on diesel?
Then moved and run on gas?
Is this possible?
And why don’t they just install them now on gas!
OH!
Must be off the shelf for diesel?
In the meantime, there are no more coal powered stations for Jay to blow up!
South Australia has gone totally mad!
140
It costs very little to convert a turbine from diesel to gas. Actually, running on diesel is more rnergy efficinet. The turbines are similar to the jet engines on plames. These run on a special kerosene similar to diesel.
90
Probably TM2500’s. Typically, these are purchased as dual fuel machines capable of either liquid or gas fuel. The thermal efficiency is determined by the engine’s design parameters, and is not affect by the type of fuel used. However, they do tend to start better on diesel. Economically, gas would simply need to be unavailable to run on diesel fuel. Fuel cost for a TM2500 on diesel is in the order of $750 per MW-hr. To run nine of them continuously would require a steady flow of tankers.
110
Another consideration is emission standards.
Not CO2 but the real pollution of NOX aand SOX.
Assuming these are the typical ARP supplied TM2500’s, they are not DLE (dry low emissions) and require water injection to meet reasonable NOX standards.
Not any old water, but demineralised water. And lots of it. Roughly equal in weight to the fuel mass. Add in the cost of water treatment plant.
60
Thanks Rod,
So with 9 of these generators running 276 MW in total!
That would be over 190,000 litres roughly at $1.00 per litre?
So for a day – you’d need 96 giant fuel tankers of over 40,000 litres each?
Jay Weatherill is not telling his voters any of this? That’s nearly $5 Million per day for these 9 diesel generators to run continuously over 24 hours?
10
That would be ball park if they were to operate at full load for a 24 hour period.
20
Thanks Rod!
10
Now hang on a second, you can’t run a plane turbine engine on diesel
20
Yes you can, but when the plane flies high in the sky, the temperature gets cold, and then diesel will gel. That is why it is best to run on Jet A1. Some planes specify the addition of prist, which is an anti gelling agent.
50
Good. It’s been a few years since we did something extra nice for General Electric. After compulsory light globes, obligatory generators should earn us a Christmas card from Boston.
And if the price of diesel jumps due to Gulf squabbles or Red Sea squabbles (like that’s never happened!) South Australians can always fan themselves with government brochures on energy savings. Those pamphlets are quite stiff if you double them over.
120
Can those energy saving brochures be burnt for warmth?
70
David, around these parts we use seasoned bloodwood mixed in with white magohany and ironbark for keeping warm.
But we’re not clever Green/Labor votin’ South Australians. That lot would burn their mothers’ rosary beads if you told them it was the sustainable green thing to do. The undead don’t think like us.
80
In the Adelaide Hills the preferred fuel is River Red Gum, and there seems to be a lot more being burnt this year.
20
Fairfax’s AFR to take an objective look at Australia’s energy future???
2 Aug: Energy Matters: National Energy Summit attracts key stakeholders
Early bird bookings are open for a major national energy conference designed to tackle Australia’s energy crisis.
The inaugural AFR National Energy Summit is being organised by the Australian Financial Review in association with Deloitte.
It will explore Australia’s rich potential for solar power, wind and other renewables.
Speakers include Chief Scientist Alan Finkel and Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg. Both men will deliver keynote addresses.
What the AFR National Energy Summit is about
Summit discussions will centre on why Australia’s national electricity market struggles to adopt clean, renewable energy sources. These include commercial and residential initiatives in solar energy and solar battery storage…
Renewed increases in electricity and gas prices threaten to undermine our energy-intensive industries. However, a national carbon pricing scheme was scrapped before hitting its stride.
According to the Australian Financial Review, the summit aims to find common ground and restore stability to the national grid by integrating a renewable energy program…
Speakers include those from Australia’s regulatory bodies including:
◾ACCC
◾Australian Energy Regulator
◾Australian Energy Market Commission
◾Clean Energy Finance Corporation
Shadow Assistant Minister for Energy Pat Conroy, SA Premier Jay Weatherill and NSW Energy Minister Don Harwin will also attend.
The summit is at the Sofitel Wentworth Sydney from October 9-10, and early bird rates are available until August 31.
http://www.energymatters.com.au/renewable-news/national-energy-summit-has-big-name-speakers/
20
comment in moderation re Fairfax/AFR upcoming summit to push “renewables”.
1 Aug: LincolnshireToday: Westminster ‘policy bonfire’ blamed for collapse of Lincolnshire’s £89m renewables firm
By Steve Fisher
Lark Energy, now known as Renewables Solar (UK) Limited has appointed PFK Cooper Parry as its voluntary liquidator.
Other units formerly attached to Lark Energy names – Renewables Solar (UK) Commercial and Renewables Solar (UK) Construction – have also filed for liquidation citing the government’s solar policies as the key reason for the industry’s decline.
Lark has like many renewables companies in the UK suffered financially, following what the Renewable Energy Association refers to as ‘a Westminster policy bonfire’.
Figures from the Renewable Energy Association reveal the number of people employed within the UK’s solar supply chain fell by nearly 20% to 13,687 in 2015/16, having steadily grown to a high of 16,880 in the four previous years.
Tyrone Courtman, partner and head of PKF Cooper Parry’s business restructuring, recovery and insolvency services team, said: “Unfortunately, despite efforts to save the business, due to a severe lack of cash there was no other option but to place the company in creditors voluntary liquidation.
“Renewables Solar (UK) was a market leader in the renewable energy sector. However, unfortunately, like many other companies in the sector, it was a victim of the changes the government made to feed-in tariffs in 2015, which had a major impact on the industry…
“The company also suffered significant losses on a number of major projects as a result of the engaged sub-contractors failing to complete the necessary works by the agreed deadlines.”
At the time of the company’s collapse, creditors were owed £48.6m.
http://lincolnshiretoday.net/mag/westminster-policy-bonfire-blamed-collapse-lincolnshires-89m-renewables-firm/
distributed responsibility?
1 Aug: EnergyVoice: Scottish solar farms ‘still being maintained’ despite Lark Energy liquidation
by David McPhee
Two solar farms which were previously under the stewardship of the now defunct Lark Energy are still being maintained by a subsidiary of the company – Lark Energy Services.
The organisation who’s website described it as “an award-winning provider of commercial and utility scale renewable energy schemes” went into administration late last week and are believed to have run two solar farms in Dumfries and Galloway, but this would not be entirely confirmed by Lark Energy Services
A spokesperson for the company said: “You’ll appreciate from the Lark Energy side of things it’s in liquidation at the moment so I can’t really comment on that. But we are still maintaining the sites as Lark Energy Services, we’re obviously not Lark Energy, but as Lark Energy Services we are still maintaining these sites at the moment. It’s not something I can go into great detail on.”
It was announced last week that documents filed with Companies House last week indicated that a company formerly named Lark Energy (now Renewables Solar (UK) Limited) appointed PFK Cooper Parry as its voluntary liquidator. Yet little is known of the future fate of these Scottish sites.
Pressed on whether any physical jobs in Scotland had been lost due to the company going into liquidation, Lark Energy Services added:
***”There’s nobody actually on site at those farms. We monitor them remotely and if anything happens we send an engineer out to them. They are being maintained by a different company, the maintenance contracts are separate to the actual construction side. It’s the construction side that’s gone.”
https://www.energyvoice.com/otherenergy/146190/scottish-solar-farms-still-maintained-despite-lark-energy-liquidation/
40
1 Aug: FinancialPostCanada: Al Gore can’t deny that his climate crusade involves great suffering
Gore has to make the case that climate dangers warrant so much human misery
by Alex Epstein
(Alex Epstein is author of The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels and an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute)
As the most influential figure in the international climate conversation, Gore has a responsibility to give us the whole picture of fossil fuels’ impacts — both their benefits and the risks they pose to humans flourishing. Unfortunately, Gore has given us a deeply biased picture that completely ignores fossil fuels’ indispensable benefits and wildly exaggerates their impact on climate…
Take the rising dominance of solar and wind, which is used to paint supporters of fossil fuels as troglodytes, fools, and shills for Big Oil. The combined share of world energy consumption from renewables is all of two per cent. And it’s an expensive, unreliable, and therefore difficult-to-scale two per cent.
Because solar and wind are “unreliables,” they need to be backed up by reliable sources of power, usually fossil fuels, or sometimes non-carbon sources including nuclear and large-scale hydro power (all of which Gore and other environmentalists refuse to support). This is why every grid that incorporates significant solar and wind has more expensive electricity…
Stories about “100-per-cent renewable” locations like Georgetown, Tex. are not just anecdotal evidence, they are lies. The Texas grid from which Georgetown draws its electricity is comprised of 43.7 per cent natural gas, 28.8 per cent coal, 12 per cent nuclear, and only 15.6 per cent renewable. Using a virtue-signalling gimmick pioneered by Apple, Facebook, and Google, Georgetown pays its state utility to label its grid electricity “renewable” — even though it draws its power from that fossil-fuel heavy Texas grid — while tarring others on the grid as “non-renewable.”…
If we look at the overall trends instead of engaging in anecdotal manipulation we see that fossil fuel energy is the fastest-growing energy source in the world — still…READ ON
http://business.financialpost.com/opinion/al-gore-cant-deny-that-his-climate-crusade-involves-great-suffering/wcm/437f1ecb-cde9-41fc-abc7-a2484a1eaa00
80
I’m reminded of Allan Joyce’s comment when being interviewed about His airlines massive losses,
His comment was ” if we don’t make a profit we don’t pay any tax” absolute genius .
80
And South Australia wants to build Australia’s next fleet of submarines. They will need more than battery power for that.
40
Reprise: No Whyalla Wipeout
Update: Oh, yes it is.
40
Will the last person to leave South Australia please close the door? No need to turn off the lights.
100
Since the voters of SA seem to want to live as a third world nation, will their actions effect those outside SA? I.E., will the grid allow them to draw energy from other states which may cause the other states energy to cost more?
70
“1984” was not a novel but a future documentary.
Movie at https://youtu.be/ajWC_J-jgLc
70
Most people read “1984” as a warning. Progressive,Retards read it as a training manual.
00
The power crisis in Australia will be forestalled somewhat as extra power continues to be “liberated” due to the shutdown of industry.
At some point however, too little wealth will be produced due to no industrial production to service our massive $733+ billion government debt.
Then we become another Venezuela.
Creating expensive “green” electricity is one of the most effective weapons to destroy an economy, apart from the other weapon being used of importing some of the world’s most uneducated, unassimilable and violent people into civilised countries.
These are the twin weapons being used by the Left to destroy Western Civilisation.
130
It appears, in a variation upon an old saw, the the world has two kinds of people:
those that can learn from the folly of others and those that cannot.
SA, Venezuela, Illinois, the EU, California —
The folly of left wing governance is on full display.
It appear that a main consequence of the relatively peaceful and prosperous times we enjoyed
for a generation or two is to provide fodder for the political exploiters who wish to
tear same down in service to heaven knows what.
Somehow, Atlas Shrugged, 1984, Animal Farm, and other works of this ilk have morphed from cautionary to
predictive to explanatory, which is probably why they’re not read in schools any more.
In literature, recovery seems often to require a benign despot. They are in short supply, alas.
The sunlight of knowledge is our second choice.
At least we are still (except perhaps in NK and their ilk) communicating openly, rather than passing tattered tracts around
in the dead of night.
But there are formerly free countries where folks like JO are now being openly rounded up as “enemies of the state”.
The climate lefties often talk as if this is a goal of theirs. I do wonder about the continuing calls for civil discourse.
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2 Aug: Herald Sun: Terry McCrann: What Tesla’s mega-battery will do for customers in South Australia
THE boss of Glencore coal has indirectly put his finger on what mega-battery backup for our future power network will do for consumers — it’ll keep the lights on long enough for you to root around to find some candles.
But as for airconditioning in summer and heating in winter? Fuggedaboutit…READ ALL
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/business/terry-mccrann/what-teslas-megabattery-will-do-for-customers-in-south-australia/news-story/fa9ef59356432e19e25f0bd3644e313f
***what utter rubbish by The Advertiser:
2 Aug: Adelaide Advertiser Editorial: Why we must lift standards in our schools | Pitfalls of Power
Pitfalls of power
ENERGY security and affordability are among the most crucial issues facing the state and, for now, Premier Jay Weatherill has stolen the march on his Liberal opponents.
The unveiling yesterday of a key plank of his $550 million electricity plan – a long-term back-up power plant – cements the Labor strategy ahead of next March’s election.
***Coupled with the rock star power of tech entrepreneur Elon Musk’s giant battery to be built near Jamestown, the major parts of Mr Weatherill’s plan are politically saleable. ***This is regardless of whether or not they represent sound policy in this highly complex field.
But there are some key risks to Labor’s plan. Having trumpeted its scale and breadth, Mr Weatherill cannot afford for the state to be hit again with major blackouts this summer.
His cards are now on the table, so the Liberals might produce a credible alternative and market it properly.
Then again, a sceptical public might simply mark Labor down for presiding over a growing energy crisis since 2002, yet acting only after the statewide blackout last September.
http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/opinion/the-advertiser-editorial-august-2-2017-why-we-must-lift-standards-in-our-schools-pitfalls-of-power/news-story/c33675275e1dbc2a3d6dbb0532fcc3f8
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the weather page linked to by Farmerz has been updated since this comment was written, but you will still get the picture:
1 Aug: Zerohedge: Tyler Durden: Aussie Weather Bureau Busted For Tampering With Climate Data
(DAILY CALLER ARTICLE)
(LUMBERJACK LINKS TO THIS THREAD OF JO’S ON PAGE 1 OF COMMENTS)
(FROM PAGE 2 OF COMMENTS)
Farmerz: Exactly, I’m kind of a weather geek and this stuff frosts my ass, here is my current web forecast by NOAA, you can see 107 tomorrow, today was supposed to be 109. I got to 97 only today. These airport temps are total BS, shows 91 now, at 830pm ish. I got 83 at the house.
http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lon=-121.52798601074218&lat=39.21230547487073#.WYHBt5KQzcc
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-08-01/aussie-weather-bureau-busted-tampering-climate-data
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***read the entire letter at the link:
2 Aug: InsideClimateNews: EPA Science Integrity Panel Says Pruitt’s Climate Denial Is Permissible
A complaint was filed after Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency administrator said on CNBC that carbon dioxide isn’t a main cause of global warming.
By John H. Cushman Jr
(Jack Cushman is an editor and reporter for InsideClimate News. Before joining ICN, he worked for 35 years as a writer and editor in Washington, D.C., principally with the Washington bureau of The New York Times…He is the author of “Keystone and Beyond: Tar Sands and the National Interest in the Era of Climate Change.”)
An internal review by the Environmental Protection Agency has found that its administrator did not violate its scientific integrity policy when he contradicted a fundamental tenet of climate science by denying that carbon dioxide pollution is the principal agent of global warming.
The policy “explicitly protects differing opinions” held by any agency employee, including Administrator Scott Pruitt, on any matter of science informing agency policy decisions, said a review panel (***LINK) convened by the EPA’s Scientific Integrity Committee.
The panel addressed its finding to the Sierra Club, which had filed a complaint…
“The freedom to express one’s opinion about science is fundamental to EPA’s Scientific Integrity Policy even (and especially) when that point of view might be controversial,” wrote Thomas Sinks, an agency science official, in a letter to the Sierra Club.
In a caustic thread (LINK) dissecting the letter on Twitter, John Walke of the Natural Resources Defense Council called it a “gambit” designed to give Pruitt and other agency officials “the right to have wackadoodle beliefs tolerated as ‘opinion’.”…
In this setting, mainstream scientists are frustrated that it’s hard for them to get a hearing, and anxious that Pruitt is contemplating a “red-team, blue-team” scientific tug-of-war as a way of amplifying the kind of dubious claims he’s being challenged over.
In a letter about this notion sent to Pruitt on Monday, leaders of 16 scientific societies (LINK) cautioned that “the integrity of the scientific process cannot thrive when policymakers—regardless of party affiliation—use policy disagreements as a pretext to challenge scientific conclusions.”…
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/02082017/scott-pruitt-climate-denial-epa-scientific-integrity-complaint
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600 pages and a second review on its way!
1 Aug: Nature: Jeff Tollefson: Fears rise for US climate report as Trump officials take reins
Officials at the US Environmental Protection Agency are consulting global-warming sceptics as they weigh up a technical review.
A sweeping US government report on the state of climate-change science is nearing the finish line, but researchers who wrote it aren’t ready to relax just yet. Federal scientists have twice reviewed the roughly 600-page document — which examines everything from shifting weather patterns to rising sea levels — as have the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Just one hurdle remains, but it may be the highest: final sign-off by top officials in President Donald Trump’s administration, many of whom are sceptical of climate science…
Many climate scientists are particularly uneasy about the potential for interference by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), one of 13 agencies that must approve the science report before its expected release in November. EPA administrator Scott Pruitt, who rejects well-established climate science, has raised the possibility of organizing an adversarial ‘red team–blue team’ review of such research. And he has help from the Heartland Institute, a think tank in Chicago, Illinois, that promotes scepticism about climate change.
“We can’t allow science to be held hostage,” says Donald Wuebbles, a climate scientist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and co-chair of the report. “I’m hopeful it won’t get to that, because it would look really bad for the administration to fight this.”…
The message of the latest science report — that human-caused global warming poses urgent problems for the United States — isn’t likely to sit well with the White House…
“This is going to be the first big test in the climate arena,” says Tammy Dickinson, who led the energy and environment division at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) under president Barack Obama…
Agency scientists told Nature that climate change has become taboo in their discussions with EPA leadership. The fact that agency leaders have consulted with climate sceptics has only added to the confusion…
One EPA official, who asked for anonymity because of career concerns, provided Nature with two lists circulating among Pruitt’s team that seem to have been compiled by the Heartland Institute. One list, labelled “climate scientists”, contains the names of more than 140 people, including many climate sceptics; the second names several dozen climate economists.
The Heartland Institute would not comment on the documents, but a spokesman confirmed that Heartland has provided the EPA with names of people for a climate science ‘red team’…
Then there is the broader national climate assessment, which will delve into questions that have profound implications for government policy, such as how coastal communities should respond to rising seas. That document is expected to go out to federal agencies this month.
Pruitt will have to be careful how he handles both documents, says Kyla Bennett, a former EPA ecologist who now works for the watchdog group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility in North Easton, Massachusetts…
“The EPA is supposed to be using the best science out there,” she says. “They can’t just suddenly say the Earth is flat, CO2 is not a pollutant and coal is the best thing for the world.”
https://www.nature.com/news/fears-rise-for-us-climate-report-as-trump-officials-take-reins-1.22391
still pining for Obama; still can’t accept Trump won the election.
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forget the polar bears…
size matters:
2 Aug: Forbes: Jeff McMahon: Dogs, Cats And Climate Change: What’s Your Pet’s Carbon Pawprint?
When researchers set out to assess the impact of personal actions on climate change, they expected dog ownership to be a large source of greenhouse-gas emissions.
Dogs tend to eat meat, after all, and meat production is a major contributor of greenhouse gas emissions. By one estimate, it’s even the largest…
But Seth Wynes of Sweden’s Lund University and Kimberly A Nicholas of the University of British Columbia did not find conclusive evidence that dog ownership contributes substantially to climate change, relative to other lifestyle choices. And some side effects of dog ownership may mitigate dogs’ impact, they said, like the tendency of dogs to encourage low-carbon activities like walking and discourage high-carbon activities like airline flights…
“Further research in this area would be beneficial before making environmental recommendations about dog ownership to the public,” they write in the journal Environmental Research Letters. “Still, we would suggest with some confidence that a smaller dog is likely to have a smaller carbon footprint than a larger dog.”…
Using data from the Australia study, they calculated the Jack Russell causes the emissions of about 2o kilograms of carbon dioxide per year, 60 kg for the Labrador, and 90 kg for the St. Bernard.
But using the ASU study, they calculated the Jack Russell emits 600 kg, the Labrador 1.6 metric tons and the St. Bernard 2.3 tons…
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffmcmahon/2017/08/02/whats-your-dogs-carbon-pawprint/#6987decf13a6
1 Aug: Denver Post: CU Boulder team studies primates and climate change
By Monte Whaley
They are big-eyed and adorable and may hold the key to how primates can adapt to climate change.
At least that’s the hope of a University of Colorado-Boulder research team now studying African bushbabies, also known as galagos. CU Boulder professor Michelle Sauther and CU alumnus Frank Cuozzo are leading the examination of the bushbabies at a remote South African field site.
Specifically, they are interested in how the body sizes of the bushbabies may affect their ability to deal with challenging temperate environments. The small southern lesser galago can fit in a human’s hand while the greater thick-tailed galago is cat-sized and is much larger than its counterpart…
http://www.denverpost.com/2017/08/01/cu-boulder-team-studies-primates-climate-change/
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Politicians from cloud cuckoo land,
Through short-sighted folly have planned,
To shut factories down,
In city and town,
As a way to cut power demand.
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Back in the late 1980’s, I had a friend who was a “mover and shaker” in the Los Angeles area. She had gotten a request to make suggestions as to how to reduce air pollution. Since she was not a technical person, she asked me to comment. The request had an interesting restriction on the conditions of the suggestions to be made: economic impact was not to be a consideration while formulating the response.
That being the case, I thought it would be easy to eliminate air pollution: “Do not permit any energy to be consumed for transportation, industry, government, business, agricultural, or residential purposes.” With the elimination of the use of energy for any purpose, there could be no source of pollution thus clearly solving the problem. However, I declined to offer such a suggestion for fear it might be considered as a serious suggestion and be implemented.
Sadly, I now find that is exactly what is in process of being implemented in the name of saving the planet. It is madness beyond all conception of madness! Could my unspoken and uncommunicated thought have caused all this? If I had only known, I would have refused to read the document and thereby saved mankind and technological civilization in the process.
Unfortunately, no matter what I have thought AND communicated since then has failed to stop the process of deindustrialization. So maybe it is not all my fault. It is more likely that the cause is rampant stupidity, ignorance, and malignant purpose on the part of the people supporting and committing the acts of madness beyond madness. It is nothing but collective suicide – a long and painful one at that.
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So it’s all your fault then ,sarc off
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Why doesn’t Turnbull cancel the contract for submarines to be built in SA? That will save them even more power.
The next policy in SA will be for everyone left to turn out the lights when it gets dark. Mushrooms for politicians.
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But it won’t be renewable power, will it? As a result, will its opening attract warmy protestors?
If not though, how will we ever meet the RETs?
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The cure for global warmies is to shut down places that employ people ?
Come on Australia cut the crap .
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Victoria had an old power station called Hazelwood. After 53 years it closed but it was still capable of generating 1.4 GW. It could generate more energy than all the wind power stations together. When South Australia needs electricity from the Heywood interlink next will there be any power available? The labor government in South Australia that I hope so. Their survival probably depends on!
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