Someone needs to tell the Australian Energy Minister the bad news about batteries
Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen says we just need more renewables and more storage:
Bowen says we can store water, we should be able to store power
“You can say the wind doesn’t always blow and the sun doesn’t always shine. Well, the rain doesn’t always fall either but we managed to store the water,” Bowen said.
Chris Bowen isn’t having any of Uhlmann’s ‘wind doesn’t always blow’ rhetoric.
“the rain doesn’t always fall either, but we manage to store the water – we can store the renewable energy if we have the investment”#auspol pic.twitter.com/LjJkEr3zJy
— Squizz (@SquizzSTK) June 16, 2022
Is this Chris Bowen’s Zuma-numbers moment with electricity?
He doesn’t seem to realize that electrons won’t politely sit in a shoe box waiting for the day they run your toaster. When South Australia got the worlds biggest battery in 2017 everyone got excited but few realized it would only power the state for two whole minutes before it ran out. South Australia is just 6% of the total National Energy Market, but if we were trying to make it truly 100% renewable with a reasonable battery backup Paul Miskelly and Tom Quirk calculated we’d need 7.5 million tonnes of lead acid batteries and a spare $60 to $90 billion dollars.
In a recent “record winning moment” in solar and battery powered excitement one of the smallest and sunniest towns in Australia made headlines when it managed to run off 100% solar and battery power for a whole 80 minutes. Onslow is a metropolis of 847 people. As I said at the time, we’re only 520,000 minutes short of a year.
Last year one new Tesla Megabattery in Victoria caught fire soon after it started operating. Since it took 76 hours to stop the fire we can honestly say it burned for three times longer than it provided electricity.
That’s how ready we are to power a nation of 26 million people on solar and wind and big batteries
Storage can be more than batteries, but we’re already spending $10 billion plus on Snowy Hydro 2.0 — the giant renewables-storage scheme that will waste 20-30% of the renewable energy fed into it so we can make a non-despatchable generator into a partly-despatchable one.
Hydrogen is hardly the answer. As David Archibald says it’s is such a reactive gas that there is no source of it in nature. The only naturally occurring hydrogen is the flammable part of farts. Otherwise, the cheapest way of making hydrogen is a water shift reaction with natural gas. But about 60% of the energy contained by the natural gas is wasted in the process — if you just wanted a source of energy, obviously, you’d use the natural gas.
As a fuel, hydrogen has some big shortcomings. It’s has low energy density, so a big, high-pressure tank of the stuff doesn’t take you far. It has an explosive range in air of 18% to 60%. It causes embrittlement of steel. There is a plot at the moment to add hydrogen to the natural gas distribution system — which then might start leaking like a sieve. It has a colourless flame, so leaks that have caught fire can’t be seen. In the days before infrared cameras, workers at a rocket fuel factory in Texas used to detect hydrogen leaks by walking with a straw broom in front of them. When the broom caught fire they had found the leak.
— DAvid Archibald
There’s more information on why Hydrogen is not the answer either here, thanks To Rafe Champion.
Like a third world nation we’re rationing electricity in winter:
Last night hospitals were ordered to reduce electricity use and millions of people urged not to use basic appliances.
The potential for mass blackouts has increased with about 1800MW of coal-fired power not operating in Queensland and 1200MW of capacity offline in the states of NSW, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania.
The Tomago aluminium smelter in NSW, the country’s biggest electricity user, was also forced to cut production to reduce the chance of a blackout.
h/t Old Ozzie
Just because batterys work and are very effective in wrist watches, toothbrushes, portable radios, lawn mowers and the ubiquitous Mobyle Fone, that doesn’t mean that they can be upscaled to run our nation’s Electricity Grid; far from it.
At grid scale they are inefficient, dangerous, super expensive and leave a trail of Environmental damage that even the United Bloody Nations couldn’t jump over, or hide.
How did we fall so far?
Immediately post World War 2, Australia was poor but we had a structure, educational system, work ethic and industrial base that had enormous potential.
Most of us worked, studied and contributed to this rebound from the deprivation of war until, about 1970, a change in political mood was evident.
Politicians told us we had arrived, social security handouts replaced jobs and the great decline, crash? was on.
It’s obvious, in hindsight, that many of our politicians have taken an easy road, accepted gifts from foreigners, and shafted those who depended on them.
It’s not much consolation but the same damaging leadership is evident in the collapse of Once Great Britain, the EEU, USA and Canada.
Basically, the world which could “go to the Moon in 1969” has morphed into a sad, crapped out shadow of its former self.
We need vision and leaders to put this right.
Poor fella my country. Those sleeping in shop entry spaces, out in the open at night tell the story without speaking but our Leaders pretend not to see that? Really?
But, but; batteries will fix it, just Believe and it will be so!
KK
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Abracadabra…alakazzam…
Trying to store electricity by MAGIC.
It’s free you know.
(Just ignore the massive amounts of government subsidies needed).
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A rough calculation for South Oz says that batteries to cover 72 hours would be ONLY $115,200 million or 67+million per head of population.
Of course batteries will soon be more efficient, capable of holding more and much cheaper – I first heard that in 1985.
Of course those periods with little or no wind nor sun will be covered by Peaking plants burning gas or diesel, except under the Net Zero plan you cannot use them.
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I’m still waiting for Bill Shorten’s electric cars that fully charge in “8 to 10 minutes” that he claimed were already available in 2019.
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Surely he is referring to pumped hydro, though the context here doesn’t confirm that.
How does the energy loss with pumped hydro compare with lithium batteries?
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He had me imagining Sydney’s Warragamba Dam catchment holding 100 trillion Tesla power cell cylinders.
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Minister Bowen on ABC’s Q&A last night seemed to imply that you could go down to your local hardware store and buy a bundle of grid batteries that come fully charged, ready for use and they work just like the Energizer Bunny said. I think we have a new nick-name for him.
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Gold star to you for watching the ABC.
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I was hoping for a rational debate, but sadly the same old rhetoric that has caused this grid fragility remains. They know the problem, just won’t admit it. If they want to go down the renewables pathway, then Minister “Ënergizer” Bowen needs to start beating the battery drum as hard as he can.
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On rare occasions, I am able to engage with someone who is committed to ‘green’ energy. I then start to ask them some simple questions.
First, how large of a battery would you need to power your current house for 24 hours?
Now, understand, the ‘average’ (if there is such a thing) house in Casper, Wyoming, is 3 – 4 bedrooms, at least 2 baths, attached garage, and full of appliances; using very rough figures, it is close to 300 square metres of living space, although 400 is not common.
Also, most are at least two-level, with a finished cellar/basement, plus the main floor. And, of course, there are any number of 2 and 3 bedroom apartments.
As a very rough average, I tell them that to power that home for 24 hours, the battery would have to be something close to half the size of the home in which they dwell. The retort is that it is only on rare occasions that 24 hours is the necessity; a few hours is the ‘likely’ scenario.
Then I ask, does the battery supply AC or DC? At least half of the people have no clue. I explain that the battery, by itself, can only supply DC, so energy is lost converting DC to AC, to run their home.
Oh, didn’t know that … … …
Then, we discuss battery degradation. I ask them if they’ve ever changed the battery in their car/vehicle. I ask them how often they have had to change cell phones (the phone itself doesn’t stop working — — the battery will no longer accept a ‘charge’, and stops working, and one cannot swap out batteries in modern cell phones … … … ).
Oh, didn’t think of that … … …
And so on. Once some very obvious things are pointed out to the brainwashed non-thinkers, for some strange reason, batteries start to lose their ‘attraction’ as ‘green’ energy.
Just my half-pfennig’s worth of comment … … …
Vlad
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Not to mention the co2 ’emissions’ produced in mining, processing, manufacture, transport, installation and disposal of said batteries. Not so green if you spend a few seconds to think about it lol. Most people don’t think – just swallow what corrupt govts and their msm lackeys force feed them.
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How much more expensive would solar panels, wind turbines and batteries be if the had to be produced using green energy through every stage of the production process?
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They wouldn’t exist.
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Poor fella my country.
Labor Prime Minister summed up in 8 Min 01 Secs by Chris kenny
Albanese has ‘signed his political death warrant’
Sky News Australia 2.54M subscribers
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese signing a deal to prioritise “climate gestures” amid an energy crisis could be “signing his own political death warrant,” says Sky News host Chris Kenny.
Mr Albanese and Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen signed a letter to the United Nations promising to deliver cuts to Australia’s emissions by at least 43 per cent by 2030.
“So that’s it, rather than ensure you have enough electricity, no greenouts, and that your electricity is affordable,” Mr Kenny said.
“Albanese and Bowen, in the middle of an energy crisis, have bowed to the UN and promised to cut our emissions by even more.
“The political timing is unthinkable.”
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The sheeple (Australian voters) will go along with it. Critical thinking 101 is not part of the core curriculum. It’s more important to view Iggy Azalea’s latest Instagram post.
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Whoever Iggy Azalea is?
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Puppets to UN masters.
Dumb and dumber.
This economic suicide will destroy Australia.
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I’m having a fun debate with a greenie on Twitter who thinks that the whole Vivid festival is justified during a power crisis, because a single statue is apparently powered by a rotating group of little greenies legs furiously pumping on their bicycles and creating a staggering 1.2kwh, so therefore Vivid can be described as green and using renewable power.
He is quite proud of it. Also, Vivid brings in tourists and money, so if you can’t turn on your power at home, you’re just a big sook.
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Sounds like Sheppartons illumination festival held a few months back. Local rag bleating about how it was going to be green! I went, lights at night, no sign of green anywhere except the grass, but I find half a dozen dirty diesel generators supplying power for the music, the food vans and the illumination!
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Reminds me of that story about solar panels able to produce power at night. Yes, it’s true – but the amount of power is minute like about 50mW/metre square. I believe it’s similar to the Seebeck effect used in thermocouples.
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I think when looking at the incredible cost of any significant battery backup, one must remember that many governments think money can now be printed when needed. The consequences of this crazy move can be blamed on the Liberal Party, Russia, and Big Oil / Big Coal, depending on who is the culprit de jour at the ABC and other left-leaning media.
Battery farms the size of small countries aren’t utilities, they are futilities.
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Applicable to all countries, regions and grids. Trillions for Oz.
Breakthrough in U.S. grid storage estimating
By David Wojick
https://www.cfact.org/2022/06/16/breakthrough-in-u-s-grid-storage-estimating/
The beginning: “Regular readers know I have been writing about the astronomical cost of energy storage required to make solar and wind (SAW) power reliable. I have published some simple engineering analyses showing that short term intermittency, a few cloudy or low wind days, requires a huge amount of storage.
Now we have a wonderful analysis of the long term storage requirements for making solar and wind reliable. As expected the numbers are enormous. They are also precise.
The study is “The Cost of Net Zero Electrification of the U.S.A.” by engineer Ken Gregory. See https://blog.friendsofscience.org/2021/12/21/the-cost-of-net-zero-electrification-of-the-u-s-a/amp/.
As the title says, Gregory’s study focuses on net zero electrification, which is not my focus here. His very first step is to analyze what storage would be required to simply meet today’s electric power needs using SAW instead of fossil fuels. This simple analysis is the big breakthru.”
Lots more explanation in the article. He gets about 250,000,000 MWh, costing way more than our annual GNP. Completely impossible.
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From the Executive Summary of the friendsofscience article:
The total capital cost of electrification is herein estimated, using 2020 data, at US$433 trillion, or 20 times the U.S.A. 2019 gross domestic product.
That’s some A$48.0 trillion to achieve the same result in Australia (corrected for population differences and assuming all other things are equal).
And we think Labor’s NDIS was a piece of economic stupidity?
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I call it Aspirational Energy.
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The Future
Barry says:
June 17, 2022 at 8:29 am
Old and busted: Vaccine Passports
New hotness: Household Electricity Consumption linked to your MyGov / ServicesNSW/VIC App account.
– Want to fly overseas – sorry, your power usage has exceeded 1kWh/person/day
– Power usage too high, OK you must now work from home to pay off the debt in petrol MJ equivalent.
– Working from home? – no you can’t have the lights or heating on.
– Violating the Keeping You Safe from Carbon laws? – your employer must dismiss you for OHS safety violations.
Infrastructure is there. The model is there. All your fellow citizens will applaud as you are led to the electric chair for endangering their future health from carbon poisoning.
Remember, if your death saves just one koala, it will be worth it.
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Ask him for a cup of juice. Might be that not knowing the difference be water and electricity is what got us into this global mess.
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The average wholesale price of electricity in the US is about $60-$70/MWH. Australia could burn coal and produce electricity for about the same amount. So the next time someone tells you that fossil energy kills ask them how many people are killed each year by the $300/MWH Australian electric rates.
$70 US= about $100 Austrailian
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And the Why or hidden force behind all this ugliness;
https://joannenova.com.au/2022/06/global-woe-the-transition-has-stalled-the-world-is-using-more-fossil-fuels-than-ever/#comment-2558370
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You really do have to sit back in awe at the stratospheric level of smug-stupid so enthusiastically displayed by Australia’s new Non-Energy Minister (Minister for Greenouts?).
Good news for Australia though. This slow-moving trainwreck that has been coming for
yearsdecades has just installed the village idiot as Chief Engineer!Whoo whoo! Full steam ahead! Let’s not remind anyone that we never actually got around to building that bridge across that giant chasm we’re approaching.
What could possibly go wrong? Just keep wolfing down that taxpayer-funded, teal-flavoured champagne and caviar…it’ll be fine.
Eventually, well after we’ve finished sifting through the impending wreckage, we’re going to need to have two grids in Australia.
One for those that like cheap & reliable electricity, based on coal, gas, and nuclear; and one for those that prefer to signal their virtue by freezing (or sweltering) in the dark, clutching their pearls, and wagging their fingers at the recalcitrant unbelievers (aka the few remaining sane people) for not worshipping Gaia hard enough.
To be fair, that second grid should be relatively cheap to build and maintain, since just like the capability of “renewables” to provide cheap & reliable baseload at grid scale, it is entirely imaginary.
Won’t stop them from wasting a fortune (yours) on it though. Grifters gotta grift and the hogs gotta feed from the public trough – it’s what they do (if you let ’em).
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Terry >”You really do have to sit back in awe at the stratospheric level of smug-stupid so enthusiastically displayed by…[Bowen]”
I looked at the comments below the Squizz Tweet in the post.
Your observation doesn’t just apply to Bowen.
BTW, those are your compatriots. That must be discomforting?
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The Stupidity of Teals/Greens in Australia
Chris Bowen isn’t having any of Uhlmann’s ‘wind doesn’t always blow’ rhetoric.
“the rain doesn’t always fall either, but we manage to store the water – we can store the renewable energy if we have the investment”
(((hippocrates shrugged)))
@Goldy1970
·
19h
Replying to
@SquizzSTK
I enjoy seeing Chris Uhlman spoken to like this
SwissMama 🇨🇭 🌻🌻
@SwissMama06
·
19h
Me too 🥰
Show replies
SmudgeTheKitten
@BabyzSmudge
·
19h
Replying to
@SquizzSTK
Bloody good analogy. I’m keeping that.
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I took a look; we’re in really bad trouble with all those utterly gormless twits on twitter.
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You would think so wouldn’t you Richard, however any discomfort I might once have had was replaced by disdain many moons ago.
They can feel free to be stupid on their own time with their own money (and I would be content to live and let live).
While ever they’re trying to waste mine (both), they become the enemies of thought and reason and will be treated accordingly.
They are terrible human beings. Ironically, their behaviours have the opposite stated purpose. They’re lost – in every sense of the word.
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Please know that I’m not ragging on Australia. The US has a huge heaping share of idiots also. But someone could ask Bowen to find a battery that will run a farm tractor. Or maybe he thinks PV cells will do it. Here in the US, the other shoe is about to drop – and that shoe is a food shortage.
A Lehigh County farmer recently called Kyle Kotzmoyer and said something like “I’ve got a tractor hooked up to my corn planter out here, no diesel fuel, and I can’t afford to get any.”
Kotzmoyer, who recalled the conversation Tuesday, said he responded to the request for advice with a joke.
That’s about all he could do, he said, because the crushing reality of record diesel fuel prices is pushing farmers to the brink and may affect food availability.
https://www.mcall.com/news/pennsylvania/capitol-ideas/mc-nws-pa-hearing-inflation-farmers-20220614-d664grvihnfilakimt4wvcy6e4-story.html
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I’m with Bowen. Why don’t the stupid people just make cheaper and better batteries?
Why do geniuses like us have to do all the heavy lifting?
And, yes, I have heard of Poe’s law.
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It has been a long time coming then!
“It is a fact that the German War Department has advertised (10th April 1940) for an ersatz accumulator, to be constructed almost entirely from materials found within the Reich. A prize of RM 10,000 is offered and the competition closes on 1st January 1941”
R.V. Jones “Most Secret War”
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Why don’t the same stupid people just replace the battery hens sitting in parliaments around the country with something cheaper, better and smarter?
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When the LNP mentioned dams, the ALP/GREENS/ABC screamed, dams bad cause all the little animals will drown, now all of a sudden, ALP Bowen we can store water, dams good so let’s dam every river along the east coast of Australia.
The ALP will be the beginning of the end of reliable baseload power in Australia, California here we come. Buy a good generator Australia, you’ll need very soon.
It won’t be easy under Albanese.
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Sadly they banned home generators in California, as far as I remember.
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Albo, Bowen, and Labor are a perfect example of the Peter Principle in action. They are not qualified to run a corner bakery let alone the country.
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Bowen has no idea on electricity storage. There is only batteries or pumped hydro. Batteries are extremely expensive and useless for baseboard. Hydro is slightly less expensive but snowy 2 will not be operating until 2026. More likely 2027. My bet is we will be in a drought and it will be useless.
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duncanmsays:
June 17, 2022 at 7:20 am
Some sanity getting through in the comments on Rowe’s article (for once).
John
12 HOURS AGO
“Australia has not installed enough renewable energy quickly enough and has failed to provide enough storage for that energy” – so exactly what does that look like? Wouldn’t that take 20 years and a trillion dollars with still no certainty it would work? Where is the plan, the materials, the costings, the budget for this? It doesn’t exist because the truth about the stupid statement you just made is that the energy system everyone dreams about is exactly that – a dream – not reality. Nowhere in the world does that energy system exist. The biggest policy failure we have had is allowing the activists to prevent upkeep of our existing energy system until we proved the new fairytale energy system you aspire to actually works.
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Just on that “storage of water” comment by Chris Bowen. There was a press conference in Victoria a few years ago being led by one of the Labor government ministers – may have been Lily D’ Ambrosio. I think it was following Victoria’s rolling/ managed blackouts a few years ago. That happened on 24/1/19 during a heat wave and problems with some coal fired generators. The discussion in the presser progressed to the lack of availability of hydro electricity and why it couldn’t be used more in such circumstances. One brave journalist actually asked L D’O if the government had any plans to build new dams. The answer was ” We haven’t, because it’s not going to rain anymore” – or words to that effect. Chris Uhlmann might need to ask that question next time. Or maybe Andrew Bolt with his classic question about how much the earth’s temperature will change after we have implemented all these emission reduction strategies. Then, little Chrissy might get really browned off.
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Has anyone reminded Lily D’A lately about ‘it’s not going to rain anymore’?
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Biden stares down from Ukraine-economic ledge
Twin strategic and economic crises prompt search for a way out of Ukraine trap
The Biden Administration faces a double disaster after its Ukraine miscalculation, namely a US recession and a second strategic humiliation in the space of a year.
The United States economy is almost certainly in recession, while oil prices drive inflation that has cut workers’ real pay by about 6% year on year.
Washington’s earlier boasts of driving Putin from power, destroying Russia’s capacity to make war and halving the size of the Russian economy look ridiculous in retrospect.
The world economy is reeling from supply shocks in energy and food provoked by Western sanctions on Russia. Monetary policy can reduce inflation only by forcing consumers to stop buying, which forces retailers to liquidate inventory at lower prices and crushes demand for raw materials – a cure that is worse than the disease.
Russia meanwhile earned a record EUR 93 billion from energy exports during the first 100 days of the war, a Finnish study concluded. China and India, which refused to join G-7 sanctions against Russia, reportedly are buying oil at a $30 to $40 per barrel discount, while American and European consumers are paying the full price.
Energy prices have become the main driver of G-7 inflation. Changes in the oil price lagged by one to four months explain 70% of the monthly change in the CPI, according to an Asia Times study. The sensitivity of the US Consumer Price Index to the oil price, moreover, was about twice as high during the February 2020 to May 2022 period than it had beenduring the preceding fifteen years, the study shows.
US GDP contracted at a 1.9% annual rate during the first quarter. The surprise drop in May retail sales that was reported June 15 by the Commerce Department and the 14.4% month-on-month fall in US housing starts reported June 16 point to a second quarter of contraction – that is, a recession according to the standard criterion. That spells catastrophe for the Democrats in next November’s election.
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Fresh Demand for U.S. and E.U. to Transfer Wealth Through ‘Climate Reparations’
A call for a host of taxes on the U.S. and European nations designed to transfer wealth to economies confronting “the cost of drought, floods and superstorms made worse by rising temperatures” was renewed Wednesday at a U.N. climate conference in Germany.
If heeded, the so-called “loss and damage” demand will see prosperous, successful countries on the hook for billions of dollars for decades or even centuries to come.
The BBC reports poorer countries claim a promise they would be compensated for the damage done by richer countries’ emissions would be honoured this year. They now doubt new money to pay for the “impacts of climate change” they can’t adapt to would be set up.
Developing country participants say climate impacts on their countries are more severe than on the richer nations and they therefore should be at the end of significant funding transfers as per previous calls.
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Northern Beaches Council
Young people have “had their say”; here’s the issues they care about the most
1. Mental Health
2. Climate Change
With the growing threat of climate change exemplified by the increase in severe bushfires and floods in recent times, young people are understandably worried about what the future holds.
Students revealed large amounts of ecoanxiety within young people on the Northern Beaches as a result of the climate emergency.
Jess, 17, said that “There is no denying that our generation faces, and will continue to face, more exposure to world events than any other generation has before.
“Climate change is on our door. The effects are taking place now.”
The same sentiment was shared between all schools discussing this issue; we want to help.
Schools came up with a variety of creative initiatives to help fight climate change at their schools.
Initiatives included second-hand fashion stalls at lunch time, upgrading bins to be enclosed, and the development of an app where students from schools across the state can submit their environmental plans for other schools to be inspired by and incorporate others into their own schools.
According to the students however, the onus for climate action is still on the government.
Northern Beaches Council has developed the Protect. Create. Live Northern Beaches Environment and Climate Change Strategy 2040, and have been working to make the community more sustainable, including moving all Council sites to 100% renewable energy as of January 2021.
3. Teacher Shortages
4. Educational Discrepancy between Rural and Metro Schools
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Reads like a Union grievance pamphlet.
3. Teacher Shortages should be #1 (with a bullet), but not how they meant it. There is a very low probability that any of the respondents have actually met a teacher (which is not the same thing as what has occupied the space at the front of their classrooms, albeit probably quite intermittently, throughout their years of
educationindoctrination).3. is a direct cause of 1. Mental Health (eco-anxiety, amongst other maladies), which is in turn, a direct cause of 2.’Climate Change™’ (the hysteria, not a variable climate)
A generation, perhaps multiples, tutored (tortured?) in fear and ignorance, desperately unhappy, and without the tools to understand why nor the skills necessary to rectify the damage.
Many will be permanently lost but reality will rescue some; life has a way of teaching regardless of what is dictated by the narrative.
As our modern Dark Age recedes, if it does, hopefully they can recover some of what was stolen from them, and eventually hold the perpetrators to account.
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Is it any wonder the teals picked up so many woke votes?
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This is all about taking the middle class down a peg or two. Energy poverty…despite having hundreds of years worth of known coal deposits – insanity. All engineered by the davos crowd and implemented by our clueless fool uniparty politicians who want a seat at the table.
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That video of Chris Bowen. I can see it being used over and over in satire pieces. Just include all his ridiculous statements during his time as Immigration minister and it will be a doozy.
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Shouldn’t an “Energy Minister” be required to actually know things about Energy?
Perhaps a degree in Chemical, Mechanical, or Electrical, Engineering might be a requirement?
Possibly some experience in producing, transporting, or using energy ought be a feature?
How can anyone expect Success from an unqualified person?
Just asking.
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That would make just too much sense Lance! C’mon!
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Lance, unlike the US in Australia all ministers are drawn from only elected politicians. An honest mech eng etc practically can’t get elected now — not without a billionaire backer, a PR Team, or an honest media. If an engineer makes sense in a forest…
Bowen is being advised by activists in the AEMO / CSIRO / Chief Scientist / ANU. The lefties install these people to tell them lies, then they believe the lies and wonder why things fall apart.
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Ford Recalling ‘Mustang’ Mach-E Over Battery Issues
On Monday, Ford Motor Co. notified dealers that it would be issuing a stop-sale notice for the all-electric “Mustang” Mach-E. The note made mention that the high-voltage contacts on the battery could overheat and cause malfunctions — potentially causing the vehicle to lose power while in operation or even fail to start.
Considering how absolutely wicked battery fires can become, this was likely a prudent move on the part of Ford. Over the last several years, EVs have been getting some negative attention for fires related to charging or battery failures of late and Blue Oval is likely aware that any mishaps with the Mach-E will be amplified as a result. Nipping this in the bud immediately is wise. However, the resulting recall has defaulted to the industry standard solution of issuing a software update on the affected models.
While tweaking the software can help mitigate problems, manufacturers have started leaning on the strategy as a way to buy time until a more comprehensive hardware fix is developed. This may also be the situation with Ford, as it doesn’t even want dealers to demonstrate the Mach-E to potential customers and used capitalized letters to make that point. Transcripts of the dealer notice shared on the relevant Mach-E forums have likewise mentioned that parts pertaining to the subsequent recall were unavailable. However, the phrasing used by the automaker makes the assumed lack of any parts interchangeable with the planned software update a corporate spokesperson said should be available next month.
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The other bizarre thing that Bowen is given to saying is that nuclear is far and away the most expensive way of generating electricity. Can that possibly be true? How can nuclear be more expensive than properly firmed renewables? Especially if the firming is not allowed to use fossil fuels? And if all the subsidies and preferential treatment are taken into account?
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This “storage” mantra is the hot current lie.
REAL, transmissible electricity is almost always AC. In the Oz case the notional voltage goes to ZERO, 100 times second. To “store” in a “battery”, the AC juice has to be rectified and filtered before being shoved into that battery. It is thus USELESS (except in a perverse political sense), until “inverted” back to AC for transmission.
As one would expect, “Zeros” are easy to store. However, sine-wave voltages, in three phases; not so much.
The other beauty of AC is that, because of this rapid “zero-crossing” behaviour,”sparks” encountered in switches “self-extinguish”; as opposed to a DC spark which can extend for some time especially during opening of the contacts. This tends to “erode” the switch contacts, again, NOT a good thing.
It is almost as if all of the actual engineers and technicians in this field in this benighted dung heap of what used to be a vaguely sensible country, have been “silenced”. Perhaps many have gone, literally, to the “Dark Side”; either for the continuation of their income and/or the chance to to Hoover up some of the “spillage” that seems to be sloshing around. Fear and avarice are powerful motivators.
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“BIG BATTERIES” AINT BIG!
From the Energy Realists of Australia to 800 politicians from coast to coast last year.
See the list we started sending in March 2020.
THE ERA MISSION
We are not from the government but we are here to help. We have people with lifelong experience in the power industry and related disciplines to offer informed advice to politicians as an alternative to the instructions that they take from green bureaucrats, industry lobbies and the wreckers of radical environmentalism.
In Australia we are uniquely situated to demonstrate the futility of the rush to unreliable energy. We are leading the world in the rate of growth of our solar and wind facilities but we have crippling disadvantages in the race to net zero emissions..
We have system planners committed to decarbonization regardless of other considerations.
We have no nuclear power and there is strong resistance to it in the Labor Party and the Greens.
We are an island nation so we cannot run extension cords to neighbours. We cannot offload excess power some of the time and obtain extra power at other times when we are short.
We have serious and prolonged wind droughts, but they are invisible to the planners who work on the average delivery from intermittent systems.
Our new site (under construction)
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I heard a story about a solar farm in the NT exporting to a south Asian country, perhaps Singapore, via a submarine cable.
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Nonexistent solar farm and nonexistent submarine cable.
Said cable would have to cross a very active tectonic plate junction (earthquakes, volcanos etc). It would loose 5% power per 1,000km. on the way to Singapore (so 20%+ drop in revenue). Then the solar panels would have to be in the hot dry (desert) area inland, so needing lots of water to clean panels.
The “entrepreneurs” now claim they will put the solar farm in NW Western Australia and generate hydrogen. How they will get that to Singapore isn’t decided.
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Lol. Love it. When it was announced it was all a done deal just a matter of rolling your sleeves up. John Laws said to the story “I love this country”. Haha.
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Yes, it was in a fantasy anthology:).
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If Bonehead coould read he migh tfind this article interesting:
https://blog.friendsofscience.org/2021/12/21/the-cost-of-net-zero-electrification-of-the-u-s-a/.
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Wonder if Bowen ever went to the Glastonbury festival, thereby contributing to Lenny Henry’s observation, and while in the mosh pit looked back at the masses standing in the near darkness with their mobile phones above their heads waving the emoji of a candle as ColdPlay sang their ballad Yellow. Standing there with tears in his eyes, and who knows what in his system, he would have been moved to observe how all these people had mastered the art of storing candle power in their phones. Yes, just imagine Chris if we hooked up a few hundreds of thousands of these we could power a network of light houses all along the Australian coast and ensure safe passage for cruise ships, particularly those sailing near the Great Barrier Reef, that will bring tourists and boost the economy. Oh Chris the world is a better place because of you.
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Friday 2;35 pm. A beautiful day, there is literally no wind available in east Aus. LOL
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i can have millions of boxes of wind ready to be shipped at a moments notice.
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*if the price is right.
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I do NOT want to know what you have been eating !!
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Sounds like the promise of those x-ray glasses via mail order in the back of Archie comics circa 1979
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The batteries are a matter of faith. They have plenty of it.
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Jared Goldstein | One Nation Team
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has retained her seat in the Senate for a second consecutive term, pledging to hold the new Albanese government to account and work constructively to ensure it puts Australia and Australians first.
Senator Hanson thanked voters in Queensland for supporting her bid to represent them for another term.
“It has been a considerable challenge for One Nation to field more than 160 candidates in lower and upper house seats across Australia,” she said. “It would not have been possible without the great support from our members, supporters and volunteers.
“I thank Queenslanders for entrusting me to continue to represent them in Canberra, and I thank all those Australians who supported our party and lifted our national vote.
“I also congratulate Mr Albanese on Labor’s win. I’ve said in the past he probably wouldn’t make a good Prime Minister however I sincerely hope he proves me wrong.
“Australians need representation which puts them and their country first more than ever. The costs of living are skyrocketing. We have an energy crisis created by the major parties that One Nation has been warning about for many years. We’re in the middle of a housing crisis. We have significant security challenges. We have a new government seemingly all too ready and willing to sacrifice the Australian economy and countless Australian jobs on the altar of climate change.
“We need urgent reform to ensure multinationals operating in Australia pay their fair share of tax – I acknowledge and welcome Mr Albanese’s commitment to achieve this. We need to lower immigration to reduce demand for housing and catch up with our trailing infrastructure. We need more reform in our family law and child support systems. We need a Royal Commission into the management of the COVID-19 pandemic by Australian governments.
“One Nation will pursue these objectives in the interests of Australia and Australians. I look forward to the resumption of Parliament and getting to work.”
Kind regards,
Jared Goldstein
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Not a lot of brain cells there, marles isn’t far behind him, excuse the spelling and grammar I’m on the road at the moment.
The clowns moly have to look at when they started pushing and subsidising windmills and solar and compare that the price beforehand . Primary school stuff
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REPORTS: OPEC+ MISSES PRODUCTION GOALS AS BIDEN PREPARES TO BEG FOR OIL
and
COMER: BIDEN WANTS OIL AFTER DEMS IN CONGRESS URGED OIL COMPANIES TO CUT PRODUCTION
with
MACDONALD: JOE STILL FIGHTING IN COURT TO KEEP BAN ON OIL AND GAS LEASES
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Friday 5:26 pm. SA is 99% gas and diesel. NO wind.
NSW demand is way beyond production. Must be close to a blackout ? Power still on here.
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Teasing the RE loonies.
https://reneweconomy.com.au/kean-seizes-special-powers-over-coal-supplies-for-old-unreliable-bits-of-machinery/
Comment
At 6pm the sun is down and the wind is delivering 1% of the demand for power across the NEM.
The wind has been at drought level for the last 24 hours.
No conceivable amount of installed capacity will be enough under these conditions.
Calculate the amount of storage required to handle this situation.
Snowy2.0 may eventually be completed at immense financial and environmental cost but it will not fully replace a single coal station.
Batteries? Do some arithmetic on the capacity of batteries and number of Hornsdale equivalents required. The cost has bottomed out and is on the way up due to supply chain issues with lithium and other minerals.
These propositions are evidence-based, so what universe is Matt Kean living in?
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Have a look at Tuesday’s synoptic forecast. Lol. Textbook high pressure system over Australia.
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Bowen also thinks Labor won the election too. But we all know it was just that the Libs handed the election to Labor – 68% of the voters DIDN’T want a Labor government!
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Nature solved our battery problem a very long time ago. It developed a system to capture solar energy and store it underground for future use in gas, liquid or solid form — to be used any time or anywhere we want, in rain or shine or in windy or calm conditions.
We call this energy capture system, “photosynthesis”, and this battery, “fossil fuels”.
It’s not perfect but it’s superior to solar and/or wind, given today’s technology and economics.
See
Nature would never have thought that elements of humanity would look this gift horse in the mouth.
See https://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/09/02/batteries-from-the-carboniferous/
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Nice to hear from you Indur! (And a good point thank you).
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The Fantastically Strange Origin of Most Coal on Earth
Instead, trunks and branches would fall on top of each other, and the weight of all that heavy wood would eventually compress those trees into peat and then, over time, into coal. Had those bacteria been around devouring wood, they’d have broken carbon bonds, releasing carbon and oxygen into the air, but instead the carbon stayed in the wood.
We’re talking about a spectacular amount of carbon. Biochemist Nick Lane guesses that the rate of coal formation back then was 600 times the normal rate. Ward and Kirschvink say that 90 percent—yup, 90 percent!—of the coal we burn today (and the coal dust we see flying about Beijing and New Delhi) comes from that single geological period, the Carboniferous period.
That’s why it’s called “carboniferous”—because it produced so much carbon. “The Carboniferous period was the time of forest burial on a spectacular scale,” the writers say.
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Coal and gas should be called “organic power” henceforth. That would make their heads explode
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Thanks. Actually, I am a regular visitor to your site. Keep up the good work. It’s a breath of fresh air.
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Exactly backwards.
Note the cries for help from the erstwhile coal industry. They will remain only as long as there is a business case for them. And it’s getting down to where there are few left.
‘we just need more renewables and more storage’
And when you get it, the remaining coal plants – your savior in the current crisis – will be gone. Your energy sector will still be fully vulnerable of being becalmed, there will be no difference there, just your backup will be gone.
Wind/solar can never be more than supplemental.
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[…] You might think decades of incontrovertible evidence that renewables are not a viable replacement for dispatchable power should have an impact on political thinking. But Aussie Energy Minister Bowen thinks all you need to store electricity is a little money. “the rain doesn’t always fall either, but we manage to store the water – we can store the renewable energy if we have the investment” (h/t Jo Nova). […]
00
[…] You might think decades of incontrovertible evidence that renewables are not a viable replacement for dispatchable power should have an impact on political thinking. But Aussie Energy Minister Bowen thinks all you need to store electricity is a little money. “the rain doesn’t always fall either, but we manage to store the water – we can store the renewable energy if we have the investment” (h/t Jo Nova). […]
00
[…] You might think decades of incontrovertible evidence that renewables are not a viable replacement for dispatchable power should have an impact on political thinking. But Aussie Energy Minister Bowen thinks all you need to store electricity is a little money. “the rain doesn’t always fall either, but we manage to store the water – we can store the renewable energy if we have the investment” (h/t Jo Nova). […]
00
[…] You might think decades of incontrovertible evidence that renewables are not a viable replacement for dispatchable power should have an impact on political thinking. But Aussie Energy Minister Bowen thinks all you need to store electricity is a little money. “the rain doesn’t always fall either, but we manage to store the water – we can store the renewable energy if we have the investment” (h/t Jo Nova). […]
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