Rod Dreher, The American Conservative, pays close attention to a warning from Viktor Orban
Orban points out how the Energy-crisis is pulling Europe apart.
The decision on decommissioning the last nuclear power plants in Germany during a crisis makes no sense and the rest of Europe is being expected to make up for this folly, as well as the climate change obsession that put the EU into this crisis in the first place:
Europe’s Coming Big Freeze
Rod Dreher
Continent leaders preparing for winter rationing, shutdown of industries. Viktor Orban warned them
Hungarian PM Viktor Orban has been warning for months now that Europe’s unqualified support for Ukraine is unsustainable … In his controversial speech in Transylvania, the West stupidly obsessed over his unwise “mixed-race” remarks, but these observations about the war and the coming winter were spot on, and far more important:
In passing, I will say a few words about European values. Here, for example, is the latest proposal from the European Commission, which says that everyone must reduce their natural gas consumption by 15 per cent. I do not see how it will be enforced – although, as I understand it, the past shows us German know-how on that. Furthermore, if this does not produce the desired effect and someone does not have enough gas, it will be taken away from those who do have it. So what the European Commission is doing is not asking the Germans to reverse the shutdown of their last two or three nuclear power plants still in operation, which enable them to produce cheap energy: it is letting them close those power plants down. And if they run out of energy, in some way they will take gas from us who have it, because we have stored it up.
–Viktor Orban
This is exactly what the experts David Wallace-Wells [in the NYT ] say could happen: EU members turning on each other. This winter could see the breakup of the EU over this crisis.
What Orban is warning about in the final lines I quoted is the prospect of mass political instability, even civil unrest, if Europeans suffer power cuts this winter, and can’t keep warm — that, and if their economies collapse because governments have to ration energy, shutting down industries to keep civilians from freezing. This is not an abstract concern!
I was talking to someone the other day who told me that a lot of Europeans are not going to feel a bit sorry for the Germans, given how hard the Germans treated them in the 2008 debt crisis. Nobody made Germany shut down its nuclear power plants, and grow dependent on Russian gas. That was Merkel’s deal.
And from another story. Look at the turmoil and effort required to cope with the current gas prices. This is a 200 year old company struggling to work 3 out 4 weeks, shifting to rolling 24 hour schedules in a desperate attempt to squeeze more efficiency out of the system.
Aluminium foundry fights for survival in European gas crisis (Reuters)
…Gerd Roeders is reluctantly preparing for the temporary shutdown of his German aluminium foundry to survive Europe’s growing gas crunch. Roeders is hoping that by moving the 200-year-old plant to three weeks of 24-hour shifts followed by a one-week shutdown, he can maintain output while cutting his gas consumption. His bill has already more than doubled this year from last, he said, fearing it will triple or even quadruple in 2023. The plan will save the cost of gas needed to fire up the ovens every morning, Roeders calculates, even if it means paying staff at family-owned G.A. Roeders more to work night shifts. Survival for G.A. Roeders GmbH and Germany’s 600 other foundries, most of which are small-to-medium enterprises with less than 250 staff, will mean cost cuts and tough talks with customers. “We’re laying out our prices to customers and telling them they have to pay more,” 59-year-old Roeders told Reuters as workers prepared the plant for the first week of rest. “We can’t deliver parts if we invest and don’t earn anything back.”
h/t Stephen and to Scott friend of DA.
Foundries, gone. Smelters, going fast. I suppose brick kilns and anything involving furnaces are in the firing line too.
How long has domestic industry got before we are all supposed to be coding our way to prosperity? Unfortunately I must have missed the part where the government told us who the customer was that was buying all this code. It couldn’t have been industry, they’ll all be closed before the masses finish their mandated three week Tafe course.
610
And when people start starving and freezing … they’ll blame climate change.
330
Of course. Climate Change (TM) is to blame for everything.
140
They’ll try to blame Climate Change.
There’s still a chance that the plebs will tweak to them.
Our biggest trouble is that Putin holds the aces.
20
Not a problem, China will be help.
/sarc.
20
Dennis
One should always enquire as to direction when met with statements like that!
[In the direction of Sarc – Jo]
00
Another fine mess you greens have got us into, this could end in war.
550
Merkel was East Germany’s ‘Manchurian Candidate’. She along with the German Greens have done a very good job on the unified Germany for her Master’s. Now the Russian Federation.
Economic War does work.
210
Does she have an Australian relative whose surname is Bowen?
20
Conservatives and fellow rational thinkers keep making the mistake that there is “sense” or “logic” behind decisions of the Left.
Well there is, but not in the sense of doing anything good for the non-Elites.
The purpose is deliberate energy starvation (and soon, deliberate food starvation via the war against what the Left confusingly call “nitrogen” meaning nitrogenous fertilisers).
In turn, this is to weaken and ultimately destroy the West as we know it and it’s freedoms and high standard of living, ultimately bought down to us from The Enlightenment.
The Enlightenment values the Left seek to destroy are those such as ongoing progress, freedom of speech and action, rule of law, equal treatment under the law, individualism, liberty, tolerance of alternative ideas, reason and not dogma as the basis of decisions etc..
These are to be replaced by an Orwellian-like totalitarian society that is a dark combination of Nineteen Eighty Four and Animal Farm with we the serfs at the bottom and ruled over by greedy, corrupt all-knowing Elites.
You can see all the elements of this “utopian” socialist totalitarian society coming into place right now. And last century already saw the partial implementation of it under the National Socialists and International Socialists. Those previous attempts ultimately failed but with technology, sophisticated propaganda techniques and many operators furthering the cause through all institutions of society, it may succeed this time. See Rudi Dutschke’s 1967 plan of “the long march through the institutions” that gave it impetus.
671
I’m very serious in hoping that the whole of the EU grinds to halt & brings misery to the whole lot of them. Then maybe, just maybe we’ll see commonsense prevail. I’m not optimistic on that front. Hopefully the UK’s so called conservatives will pull the UK back from the prospects facing the EU. The USA….. well that lot seems doomed. Even if the Republicans win the mid terms they’re looking at at least 10 years to repair the Democrat/ Biden damage inflicted. That swamp is actually to big to drain without radical change. The brainwashed masses will never condone radical anything.
As for the so called “conservative” leadership here at home in Oz…………?
The current lot are actually weaker than the previous “Labor lite” mob. Both Federal & State
Governments. I’ll state the obvious again: NONE SO BLIND AS THOSE THAT WILL NOT SEE!!
442
“Governments. I’ll state the obvious again: NONE SO BLIND AS THOSE THAT WILL NOT SEE!!”
Others did –
“PUTIN BEGINS TO PICK APART THE EU.”
https://thepointman.wordpress.com/2022/07/29/putin-begins-to-pick-apart-the-eu/
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I agree, and dare I say it…. they will have to build back better.
90
But problem is… now there is no Marshall plan; the EU has no tit to suck further.
10
https://noconsensus.wordpress.com/2021/01/08/the-future-of-america/ Some here will have visited the Air Vent
during the time of the Climategate emails. Jeff Id was a recipient of the file, a must see blogger during this time.
Now active again.
51
I read last week that the EU is now treating the signing of a free trade agreement with Australia as a top priority, noting that earlier the EU appeared to be an impossible to achieve trading agreement task with so many differing demands and restrictions being presented by each member nation. Also Brexit was a factor and I understand the Commonwealth of Nations relationship with the UK.
Obviously the Russia and China military and trade issues and problems have forced the EU to reconsider and think about the safety in numbers that many trade and defence relationships secure?
100
Dennis:
Maybe they want coal and gas supplies?
90
Of course, among the trade issues and problems.
10
Let’s make sure they don’t get a “Howard Deal at cents / unit instead of $$$ per unit. As with the deal China was given!!!
We’ll need good negotiators on the trade deal as the EU will be looking for preference deals. They’ll never give us any preference so there’s no need for “sweetheart deals” for them. Also remember how the EEC/ EU treated Australia & NZ back in the 1970’s when They captured the UK!!!
This is business not a popularity contest so let’s hope our Minister of Trade knows what they’re about!!
30
” … noting that earlier the EU appeared to be an impossible to achieve trading agreement task with so many differing demands and restrictions being presented by each member nation …”
That is why it is (oxymoronically; or just plain moronically?) called “Union”…
20
When the ‘ends’ are immutable and core to the Left’s whole raison d’etre the ‘means’ they use will be whatever it takes…even war….and as they’ve shown us in the past…even the slaughter of more than 100 million innocent people in Marxism/Communism’s name.
The Left in Australia have had ‘reconstructing Australia’ as their main plank for many decades and to do that in the comprehensive way they intend….they must first destroy Australia.
Democrat America is now ensuring the collapse will be total…as they’re in the process of destroying the world’s lynch pin.
222
We saw what the Enlightenment looked like in action in 1793 during the French Revolution. The notion of political freedom under fair laws came from England, not the Continnent, and from the parliamentary side during its civil war a century earlier.
50
Anton:
They were objecting (i.e. opposed with force) to the idea of the Divine Right of Kings as espoused by James 1 (who knew when to compromise) and Charles 1 (who didn’t). Charles the second was very like the first Stuart but compromise was foreign to James 2, hence his departure. Even the grandson of James 2 couldn’t get enough support. It took many years before the aristocracy realised that it was the financiers who had the upper hand.
Now we have Financiers who believe in their Divine Right to rule.
11
The English Civil War was fought over two issues: Charles I’s religious policies (high church whereas Parliament was low church, at a time when the Church of England had an ecclesiastical monopoly by law), and Charles’ levying of taxes without parliamentary consent, thereby breaking centuries of precedent, his Coronation Oath, and his own word on the 1628 Petition of Right. Both sides escalated gradually and proved willing to fight. The first phase of the civil war ended in parliamentary victory, and the winners were happy to negotiate with Charles; ther was no thought of a Republic at that stage. But Charles negotiated with the Scots behind Parliament’s back, and fighting broke out again. Only after that was the aim to get rid of him, and for Parliament to install his son as king after they had just had had Charles executed would not have worked. So England got the ‘Commonwealth’. Those who ridicule the in-fighting among the Puritans in the 1650s should see how advanced their wishes were, in the ‘Putney debates’ of 1647.
40
The crisis is self inflicted. Shutting down reliable electricity generation and banning gas production was always going to end badly.
560
I don’t think that the EU or Germany will wake up until they see fighting in the streets.
That Germany still wants to close Nuclear plants at this critical time is way beyond any understanding and winter is coming on very soon.
But I’m sure the Putin team will be very happy and they’ll just have to fold their arms and enjoy the coming disaster(s).
How the Western world has become so stupid over this so called climate change fantasy is a complete mystery to most sensible people.
631
Perhaps Angela Merkel never really left East Germany…………..
521
It’s the culmination of the Long March through the institutions…the plan right out of Germany [and Italy]and the Frankfurt School….with special emphasis on controlling education at all levels….that and the fact that the moneymen of the world…with the behemoths at the apex and right down to the oligarchs now purchasing the government they want…see massive fortunes to be made[as if they didn’t already have enough]from the various instruments ..permits , offsets etc in carbon trading.
ALL of it’s about herding people and an elite having power over the rest of us…which is why they want our children institutionalized for indoctrination from the earliest years…months even.
The next generation has to be prepared and made to know that they’re totally dependent on big government…so they’ll be open to the ‘share’ economy where ‘U’ll own nothing’-and the elites will own everything…well-conditioned before aspiration..dreams and ambitions that require freedom kick in.
111
And Poland wanted to lease the last 3 remaining plants, to boost their supply of electricity this coming winter.
20
Germany, President Trump warned you EXACTLY what was going to happen if you relied upon Russian energy.
You laughed. His warning was hilarious was it?
Who’s laughing now?
See video https://youtu.be/FfJv9QYrlwg (29 sec)
523
low-energy nuclear reactions (LENR) will solve the energy crisis.
84
Such LENR technology is nowhere near commercialisation and may not ever become commercial.
Germany and Europe can have all the energy they need without reliance on Russia.
It’s the policies which are broken, not the technology.
403
Cold fusion (LENR) commercial breakthrough could END food and energy scarcity around the world
Thursday, July 21, 2022
Despite the persistent attempts… to crush the field of cold fusion, a commercial breakthrough has just been announced that marks a revolution for the future of our world. The Brillouin Energy Corp. has announced a breakthrough Hydrogen Hot Tube (HHT) Boiler System which uses solid-state low-energy nuclear reactions (LENR) to produce controlled excess heat through the fusion of hydrogen atoms into helium, releasing no emissions, no radiation and no “spent” radioactive fuel material like what we see in the nuclear power industry.
link
71
Might be interesting, but its commercial implementation is probably decades away. The ability to produce energy is already present in the EU, US , Asia and even Australia. 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.
282
correct. but at least 50% of the population has been brainwashed into thinking co2 aka ‘carbon’ is bad.
231
From the Brillouin press release (at link above):
“This technology has been independently tested or validated by several of the world’s leading nuclear scientists and laboratories. Brillouin Energy is ready now to enter into the next phase: commercialization,” said David Firshein, CFO of Brillouin Energy. “The HHT test system that we are demonstrating at ICCF24 is the first ever licensable system that is transportable—it can be packed up and shipped to potential OEM License Partners for further testing and evaluation. This is a crucial step toward solving today’s massive challenges of energy security…”
81
They always say that – “next step, commercialization”. That’s their way of suckering investors into to proceed it further.
110
Rosco
You heard about those “nuclear secrets” thyat Trump was supposed to be sitting on?
What’s the chance that he’s cracked cold fusion and “that bloke” wants his percentage?
23
Fusion is decades away. All Germany has to do is to turn its nuclear power stations on – today. Or were the Germans ideologically suicidal enough to blow up their nuclear power stations like South Australia blew up its coal-fired stations?
The western world is being run by green ideologues acting as useful idiots for a group of venal psychopaths. They are supported by the mainstream media which is supposed to help protect us against this lunacy. This is not a good situation.
71
Um, no. They won’t.
SRI evaluated that LENR system and came up with a COP of 1.6.
COP is effectively (EnergyTransferred / Energy Input) = COP.
A typical air source heat pump has a COP of 3 to 5 depending on outdoor temperature. Below about 0C to -5C, they crap out for heating.
A Heat Pump is better than the LENR at this point in time.
20
that was from 2017. looks to be a COP of 2.7 now.
“These experimental results of Brillouin Energy’s LENR prototype systems are collected using industry-standard calorimetry and have been verified by an independent third party, SRI International. Brillouin conducts frequent tests to measure their reactors’ heat and COP levels, which have been increasing steadily since the first major milestones were achieved in early 2018.”
and see chart at link
20
I won’t put my money there. There is no stock available.
00
‘low-energy nuclear reactions (LENR) will solve the energy crisis.
No it won’t. !
51
Is this how EEC dies? Hung by its own petard of Energy. Chaos will reign and the world will experience a catastrophic political change. On the plus side, it will be less attractive for rent-seekers and transients.
300
If it were the EEC the UK would still be in it. We objected to it growing way beyond its remit. I don’t see it disappearing and even though I dislike the bloc it would have a cataclysmic effect on the world if it collapsed.
They continually do stupid things in the EU but Germany had a far reaching effect on it through merkel who effectively steered it for years. She was way over rated and her dependence on Russian gas whilst closing down nuclear power stations is beyond stupid. Once the cold weather bites however we might find that suddenly the nuclear power stations reopen whilst coal fired power stations get fired up again
390
What would be cataclysmic? Surely it just removes another layer of useless government.
210
‘What would be cataclysmic?’
If the bloc crumbles, where does that leave NATO?
41
If the bloc crumbles, where does that take Putin?
00
Well. I’m sure he will be thinking ahead faster than Joe Biden.
10
Rick
The Eu is a trading bloc and a quasi state. To trade with it you need to follow its rules. Its currency is internationally traded. It is arguably the single largest trading bloc in the world. It attends such things as the G7 and climate talks in its own right. It is a major member of Nato and through france has a seat on the security council and is a nuclear power. Many people own property in the euro zone and travel there.
Its isn’t just another ‘layer of useless government.’ It would cause a major world wide security, financial and trade collapse if it were to disappear and cause rioting on a huge scale as people found their housing and shares backed by the Euro were worthless.
They even have their own embassies including one now in London. I dislike the EU and wished it had remained just the EEC but we have gone way beyond that since 1992 which is why I voted leave. We shouldn’t wish for its demise although a severe curtailment of their ambitions-especially relating to climate- would be good.
50
It is a “quasi-state” very careful to avoid any referendum.
00
“Its isn’t just another ‘layer of useless government.’ It would cause a major world wide security, financial and trade collapse if it were to disappear and cause rioting on a huge scale as people found their housing and shares backed by the Euro were worthless.”
Maybe they should have thought of that earlier?
10
The problem here is that highly trained energy workers won’t hang around when there is no viable working environment.
So the first problem is finding qualified staff. Best of luck with that.
That’s providing, like the Victorian Desalination plant, it has already been stripped of copper and other valuable items by thieves.
The alternative coding nonsense is nonsense.
As a long time Coder, I can tell you now there is no real money in it. Even large companies outsource to China, India or the Baltic states.
The assumption is that they can do it cheaper. The reality, as just one working example, is Microsoft.
Once the bulk of their coding went overseas, the first thing to get shut down was the Microsoft “Technet” service, then their Hardware and Software compatibility guides.
The Web pages and forums have limped along since 2013, but then they were shutdown in 2020.
The Microsoft “Technet” service was the “Reference” or the Bible of Microsoft support and service. You could look up the history of Microsoft products and the issues.
The Hardware and Software compatibility guides gave a list of all products that had been tested with Wintel products.
Now, the last thing left is a ridiculous Q@A forum. I’d give that a year or two.
Unfortunately, in all instances, the entire quality of the product, as well as it’s stability has gone backwards. No more quality Documentation, no more compatibility guides, no more “Reference” guide.
This problem isn’t restricted to Microsoft, and isn’t just restricted to Coding.
The entire Information Technology and related industrial Food Chain has gone backwards over the last thirty years.
So, even if they could find anybody willing to work in any EU Nuclear power plant, I could bet you Dollars to Doughnuts that the power source is going to be Diesel engines.
140
As Tonyb says, the EEC was fine. It was (and still is) a good idea.
The problem was lunatics wanting to turn it into a political organization/union.
The UK voted t go into the EEC. They were dragged into the EC against their will.
100
EU is run by socialists – with predictable results.
20
Penguinite – Under the CCP there is no plus side.
00
Now even Alan Kohler believes that Biden’s deceptive waste of another 400 billion $ for a guaranteed ZERO return is a clever thing to do?
Dumb comments from a dumb journalist about a super dumb leader of the USA. That sums it up.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2022/08/12/aussie-journalist-celebrates-president-bidens-climate-change-deception/
301
Items in brackets and bold are my additions to the Kholer comments.
141
Kholer has absolutely no idea about what he writes, when he is writing about the climate. I no longer read his articles, but go straight to the comments, which tear him apart.
131
Is he that clown that used to be on ‘Sniders’ when I used to watch it a decade ago.
10
I referred to him as that “graph” bloke. Don’t remember him on “sniders” but he was always on the the 3 letter acronym news at night. Would state something that sounded really clever and then produce a chart to prove it. Anyone who has worked with data knows graphs can be formatted any way you like to present the numbers as looking either really good or bad.
100
Back in the days of blackboards and chalk a friend used to refer to the drawing of a set of X and Y axes as a preparatory launch as
“SiroMark”.
One bloke got exceptional commendation because he did it left handed and backwards
00
Siromark being the “scourable” wool branding fluid developed by CSIRO
00
Alan Kohler’s an uber-rich Socialist of the first order….made huge money from the free market system but now wants it dead.
Kohler and Treasurer Chalmers seem to worship at the feet of Stiglitz….as do most Labor politicians.
Kohler and Stiglitz want an end to the free market and small government and want huge rises in income tax and regulation….and see CAGW , COVID and the Ukraine war providing their opportunity.
“Climate change will motivate most of the world towards a bigger role for government,’ explains Stiglitz.
Kohler bemoaned the fact that the advent of Hayek and Milton Friedman.. ‘led to 40 years of trust in free markets and private ownership, along with lower taxation.’
Kohler says, ‘All governments now face two great challenges, one easier than the other: First, how to re-engage in the regulation of private firms and even nationalisation, and second, how to pay for the expansion of the state that is now demanded.’
And so the moneymen of the world created a moral panic followed by mass hysteria based on lies so massive that only the power of big government, cloaked in Marxism’s sheep’s clothing of socialist fake compassion and care for the planet, could ensure the lies would take effect and the surrender to UN/EU by government, of our freedom and sovereignty-in response to foreign blackmail, could ensue.
41
From The Spectator August 13 2022
Norway announced this week that it could cut off supplies of electricity fed to Britain via the subsea interconnector opened last year because of low water levels in the reservoirs which feed its hydro-electric power stations.
And what happens if the EU – if it is still in existence – decides to punish the UK over the Ireland “border” and withhold electricity. At the present the UK is generating (just) enough electricity to be self sufficient, but WINTER IS COMING.
310
Norway needs electricity to supply its transport. So they have a clear choice – keep cars on the road or let Poms die in the cold. Reasonably certain which way they will respond.
210
Rick
Isn’t that a “One, Two, No choice there”?
31
Why would they care about Poms, they have a world to save.
32
That was my point. Although not sure about saving the world. Their wealth comes from oil. You could argue they are preparing for the day when the oil runs out.
70
AGAIN here’s the REAL DATA since 1990. In 1990 the world emitted about 22.7 billion tonnes of co2 and today that has increased to about 34.5 billion tonnes.
And the combined USA + EU co2 emissions have dropped by about 19% over the last 30 years.
Of course China, India and other developing countries’ co2 emissions have soared over that time.
Look up the data for yourselves and start to THINK about this very obvious con trick and fra-d.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_dioxide_emissions
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_dioxide_emissions#/media/File:World_fossil_carbon_dioxide_emissions_six_top_countries_and_confederations.png
140
What a disaster.
I take it the 200 year old foundry wasn’t an aluminium foundry 200 years ago.
71
began as a small workshop for tin casting — 1814
30
Germany is a sick country and there is no cure.
The sickness is terminal the damage was done long ago . .
281
A severe case of Merkelitis…….
220
They’ve been ‘Merkeled”.
50
Merkeypox.
40
“Germany is a sick country and there is no cure.”. Of course there’s a cure, but until German people elect someone else it probably isn’t going to happen. If they simply give carte blanche to their power grid operators to keep the power supply up no matter what, they could probably have a good start by Monday morning (well, maybe a bit longer if it takes time to restart nuclear power stations). Then leave the EU, and a few more things, but in some ways these are less important than getting the power going again.
30
Here’s another point that I’ve neglected to make about the “other countries'” co2 emissions since 1970.
Notice that since 1970 and 1990 the graph hardly deviates over the last 50 years or 30 years. It is almost a straight line.
Does anyone really think that will change over the next 20 to 30 years?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_dioxide_emissions#/media/File:World_fossil_carbon_dioxide_emissions_six_top_countries_and_confederations.png
120
That graph should be posted to every Australian politician, state and federal.
I suggest by snail mail as emails tend to be ignored and they get thousands of them.
I am assuming that a typical politician is capable of understanding a graph but that is highly questionable.
201
In Germany, the Bloomberg Energy and Commodities Newsletter has been tracking the Google searches for ” Brennholz”. Brennholz is German for firewood. They’ve charted those searches on a relative scale. For about 20 years the firewood search numbers had been bouncing around between 10-40 (on a 100 scale). For the last few months those searches are now peaking at that “100” mark.
140
https://blackout-news.de/en/news/firewood-theft-increases-massively/
Firewood – theft increases massively
April 30, 2022
Energy prices are rising, not only heating oil, natural gas and petrol are becoming more expensive, but also firewood. Now, firewood thefts are becoming more frequent in state forest enterprises. Several state-managed forest enterprises have registered an increase in wood thefts in recent months. The wood thieves are even taking whole logs out of the forests with trucks. The district foresters increasingly assume that the thefts are professionally planned.
SEE LINK FOR REST
141
There’ll be big money to be made selling good firewood until May 2023.
90
Meanwhile in Australia
OldOzzie says:
August 12, 2022 at 7:01 pm
Coal ditched from role in making energy grid reliable
Prospects of a longer-term role for coal-fired power have been eliminated, after energy ministers vowed to redesign electricity market changes aimed at guaranteeing enough reliable power as the grid moves to renewables.
Federal, state and territory energy leaders also agreed at a meeting on Friday in Canberra to fast-track critical transmission projects including Marinus, HumeLink and VNI West as part of a raft of measures aimed at easing energy prices and preparing for a decarbonised energy market.
After months of conjecture, the meeting dumped an Energy Security Board proposal developed after years of consultation for a so-called “capacity mechanism,” which critics said would artificially prolong the life of ageing coal-fired power.
Instead, the ministers have effectively split the question of how to ensure firming capacity across a grid increasingly reliant on intermittent wind and solar from the broader question of how to manage the end of the coal age.
“There is more than one way to skin a cat,” said one participant.
In a post-meeting statement, ministers said they would be “taking more active control of the work to ensure firming capacity is in place as the system evolves, and the best means to manage the risks of disorderly exit of coal generation.”
120
Seemingly contradicted by AlbaOverseasy
60
Surely you’re not comparing our esteemed leader with a way the yanks order their eggs, are you?
90
Probably what he does after a Thai Tug but Alba-Overseas-y
60
New PM Anthony Albanese is roasted on Have You Been Paying Attention? as comedian Marty Sheargold makes a lewd joke about him going for a massage after his election victory
or
Nine’s ACA reviving memories of Therapeutic Albo’s True Thai Massage booking. Happy Endings!
70
Ahh, the old ‘Thai body slide’, how come this didn’t appear on prime time during the election.
30
You reckon he’s done both sides then?
60
So they are ditching Australia’s Plan A put together by engineers who know how dire our reliable power situation is in favour of resorting to “skinning cats” – they have to catch them first. What are they thinking?
So here is a summary of the outcome of the energy Minister’s plan B, neatly summarised on this website by an individual who “operates the electric grid for a living”:
The link has the best summary of what lies ahead.
280
There we have the real story, direct from the horses mouth.
The second that AGL pull the fires from the last boiler at Liddell, the NSW govt should swoop in there with its stormtroopers and take control.
150
There is tremendous embedded knowledge in operating and maintaining a power station. Trying to run a station with storm trappers will not work. No one can turn a storm trooper into a power station engineer.
The skills to operate and maintain power stations is in decline in Australia. How many universities are training combustion engineers?
The University of Newcastle offers a degree in Renewable Energy Engineering:
https://www.newcastle.edu.au/degrees/bachelor-of-renewable-energy-engineering-honours
Their combustion lab is now focused on safely storing and buring hydrogen rather than coal combustion.
The rot is deep seated. The easy way to kill an industry is to starve it of human talent. Show me any kid in their last year at high school planning a career in a power station or a coal mine.
252
A friend of mine was a combustion engineer. He was the one they called in when they had real problems. He was always on a plane flying off to sort another problem.
He was still working part time, when chased, into his mid 70s. He is 86 now. I wonder if they found someone who could really replace him?
210
I’m not suggesting they run the place with anyone but the present operators, but perhaps deals have been done with the unions and jobs are promised elsewhere.
Coal fired station personnel should soon be a dime a dozen.
20
Experience shows that closing an industry does not lead to a pool of skilled workers waiting to return. They find something else, or gain skills at claiming welfare.
So my proposition is that in Australia and in Germany, once those coal stations are shut, the skills to run them are permanently lost.
10
AGL release their financial results for 2022 next week. It should make interesting reading.
60
Hydro and batteries will be the likely contenders for the new Federal sanctioned theft. I am waiting to see what is on offer for households. That is the fastest way to grow battery capacity because there are no direct environmental hurdles. Even converting power station sites to batteries will require EIS.
40
The scale of the change in generation type cannot be underestimated – it is huge and costly. There is little point in converting old power station sites into battery parks – the batteries and revised control systems have to be at the source of the wind/solar parks, and they need to be retrofitted with suitable control mechanisms to effectively manage the grid. Another snippet from this website:
A recurring theme – it can be done but it’ll cost money. I suspect that we don’t have the money, or more importantly, the time to achieve Albo’s legislated dream.
110
Not sure about that. The ESB graphs I believe clearly show their thinking, using OCGT gas as backup. It’s a much cheaper option.
10
The Grattan Institute hints at the huge scope of government subsidy in their report …100% approving and onside with Labor as they are …and with the Stiglitz &Kohler ‘big government’ moves of course.
https://grattan.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Next-industrial-revolution-Grattan-report.pdf
The whole shebang will be subsidized to the hilt…..every part of it…it has to be …otherwise no investors would take it on.
Subsidy’s a bit of a dirty word …so they say ‘incentivize’, ‘encourage’, ‘assist’, underwrite’ etc
AEMO’s ISPs wrap the massive spend up and flog it to us as ‘net benefit’.
It looks like being a virtual nationalization/socialization of industry in general because it seems unavoidable that not just our electricity bills but everything we buy and do will become unaffordable otherwise….just what Kohler and Stiglitz and followers apparently want.
60
A mob of dumb but excited cowboys…all whip ..no reins and no discernable knowledge.. comes to mind.
Simon Corbell’s a moneyman-former ACT politician with an Arts degree and Labor apparatchik on his resume ..apart from membership of Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project..a misnomer if ever there was one.
All the barrackers for these powerful dills are moneymen and vested interests.
There doesn’t seem to be a shred of knowledge amongst the lot of them about the reality of what they’re doing…just extreme hubris…no recognition that they’re not keeping up with the rest of the world …..they’re putting Australia out on a dangerous limb as the only nation on the face of the earth that they will force to be totally dependent for electricity…[that will be the driver of absolutely everything as never ever before] …on the vagaries of the weather.
There’s no acknowledgement that all of Australia’s trade competitors have multiple alternative options apart from wind and solar for electricity…nuclear…run of river hydro…biomass…and multiple interconnectors to neighbors with the same….whereas we have zero alternatives.
Even the props this mob are so vested in –batteries..pumped hydro…the Bass and Marinus Links….green hydrogen and green ammonia will be weather-dependent and under drought risk….because without coal or huge new investment in expensive gas storage and pipelines…..they all depend on wind and solar for recharge….or in the case of green hydrogen and ammonia… for the electrolysis and synthesis.
30
Ancient Wisdom
70
The Matt Kean disloyalty files.
The snake Matt Kean has only been the deputy Liberal Party leader for three days and the disloyalty has resumed.
Today he was speaking publicly to fellow idiot and Labor Party Federal Minister Chris Bowen, Snake Kean said:
“This is easily the most constructive & productive Energy Minister’s COAG that I’ve been involved with in my 4 years as NSW Energy Minister.
This is the first time we’re all on the same page.
To build a modern energy system that’s going to benefit consumers, benefit business, benefit the environment. And benefit our economy.”
He was praised by The Guardian – the website of the left.
Kean is a political snake like no other.
Of course, there are many other better words to describe him.
120
+42
If Malcolm Turnbull would just go away, taking all his pupils with him, NSW (and Australia) would be a better place. The damage that one person has done is beyond comprehension.
80
Mike
Re “Taking all his pupils with him”
Guess who gets a mention here?
https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2022/08/the-sociopath-stare-explained.html
10
“This is easily the most constructive & productive Energy Minister’s COAG that I’ve been involved with in my 4 years as NSW Energy Minister.
‘
This is the first time we’re all on the same page.’
That’s because the snake is in lockstep with all his leftard mates in the ALP.
90
Wouldn’t it be good if Matt Kean and some of these other climate cowboys were to be asked some questions by journalists on our behalf re coming disasters…and how they’d handle them without fossil fuels….like the whole NEM going black…which has already come close to happening.
They’re probably depending on inverters for frequency and black restart services that coal provides inherently…but last time I looked there were unsolved problems with that.
They also never acknowledge the facts of Australian weather…that for the last year the NEM’s been powered 72% by fossil fuel and ~18% by wind and solar….with billions spent already.
How will we ever afford the military spend we need in these dangerous times?
They seem to be chafing at the bit to stand over Australian landowners with their climate whip…backed by their ‘for good reason’…’just get on and do it’…’national significance’…’urgent’…essential’…excuses for bullying Australians…bringing them to heel for the total control this whole thing is going to licence.
40
OldOzzie says:
August 13, 2022 at 6:29 pm
The path to 43pc hinges on these three bets paying off
Beyond the ambitious statements and big numbers, this is where the decarbonisation rubber hits the road.
A decade from now, Australia’s economy will be in the midst of the most dramatic overhaul since at least the 1980s.
That’s if decisions made in coming months by the Albanese government, businesses and consumers successfully deliver a dramatic acceleration in decarbonisation.
With the Senate likely to back early next month a national target of cutting by 43 per cent greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, the clock is already ticking.
The emissions target is an absolute one, meaning Australia has promised the world that it will reduce national carbon and other gasses that contribute to climate change by about 440 million tonnes between now and the end of the decade.
Last year, total annual emissions were 488 million tonnes, which is about 20 per cent fewer than what the economy produced in 2005, which is the baseline year for Australia’s 2030 target.
Labor estimates that the shift by households and businesses to more renewable energy – driven largely by state and territory incentives and policies – should automatically extend that reduction to 30 per cent.
To get the rest of the way to 43 per cent, Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen is relying on three broad policy fronts to deliver the remaining 13 per cent reduction and put the country on course for even more ambitious cuts by 2035 and net zero by 2050.
– Safeguard mechanism
– Rewiring the nation
– Transport
– Hard-wiring climate targets
20
Think of an old style campfire cooking pot.
To be stable it has to have three legs
And if one breaks you get a disaster
20
AGAIN note the NOAA Mauna Loa DECADAL growth rate trends for co2 levels since 1990 have actually increased.
And also note that co2 levels have increased by over 2 ppm per YEAR since Paris COP in 2015.
https://gml.noaa.gov/ccgg/trends/gr.html
70
Which is a problem for TdeF’s CO2 Ocean Outgassing Theory. Sea Surface temperatures have been steady for years.
00
It’s not a theory. Simple and undeniable and fundamental physical chemistry.
CO2 and O2 and even H2O enter and leave the ocean all over 71% of the planet. The temperature at any one point like Mauna Loa is variable and where it is hotter than usual, blamed for the bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef, even if untrue. And the temperature at any one point is determined largely by the ocean currents.
The Indian Dipole is responsible for all the rain on the Eastern seaboard. Across a planet you have summer and winter, night and day bu the temperature of the deep ocean is unaffected. What matters are the ocean currents as they surface and submerge, huge heat transfer engines.
Consider rain as an example of outgassing with which we are all very familiar. Converting from liquid to gas as evaporation, taking excess solar heat and travelling around the world as clouds to drop rain half a world away. A huge transfer of gas in and out and of surface heat, which is why it happens.
We live in a world moderated entirely by evaporated water and the same process is true for all gases. It rains every afternoon in Singapore, a very local fast cycle. This is outgassing we can see. Other rain is dependent on air transfer, which is why we can have droughts. Ocean currents also determine the clear cycle across the vast Pacific where drought in California or Chile is anticyclical with drought in Australia.
Even the warmist CSIRO will talk of CO2 sinks and sources. But the almost straight line variation of CO2, completely oblivious to any world events or human activity is an integral of all such surface temperature variations and averages move much more slowly. Than air temperature. We experience that every day. It is not air temperature which determines the transfer but water surface temperature at the boundary and changes far more slowly. For the average transfer of CO2, consider averaging the amount of rain which fell around the globe from pole to pole. It is that scale of problem.
So to get the total exchange of CO2 over a year you need to integrate CO2 in and out over all sinks and sources, like the average amount of rain around the world. You will find that is remarkably stable and will increase as world average sea surfaces increase. And in the CO2 graph you can see the seasons clearly, but no evidence of bushfires or the huge shutdown of transport in the pandemic. Car and trains and ships and planes and coal power stations just don’t matter.
Steady CO2 growth with alleged Global Warming is self evident. What is opportunistic is that man made Global Warming people that the odd conclusion that CO2 itself causes the warming, not that warming causes CO2 which is far more likely. And the key postulation of global warming ‘science’ is that CO2 is an exception to the evaporation cycle, that CO2 from the deep ocean is not involved, which unproven theory increases the relative importance of human CO2. And every geologist would disagree with that as they look for traces of CO2 from the ocean floor in the hunt for trapped oil and gas.
Basically warming increases aerial CO2. It’s obvious. The flat beer effect. And if anyone bothered to add up all the rain across the world, they would find that increased water surface warming also increased total rainfall in line with increased CO2 and also increased world greening. But both NASA and the CSIRO agree on a 14% greening since 1990. And no one understands the profound conclusion that the nett zero is ridiculous based on a childish view of a world without equilibrium.
What humans do does not matter a jot on a planetary scale. The truly tiny amounts of CO2 and H2O from fossil fuel have no consequences. And the hypocrisy of Australians mining coal, iron ore and even growing wheat is profound. World class NIMBYism which makes Green Dr. Bob Brown’s stand against windmills consistent.
40
And no one argues that the other gas from combustion, human or internal, changes the total amount of H2O, water in the world. Or the amount of rain.
In actual fact it really does increase total world H2O.
But that’s a ludicrous idea when you consider the vast amount of water in the oceans or even in the air already. Laughable.
It is equally laughable that the tiny amount of new CO2 released from fossil fuel combustion has any impact on the vast amount of CO2 dissolved in the ocean.
But this idea of a very limited CO2 biosystem which excludes th ocean is driving the shutdown of our modern energy hungry world, smelting of metals, production of fertilizer, quality of life. All fake science for huge profits and military and political purposes. Nothing to do with saving the planet.
30
What you are seeing is almost a straight line. And the seasonal variations.
The breakdown into smaller units is silly as that is like plotting rainfall at any one location on any one day. It is meaningless on a planetary scale. And I cannot see that sea temperatures around Hawaii are any indicator of sea temperatures at any other location where over 80% of all the planet surface is water or ice.
30
Europeans have big feet and rarely even miss shooting them.
201
I remember my history teacher at school back in the late 70s (Jesuit school) telling us that all civilisations rise and fall by virtue of their own success, and that western civilisation would be no different. I didn’t believe him at the time, because I thought that our education system, culture and system of government and law and order would ensure we would avoid the pitfall of laziness, complacency and cultural decline. Today, we can all see what’s happening and we know why it’s happening, but we are powerless to stop it from happening. Our history (if it’s not erased) will tell those in the future about the great rising of the Europeans and their vast discoveries in science and medicine and the mastery of engineering and the arts, along with the wealth, prosperity and focus on personal freedom, tied together by christian values. It will also tell how this great civilisation pushed back the forces of evil, which were the dictators that brought death and suffering to millions, but where the west created hope for those without freedom as a place to flee for a new life.
However, the main part of our story in history will not be about greatness, but about how we destroyed everything that was great by allowing the enemies from within to erode our great culture by indoctrinating our youth with new divisive and flawed ideology, replacing logic and reasoning, and ultimately allowing the global forces of evil to prevail without even landing a blow. Once the west has gone the entire world will become a new iiving hell, lead by the tyrants and the remaining people used as slaves in the new world order to enrich the lives of the ruling elites, returning us the the dark ages of the past. All hope will be lost to those living under persecution, with no safe haven to flee for a new life of hope as a refugee.
The worst part about this story is living the experience and watching the collapse, seeing the glee on the faces of Xi and Putin, who know that the keys to all the wealth and power on earth will soon be theirs and all they have to do is stand back and watch, but even worse is seeing the faces from within our own societies cheering for our demise and the success of the other team :(.
262
Serge,
Yeah, I was also trained by the Jesuits. History is your guide. Those that fail to study history, and avoid it’s mistakes, repeat them.
The assumption is that China and Russia will overcome all and rule the West. If History and their current circumstances are any guide, the opposite is true.
Civilization collapses, the Barbarians and Warlords arise. Technology and advanced Social structures return to pre-medieval levels.
Consider this.
China is Broke, flat busted broke. It’s biggest Dam, the three Gorges, is in Danger of collapse, has been for years.
That means Western China and most of it’s industrial base is under water, overnight. That’s a Nation killer event.
The Chinese Housing and Commercial building Market is Bankrupt, their Military is costing China a fortune. Even if they invaded Taiwan, South Korea and Japan, with their three Aircraft carriers, they won’t get much.
Taiwan is Nuclear armed. As is India.
As for Russia, once the EU collapses, they will close and arm their borders. Russia go’s along to get along with China, their aren’t mates, they never have been.
Russia also hasn’t got the resources, or the will, to march into Europe and fight the starving masses, much less, feed them. What would be the tactical point?
A better strategy is to let them die off to manageable level, first.
As for China, the Taiwanese people and their Government have already made it clear that they will turn Beijing into a crater that will glow for a thousand years.
India has already made it clear that any “belligerence” from China will be met with severe (Nuclear) consequences.
Should China, by some miracle, manage to dodge the outcome of a bad war on three fronts, the whole problem with “seizing” Technology and related assets is it’s people based.
Historically, Mass killings under communist regimes target those that won’t comply with their nonsense, which basically describes all of your skilled workforce, trained and skilled management, agriculturists, any “Non Compliant” Police or Military and the well educated class.
No smart people to make things, grow things, manage things, or keep Law, order or the peace of the nation.
There goes the Middle Kingdom. The implosion would look like the French Revolution, on a bad day.
Interestingly enough, both the collapse of Rome and the French Revolution pushed civilization back centuries.
This is our global future, unless we get a Benevolent Western dictator. However, in all circumstances, life will become ugly, brutal and short for all concerned.
132
I hope you are right, after the address to the Press Club Luncheon by Chinas Ambassador to OZ, we are in no illusion as to what Chinas plan is regards Taiwan.
I’m sure the US could station a few subs in the Western Pacific with nukes targeted on Beijing, Shanghai and the 3 Gorges, with the threat that if China harms one hair on the head of a Taiwanese, they will become a smoking ruin.
41
I recently (this year) saw a doco where this travel writer and his obligatory Chinese ‘escort’ were standing on the main wall of the 3 Gorges dam, he loudly exclaimed to the guide, ‘did you feel that, the wall moved’, not, the ground vibrated or hummed or buzzed, but ‘it MOVED’.
30
China has 1.5B people and a standing army bigger than the population of our entire country. The will soon have the world’s biggest navy and airforce, as well as ground force and in a world with a collapsed, impotent and divided west, where the marxist forces are focused internally on ridding conservative voices, China will prevail without resistance.
21
China is completely hopeless and their military is useless.
00
Smart meter users could be moved to ‘pay-as-you-go’ if they cancel direct debits
Households with smart meters could find themselves moved onto prepayment plans without their consent if they refuse to pay their energy bills.
A growing movement to shun rising energy bills in the autumn has gathered momentum, however, participants could find themselves forced to pay for energy up front within weeks.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/consumer-affairs/smart-meter-users-could-moved-prepayment-plans-dont-pay-bills/
Use 12ft.io for paywall..
90
The old ‘coin in the slot’ meter used to work well in the UK, people who can’t afford their power bills can use power ‘hand to mouth’ as they need it/can afford it, it will be in multiples of normal cost though.
80
I remember a British b&b in the 70s where a coin in the slot was required for a hot/warm shower.
80
ozfred,I lived in a boarding house in Newfarm,Brisbane over 50 years ago and the showers were coin in the slot jobs. 5 cents got a quick shower, 10 cents for a good shampoo shower (long hair days).
110
Meanwhile in Oz all shades of our political class are poncing down the Euro pathway laughing as they go. And Big Bad Ping is grinning ear to ear.
61
All this misery to come driven by one crazy, ridiculous, anti science idea that Carbon Dioxide is not in world wide rapid and massive equilibrium between the vast oceans and the thin sky above. It is against all reason and science. Fish breathe!
We are told that whatever CO2 comes out of cars or people or cows or fuel is stuck in the air forever. And this is before you get to the conjecture that it produces warming and then that the seas will rise and drown cities and the world will explode. It makes Chicken Little seem quite reasonable. 34 years of the Sky is falling! When?
The latest incarnation of this insanity, Nett zero is the idea that CO2 increases with fossil fuels and CO2 decreases if you grow trees. But even NASA has released statements that green cover has increased dramatically, exactly in line with increased CO2. So CO2 is quite independent of trees and even better, you get more CO2 and you get more trees and more food. CO2 is fantastic. If we were really able to set CO2 levels, we would dial up much more. Dinosaurs lived in a luxuriant, prolific world, not our deserts.
We are past Druidic superstition, total science ignorance, fantasy. This is an existential attack by the United Nations itself. After all in a time of relative peace, what else do the 40,000 overpaid and useless employees of the UN dream about? World domination, a one world government and to solve the world’s problems by eliminating all the people. As do the EU, the World Economic Forum and the Chinese Communist Party.
The Wuhan bioweapon was fully supported by the UN/WHO, an organization whose sole purpose was to stop a deadly contagion and yet Tedros Adhonem declared it was not infectious. How is he not before the International Court of Justice in the Hague. And his friends including Dr. Fauci, one of the sponsors of this dealing in death worldwide.
And worst of all, the misery and disruption and hardship is utterly unnecessary. It seems for all our advances, we still have to learn from our mistakes. And I put that down to science worship and science ignorance and the compliant silence of government scientists. Who would have thought predicting the weather badly was worth $1.5Trillion a year?
201
There is absolutely no money in being a Climate Change denier. So why state the obvious?
It’s not true.
None of it.
Can we please have our power stations back?
101
We would not have water without the same equilibrium between ocean and sky, between water the liquid in the vast oceans and as gas from overheating of the surface, falling as rain in cooler areas. The most dramatic being the monsoons but all rain is evaporation, evidence of the equilibrium of another gas, water. The same mechanism as for Oxygen and Carbon Dioxide. Warm the surface and they come out. Cool it and they are absorbed. But not according to the United Nations.
80
TdeF:
There is also the change in the albedo as more of the sun’s energy is absorbed by greenery.
So with ‘orthodox climatology’ that means less energy being absorbed by CO2 and reflected back towards the earth; thus the failure of the models is ‘explained’. That they are crap doesn’t stop the (intellectually deficient) from believing that, so I won’t bring it up elsewhere.
For out of date and not very useful info see
https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/84499/measuring-earths-albedo
Unfortunately CO2 has very little, if any, warming effect so when the next (little or full) Ice Age comes, it will be just as cold. The extra CO2 might help food yields, but mostly help with the next interglacial.
31
There are many small effects which can alter surface temperatures but the dominant control of surface temperature is solar radiation and the ocean surface temperature which is also controlled by the ocean currents. The oceans heat all the time and radiate little, so their only way of letting off steam is evaporation. Which is great for us.
But my point is not whether CO2 warms the planet in any meaningful way, but the core proposition that ‘man made’ CO2 is special. And stays in the atmosphere for ‘thousands of years’ in one IPCC report. In other places, an average residency of 80 years which is used as a sort of standard for all alleged ‘hot house’ gas. Which is amazing pseudo science because it is quite absurd. People have known the residency is closer to 5 years for a very long time. It took the IPCC to argue otherwise, without any evidence at all.
And without the ability to control CO2, up or down, why are we shutting power stations? We are irrelevant, tiny. What happens to CO2 and global temperatures is entirely outside our control. But as was said recently, once people stop believing in God, they are prepared to believe everything and anything.
I find not one part of the long chain of logic to be true. And Climate Change is so nebulous a concept as to be useless.
71
This is the controlled demolition of Western industrial civilization by the demonic forces of global Marxism.
I mean, what other explanation is there?
71
I have 2 spare bedrooms and electricity is inexpensive. However, I do live 8,000 km from Germany. If a nice family of 4 would like to spend the winter here, perhaps a deal could be agreed upon. Likely a second vehicle would be needed. I have red wine and onions — bring rump roast and lots of cash.
Seriously, I suspect there are many homes in North America with extra room.
70
The Weekend Australian as usual is full of greenista silliness and this time it even reaches motoring writer John Connolly’s column, who is not as smart as he thinks he is. (A Kia is as well-built as a Japanese car? Really, John?) Connolly thinks the transition to EVs is inevitable and that the motor industry is stupid to resist it. Thus Connolly trash talks Toyota for one who has not signed the UN pledge to eliminate all ICE vehicle production by 2040. How about the UN, who have never manufactured a car in its shabby life, stay out of Toyota’s business. Hmmm?
41
Why don’t they take advice from Albanese Labor Australia and increase renewable energy wind and solar installations, apparently the more installed the lower the electricity prices become and with more reliability of supply.
/sarc.
100
Germany is already ahead of Australia in that regard. This is where Australia is heading. Down a very slippery slope………….
60
They already have comfortably enough wind and solar installations – the capacity figures show that. All they need to do is to crank them up a bit when there’s more demand. I wonder why the politicians never wonder about that. It’s a form of corruption on a mega scale.
70
It has now been realised that anywhere in Europe that is depending on hydro power is going to be very disappointed very soon, as lakes and reservoirs run dry during the ongoing drought and heatwave.
70
Yes, and if you just build enough solar panels covering the country they’ll start to work at night.
40
Famously they did in Spain with the generous feed in tariffs, chug chug chug chug chug.
20
Solardiesel, LOL
30
Germany has been dirt poor before. They can go through it again, just as a reminder, because they obviously didn’t learn from the previous two times.
Merkel made two very pointless snap decisions, probably thinking that she’d be lauded with Nobel Peace Prizes for each.
60
The Nobel Peace Prize has long been tarnished by its previous recipients.
60
Also, Germany subsidises the Mediterranean countries via the Euro currency. The latter pay via unfavourable exchange rates. When Germany can no longer afford to do this, the Euro currency breaks up triggering a banking crisis. Interesting times ahead.
30
Aluminium is basically “frozen electricity”.
It had been “discussed” for ages before it was finally isolated and described as a metal in around 1825.
The refinement process was slow and expensive. As time went on, some adventurous types theorized that using that new-fangled electricity stuff might be handy in such activities.
However, it took a LONG time to get to the point where the price of Aluminium dropped below that of Platnum.
Just in time for the new Century, replete with TWO World wars and a couple of significant scientific discoveries, refining Aluminium in bulk became a reality. See also; “All-Metal Aircraft”.
However, enjoy those last aluminium cans of beer and “cheap” flights to Bali while you can, so to speak.
Without affordable electricity, the Age of Aluminium is OVER; no more refining, no more recycling..
Consider the ramifications of the extinction of an epoch-changing lightweight and incredibly versatile metal.
Don’t get mad; get THINKING.
90
Beer cans and Boeings are going to be worth gold.
10
A History of the Aluminum Cap of the Washington Monument
https://www.tms.org/pubs/journals/jom/9511/binczewski-9511.html
Because Al was expensive it was chosen for the cap of the tower.
20
Here’s my prediction: Europe will survive. Whereas Russia and China are heading down the gurgler. Bank of China is blocking access to customer’s bank accounts now. Uh oh.
40
For at least a decade Australia has been discussing a free trade agreeement with the EU for all member nations but the expectations and demands nation by nation had become complicated and even unrealistic so progress had slowed almost to a stop.
Now the EU wants to proceed and as identified in earlier comments coal and gas supply would have to be a major consideration for the renewed interest.
Wait for Albanese Labor to claim credit for revival of the trade agreement discussions.
20
And let’s be wary about trade conditions including Australia adopting EU Standards completely, noting that Mitsubishi has recently announced no intention to introduce UV here because of our motoring conditions and requirements and that a while ago Toyota asked the federal government to consider adopting North America Standards for motor vehicles for similar reasons.
Our politicians, too many of them, are obviously not qualified to make engineering assessments or cost accounting.
30
Wait for them to screw it up.
A better strategy would be go full tilt on trade with the UK … less complex, they are desperate right now, and we have an existing cultural and legal compatibility.
https://www.trademinister.gov.au/minister/dan-tehan/media-release/new-era-free-trade-uk
Australia already has the groundwork done, more productive than worrying about what hoops the EU wants us to jump through.
20
I think Jo has locked herself in the sauna today. No Sat O/T..
Can someone get her out? 😁
30
John
My reading is that things might be a bit hectic behind the scenes
00
Or as a saying from a book of my father’s and an uncle’s reading experience (but not mine) had it:-
“Don’t be impatient Sam said King”
00
I am always struck by the hypocrisy of Climate Change.
Meteorologist are excluded as experts because they only know about the weather and science and physics. Australia’s expert studied prehistoric wombats. America’s current adviser to the President on Climate is an anthropologist. Christina Figueres, head of the IPCC as a daughter and sister of Presidents of Cost Rica was also an antropologist.
No actual meteorologist is every consulted because the weather is not the climate.
But a hot day in Britain, a drought and we have absolute proof of urgent runaway tipping point armageddon Climate change. A single hot day, a single rain event. Climate Change.
Droughts in Europe and California are Climate Change. But Australia is now drowning, the reverse of a decade ago. All Climate Change, not the weather.
Climate Change is whatever you say it is. The hottest day on a Sunday in April in Glasgow would qualify as certain proof of Global Warming and Climate Change. And we must blow up all the power stations and install more Chinese windmills. No wonder we have a problem with power.
81
The reason the catastrophe was renamed ‘Climate Change’ vs ‘Global Warming’ was because the warming failed to appear. The new name ensures that every change in the weather can be weaponised to ‘prove’ the narrative. Add removal of teaching of history, and the useful idiots can be convinced of the coming apocalypse.
21
The BBC has a typical slightly twisted take on the problems hot weather and drought are having on power production in Europe.
‘In the UK, high temperatures are hitting energy output from fossil, nuclear and solar sources.’
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-62524551.amp
20
Presently solar PV, wind, hydro are supplying 21.5% of UK demand, 17.2% of that is solar PV.
Of course it is nuclear and gas doing the lion’s share.
20
We have at least 3 very large French desalination plants in Australia. Straight out of the box. Never used. Power stations could generate their own water, as in Dubai where everything is imported, all food and everything else.
Dubai is a money machine and if the energy generation stopped tomorrow, it would be a massive humanitarian disaster. And there are no factories in Dubai, no farms, just a big city with swimming pools, skating rinks, even a ski slope when the days are 45C-55C and the water is 35C with zero humidity. It is a city built on air conditioning in the cars, buildings, buses and even the train station platforms are airconditioned.
So while the Greens bang on about sustainability, a lot of countries are functional but not sustainable. Energy is not just convenience, it allows us to live in the desert and in the arctic. Otherwise it’s back to hunter gatherer and that would mean 99% of the people would have to go.
20
It’s probably been mentioned already, but the UK desalination plant won’t be available in the current heat/drought.
https://www.itv.com/news/london/2022-08-04/water-plant-designed-to-help-households-during-drought-is-switched-off
10
Might be worthwhile mentioning that Perth has two desal plants running continuously. We just don’t have enough rivers to dam.
20
Jo, in the current situation, there is a confluence of issues.
Concurrent with the political dissolution in Europe, is political dissolution here in America.
You have covered the FBI Trump raid, and rightly so.
But there has been a new escalation of which you may not be yet aware.
A former CIA head has suggested Trump might executed for treason.
https://news.yahoo.com/sounds-ex-cia-chief-michael-194411070.html
The confluence of Climate/Trump/Virus mass formation is astonishing.
Of course, those of us that have been following the climate debate are less surprised.
Though that’s not helping me feel better.
There is also the odd phenomenon of a couple Washington insiders setting off a political firestorm by an off the cuff Tweet, whilst sitting around in their bath robes after a couple of G and Ts.
Let’s assume we remain intact to 2024, if DJT were to be re-elected, which these folk appear to be unaware that they are unwittingly assisting, where do these Deep DC people go?
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‘Trump executed for treason’, wow, wouldn’t the demoncrats just love that, a lefty wet dream.
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Climate breakdown was last week. Climate crisis is this coming week’s terminology. Next week it will be climate crunch, the following it’s the turn of climate calamity. They cycle through all the different expressions.
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At what point will the world be looking for answers? When will governments finally face the real life consequences of shutting power stations? Virtue signalling is fine until you are out of work, freezing or boiling and starving. All because governments, the people who say they are looking after us, are throwing away all the work of two generations to build a better world. From Boris Johnson to Joe Biden to Daniel Andrews, the destruction of our way of life and our food supply and even manufactured goods is profound. Don’t expect China to feed everyone.
So what will happen? The insane war on energy will end very badly. And the swamps of Washington, Brussels, Canberra, London will find their luxury lifestyles paid by taxes on everyone else will come to an end when they cannot charge their teslas. The Tesla will be a sign of the insanity of Climate Change. Vastly expensive electric cars for inner city elites who cannot feed themselves or make anything themselves.
This coming winter may shock governments into action, but only after worldwide protest against stupid*ty of the idea that humans control gases on the planet, in the air and in the ocean, not physical chemistry. It’s megalomania. We will have problems even warming or cooling the gases in one room without fossil fuel.
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And when will a conservative politician other than Tony Abbott get up and say, what he said, Climate Change is Crap. He would be a welcome figure back on the political scene in Australia. We need dams for the next drought. And we need coal power stations. And we could be making fortunes with even briquettes. This photo from 2000 seems from another world of sense and prosperity before politicians went quite mad.
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By the way, briquettes have the same energy content per ton as black coal. Think of how much money we could earn as a nation from even this one train load of briquettes from Morwell in Victoria. But the Labor government has banned the sale of our coal, even as briquettes.
There was a time governments were there for the benefit of the people. Not the last 20 years. Governments around the world are now the problem, stopping and reversing decades of real progress. And they call themselves progressive. Very much like AntiFA is actually fascist. And the leaders of BLM don’t think so, while they roll in their millions.
Deceit by politicians is part of modern life, with Joe Biden strangling energy supplies for America while telling them they will be better off, inflation is imaginary, petrol is cheaper, windmills will save the planet and he will be back after a short break while he is actually on permanent holiday. This winter in the Northern Hemisphere it should sink in that the world is cooling, the Greens don’t have a clue and that cheap and bountiful energy is essential. And that utterly irresponsible virtue signalling politicians must do more than throw private parties in a pandemic.
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There must be a shipload of greenies in Victoria, who keep voting this bespectacled clown back in, he is strangling the state.
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Spot the trendline in Murray Darling Basin Rainfall since 1900?
“A land of droughts and flooding rains.”
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Sarc from the past
“from 2008
Global warming is a serious issue, we are facing the reality that the poles are melting, species are facing extinction, more powerful storms are possible, drought, famine with billions of dollars in cost expected. It can be helped though, we can stop it, we just need to reduce our CO2 by 30% in 25 years. The non-profit intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC) has determined that that we must act now to stop it before it reaches the tipping point.”
More at
https://noconsensus.wordpress.com/2022/08/13/im-8-smarter-than-my-wife-told-me-i-was/#comments
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The tallest wind turbines Australians have ever sighted here in planning for offshore locations from Bass Strait to Gippsland Victoria to Wollongong and Newcastle New South Wales, all of them taller than the Sydney Harbour Bridge ruining the seascape and with many environmental impact potential problems, like fire;
http://www.firetrace.com/wind-turbine-fire
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I suppose none off the federal seat of Warringah. Pity. They are the boosters for this sort of pagan tomfoolery.
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Don’t you love it when newspaper reporters opine as to what ‘could’ happen. All tosh, of course, because anything ‘could’ happen. That’s the way they sell newspapers. What is likely to happen? There is anynumber of future scenarios, I hope he canvassed them all.
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