Grid not-fit-for-purpose: On a warm day, Crazy Australia paid $3.5m to industry to *stop* working

Black Start, dystopian, blackout, future city.

By Jo Nova

The Australian electricity grid is not-fit-for-purpose. And failure is being normalized.

Last Wednesday, during the near-miss of a blackout in Sydney, the AEMO spent $3,558,000 on “demand reduction” which means they paid productive industries to stop working to save the grid from a blackout. Translated: poor electricity users in New South Wales paid $3.5 million to businesses to do nothing, because the grid didn’t have enough energy, and the people in charge really didn’t want any embarrassing blackouts so close to an election.

So renewables are wonderful, clean and cheap but your workers, assets and capital will sometimes need to sit around and do nothing so we can stop some storms in the 22nd century.

In political spin, planned blackouts can also be called “Virtual Power Plants”

“Demand Management” is a smarmy marketing word for a lot of little Blackouts. In the lexicon of a failing grid, all the bad-words get tortured into iced doughnuts — if your company has agreed to be ready to shut down at a moment’s notice on a warm day, that’s not being on “Standby to Close”, instead your business is a ““pre-activated” extra reserve.”

In Renewable-World-Psychosis bad is good: your smelter used to make aluminum, but now you can sell “electricity use reduction” as well, and the AEMO (the grid manager in Australia) will call you a “Virtual Power Plant” too. Australian companies can now sell their own blackouts back to the grid. Neat eh?

Indeed, you and I are probably thinking about this all wrong — like electricity is a net good, and a dead smelter is a waste of space.

John Rolfe, Daily Telegraph

… AEMO CEO Daniel Westerman told an energy planning and regulation Senate committee hearing that the market operator spent $3,557,700 on reducing demand to increase emergency reserves in NSW on Wednesday November 27 as a supply shortage took shape.

Mr Westerman indicated AEMO did not end up having to reduce Wednesday’s demand by as much as first expected. But, in anticipation of a greater shortfall than eventuated, AEMO had “pre-activated” extra reserves.

Mr Westerman said the purchased electricity use reduction came from “virtual power plants”, which were an “aggregation of … smaller demand.”

For what it’s worth, which is not much, the large aluminium smelter Tomago, was not forced to shut down, but it was “pre-activated” and ready to close. Apparently, even though the cool weather change came through, they shut down that afternoon anyway, or perhaps they just gave up.  Who could blame them?

Australians are not just paying companies to do nothing, they pay them to be ready to do nothing too. There’s a part payment for the pre-activated companies, even if they don’t have to switch off. It reflects the hassle of running an industrial outfit with your hand on the power lever, and your brain in the state of uncertainty. And that’s the thing isn’t it — no company is going to be more productive “on standby” than it is running full tilt. It’s a stupid way to run a nation.

Australia is on the road to becoming a “pre-activated nation”

We’re a first world country ready to be the third world at a moment’s notice.

Pretty soon the whole country will be paying itself to be on standby, or selling our own blackouts back to the grid, what then, eh? The Stone Age?

Your air conditioner can be a Virtual Power Plant too

John Rolfe in the Daily Telegraph found a Monash Uni professor who was cheerfully telling the world Australians will need to give up control of their air-conditioners so their AEMO masters can turn them down on hot days when they need them the most.

Dr Dargaville is an expert in “large-scale energy system transition optimisation” —  a thing that’s never happened once, anywhere in the world. So it’s like being a specialist in Yetis except with less credibility. There’s a possibility that a real Yeti exists, but we know for a fact, there aren’t any optimal large-scale renewables grids. There aren’t even any optimal small scale grids, just different scales of blackouts.

Australians fuming over big change coming to air-con, house power control

Dr Dargaville … said authorities would have to expand their options to deal with more frequent instances of surprisingly high demand and low supply.

Options were likely to include the installation of “widgets” on aircons that allow third parties to engage “economy mode” to reduce power use in peak periods.

When asked in a Newspoll: “Should authorities be allowed to take control of power usage in your household?”, naturally, 94% said “No”. But we know that when they are offered a $400 cashback for a “smart” but government-controlled air conditioner, they may buy the plan. It’s already happening in Queensland. It’s only supposed to be a few days a year, but last summer, the grid officials reached into their homes and turned off their air conditioners six times in two months.

Dr Dargaville speaks for The Blob — You will own nothing (and be hot and bothered):

…consumers should not be alarmed by such moves, he said. “There will be a period of adjustment but it will be become normalised,” Dr Dargaville told [The Daily Telegraph]

Naturally, it’s not their fault — they blame climate change, and fossil fuels. The chutzpah here is astounding.

If the energy system was less volatile you wouldn’t need to use it,” he added, but that was unrealistic given more extreme weather, reduced reliability of coal-fired power and more generation from variable sources such as wind and solar.

Obviously if we didn’t actively sabotage coal plants, the energy system wouldn’t be volatile.

Every part of this trend is a step in a dumb direction. We’re paying more for less in every single aspect. More people sit around being useless, or half useful, or distracted. More companies make fewer goods. And more government makes more government which is the worst thing of all…

Those who control the energy, control the people.

h/t David Maddison, Strop

 

9.8 out of 10 based on 117 ratings

165 comments to Grid not-fit-for-purpose: On a warm day, Crazy Australia paid $3.5m to industry to *stop* working

  • #
    CriddleDog

    All going to plan then!

    310

    • #
      Gary S

      So, the good professor is another energy ‘expert’ is he? If so, why is it that he, along with his useless mates in whackademia can never come up with any solutions? Obviously, his grant money is important to him, but I can save him some valuable time – burn some of our abundant coal in modern, efficient power stations.
      Somewhere in the world, is a village missing it’s idiot.

      291

    • #
      Ted1

      $43,557,700?

      Only that much? I don’t believe it!

      And I still wouldn’t believe it had he said ten times as much.

      60

  • #
    Robber

    Back to the dark ages – be active on days that are not too hot and not too cold, and stop everything when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing.

    310

    • #
      Graeme No.3

      Except the Public Servants? and a certain Professor expect continuous payments.

      230

    • #
      Greg in NZ

      Then when it snows in summer – BoM claims it’ll ‘snow to 1,000 metres’ Sunday and again next Thursday in Tasmania – the idle masses can ride their bicycles, or walk, uphill to throw snowballs at each other or take selfies while making snow angels, because Goebbels Warping made Climate Change.

      310

  • #
    Skepticynic

    It is only when gas, coal, and liquid “fossil fuels” have been outlawed and everything’s electrified, but our grid, our manufacturing capabilities, and our economy have been completely crippled by Chinese unreliable-electricity generators, that enough of the sleepwalking public will realise they’ve been duped defeated and disenfranchised.

    400

    • #
      Greg in NZ

      Ya reckon they’ll realise?

      Slowly boiled frogs simply nod off…

      391

    • #
      Ronin

      Nah, I seriously doubt they’ll realise anything, and they’ll vote for more of the same.

      160

      • #
        Lawrie

        I’m afraid you are correct. The stupids in this country want to believe they have not been duped so continue to be so. For example, that poor little rich girl turned politician, Allegra Spender, says we should consider raising the GST, taxing earnings in Super, taking Franking credits and so on but the thought of cutting spending has never occurred to her. Her idea of balancing her budget is to ask daddy for more money. And so it goes for the socialists that are in government and academia. Worse still is asking the taxpayer, who funds their excesses, what they want. The axe is coming and I just hope enough people volunteer to swing it. MAGA. Make Albo Go Away.

        160

  • #
    Neville

    What happens when we have a genuine heatwave with a week or weeks in high 30s and 40s c?
    Does everyone skip work and go to the nearest river and live in the water or lie under a tree for hours?
    I’m sure votes will drop further for Labor, Greens and Teals when the punters really understand what they’ll have to endure in the coming months and years.
    But until they really wake up we’ll just have put up with more of their lunacy and delusional stupidity.

    420

    • #
      Dennis

      The record is cancelled thereafter.

      120

    • #
      JohnPAK

      In the ’70s John Cleese knocked back many of the Python team’s sketch ideas for being too stupid for people to suffer. I reckon this idea of paying industry to not function falls into that bracket of absurdity. How exactly do the nut-jobs running Oz think the nations bills are going to be paid.

      330

  • #
    Bushkid

    How soon does turning off power to heavy industry become turning off power to food production; or to agriculture; or to large businesses that don’t actually make anything but still employ a lot of people; or finally to turning it all off completely?

    If they’re already paying heavy industries to shut down or go on standby, already turning down the thermostat on “smart” air-conditioners and telling people not to use pool pumps or dishwashers during the evening heavy demand period on a warm spring/summer day, then the grid is probably already beyond maintaining in a productive and safe state.

    Banning the use of gas for cooking (!) and presumably for manufacturing and pushing more people to buy EVs will only overload the system even more.

    A system black would be (will be?) a spectacular way to drive home the point about the inability of “renewables” to sustain a modern economy.

    But you could bet Bowen and Albanese etc., would just double down yet again and claim it was “because we hadn’t moved fast enough on the rollout of renewables”.

    390

    • #
      Chad

      Bushkid
      December 7, 2024 at 7:04 am · Reply
      How soon does turning off power to heavy industry become turning off power to food production; or to agriculture

      I can live without A/C, pool pumps, even lights etc, but some services are much more critical.
      Think how much electricity is use in maintaining water supply to households ?
      Reduction/ restriction of such basic services as water (planned or system failure) would be a nightmare for most.

      261

      • #

        And the Sewerage facilities.

        220

      • #
        Ronin

        A fridge, a light and a tv would keep me going.

        50

      • #
        RickWill

        Reduction/ restriction of such basic services as water (planned or system failure) would be a nightmare for most.

        It is the other end that is more important. There is nothing worse than turds floating through the lounge room. There is some merit in living on the hill rather than in the valley.

        The visual appeal of this animation masks what the story is really about (keeping turds out of your lounge room):
        https://youtu.be/1TUk9GPR2M4

        Melbourne water can make their own electricity and can probably operate parts of their system from their own generation but I suspect avoiding SOTF is dependent on grid supply.

        61

    • #
      Eng_Ian

      Turning off power to industry and other work places has other consequences too.

      GDP and productivity come to mind.

      The payments may cover the lost revenue or costs of the business, eg wages or loss of profit per hour, etc. BUT will the costs pay for the loss of reputation when the company fails to deliver on time? Will it cover the lost productivity and therefore a failure to accept additional work, maybe even losing contracts to companies, (in other countries), who don’t have to shut down.

      I see this as just another nail to the coffin for industry in Oz. One of a very large list that seems to be growing by the day. Who’d open a business in Oz?

      160

    • #
      JohnPAK

      A system black would be (will be?) a spectacular

      Everyone in the power stations knows what is coming. When one old coal unit trips out (breaks down) on a 40º afternoon it will likely trigger a domino trip-out effect in the East Coast grid as each unit automatically disconnects from the grid to protect its valuable electrical engineering from damage.
      Fortunately, we do have one or two units which can self-start during a Grid Black-out. A 40MW pump storage unit at Bendeela could be used to initiate clean 50 Hz power to then reboot other power stations which do not have self-start ability. There are plans to expand the Shoalhaven Scheme with an underground power station that utilises the same two lakes and same power-lines.

      I wonder if any of the bimbos in government ever read blogs. We KNOW this black-out is coming yet they do nothing.

      180

    • #
      Gazzatron

      To answer your questions, pretty soon I reckon, considering AEMO was claiming the Broken Hill blackouts as a win for Renewables due to “record low power demand” (i’m not joking, they boasted about record low demand on LinkedIn for the dates of the broken hill blackouts), they’ll be keen to just shut off everything and claim they’re saving the planet!

      10

  • #
    Boambee John

    Do these people ever listen to what they say?

    Or do the words pass directly from their eyes reading the briefing notes to their tongues, without passing through their brains?

    200

    • #
      Forrest Gardener

      Just like being a student attending a lecture in the good old days. The words pass from the lecturer’s notes to the student’s notes without passing through the mind of either party.

      Back to your question. There are people whose job it is to invent such upside down, inside out terminology. Ironically they are likely to be among the first droids replaced by the so called AI computer systems.

      Hal, write me an explanation of the power cuts in the style of Orwell.

      180

  • #
    Neville

    At Climate etc a planning engineer has another look at the Broken Hill outage and toxic W & S fiasco.
    Spending 650 million for just a 20,000 population to try and survive without real BASE-LOAD energy is a warning for 27 million Aussies at the next election.
    And Jo Nova’s coverage of the Broken Hill disaster is also included in the article.

    https://judithcurry.com/2024/12/05/wind-and-solar-cant-support-the-grid/#more-31718

    250

    • #
      Ross

      Even Dr Judith Curry mentioned the Broken Hill situation in an X post the other day. It was another one of those comments along the meme of “ .. look what those silly Aussies are doing now”. It’s getting really embarrassing to be Australian these days, what after our COVID response etc.

      280

    • #
      Lance

      He does a decent job explaining things, but he doesn’t hammer home the crux of things.

      1. Whatever is connected to the grid is the load.
      2. Thermal generation follows the load and is the frequency base for the grid.
      3. Wind and solar inverters “follow the thermal generation”. 2 steps removed from the load.
      4. Without electromagnetically synchronized inertia, inverter base W/S lag behind transients and are of no use.

      Even if improved inverters can mimic reactive power generation, they are still without instantaneous response inertia and can only follow the thermal plant frequency and voltage. They can Never support frequency because they always follow it.

      Without sufficient thermal generation / synchronized turbine-gensets, you absolutely cannot restart a crashed grid. No such thing as functional microgrids, those are meaningless at GW levels.

      Fundamentally, you’ve got politicians, subsidy parasites, and ignorant ideologues, making decisions far outside their skillsets. to the detriment of all.

      A whole lot of public and corporate people need to shut up and listen to some qualified, Chartered, electrical power engineers.

      270

      • #
        Serge Wright

        Unfortunately we need the grid to collapse before enough people will listen and when that happens it will probably be too late to resurrect the run down thermal plants. I’m also amazed that no one in academia who dreamed up the RE grid solution considered the grid’s frequency generation, which underpins the function of the grid. In the old grid the frequency is set by a relative small number of massive spinning turbines. In the new wind and solar grid we have over one million inverters all trying to synch their frequency off every other inverter with no effective reference frequency. And no one thought “what could possibly go wrong”. This is a bit like trying to move mobile phone base stations with GPS clock synch to each run on their own individual clock source. In other words “goodbye mobile phone system”. The Broken Hill outage has completely belled the cat on this solution failure. I did read one idea of having all inverters controlled by a centralised super computer for management control. Of course this is an even crazier idea than the original proposal of a wind and solar only grid.

        70

      • #

        Lance you should be saying registered professional engineers (in Queensland no one can claim to be a professional engineer unless registered). Engineers Australia (EA)is a woke organisation which supported the voice and attempted to ban a presentation on Nuclear energy. A chartered engineer through EA does not mean that they are professional engineers.

        70

  • #
    William

    When will this utter insanity stop? When will adults take over and acknowledge that renewables have absolutely no place in a modern electricity grid?

    Someone from the intelligent side needs to debate Bowen on television so that more people see him for the complete (and dangerous) fool that he is.

    310

  • #
    Ross

    This is not a new event, the same has been happening in Victoria for years. There’s 2 really big electricity users – Alcoa Portland aluminium smelter and Viva energy (old Shell oil refinery in Geelong). Not only do they receive these outage payments I’m sure they are being subsidized to stay operational for the rest of the time as well. The government had to for Alcoa. There was a snap grid breakdown in 2019 and the smelter was caught with aluminium in their pots, which required a very expensive clean up. We’re being conned fellow taxpayers , it’s all a scam.

    310

    • #
      Ronin

      Nice work if you can get it, paid to operate, paid to stand by to not operate and paid to not operate, cool. !

      120

      • #
        Tarquin Wombat-Carruthers

        Just like a desal plant!

        70

        • #
          Ross

          If you want a precedent in energy stupidity, just go to Victoria. The Labor governments in particular in this state are the pathfinders for stupidity when it comes to most things government. The first state to build a desal plant even though the state has one of the most reliable autumn/ winter rainfall histories in Australia. Daniel Andrews became premier in 2014 and one of the first things implemented was a coal tax. In a state with at least 500 years supply of brown coal. I think Victoria was the first with a wind turbine installation ( Challicum Hills ). Both sides of politics in the state went with a moratorium for on shore gas exploration, when there are very large easily accessible fields in a number of locations. Now they’re trying to build an import terminal, so gas can be shipped to the state. The state was probably the first to pay high power users to stand idle. It’s like COVID, no-one actually dies from COVID you suffer from your bodies over-reaction to the infection. In this case no-one in Victoria has been harmed by man made climate change, but people will definitely die from the ideological response to it.

          40

  • #

    Can’t wait for the Election in 2025 to boot this Marxist Feral Gov’ment out. Mind you, the Libs/Nats need to smarten themselves up. At least QLD are going to keep all their Coal Fired Power Plants and maybe build a HELE Plant where needed.

    250

  • #
    Tony Tea

    Sounds like a good opportunity to repurpose the CBA’s short-lived “assisted withdrawal fees”; only this time the power companies pay us.

    80

    • #
      Ronin

      The folk with the DRED option activated in their a/c are already being paid to not use power, it comes out of the $200 refund they got when they purchased the a/c.

      30

  • #
    Forrest Gardener

    And as usual I ride my personal hobby horse. There is no reason to use the propagandistic term “renewable energy” when “intermittent energy” is more apt.

    200

    • #
      Vladimir

      You are right.
      As an unwilling product of Marxist school system I declare – all energy is renewable.
      Same as time and space.

      50

      • #
        jpm

        Vladimir
        The ‘law of conservation of energy’ states that (paraphrased) energy cannot be created or destroyed and so renewable energy is not possible, at all.
        That is the 1st Law of Thermodynamics. These activists & politicians know nothing about science!
        John

        50

  • #
    John in Oz

    “If the energy system was less volatile you wouldn’t need to use it,” he added, but that was unrealistic given more extreme weather, reduced reliability of coal-fired power and more generation from variable sources such as wind and solar.”

    This is one of the best double-speak, blinkered, idiotic, oxymoronic statements by a snout in the trough ‘expert’ yet.

    How does ‘more generation from variable sources’ make the energy system ‘less volatile’?

    Is there a different definition of ‘variable’ that this idjit uses?

    The ‘reduced reliability of coal-fired power’ is an feature of the push for more ruinables. Hobbling the fossil-fuel generators is the only way the pro-CAGW crowd can claim their solution is better, cheaper, cleaner, etc.

    Where is the Australian Trump?

    320

    • #
      RickWill

      One word comes to mind – moronic.

      Only a moron would spend all their money on a weather dependent power supply if they were certain the weather was going to get worse.

      If I was aiming to negotiate a cyclone at sea, I would be thinking about a nuclear powered submarine rather than a sailing ship.

      170

      • #
        Vladimir

        Aha!
        But just before cyclone eye will be moving much faster, the 1st Class passengers will vote for you again and the Wind Is Free.

        40

      • #
        Ross

        Particularly now when nearly every aspect of modern society requires reliable power.

        40

  • #
    Chad

    When you want to get your point of viiew to politicians who dont listen…
    How to “spread the message”…
    https://youtube.com/shorts/Po5UAtWkYeQ?si=syxX4CfePWQ_4NEV

    60

  • #
    Bruce

    The “Grid” has been dodgy’ for a while, and apparently, deliberately so.I do not work on my (this) computer 24 / 7, but, over th elast few months, out little grid “backwater” has suffered a number of “glitches / outages.

    These cause things like electronic clocks to stop and then blink stupidly at you.

    It also means tah “automated backup” has to be ON, all the timesetting “auto-save” to 15 minute intervals seriously slows own actual work

    It appears that somebody has shares in UPS importers / makers, as the re are a LOT more options available at the cornet electronics shop.

    You need a SERIOUS UPS if yo think you may be holding up a running microwave oven doing dinner. The “inrush” surge on these is fairly ferocious.

    NOTE: The Gimmint already has :protected”, exclusive use grids of their own; no equal sharing onf misery here. “Essential Services” like Police, Fire, Ambo and “others” like hospitals are on their own circuits, .

    Yes a lot of serious places have generator backup,but, most of these take time to come on line and then are basically designed to provide enough juice to evacuate the building safely. Been there seen it first hand . Evacuating 5000 people from a night at the theatre in a sain storm is “intereting” to say the least. Now try it for an entire CBD.

    160

  • #
    David Brown

    Bowen is about as much use as a large print audiobook.

    150

  • #
    Ronin

    “Mr Westerman said the purchased electricity use reduction came from “virtual power plants”, which were an “aggregation of … smaller demand.”

    Curious, I had never contemplated ‘virtual power plants’ as being an aggregation of ‘doing less’.

    110

  • #
    Yarpos

    So while the current crop of governing fools destroy the grid, they simultaneously run a “future made” advertising campaign , characterised by drivel like this https://futuremadeinaustralia.gov.au/

    We wont be making anything unless we have abundant, reliable and cheap energy. We have no near term prospect of that happening.

    We also need a high performance, merit based, relevant education sector. A sector that lost its way a decade or two ago.

    We also need government that supports business development and does not try to pick winners. They inevitably seem to be advised by people without business sense and that lag the real world by 5-10 years, who guide them neatly into dogma driven dead ends.

    I expect nothing more than a pile of smoking dead white elephants out of the “future made” program/initiative/thing.

    130

  • #
    Ronin

    Perhaps Mr Westerman could take a look at my theoretical proposal that when a blackout looms large, all the CBD elevators could be summoned to the top floors and on command, turned into generators by hitting the down button.
    Almost as sensible as intermittent power.

    190

  • #
    el+gordo

    All pain and no gain.

    ‘Australia’s emissions reduction trajectory is falling dramatically short of what’s needed to meet the federal government’s legislated 2030 target, according to the latest independent scorecard, challenging the energy minister’s claim that Australia is on track.’ (ABC)

    81

  • #
    RickWill

    Options were likely to include the installation of “widgets” on aircons that allow third parties to engage “economy mode” to reduce power use in peak periods.

    I will repeat myself –

    If you want reliable electricity supply at an acceptable cost then make your own. If you are not connected to the grid then AEMO cannot control your air conditioner.

    Who thinks retail power prices are going to drop soon?

    111

    • #
      Ronin

      The old 6hp diesel Lister coupled to a 5kw generator looks better all the time, runs on any old oil, chip cooker, transmission fluid etc, free hot water and is good for almost 3.5kw flat out.

      80

      • #

        RickWill, what would you estimate the cost per kWh is from your generator? (And from your system as a whole?)

        30

        • #
          Glenn

          Hi Jo,

          I’ve got a 9kVA Diesel genset in my backyard, installed mid 2017 as I could see the looming disaster approaching. It cost about $6k all up, installed and wired in. I have to manually start it ( push button start and all sequenced start up/shutdown ) and manually changeover from the grid to the genset with a switch in the powerbox…safer and cheaper. It uses 2.5 litres of diesel an hour and easily powers the House and multiple A/C units. Diesel is around $1.80 – $2.00 a litre last time I looked. It is still expensive power and you need to provide it with diesel, brought home in 20 litre gerry cans. It can run for several days with on board tankage and used with common sense, you could get a week out of it before it needed a refuel.

          80

          • #

            Thanks Glenn. Very useful to know.

            Sounds like it would save money and be a gift in an extended blackout, but sadly not a competitor for current electricity prices, even though they are so much more expensive than they should be.

            I suppose if they do Shock and Awe pricing at 6pm, it may give you flexibility to choose a cheap off-peak plan and crank up the genset for peak hour. Lord knows I hope it doesn’t come to that…

            80

          • #
            Mike

            Glenn, It can run for several days with on board tankage and used with common sense……How much diesel can you store before attempting to get more from fuel stations. During a prolonged ‘Blackout’ how long before fuel supply is rationed to users, I’d say less than a week. Probs fuel station tanks exhausted in a week. Supply tankers run on fuel as well! So you can have the best off grid fossil fuel generator backup, but yah gonna be outta fuel in around a week based on normal 20 litre container supply!

            20

        • #
          RickWill

          Without subsidies, you could make it for around 60c/kWh from solar and battery.

          A significant portion of the saving is to eliminate the connection fee.

          My 66c/kWh ends on 31 Dec. I am working toward having an option to go off grid by end Q1 next year/.

          My actually grid demand is negative but that only occurs through using the grid as a battery.

          To go off grid in Melbourne you need to work on 1 hour of sunlight per day and 50 hours of battery. So assuming you can get the demand down to average of 7kW, then you need 7kW of solar panels and a 14kWh of lithium battery.

          10

  • #
    Ronin

    I hear the acronym ‘DRED’ stands for Damn Ridiculous Electronic Device.

    60

  • #
    Mark Jones

    Electricity is generated AGAINST the load…NO LOAD=NO ELECTRICITY!

    Load shedding is nothing but trying to match the load with the generation available. My engineering student days told me in no uncertain terms. The residential load is a parasite on the real job of generating power for industry 24/7. These idiots are about to learn that you cannot run a system that only operates between 0600-0900 and 1630 and 2000hrs every day. There was a time when the power companies discounted drastically any power load that ran overnight. Security lights and building hallway lights…you know the ones everybody pointed out as wasteful. There was a time when I believed this scam was nothing but to increase scarcity to force up the price. Now? I believe this is nothing but the idealogues have no idea what damage they are doing but they are doing it anyway to save humanity.

    100

  • #
    RickWill

    Who was watching the 2nd test being played in Adelaide last night.

    I think the wind stopped blowing for a while because they had to shed the lights. SA does not have any industry so the big loads are the lights at the Adelaide Oval. Normally everyone in Adelaide is in bed by that time so windless nights usually go unnoticed.

    170

    • #
      Ronin

      I saw that, and no explanation was forthcoming.

      80

    • #
      Ronin

      At 7:30 pm, wind was at 7.1%, gas was 60% and imports were 24%, wind got wobbly between 5:30 and 9 pm.

      90

    • #
      David Maddison

      How long did the lights go out for?

      And did they switch to emergency generators?

      I don’t follow cricket or just about any other activity involving panem et circenses.

      40

      • #
        RickWill

        The lights went out twice but only for a few minutes each time. They added another over to make up for the lost time.

        It was really a gift to the Australian batsmen because they were more relaxed after the lights went out. They had a bit of a laugh with each other. Both batsmen made it to stumps.

        40

  • #
    Ronin

    Has the source of the heat that caused the last ice age 20,000 years ago to end,
    been accounted for and is that same source responsible for any heating occurring presently.

    Obviously if it wasn’t geologic, it must be solar.

    60

    • #
      RickWill

      Land ice melts because it is not being replaced with fresh snow. That only happens when the oceans are abnormally cold.

      The reason the oceans were really cold was because there were lots of glaciers calving into the oceans in the northern hemisphere keeping them cool. As the sea level started to rise, the ice shelves broke off and formed massive icebergs that kept the oceans cold. So once the melt started, it gained pace.

      The Northern Hemisphere had its lowest sunlight in 20,000 years just 500 years ago. So there has been 500 years of ocean warming to generate more snow.

      You will find the future of the NH is new record snowfalls. Eventually the snowfall overtakes the melt and ice accumulates again:
      https://www.today.com/video/record-snow-slams-millions-in-the-northeast-great-lakes-region-225916997697

      Greenland is already gaining permanent ice extent.

      60

      • #
        John Hultquist

        The NBC Today show is not a reliable source of climate news. The snow they are reporting is NOT a record and not related to climate change. “Lake Effect Snow” has a long history and is understood to result from winds blowing over the open-water Great Lakes and then up onto the higher land. Once the lakes freeze over the snow stops.
        Lake Ontario has a deep area on its east end:
        https://usa.fishermap.org/depth-map/lake-ontario/
        This is late to freeze and allows snow to fall in great amounts just south of the City of Watertown, NY on the Tug Hill Plateau. The average snowfall is 200 in/year. [500 cm]
        The past week’s storm is almost identical to one I encounter in 1960 near Erie, PA.

        10

  • #
    STJOHNOFGRAFTON

    Labour, Teal and Greens elites won’t be feeling any discomfort about this because the out of sight and mind rural sector will be having to put up with the climate driven renewable ugly wind turbines and solar farms so that the comfy elites don’t have to. It would be a great shock and a wake-up for the la-la elites if wind farms were proposed within the visible horizon off the Northern Beaches and Sydney Heads. Immagine the lost minds and street protests from that.

    70

  • #
    DavidB

    All together now:

    Lights Out? You’re Out!

    50

  • #
    david

    When will Australians show their annoyance of this energy stupidity?

    When will Australians rebel having to put up with violence on their streets with our timid police force and pathetically weak politicians?

    And being told by 5yo kids to have a “welcome to country” before dinner every night!

    130

    • #
      Lawrie

      Yesterday I attended the preselection of a candidate to replace David Gillespie as the member for Lyne. It was a well run affair and to make it so much better there was no welcome to country by any of the speakers. Dutton has promised there is only one National flag so I guess the easily offended will just have to suck it up.

      10

  • #
    Ronin

    It’s all part of the plan.

    50

  • #
    Greg in NZ

    Saturday Silliness, or take yer pick:

    “Days Ahead: Gales, sunshine, heat, heavy rain, dry & even snow – find out your forecast”
    via weatherwatch.co.nz

    Without even using my fingers, that looks more like a six-cast. If you don’t like this climate, drive an hour over the hills and enjoy the polar opposite.

    A confusion of carbon-caused climates?

    70

  • #
    John Connor II

    Those who control the energy, control the people.

    Not if you have an independent system.😁

    81

  • #
    Ronin

    Controlling rooftop solar by raising the voltage to trip the inverters has been described as like running your car into a tree to stop it because you haven’t maintained the brakes.

    40

  • #
    Graham Richards

    WHY IS THE MSM NOT SHOUTING THIS INFORMATION FROM THE ROOF TOPS.

    I NOTICE THE CONSERVATIVE MEDIA IS ALSO SOMEWHAT SHY ABOUT INFORMING THE VOTING PUBLIC OF THIS OUTRAGE.

    IS THERE ANYONE OUT THERE THAT HAS THE RESOURCES TO LET THE PUBLIC KNOW WHERE THIS EXCUSE FOR A GOVERNMENT IS LEADING US??

    WITHOUT THE MEDIA NOT EVEN THE OPPOSITION CAN KEEP THE ELECTORATE INFORMED!!

    70

  • #

    And yes, this is on topic.

    Imagine the engineering.

    These are the power plants that keep the lights on when ‘real power’ is needed, you know at Peak Power time EVERY evening at 6PM, not pretend power plants that you tap your fingers waiting and hoping for them to come on line.

    Most of these coal fired power plants in Australia (the ones still in operation I mean) were built from the 70s to the 80s, except for the ‘new’ (ish) ones in Queensland.

    That means they are now in the realms of 40 to 50 years old, so, when they tell us (think Minister Bowen here) that they are, you know, ‘unreliable’ ….. well that’s because they’re, you know ….. ‘old’, and have NOT been replaced.

    Perhaps a parallel comparison to think about.

    Holden made the Kingswood from 1968 till 1980, you know, around the same time those coal fired power plants were built.

    Umm, tell me the last time you saw a Kingswood on the road.

    Tell me, how many Kingswoods still ARE on the roads.

    When the Kingswoods you once owned started to get old, did you still keep it running, or did you go out and buy a new car, you know, to ‘replace’ it?

    Okay, consider operating one of those Kingswoods at the same rate they operate a coal fired power plant.

    Then, those Kingswoods still running on the road today would have ….. 25 to 30 Million Kilometres ‘on the clock’.

    Hmm! How many Kingswoods are on the road now with that sort of mileage on them?

    Of course those coal fired power plants are unreliable. (But really, are they, or are we just being told they are)

    They’re old, now at an age that renewable power plant operators can only look at wistfully and hope, producing huge amounts of energy they can only dream about, and being paid the same money for that energy that they also can only dream about, and making that money for two to three times longer than they can ever dream about. (well, hope they can anyway)

    Now, unlike your Kingswood, they’re going to close down those coal fired plants, and unlike replacing that Kingswood with a new one, they’re not going to replace the power plant.

    Tony.

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    • #
      John F. Hultquist

      A very nice analogy. Good post.
      {I’ve never seen a Kingswood, being in Idaho at that time.}

      40

    • #
      Tony Dique

      I know about certain coal-fired generators where the maintenance schedule has been changed from “every so many hours” to just ” when it breaks”.
      it has been changed because the expectation is that they will be able to shut it down very soon. But that’s what they thought about Eraring and look what happened there.
      You simply can’t get reliability with that kind of a maintenance approach. It wouldn’t matter if it were 10 years old or 50 years old.
      Take that approach with your average road vehicle and see how long it lasts.

      10

  • #
    David Maddison

    Q) Why is the fake conservative Liberal Party silent about this?

    A) Because their faction of the Uniparty are also anthropogenic global warming fraud True Believers.

    And even if they proceeded with their plan to build six nuclear reactors, in the “can’t do” country, exactly how long would it take to build them? If a decision were made today, I can’t see them delivering power to the grid in less than 15-20 years, probably longer.

    Even a coal plant would take at least ten years.

    And as RickWill has pointed our, even the fake power generator, the net energy consumer Snowy Hydro 2 will take, what, another 40? or 50? years to complete at the present rate of construction.

    What will be left of Australia in 10, 15 or 20 years? And it will likely be bankrupt and unable to afford a new power station (or six). The lucky ones will be living off grid by then.

    Frankly, Australia is finished unless we can elect a genuine conservative government. Thank you LibLabGreen Uniparty. In particular Howard who set Australia on the road to renewables madness and economic ruin, a real energyphobe, that one.

    240

    • #
      Ronin

      We are going the way of Venezuela and Argentina, loaded with resources but flat broke & in debt.

      160

      • #
        David Maddison

        That’s a totally realistic scenario Ronin.

        Australians have to understand they are no longer the mythological “Lucky Country”.

        We never were anyway. That was a misinterpretation of what Donald Horne said

        When I invented the phrase in 1964 to describe Australia, I said: “Australia is a lucky country run by second rate people who share its luck.” I didn’t mean that it had a lot of material resources … I had in mind the idea of Australia as a [British] derived society whose prosperity in the great age of manufacturing came from the luck of its historical origins … In the lucky style we have never “earned” our democracy. We simply went along with some British habits.

        In any case, no rational person relies on luck. One needs hard work and evidence-based rational decision-making, both of which the Australian Government lacks.

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      • #
        ozfred

        Argentina seems to be in the midst of an interesting transformation. A chainsaw being one of the political symbols.

        100

        • #
          Mike Jonas

          Javier Milei, the Madman, is one of the world’s sanest politicians.

          Australia’s opposition should go full Milei.

          50

    • #
      TdeF

      Man made Climate Change is a lie. Fossil fuel CO2 is actually 2.0%. My estimate has dropped from 3.0%. In other words, just in transit. This is by direct measurement.

      So there is no reason for all this mayhem. But politicians do not care. I was stunned when the former Chief Scientists Dr Alan Finkel did not care either. It was all too exciting with his new book on the biggest change since the industrial revolution. So he didn’t care. Too much fun.

      But the politicians do not care either. Like the Wuhan Flu, they are happy to shake hands with President Xi who killed millions. And thank him for considering their lobsters and Grange Hermitage again.

      Meanwhile they are pushing Quantum Computing(Which is near bust) and making solar panels(which can’t be sold) and to send billions in Australian Carbon Credits to grow trees in other countries for bucket loads of Australian cash.

      I blame the politicians entirely. The consensus among them is amazing. No one questions anything. They’re having too much fun with absolute power.

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      • #
        TdeF

        In any case, why are we crippling ourselves to pay huge amounts directly and indirectly to China which has 20x our CO2 output? Is the Albanese government a branch of the CCP? Why did Penny Wong call in ambassadors for criticising China even when she was only a shadow minister? Who is paying her wages?

        130

    • #
      Ronin

      A really big blackout is the only way to concentrate thinking, maybe it will wake the tools up as to where we are heading.

      40

      • #
        TdeF

        Agreed. Which is why the government is prepared to spend a fortune (our money) to stop us realising the imminent disaster. Paying people to do nothing is quite insane. But then that’s a lot of the public service which is booming to hide mass unemployment. The Alco aluminium refinery at Portland, all on government paid wages to pretend it is rational to make aluminum which is less valuable than the electricity required to make it. Or the timber mill bought by Daniel Andrews to do nothing, now closed.

        50

        • #
          TdeF

          In a socialist system, everyone ends up working for the government. As Russians say, “They pretend to pay us and we pretend to work”. Australia is heading the same way. Nationalize everything and we can all work from home.

          50

          • #
            ozfred

            Nationalize everything and we can all work from home.

            Including those that stock the grocery store shelves?

            10

  • #
    David Maddison

    Another interpretation of this story is that Australia has regular grid failures but these are disguised by load shedding, just like they do in Third World countries.

    Even with compensation payments, how long before these industries subject to load shedding just pack up and leave?

    It’s already barey worthwhile, and for most, not worthwhile, to do business in Australia for a whole variety of other reasons apart from expensive and unreliable electricity except those businesses that are either 1) harvesting subsidies at taxpayer expense or 2) rorting (scamming) government projects and taxpayers in just about any Victorian Government project, for example.

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  • #
    Ronin

    “We’re paying more for less in every single aspect. More people sit around being useless, or half useful, or distracted. More companies make fewer goods. And more government makes more government which is the worst thing of all.”

    Which seems to be part of the overall plan for Australia.

    80

  • #
    Aaron

    What.

    No mention of not charging your Tesla?

    The stupidity is off the charts.

    50

  • #
    Ronin

    Headlines scream ‘East coast water temps 32c, expect more storms’, so I check Sydney water temps, 21.3 deg, someone is lying.

    90

    • #
      David Maddison

      As a keen bush walker (hiker) I make a point of no longer listening to the weather reports. Too many lies told and I have cancelled too many trips due to incorrect info from the BoM when they predict “extreme” weather events that never happen.

      80

    • #
      TdeF

      East coast off Dubai/Qatar in the Persian gulf certainly. Or the Carribean off Florida. Not open oceans like the Pacific South of the Tropics.

      20

  • #
    David Maddison

    One way the Government can liberate power from your home is to turn off or alter the temperature of your naughty appliances like air conditioners, electric hot water, swimming pool pumps etc. by a device called DRED, Demand Response Enable Device. These are already built into almost every, if not every, split system air con unit sold in Australia.

    Note, that participation is currently voluntary, usually in return for some financial incentive. No doubt connection will soon be compulsory as the grid continues to collapse.

    I wrote an article about them seven odd years ago.

    https://www.siliconchip.com.au/Issue/2017/April/DRED%3A+they+can+turn+your+aircon+off%21

    60

  • #
    STJOHNOFGRAFTON

    Here’s what we need: (cc to Peter Dutton) Westinghouse eVinci Microreactor

    eVinci Microreactor Key Benefits

    Reliable energy source in all weather conditions, temperatures, and locations.
    Fully factory-assembled and transportable in shipping containers via rail, barge, and truck.
    Above-ground installation requires minimum ground disruption with less than a 2-acre footprint.
    Minimal onsite personnel required for operation/maintenance/security.
    Seamless, reliable pairing with wind, solar, and hydro with grid forming or grid following capabilities.
    Ability to immediately load-follow and load-shed within milliseconds.
    Can provide process heat for district heating or high-grade heat for industrial applications.
    Flexible energy with scale-up and scale-down capabilities.

    https://youtu.be/u7zNs2nueQM

    50

    • #
      Graeme No.3

      I cannot find out its generating capacity. Might be below One MWh when we need something that replaces at least 700MWh.
      We might be better to get the Koreans to install several reactors as they did with 4 units in the UAE inside 10 years. But the first 8 years were taken up by Regulatory Approval. Probably 30 years for our Canberra mob.
      Otherwise we might install CCGTs but these need gas so unlikely to get approval.
      The other possible way might be replacing current plants with HELE types and ignoring the UN/IPCC waffle (as per those emitting current (human) CO2 about 86%).

      50

  • #
    Neville

    We know that toxic W & S have to be replaced every 15 to 20 years, but do these toxic disasters really save any co2 emissions? Here’s an explanation about Wind energy and the co2 costs over a very short period of time.

    How much CO2 gets emitted to build a wind turbine? – http://www.cairnsnews.org

    “Now, considered the manufacture of the thousands of pylons and tens of thousands of kilometres of transmission wire needed to get the power to the grid. And what about the land space needed to house thousands of these bird chomping death machines?”

    “Renewables like wind turbines will incur far more carbon dioxide emissions in their manufacture and installation than what their operational life will ever save”.

    “Doesn’t the false pollution “cure” of using wind turbines sound worse than the problem? A bit like amputating your leg to “cure” your in-growing toe nail?
    Germany’s Renewable Energy Fail: German CO2 Emissions 10 Times Higher than Nuclear- France
    Germany has added 30,000 wind turbines and millions of solar panels to a coal fired grid and its carbon dioxide gas emissions continue to rise and are magnitudes higher than its nuclear-powered neighbour, France”.

    50

  • #
    Neville

    Interesting to note the difference between France and Germany over the last 34 years or longer.
    Population of Germany 84 million and France 66.6 million = 1.26times the population.
    Germany 1.5% of global co2 emissions and France just 0.7% = 2.1 times the co2 emissions for Germany.
    Germany’s electricity costs are very high and France’s electricity costs are very low, because France relies on about 70% of their electricity from Nuclear energy.
    Of course Germany has wasted tens of billions of $ on toxic W & S for decades and SFA to show for their lunacy. Also a cost of jobs and industry to China etc.

    80

  • #
    Neville

    Again why would we want to waste trillions of $ on toxic W & S generation of electricity?
    In 20 years we could only rely on 6 years worth of wind and 3 years worth of solar generation.
    Are we barking mad or what?
    And what do we rely on for the other (W) 70% or 14 years and (S) 85% or 17 years of zero electricity generation? Angel dust?
    Of course we also destroy thousands of klms of our environments as well.

    60

  • #
    TdeF

    And the 35% CO2 carbon credit scam on all our 250 ‘biggest polluters’. Which will be added to your cost of shipping and all airfares and all factories and all smelters. Whyalla, Port Kembla, Alcoa, Port Pirie, all mines. Rivers of cash to go overseas in Australia Carbon Credits. Except no one knows it is happening while the biggest manufacturer of long steel products fights to survive. The chemistry manufacturers have closed. Glass will go. And your rates will soar with the MMBW having to pay on sewage and you will even pay more to be buried.

    80

    • #
      TdeF

      And because this is not a ‘tax’, the government does not even have to report on the cash. It’s off budget. Not their money. Your money and their laws. To save the planet, when no one can explain how.

      100

    • #
      David Maddison

      Again, why is the fake conservative Liberal Party silent about this?

      Because they must support it. Was it their idea TdeF like most other renewables/CO2 madness?

      70

      • #
        TdeF

        The new class of politicians just wants a job. No principles. No vision. No passion. Whatever it takes.

        Liberal voters cannot bring themselves to vote Labor. So why not adopt Labor policies?

        Labor think the same way so they adopt Green/Teal policies.

        But the Greens are communists.

        And the Teals are doctor’s wives and middle aged cat ladies who vote with the Greens. Because they care.

        So the Labor Party now supports Hezbollah and the Chinese Communists party and hates Israel and the Jews. Who cares what Labor voters think?
        Or Liberal voters for that matter?

        Whoever takes the lie of man made Climate Change head on will halve electricity costs in one day. And resuscitate Australian industry. Especially the gigantic smelting industry. With iron ore and really cheap energy and black anthracite, we could undercut China. Which is why we are being shut down.

        70

  • #
    Lance

    Perhaps it is time to bet against the AU economy. From a business standpoint, it is an opportunity to Short the stocks of all energy intensive AU industries. Given the AU government, it is almost surely a guaranteed win.

    I know this is an evil thought, but it is a pragmatic thought. Why not profit from the failures of your own govt?

    (Father Forgive Me, For I have Sinned)

    160

    • #
      TdeF

      The government will nationalize them to prevent the massive job loss. And pay them to do nothing. So your shares will be worthless. This is happening in the UK where they no longer make new steel and only melt old steel. Even then with fake electricity prices, they cannot compete.

      Australia under Howard invented the secret ripoff in the electricity prices called the Renewable Energy(Electricity) Act of 2001. Green certificates have to be bought for all polluting energy, forcing them out of business and enriching the wind and solar people and their ‘investors’. Billions for nothing. And the government does not even have to answer questions in parliament because it’s all off budget.

      This theft was copied in the UK and has brought the country to its knees. The UK does not even use its own coal. They buy wood pellets from the US. Absolutely unbelievable. The home of the industrial revolution crippled by ignorance and a lie pushed by politicians.

      40

    • #
      Mike Jonas

      You can put your money into the USA without it leaving the ASX. There are USA ETFs like IVV and SPY and various others to choose from.
      NB. I’m not recommending anything.

      10

  • #
    Murray Shaw

    LOL, so my air conditioner becomes a virtual Power Plant by my switching it off.
    Really you could not make this stuff up. This is Professorial level intelligence that must be pedaled in higher learning institutions to start turning up in our bureaucracy.
    We are lost!

    101

    • #
      YallaYPoora Kid

      And if you have solar you can reduce the input to the grid that causes overvoltage by switching your aircon on. Power generation control at your fingertips!

      80

  • #
    Neville

    Again Zoe Hilton of the CIS proves that Coal electricity generation is much cheaper than toxic W & S.
    The CSIRO and B O Bowen just use more BS and fra-d to try and fool the Aussie voters before the election next year.
    Unbelievable but true.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXIjVavFS8U

    100

    • #
      Graeme4

      Thanks for that. Even more problems now being picked up with GenCost. I believe that it would be beneficial if CSI or IPA were to generate a detailed report listing the many errors of GrnCost.

      20

  • #
    Neville

    More problems for Europe if the winter turns nasty and gas prices are starting to increase already.
    I can’t see Trump being too sympathetic next year and the EU will have to copy the Trudeau loony and hopefully wake up to reality.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISCPwbmE0Pg

    60

  • #
    DOC

    No wonder there is so much pushing of EVs and now talk of home batteries with rooftop solar panels.
    The whole deal is to have people generate their own power but the suppliers to have the switches to take control of the system and its power.
    It’s a bit like the old argument about farm dams. You put them in, get them full. But if push comes to shove in a dry time, or there could be ‘community needs’, officials may take control of the water. Or it could be taxed.
    Those very expensive word smiths hired by governments have to earn a living!

    80

    • #
      TdeF

      It was the same in the bushfires. You were not allowed clear around your house/farm. And one farmer was fined $140,000 for doing so. Then when the fires came everyone went to his house because they would be safe. But he still had to pay the massive fine on common sense.

      The same absurdity is in all farming now. Grow trees not food. We can import the food with the money earned by manufacturing, except we cannot afford to do that because we are not allowed use coal or gas either.

      And when governments get desperate because they do not have enough money, just steal from the farmers and businesses. As Margaret Thatcher said, socialism is fine until you run out of other people’s money.

      We now have socialist energy. And we solve the problem by paying people not to work. This only makes sense to the politicians who retire on other people’s money.

      50

  • #
    markx

    Orwellian double-speak :

    The “purchased electricity use reduction” is now called a “virtual power plant” ???!!!

    We are being managed by idiots who think we are all fools. Unfortunately there seem to be a lot of fools out there who accept this drivel.

    80

  • #
  • #
    Mike Haseler

    Anyone care to speculate why Russia was funding green groups?

    Anyone care to speculate why Russia can produce armaments at 3x the rate of the entire west?

    80

  • #
    David of Cooyal in Oz

    Finding these words in an ABC article came as a big aurprise, almost a shock, to me:

    ” That’s a problem when 90 per cent of Australia’s coal-fired power stations — the backbone of the energy grid — are due to close in a decade. ”

    And the story:
    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-12-08/how-coalition-used-labors-nuclear-inquiry-to-their-own-advantage/104689768

    Cheers
    Dave B

    50

  • #
    Neville

    Another recent informed interview from Gerard Holland and backs up the detailed data from Zoe Hilton from the CIS.
    But where’s the MSM and why do they promote the BS and nonsense from the CSIRO, Labor, Teals and Greens?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ka1x_IRHEQ

    20

  • #
    another ian

    FWIW – international recognition foe “ElBowen”!

    “Y2Kyoto: Blunder Down Under”

    https://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2024/12/07/y2kyoto-blunder-down-under-2/

    10

  • #
    Ronin

    There is a simple way to gauge if something is working and fit for purpose, you never hear about it, it is never written about, it is not on the 6 o’clock news, no one complains about it.

    Our power grid is not that anonymous entity.

    50

    • #
      David Maddison

      Our power grid is not that anonymous entity.

      It used to be, back in the day.

      It just worked, and at some of the world’s cheapest prices which was a competitive advantage for Australia.

      Now the Left are fully committed to its destruction.

      Pioneers who build Australia’s electricity grid such as Sir John Monash (in Victoria) would be appalled.

      20

      • #
        Ronin

        Correct, no one worried about power bills, and we used to fill our cars up on Friday night without even looking at the price on the pump, service stations didn’t even have price boards out the front in Brisbane, that came up from Victoria in the mid 1970’s.

        30

  • #
    David Maddison

    A nostalgic video from 1948 about the Yallourn Power Station, from a time when it seemed Australia had a bright future. (I have posted it before but it is worth reposting.)

    https://youtu.be/eWXFnVT5Wj0

    Note the information from Film Australia beneath the video saying how brown coal produces a lot of CO2 which is one of the Big Lies of the Left and used to demonise brown coal. Australia had developed drying technology.

    30

  • #
    David Maddison

    What the herd hates most is the one who thinks differently; it is not so much the opinion itself, but the audacity of wanting to think for themselves, something that they do not know how to do.” — Arthur Schopenhauer

    30

  • #
    David Maddison

    I find listening to politicians and senior public serpents speak and their staggering cluelessness disturbing.

    30

    • #
      Greg in NZ

      It’s a universal problem – or is that too grandiose, should I use ™️global™️ – the radio station is changed or it’s turned off (gave up TV last century).

      What’s more grating (if that’s possible) is the authorised/OKd sabotage of English language and grammar whilst adopting the [incorrectly labelled] indigenous tongue and woe betide anyone who mispronounces that sacred lingo – half of which is modern pidgin mumbo-jumbo anyway.

      And something which has become prominent during the last 2 years is the inability of ‘newsreaders’ – who once upon a time spoke coherently – to read and deliver items without fumbling stumbling repeating losing-their-place & miss-reading words … as if something between the brain and the mouth has (“that’s a good question!”) malfunctioned.

      20

  • #
    John Connor II

    No Thursday, Saturday or Sunday opens?
    The finishing touches on the bunker, Jo? 😉

    Meanwhile, let’s see how people are faring in Russia with war, sanctions and energy headaches and compare it to the west.

    https://citizenwatchreport.com/tucker-carlson-was-shocked-when-he-paid-for-a-weeks-worth-of-groceries-in-sanctioned-russia-video/

    Looks better than Oz and the ripoff top 2 supermarkets that want to go renewables.😆

    30

  • #
    David Maddison

    A Government-(taxpayer)-funded business.

    What could possibly go wrong?

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-12-06/rare-earths-refinery-government-funding/104695754

    In short:
    The federal government is investing $475 million in a rare earths refinery in Western Australia.

    It is aimed at increasing domestic refining of critical minerals, which are key to technologies used in the transition to green energy.

    What’s next?
    The government hopes its investment will establish a sovereign supply chain, given China currently has a near monopoly on the market.

    There is no limit to how much of taxpayer money the Government is prepared to throw away on this insanity.

    And if there is a viable market for the rare earths, then there is no need for Government funding, especially as the banks love giving money for unreliables-related projects, but not real power stations.

    20

  • #

    I am just trying to get onto the internet and I am being blocked. Welcome to 1984.

    30

  • #
    Greg in NZ

    Sunday blank-blank Sunday:

    Saved screenshots of Tasmania’s Mt Mawson ski slope and base huts this morning lightly dusted with either snow, sleet or hail, scorching on an existential 1 degree above freezing.

    The same complex storm’s warm-front crossed the South Island today with howling nor‘westers (high-20s in the east) while it was persisting down in the west. Above it all, Mt Cook and surrounds were in total whiteout blizzard conditions, -3 max, -14 min, -30 windchill in 100+ km/h gales and snowing…

    ‘Climate change’ summer-style 2024.

    10

  • #
    Leabrae

    First, the term “expert” is now meaningless.

    Secondly, Australia is neither a first nor third world country. Under the guise of net zero etc. it has increasingly determined upon a command or second-world economy and polity with the Soviet Union, despite being dead for well over thirty years, as its guide. I recall reading again and again as an undergraduate that the Labor Party was not a socialist party. This was a lie; the assertion was a mere convenience with which to lull the electorate. Now, with the climate scam, the socialist project is exceeding vigorous (failing but busy).

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