Wednesday

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61 comments to Wednesday

  • #
    Skepticynic

    Ukraine Assassinates Russian Nuclear, Chemical and Biological Defense Chief, General Kirillov, in Moscow Bomb Blast in Major Escalation

    …a search for the perpetrators is underway for the killers of the General who dared expose the US Biolabs in Ukraine.

    “General Kirillov had ‘systematically and fearlessly exposed the heinous crimes of the Anglo-Saxons and NATO provocations’, noted Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.”

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/12/shock-video-ukraine-assassinates-russian-nuclear-chemical-biological/in

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  • #
    Hanrahan

    Why are you turning Jo’s site into Pravda Of The Pacific?

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    • #
      John F. Hultquist

      I guess the comment is meant as a Wednesday funny. Much like Baghdad Bob, Maria Zakharova is just doing her best in a difficult job. She might otherwise find herself taking a leap off a tall building.

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    • #
      Skepticynic

      Hanrahan if you think Pravda is the only media organisation promoting disinformation or misinformation then be aware you could be suffering from the Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect.
      Even the staid and ostensibly authoritative ABC has been repeatedly sprung manufacturing false information and was recently penalised by the courts to the tune of $400,000 of our taxpayer dollars for doing so.

      Trump’s impending ascension to effective power has many rats scurrying for the exits and desperate to cover their tracks.
      Lieutenant General Kirillov has many enemies among the DNC/Obama/Clinton/Deep State/MIC alliance.
      It was Kirillov who exposed Covid-19 as a man-made virus created by the US government.
      (proven true via EcoHealth Alliance, see the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability webpage excoriating Peter Daszak) https://oversight.house.gov/release/breaking-hhs-to-debar-dr-peter-daszak-president-of-ecohealth-alliance/
      Kirillov also revealed that the US government hindered a probe into the origins of Covid and exposed Pfizer and Moderna’s involvement in US military and biological games in Ukraine.

      That’s when Ukraine turned it around and claimed Kirillov and Russia were using chemical weapons against Ukraine but The Guardian reports that experts are sceptical about that.
      GlobalEuronews published highly disturbing video evidence that Ukraine was using chemical weapons against Russian troops, and laughing, boasting about it.
      https://globaleuronews.com/2023/02/09/video-evidence-of-ukraines-use-of-chemical-weapons-against-russian-troops/

      The reason for my post was to alert readers here that this assassination is a serious escalation and designed to provoke the inevitable response.
      It is inconceivable that Russian high-profile military representatives in wartime are easy to assassinate, for that reason the secret services of chemical weapons manufacturing countries such as the UK & the USA who are working alongside the Ukraine Secret Service, will likely be implicated in the criminal investigation into Kirillov’s assassination.
      The response therefore might not be confined to Ukraine.

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  • #
    TdeF

    It’s newsworthy, especially in the light of the Wuhan Flu and overseas illegal gain of function research funded by America. Russia has many secrets and so has everyone else involved in Ukraine. It’s science. Blended with politics, like all science these days. From pharmaceuticals to Climate Change. Pravda means truth and it would be great to have some. Australians were punished by China for even asking about the origins of the man made pandemic.

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  • #
    MeAgain

    Carrying from end yesterday – new ABC head appointment (#2 – a bit closer to home Hanrahan….?):

    So someone who owns a production company already producing for the ABC is appointed to run the ABC. Conflicted somewhat yeah? https://www.screenhub.com.au/news/news/the-role-of-a-lifetime-starts-production-for-abc-2647420/

    I’m less worried by the ‘toxic culture’ at 9 than by the obvious financial conflicts: https://theconversation.com/hugh-marks-is-the-new-managing-director-of-the-abc-is-he-the-right-person-for-the-job-246124 (I guess the toxic work culture is the main concern for Aussie journalists hoping for an ABC gig as a future career hop too….)

    Also just now thinking that ‘Dreamchaser’ is an odd name for a company producing ‘factual and documentary content’….

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  • #

    Food Inflation on the Rise –

    “Our models do not indicate that food inflation will ease in 2025. In fact, I have repeatedly warned that people may want to stockpile food for the next two years as there will be weather events and supply chain shortages. Our model warns that we may see another severe drought, probably between 2025 to 2027, in both the US and Canada. The drought conditions are already beginning, and this is in line with our model, which warns it will expand into the 2025-2027 period.

    Walmart CEO Doug McMillon announced last week that he expects persistent high prices at the grocery store. “I don’t know what the whole year is going to look like. I hope and I think it could be better as these commodities adjust — some of them,” he said per GroceryDrive. According to McMillon, he was “disappointed” at where food inflation was currently and cited that eggs and dairy were the main problems.

    Food prices shot up during the pandemic and never fully recovered. Then the was in Ukraine hurt Europe’s food supply in a major way. In America, the Food Industry Association conducted a study that revealed food inflation in America rose 25% since the pandemic, and recently rose 1.1% on a monthly basis in November.

    We then have those adhering to the climate change agenda reducing farmland and available cattle. They have repeatedly stated that humans simply consume too much meat, and our diets must change to reduce our carbon footprint.

    Tariffs are inflationary and always hurt the consumer and have not helped in recent years. Additional tariffs will disrupt the supply chain and cause prices to rise. Obviously this is not limited to Walmart, the grocer who perhaps sells the cheapest goods in mass. Central banks are cheering that inflation has tamed but utterly ignore the persistently high cost of basic necessities like food.”

    https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/armstrongeconomics101/inflation/food-inflation-on-the-rise/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=RSS

    Someone tell Dim Chalmers and Upgrade Albo. The RBA has already worked it out even if other Central Banks haven’t.

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    • #
      John F. Hultquist

      Our model warns that we may see another severe drought, probably between 2025 to 2027, in both the US and Canada. The drought conditions are already beginning, …”
      Our model — whose?
      Meanwhile, the U.S. Climate Prediction Center:
      https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/predictions/long_range/lead01/off01_prcp.gif
      . . . seems not to confirm “seeing” a severe drought. Further, it is snowing hard on the east slopes of the Washington Cascades — a somewhat rare event.

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    • #
      David Maddison

      There’s no doubt the Left are engaged in a war against the food supply, both in terms of cost, availability and an ongoing war against the farmers. And in Aussie supermarkets there are regular shortages of certain products like eggs (because the Government is murdering vast numbers of chickens, supposedly to control bird flu) and price escalations on others, far in excess of the supposed official inflation rate of 2.8%.

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  • #
    tonyb

    In this weeks Sunday papers there was a letter to one of these newspaper columnists that try to resolve problems. This one concerned someone who had their phone stolen. Increasingly common. The person concerned, after a great deal of problems, eventually got their money back that was stolen but was unable to retrieve thousands of family photos they had uploaded to the Cloud as Apple and others refused to take them seriously, believing it was a trivial matter

    I am no technophobe, having had a web design co in 1995 and my first Smartphone around 2008. However, I would observe that the world now seems to have gone completely internet and digital mad and none more so than our own citizens in the UK.

    The correspondent will be one of thousands (millions?) who will have their phone stolen, will suffer digital fraud, will have their details hacked from the cloud, or from one of the numerous insecure places they upload their personal and financial details to. Digital id’s are being heavily promoted which will carry not only general personal details but also health and travel details.

    All this leaves the gate wide open, not only for people to lose money or photos, but to have their complete identities stolen. The difficulties this correspondent had will be as nothing compared to trying to retrieve the whole details of their life that can now be accessed either through a stolen phone or by others hacking into the personal debris of digital information we leave strewn around all corners of the web or happily input into parking machines to buy parking time or train tickets etc..

    A nightmarish future is rapidly approaching unless we do something about it, but What? Many people seem to be quite happy to entrust their entire lives to their phones and many seem unconcerned by privacy so will not object to digital id’s. The end results will surely be not just stealing pieces of information and money, but stealing someone’s complete identity for sale on the dark web as a complete package.

    It can’t be too long before someone makes a film about identity loss and the consequences of trying to retrieve it through numerous unconcerned govt agencies and private companies.

    Dictators really don’t need to fight the West. Merely Hack into the networks controlling Smartphones and half the population will be running round in a panic. Hack into the food supply, utilities and banks and the job will be completed!

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    • #
      Robert Swan

      tonyb,

      It can’t be too long before someone makes a film about identity loss and the consequences of trying to retrieve it through numerous unconcerned govt agencies and private companies.

      Already done over 60 years ago. Happens to be my favourite Twilight Zone episode:

      Cameo of a man who has just lost his most valuable possession. He doesn’t know about the loss yet. In fact, he doesn’t even know about the possession. Because, like most people, David Gurney has never really thought about the matter of his identity. But he’s going to be thinking a great deal about it from now on, because that is what he’s lost. And his search for it is going to take him into the darkest corners of the Twilight Zone.

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    • #
      Steve of Cornubia

      I have thousands of photographs, because photography has been part of my life since I was fourteen. I also have perhaps a two hundred hours worth of video. I keep ALL of that at home, duplicated on shadow drives. I only ever use ‘the cloud’ when delivering images to clients. I simply see too many risks, especially for family photos going back to when we got married in ’75.

      It’s not foolproof though, especially at my age. I recently switched from Mac to PC and had to reconfigure my archive drives. This was laborious but relatively straightforward but, somehow, I managed to delete a year’s worth of images, on both the drive in question AND its backup. I still don’t know how I managed that. Needless to say, a client contacted me a few weeks later to say they has somehow lost the files I sent them and of course they were among those deleted. Luckily, he wasn’t mad.

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    • #
      KP

      “The end results will surely be not just stealing pieces of information and money, but stealing someone’s complete identity for sale on the dark web as a complete package.”

      First you will see beggars in the street, and know their Govt ID was stolen.

      Then you will see people missing a finger, and know the Govt insisted on fingerprint ID.

      When you see more people with only one eye you will realise Govt mandating iris scans were not a good idea!

      ..and already someone in the USA is selling life-like silicon masks of his face.

      The more complicated Govt makes ID, the more vicious criminals will become.

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    • #
      Lawrie

      You make a great point Tony. My son in law has a business that monitors utility usage by apartment in multi apartment buildings. This allows residents to pay only for their usage rather than simply a share of the whole. All data is stored in the cloud, a system beyond my ken. I have always thought it was dangerous to entrust private information to something over which we have little or no control. I prefer to keep my records on back up hard drives and financial records on paper. Old fashioned maybe but it makes me feel better and safer.

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    • #
      Ronin

      I watched a utube presentation where the gist was that your newish car is a smartphone on wheels, I didn’t know they have a sim card secreted somewhere under the dash.
      It apparently dobs on you via your phone or Android Auto or Apple Carplay, the govt, insurance companies plus other sundry miscreants and bad actors who want your data.
      They said to never plug your phone in to charge or play music, the info goes both ways.
      How much is fact I don’t know, but given the amount of data theft or covert aquisition, it’s hard to discount it.

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  • #
    David Maddison

    Australia needs a TRUMP.

    Dutton is not it, apart from that fact that his party is one of censorship (responsible for the censorship bill and e Safety Kommisar), mismanagement of covid and compulsory vaccination with a defective product, and anti nuclear (banned nuclear power twice) some of the worst anti-energy policies came from Howard (e.g. gave gas supply away to Chicomms at world’s cheapest prices, ethanol subsidy which taxpayers still pay for, allowed random generators to connect to grid, world parity petrol prices etc ).

    https://www.smh.com.au/opinion/a-disgrace-of-the-old-school-20030816-gdh99d.html

    https://www.smh.com.au/opinion/how-australia-blew-its-future-gas-supplies-20170928-gyqg0f.html

    Abbott might have been partially up to the job but look what the Left of his own party did to him.

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    • #
      Ross

      Recently there was another school shooting in the US. The same old media reaction that guns are BAD!!!!, etc, etc. Then there’s the comments in Australian media about how John Howard did such a good job with gun control in Australia. Not sure he really did , it was mostly the responsible gun owners of the country who thought some changes were necessary. It’s something John Howard is falsely given the credit for.

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    • #
      Steve of Cornubia

      ” …but look what the Left of his own party did to him.”

      That would be most of them, wouldn’t it?

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    • #
      Penguinite

      Couldn’t agree more! The Australian electorate is so fickle all we can and should do is identify and support representatives that speak truth to power! Dutton, I believe, has become just another tool of the establishment. There’s just enough rightfulness in his words to allow some limited differentiation from Labor/Green/Teal rhetoric but just under the surface lingers a WEF lout. He worked well under Tony Abbotts reflected glory but lacked the intestinal fortitude to duke it out against Turnbull/Morrison. But then the Liberal Party is destabilised with LGBTQ types that switch sides quicker than genders that makes leadership all but impossible.

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      • #
        TdeF

        Exemplified by Victorian Liberal Leader John Persutto who expelled an MP, Moira Deeming, for openly supporting the existence and rights of women. And calling her a NAZI? He is still leader? How can anyone expect Conservatives to vote Liberal when clearly the official party position is that women don’t exist? It’s not even a political position. It’s a biological fact.

        The same with Climate Change and the banning of coal, gas, wood, nuclear in Victoria. When wind and solar should be banned entirely on environmental grounds. So it’s back to the caves for us while our political betters retire on grand pensions for wrecking the joint. Australia has never had so many former politicians on lush pensions while everyone else works for them. And at no time did they ever get a real job. Public parasite is more accurate than politician.

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    • #
      GlenM

      We have failed to produce a good, strong PM in the post WW2 years. Just frontmen and all gas.

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  • #
    David Maddison

    All the nonsense of drones in the US, probably an operation of the Biden Maladministration, Chicomms, Russians or pranksters, or a combination thereof, is reminiscent of the outstanding 1970 British TV series by Gerry Anderson called UFO.

    The earth was threatened by real aliens and a secret organisation was set up called SHADO (Supreme Headquarters Alien Defence Organisation) which had a moonbase and earth assets to defend the earth against extra terrestrial invasion. Commander Straker was the leader of SHADO.

    A fantastic series.

    It was set in “the future” in 1980…

    Here are the opening credits.

    https://youtu.be/j2PoXfZdYVU

    All episodes are available on YouTube as well:

    https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUA9kG1DciUwkpW9earbzux_rdj9-bb8j&si=4bFH-vBSSP69DM8U

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    • #
      TdeF

      The scanning at night by regular grids of government drones has few good explanations. Their size, their enormous range and night scanning means not only that this is a government operation but they are looking for something. Every branch of Government makes it clear the drones are doing a valuable job. But the only thing you can see at night is radiation. The drones are looking for nuclear material around Washington, DC. The Sum of All Fears. Plutonium.

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      • #
        ghl

        The drone psyop is to provide padding to hide gaping holes in media coverage of Biden’s last days in office. I just saw a story of a judge pardoned for taking bribes to send young offenders to chosen correctional facilities. That one was reported, but only because a state governor complained. One down and 1499 to go. I bet in the middle of the pile of pardons is one for “any crime committed in their lifetime or otherwise by anyone accidentally mis-lassified as died in custody”
        Any hostility to the Biden gang will be reflected as support for Trump investigations and so must be avoided.
        I saw a report that a pardon was being considered for Fauci. Why? Think about that one.
        Merry Christmas all.

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      • #
        Ronin

        They seem to be concentrated around New Jersey, fair way from DC.

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    • #
      Philip

      If aliens discovered earth they would do a climate analysis, find the biosphere is about to be unsuitable for life and keep looking. Right?

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    • #

      Top stuff David. I had forgotten how good it was in the day. Thanks and that will be good watching. I missed a lot of episodes as I was an 18 year old at the time and a big follower of my football team – Spurs. A tragic I know and still am. LOL

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  • #
    David Maddison

    The new managing director of Their ABC Australia comes from Channel 9, itself a highly woke organisation.

    So, as with all new ABC staff, we can expect “more of the same” with no possibility of reform

    I think when Ita Buttrose was appointed Chair, the Thinking Community thought their might be some reform, but then, one of her first pronouncements was that she could see no bias in the organisation.

    ABC costs taxpayers over one billion dollars per year and has outlived its usefulness, if indeed it ever had any, and should be wound up.

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    • #
      TdeF

      What’s the difference between Pravda and the ABC? Nothing if a Labor/Green group is in power. Most importantly, they generate multi billion dollar losses annually.
      Sell off the ABC/SBS/CSIRO/BOM and all the Clean Energy ripoff quangos. And find out why $42Billion a year for aboriginals does no visible good.
      The cost of living for Australians would drop sharply.

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    • #
      Ronin

      “ABC costs taxpayers over one billion dollars per year and has outlived its usefulness, if indeed it ever had any, and should be wound up.”

      And if memory serves me correct, they are being gifted another $40M.

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  • #
    David Maddison

    Supposedly wind and solar plantation subsidies will be removed in Australia in 2030.

    What happens then?

    Given that electricity from wind and solar is several times more expensive than from coal, gas, nuclear or real hydro (not SH2) power stations the wind and solar plantations will go put of business overnight.

    How will the scam operate then?

    And why are they still building these plantations if subsidies will end in five years?

    I’m sure the operators have been told the scam will be extended.

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    • #
      RickWill

      How will the scam operate then?

      The new system is already in operation with Federal Government auctions:

      The federal Labor government has effectively abandoned the long standing renewable energy target and will take a hands-on policy approach through a series of auctions to secure 32GW of new wind, solar and storage capacity to meet its ambitious 82 per cent renewable energy target for 2030.

      https://reneweconomy.com.au/bowen-dumps-ret-for-32-gw-of-auctions-in-massive-policy-shift-to-fast-track-renewables/

      If you do not have your submission for Tender 3, you are too late. This is the time line:
      Timeline
      The Tender 3 timeline is as follows:

      Process commencement date 13 November 2024 – Tender Guidelines are released, registration and bid submissions open
      Registration closing date – 9 December 2024
      Stage A – Project Bid closing date – 16 December 2024
      Invitation to submit Stage B – Financial Value Bid – March 2025
      Stage B – Financial Value Bid closing date – May 2025
      Announcement of successful bid – September 2025

      Dutton is proposing Federal Funding for nuclear power stations. It will be very difficult to unwind these government guarantees for funding. So the costs will be locked in for probably 20 years from the date of the tender acceptance. The terms are commercial in confidence so the Dutton will not be privy to the terms until he gains power; if ever.

      I expect you will find the union super funds and government wealth will be heavily involved in financing the proponents because the funding is guaranteed. If the terms are similar to poles and wires then the funding model offers a guaranteed return on the capital. No one but the contract parties would know if there is any incentive to limit the capital cost.

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      • #
        RickWill

        This is the list of successful projects for Tender 1:
        https://aemoservices.com.au/tenders/CIS-Tender-1-Generation-NEM

        And this is a summary:
        Collectively, the selected projects will provide:

        Power to 3 million households, with an allocation of generation per jurisdiction of:
        3.7 GW of generation and 904 MWh of storage to New South Wales,
        1.6 GW of generation and 1,458 MWh of storage to Victoria,
        550 MW of generation and 1,200 MWh of storage to Queensland and
        574 MW allocated to South Australia.
        The Projects selected have strong local community and First Nations engagement judged against the assessment criteria, as well as meaningful contractually binding social licence commitments. The selected projects are set to deliver around $660 million of shared benefits for their local communities.
        $280 million worth of initiatives for local First Nations groups
        Over $14 billion in local content and $60 million towards local employment.

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        • #
          Graeme4

          Now reduce the nameplate values to their correct CF averages, and they are a lot lower figures.
          Solar: 2750 MW nameplate, but only 447 MW actual.

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          • #
            Graeme4

            Wind: 3040 MW nameplate, 912 MW actual.
            And total storage: 4474 MWh nameplate, less than half a Gigawatt, into the grid that requires at least 25,000 MW every hour. Not going to add much storage – about 10 mins. Wow…

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          • #
            RickWill

            There is no correct CF. My off-grid solar panels were cost optimised to give lowest overall system cost when paired with large format lithium batteries. Those panels operate at a CF of 4%.

            Every new wind farm and solar farm is competing for reducing demand due to rooftop uptake. That guarantees declining CFs from what would be their unconstrained CFs. Generators in Victoria, South Australia and NSW are offloading now for economic reasons. That inevitably reduces their CF.

            That is why all these projects are underwritten by government. No commercial investor is going to expose themselves to the obvious demand risk.

            My prediction is that individuals with capital will abandon the grid. Under these new project arrangements, the government will carry an ever increasing proportion of the costs. Consumers may be insulated from the rising costs to some degree. Costs will fall more broadly on taxpayers.

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            • #
              Graeme4

              For home systems yes. But surely for any system that wants to supply energy to a large grid, then the CF value must be taken into account? Especially when comparing different energy system costs. I’m fed up with renewables enthusiasts always quoting nameplate values, then comparing them to reliable energy sources such as coal, gas and nuclear.

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              • #
                RickWill

                The ISP calls for 127GW of grid scale wind and solar and 72GW of rooftops by 2050 to meet something like 40GW of demand. There are new gas plants and existing hydro. So assume 30GW is met by the wind and solar. The CF is 30/199 – say 15% CF.

                The grid can get higher than my 4% because I do not want the complication of gas generation. The added complexity of that is not worth the trouble although I aim to have a small diesel generator to top up the battery if ever needed.

                You will gradually see capacity factors declining as all the new capacity gets powered up. That is why the proponents need government guarantees. And you can bet there will be political backlash if rooftop owners find they are being throttled to give Blackout’ mates better access to the demand.

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      • #
        RickWill

        Dutton may be able to halt the Tender 2 process for the Federal Government but the State governments are involved in the tender process.

        This has the time line for Tender 2:
        https://aemoservices.com.au/tenders/cis-tender-2-wem-dispatchable

        Successful bids will not be announced until March 2025.

        Tender 1 has issued its list of successful projects:
        https://wattclarity.com.au/articles/2024/12/standalone-solar-and-wind-dominate-list-of-19-successful-projects-from-latest-cis-tender/

        Without details of the terms, I do not know what the obligations are for these projects to be shiut down or penalties if they cannot be advanced. They may not even be feasible for a whole lot of reasons.

        I honestly see no value in grid scale solar. The market is essentially saturated unless it is linked to load shifting storage.

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          Graeme4

          It’s almost impossible to establish the true cost of these useless projects. Even RenewEconomy expressed sone concerns about that. Also many projects appear to have clauses that allow them to keep increasing their sale charges every year.

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          • #
            RickWill

            It’s almost impossible to establish the true cost of these useless projects

            Not true. By design they are IMPOSSIBLE to work out the cost. Blackout is in a position to offer any of his mates as much as they want and no one would know. It will be impossible to work out the real cost of electricity supply in Australia.

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      • #
        David Maddison

        Thank you for that analysis Rick.

        So are you saying that it won’t be possible to reduce Australian electricity prices for at least 20 years, if ever?

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        • #
          Graeme4

          Surely the govts would be able to re-negotiate those parts of a supply contract as they came up for renewal each year?

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        • #
          RickWill

          I cannot see Australia having competitive electricity prices this century.

          The conditions that enabled Australia to be one of the most competitive electricity suppliers in the world back in 2000 are now history. It would take a mammoth, focused effort to get back to the capability that existed back then.

          The current education system is training people for wind and solar power. Australia is ranked very low for education in nuclear power technology. It may improve a bit with the nuclear submarine program but few young people see a future in nuclear power engineering. CSIRO are openly and actively condemning nuclear power.

          Australian nuclear teaching programs are ranked very low internationally:
          https://edurank.org/engineering/nuclear/au/

          By the end of the century, both China and India will be working harder to find coal and at greater cost. They may make arrangements with Australia to burn coal here as the basis of efficient energy intensive industry rather than Australia just exporting coal. We may yet see a new Chinese owned aluminium smelter on the Gippsland coast.

          The Chinese population is in decline so their coal may last longer than I anticipate but it will get more expensive to mine diminishing reserves. At the present time they are maintaining reserves at 157bn tonne (say 30 year supply). I have no idea how much they need to spend on exploration to maintain that 30 year buffer but would be surprised if it is not costing more each year.

          India has been rapidly increasing its coal reserves with a nationally focused effort through their Ministry of Coal. India now has a total identified resource of 378bn tonne – more than 100 years at present rate but rate is accelerating.

          USA has natural gas as a by=product of petroleum production so it is essentially free. They have a huge competitive advantage in electricity cost using NG. Australia is under explored from its oil potential.

          The main take away here is that India has a Ministry of Coal. Australia has a minister for fairy farts, pixie dust and diversity fairies. I predict India will have greater future success with energy intensive industry than Australia and, accordingly, lower electricity prices.

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    • #
      Hanrahan

      Once built they will operate ’til they die. If the company that built it goes broke, the liquidators will continue to operate it ’til sold for pennies in the dollar, ad infinitum.

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  • #

    I was always taught that you needed carbon to make steel. So how does this work BHP and RIO and BlueScope?

    “Rio Tinto, BHP and BlueScope will join forces to develop a new ironmaking electric smelting furnace (ESF) pilot plant in Kwinana, Western Australia.

    The plant, dubbed “Australia’s largest”, will test technology to enable the use of Pilbara iron ore to produce iron without using traditional blast furnaces in a bid to accelerate decarbonisation in steelmaking.

    The three majors will unite under the NeoSmelt name, leveraging Rio Tinto’s and BHP’s knowledge of Pilbara iron ore with BlueScope’s operating experience in ESF technology. Woodside Energy will also join the group as an equal equity participant and energy supplier.

    WA Premier Roger Cook welcomed the announcement, saying NeoSmelt will position WA at the cutting edge of emission reduction.

    “Putting the global steel industry on the pathway to zero emissions means more jobs in processing in WA, and a strong future for WA’s iron ore industry,” he said.

    The ESF pilot plant is set to produce 30,000–40,000 tonnes of molten iron a year, with the potential to open a pathway to near-zero emissions steelmaking in the Pilbara.”

    https://www.australianmining.com.au/rio-tinto-bhp-at-the-helm-of-wa-steelmaking-furnace/

    So they are making Iron and not Steel. Are you lot serious or just deluded like Blackout Bowen?

    “with the potential to open a pathway to near-zero emissions steelmaking in the Pilbara”

    Try and make steel without carbon. What a load of BS.

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    • #
      Graeme4

      The plant is to built on the site of BHP’s nickel plant that’s now shut down. The electricity will have mostly come from gas and coal. Solar will help on sunny days for a few hours. Wind is all over the place and is totally unreliable. Virtually no firming/storage available.

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      • #
        Hanrahan

        The plant is to built on the site of BHP’s nickel plant that’s now shut down.

        Does anyone remember the history of this plant?

        I have memories of one nickel plant where they tried a new way to refine ore that current technology doesn’t like to handle. It was an expensive disaster but trying a search the answers were all about current closures. Seems nickel is in the doldrums.

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      RickWill

      Rio and BHP have both flushed billions down the crapper through the HiSmelt and HBI failures.

      Having been involved in major mining R$D, I do not see much prospect of success. And the underlying reason is wrong. It is based on a scam.

      It would be a different situation if they were looking to improve steelmaking productivity but they are not. The exercise starts with a flawed understanding of climate science. They would be smarter to spend a few dollars investigating the science behind climate models before wasting more billions.

      You would have to think that they are about 10 years behind the game embarking on this now. The landscape has changed dramatically since Trump started his second term.

      30

    • #
      Ronin

      You wouldn’t build a ship with it, might be ok for reo for concrete slabs.

      00

  • #
    Ronin

    Flinders Island, diesel 99%, wind 1%.

    10

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