Hilariously, in a if-you-didn’t-laugh-you’d-cry sort of way, there is a thing called the ‘Australia-Germany Climate and Energy College’ at the University of Melbourne. As if they’re actively researching and comparing notes on how to do the world’s stupidest energy transition.
Strangely it seems to have completely failed to predict Germany’s current travails, let alone draw their lessons for Australia.
I'm wondering when the benefits of HELE coal fired plants will be proposed. I mean, last time I looked, we've got a shed load of the world's finest black coal. Imagine the competitive advantage that could mean for Australian industry. Anyone else noticed this?
Option 1 is “No net zero” with cheap and reliable power from new coal burners. Capital investment is $103 billion with retail prices potentially decreasing by 25%. Pillage of forests and farmland stops.
It’s a shame there isn’t a law set in concrete which holds politicians ( state, federal and council) plus the so called public servants accountable with pensions/ super removed and jail time as well.
They may all may think twice when peddling rubbish.
They love to make laws for the private industry but not themselves
And supportive of high roller renewable folks from teals and Liberals organised by lobbyists managing political careers aided mightily by the union super cabal.
Running through the items in this great review of the state of play.
This path-breaking video from the Five Dock Climate Realist group explains that the German energiewende was officially dead in the water in 2018, it just took them a long time to get over the Greens and Stasi Merkel.
The triple failure of the green transition in Germany
Even stranger than the initial turn to wind is the current push to massively expand offshore wind in the North Sea where the oil and gas platforms have recorded massive dunkelflautes for sixty years! See the second half of this piece.
Stephen Anthony argues Australia’s electricity system has drifted away from the physical fundamentals that make grids work.
Yes but he is still missing the point that there is no place on the grid for wind and solar. There has not been any transition from conventional power (including coal) worldwide and there never will be.
It really helps to come to the energy system after doing enough research to write a book on climate science so you know that both warming and CO2 have been, and will continue to be, unequivocally beneficial, up to any climate change scenario that is scientifically credible.
Brilliant summary - thank-you for your work. Coming from regional Tamworth where 75,000 hectares of our electorate alone is under threat from non-renewables factories. What is under threat? Prime agricultural land, native forests, waterways and all that live from and in them - human, flora and fauna. Secondary are safety, jobs, hardworking peoples main investment and lifestyles. Who needs food when you can have expensive, intermittent power anyway?
Well done, Chris, your last sentence really hits the nail on the head: “… dispatchable power is essential — and in Australia that reality arrives well before nuclear even enters the conversation.
People need to remember that affordable and dispatchable base load power gave us the prosperity that we have enjoyed for decades. As is now becoming readily apparent, our prosperity is no more.
After a decade or three of driving our base load power generators out of the market, in favour of unreliable intermittent renewable generators - all on borrowed funds - we no longer enjoy the benefits of reliable and affordable base load electricity supply.
Regaining our sources of reliable and affordable base load power is the only way that we will restore the prosperity which is essential for our future resilience. Until we do this, advanced power generation technologies like fast nuclear reactors will remain a distant and unaffordable dream.
People who seem to care, like Stephen Price (below), should be reassured that Australia has enjoyed the benefits of HELE coal-fired power plants over recent decades, and these modern plants are usually supplied with the lowest-grade (cheapest), coal you’ll never see.
But, we have Blackout Bowen who maintains that ALL coal-fired power plants are “dirty and unreliable”. Stephen, perhaps you can have a word to The Man, and his followers.
I am surprised Egyppius hasn’t supplied a translation of Merz’ speech but I guess he and all Germans are trying to deal with the, darkness, so cold temperatures and burying snow across the Northern hemisphere. We on the other hand have to deal with Summer, hiding in air conditioning and completely foolish and weak politicians with a few exceptions. The German have them too. It’s bold for Merz to say all this. He depends on a SPD, Grune, Linke coalition to remain as chancellor and keep that pesky AfD out of power, even though they should be the party in coalition with the CDU.
I would love to see Bowen chide the Saudi’s on their oil reserves. A lesson in reality will follow. Considering the tinderbox the ME is, Bowen will be in for some life lessons.
I've been meaning to ask people on this - do you believe batteries could ever compensate for the dynamic nature of renewable energy production? Or are we going to need other sources like nuclear to make up for those fluctuations in generation?
Why do we need the cost and complexity of nuclear when we have abundant supplies of coal and it’s a legal technology which we are highly experienced with?
Sorry, but you must be genuinely blind if you haven't done enough research to find how much battery capacity (and cost) would be required to get through a windless night with no coal or gas or nuclear in the system.
No data no cred. Just talk like the article itself and the rest of the comments. Talk is cheap, numbers tell the story. The real ones, not those produced by the climate denial fantasy factories you all subscribe to (or are employed by. Taking Gina’s filthy money yeh?)
Hilariously, in a if-you-didn’t-laugh-you’d-cry sort of way, there is a thing called the ‘Australia-Germany Climate and Energy College’ at the University of Melbourne. As if they’re actively researching and comparing notes on how to do the world’s stupidest energy transition.
Strangely it seems to have completely failed to predict Germany’s current travails, let alone draw their lessons for Australia.
I'm wondering when the benefits of HELE coal fired plants will be proposed. I mean, last time I looked, we've got a shed load of the world's finest black coal. Imagine the competitive advantage that could mean for Australian industry. Anyone else noticed this?
BURN COAL OR DIE IN THE DARK
https://rafechampion.substack.com/p/burn-coal-in-australia-or-die-in
https://rafechampion.substack.com/p/four-energy-futures-for-australia
Option 1 is “No net zero” with cheap and reliable power from new coal burners. Capital investment is $103 billion with retail prices potentially decreasing by 25%. Pillage of forests and farmland stops.
https://rafechampion.substack.com/p/slowing-the-rise-of-power-prices
It’s a shame there isn’t a law set in concrete which holds politicians ( state, federal and council) plus the so called public servants accountable with pensions/ super removed and jail time as well.
They may all may think twice when peddling rubbish.
They love to make laws for the private industry but not themselves
And supportive of high roller renewable folks from teals and Liberals organised by lobbyists managing political careers aided mightily by the union super cabal.
Do you sense pickpockets in the market place?
Perhaps the movement of Danielle Wood from the Grattan Institute to the Productivty Commission was purposeful to consolidate energy folly?
Running through the items in this great review of the state of play.
This path-breaking video from the Five Dock Climate Realist group explains that the German energiewende was officially dead in the water in 2018, it just took them a long time to get over the Greens and Stasi Merkel.
The triple failure of the green transition in Germany
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BT3msy7nvFw
Even stranger than the initial turn to wind is the current push to massively expand offshore wind in the North Sea where the oil and gas platforms have recorded massive dunkelflautes for sixty years! See the second half of this piece.
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/a-curious-tale-of-the-north-sea-winds/
The wind drought story has reached Britain in this remarkable account by Paul Burgess.
https://substack.com/home/post/p-180089713
How much has Merz really learned?
Stephen Anthony argues Australia’s electricity system has drifted away from the physical fundamentals that make grids work.
Yes but he is still missing the point that there is no place on the grid for wind and solar. There has not been any transition from conventional power (including coal) worldwide and there never will be.
https://rafechampion.substack.com/p/its-time-to-simplify-the-grid
https://rafechampion.substack.com/p/the-green-energy-transition-is-all
It really helps to come to the energy system after doing enough research to write a book on climate science so you know that both warming and CO2 have been, and will continue to be, unequivocally beneficial, up to any climate change scenario that is scientifically credible.
https://www.amazon.com.au/s?k=Rafe+Champion&i=stripbooks&crid=GZ66NWUYZ193&sprefix=rafe+champion%2Cstripbooks%2C262&ref=nb_sb_noss
Brilliant summary - thank-you for your work. Coming from regional Tamworth where 75,000 hectares of our electorate alone is under threat from non-renewables factories. What is under threat? Prime agricultural land, native forests, waterways and all that live from and in them - human, flora and fauna. Secondary are safety, jobs, hardworking peoples main investment and lifestyles. Who needs food when you can have expensive, intermittent power anyway?
Well done, Chris, your last sentence really hits the nail on the head: “… dispatchable power is essential — and in Australia that reality arrives well before nuclear even enters the conversation.
People need to remember that affordable and dispatchable base load power gave us the prosperity that we have enjoyed for decades. As is now becoming readily apparent, our prosperity is no more.
After a decade or three of driving our base load power generators out of the market, in favour of unreliable intermittent renewable generators - all on borrowed funds - we no longer enjoy the benefits of reliable and affordable base load electricity supply.
Regaining our sources of reliable and affordable base load power is the only way that we will restore the prosperity which is essential for our future resilience. Until we do this, advanced power generation technologies like fast nuclear reactors will remain a distant and unaffordable dream.
People who seem to care, like Stephen Price (below), should be reassured that Australia has enjoyed the benefits of HELE coal-fired power plants over recent decades, and these modern plants are usually supplied with the lowest-grade (cheapest), coal you’ll never see.
But, we have Blackout Bowen who maintains that ALL coal-fired power plants are “dirty and unreliable”. Stephen, perhaps you can have a word to The Man, and his followers.
I am surprised Egyppius hasn’t supplied a translation of Merz’ speech but I guess he and all Germans are trying to deal with the, darkness, so cold temperatures and burying snow across the Northern hemisphere. We on the other hand have to deal with Summer, hiding in air conditioning and completely foolish and weak politicians with a few exceptions. The German have them too. It’s bold for Merz to say all this. He depends on a SPD, Grune, Linke coalition to remain as chancellor and keep that pesky AfD out of power, even though they should be the party in coalition with the CDU.
I would love to see Bowen chide the Saudi’s on their oil reserves. A lesson in reality will follow. Considering the tinderbox the ME is, Bowen will be in for some life lessons.
What an article Chris!
I've been meaning to ask people on this - do you believe batteries could ever compensate for the dynamic nature of renewable energy production? Or are we going to need other sources like nuclear to make up for those fluctuations in generation?
Why do we need the cost and complexity of nuclear when we have abundant supplies of coal and it’s a legal technology which we are highly experienced with?
Great piece Chris thanks!
Upgrading high entropy diffuse energy is hard and expensive. Down grading low entropy highly dense energy is easy and cheap.
It's all good Chris - according to the SMH wholesale prices are "tumbling" because of a "landmark moment", nothing to see here...
https://www.smh.com.au/business/consumer-affairs/landmark-moment-renewables-record-surge-sends-power-prices-tumbling-20260128-p5nxmf.html
Can someone tell Chris about batteries?
Sorry, but you must be genuinely blind if you haven't done enough research to find how much battery capacity (and cost) would be required to get through a windless night with no coal or gas or nuclear in the system.
No data no cred. Just talk like the article itself and the rest of the comments. Talk is cheap, numbers tell the story. The real ones, not those produced by the climate denial fantasy factories you all subscribe to (or are employed by. Taking Gina’s filthy money yeh?)