A guest post by Bill Stinson, one of my colleagues in The Energy Realists of Australia and author of an important survey of damage inflicted on the planet through the life-cycle of wind and solar projects. The Dark Side of Renewable Energy.
“As ye sow, so shall ye reap” – Galatians 6:7.
Australia is without leadership. Australian politicians live in a fantasy world, believing that Australia is somehow immune from the energy crisis currently affecting Europe and the United Kingdom. For at least the past twenty years, Europe and the United Kingdom have, lemming-like, invested hundreds of billions of Euros building wind farms and PV solar farms, which depend upon the vagaries of the weather to generate electricity. This reliance has left them so vulnerable, that they are now rushing to bring mothballed coal-fired power stations and nuclear reactors back online, in an attempt, to save their citizens from what is predicted to be a harsh winter.
Australian politicians continue to legislate and enter into United Nations agreements, which will deliver the same disastrous energy outcome for Australian citizens and businesses, that has now befallen Europe and the United Kingdom.
The problem
If you were told that by paying subsidies on your energy bill you would be subsidising an increase in the cost of your energy, would you continue to accept that this was a sensible thing to do. This is what Australian citizens and Australian businesses are doing right now.
Every energy bill collects environmental subsidies which support the development of wind farms and PV solar farms which hastens the closing down of reliable, affordable and dispatchable energy from coal fired power stations. When these coal fired power stations are taken out of service, unlike the European and United Kingdom governments who mothball them, Australian governments condone the destruction of our coal-fired power stations, so they can’t be repurposed, using small modular reactors for energy production.
Australian governments continue to pursue policies supporting the rollout of environmentally destructive, technologically inefficient and toxic wind farms, PV solar farms and batteries. Images of coal-fired power stations being blown up is a metaphor for the disastrous energy policies of governments of all political persuasions, both State and Federal.
We are fundamentally changing our energy generation capability from reliable coal-fired generation (which can easily be upgraded to nuclear
generation) to environmentally destructive, technologically inefficient, toxic, unreliable PV solar and wind generation from a tenuous forced labour supply chain.
The solution
Energy security is national security, so the focus needs to be on energy independence.
Fail to plan, plan to fail.
Short-term solution – remove the subsidies being provided to renewable energy generators and redirect them to coal-fired power stations. This will give security to the owners of the generators, enable them to provide proper maintenance to the generators and improve reliability and increase longevity. Similarly, payments to companies for loadshedding could be redirected to the reliable generation companies.
Long term solution – Small Modular Reactors (SMRS) can be used to repower existing coal-fired power stations. SMR Technology, an Australian company, has published a report entitled “A Just Transition to Low-Emissions Technology. Repowering Coal Fired Power Stations in Australia with SMRS”.
For those who don’t believe SMRs are sufficiently developed, the UTAH Associated Municipal Power Systems (UAMPS) in the USA have contracted with Nuscale (SMR developer and manufacturer), to build a six-module (462Mwe) SMR plant programmed to be operational in 2029. A Nuscale press release in February 2021 reported that their scalable SMR plants will be operational by the end of the decade. Nuscale SMRs have received design approval from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Meg O’Neill, Woodside’s CEO, hit the nail on the head (“Energy Security ‘More Vital than Low Carbon,’” The Australian Financial Review, 26 May 2022):
“The customer wants energy that is reliable, affordable and lower carbon. But if it’s not reliable and affordable, lower carbon goes out the window.”
The implications are obvious: once the public recognises that “climate action” is a bigger threat to their well-being than climate change, renewables’ popularity will tumble. The “sustainable energy” lobby is a powerful vested interest, but politicians ignore the public – and particularly its hip pocket – at their peril. Accordingly, as renewables’ popularity tanks, politicians will obfuscate, weaken and eventually abandon their pious promises of “climate action.”
Summary
Australia is the only G20 country that has a ban on nuclear energy. The Federal-legislated prohibition on nuclear energy must be lifted. The extract below is from the report “Feasibility of Small Modular Reactor. Development and Deployment in Canada”
SMRs are the next generation of nuclear energy innovation, with the potential to help address challenges and opportunities related to climate change and economic growth. The 2018 Canadian SMR Roadmap1 concluded that SMRs provide a source of safe, clean, affordable energy, with the ability to contribute towards a resilient, low-carbon future. SMRs can promote key benefits for Canada and Canadians, such as:
• meeting Canada’s climate change commitments.
• unlocking opportunities for job creation and economic growth; and
• sustaining and expanding Canada’s leadership in research and innovation.
The abundance of the world’s highest-quality coal and uranium in Australia would enable us to deliver the reality of energy independence at an affordable price. We must continue to advocate for the construction of high energy low emissions coal-fired power stations, using the latest technology from Japan. We must also continue to advocate for the repurposing of our existing coal-fired power stations, by replacing end-of-life coal-fired boilers with small modular reactors to drive the generators.
Our allies in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom are well down the SMR development and delivery path. Australia would be able to choose the SMRs most suitable to our needs and manufacture them under licence in Australia. The path to energy independence must be communicated to Australia’s citizens and businesses. This will be done by continuing to provide information about environmentally destructive, technologically inefficient and toxic wind turbines, PV solar panels and batteries, to community groups, online forums, conferences, emails and word of mouth.
Time is of the essence.
No doubt that Bill Stilson is a million times smarter than me but…
The first paragraph
Australia is without leadership. Australian politicians live in a fantasy world, believing that Australia is somehow immune from the energy crisis currently affecting Europe
Paints a picture of confused innocents.
That fact that regardless of party, PM, cabinet or head of department the inexorable push towards decarbonisation continues.
At some point the conclusion has to be drawn that this is deliberate, malicious and designed to destroy the current civilisation.
That fact that some have made tens of $billions out of the scam is just a bonus for them.
A simple little matter I know but being of farming stock, I object to having the word farm “stolen” to describe a “wind farm”.
How dare they!
Nothing will change until the lights go out.
There needs to be a clear link made between energy used and standards of living.
Which leads back to a corrupted and unfit for purpose education system.
there’s nothing innocent about the deliberate destruction of the west
What a sales pitch!
“Goldman Sachs’ Jeff Currie: ‘$3.8 Trillion of Investment in Renewables Moved Fossil Fuels from 82% to 81% of Overall Energy Consumption’ in 10 Years”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2022/10/25/goldman-sachs-jeff-currie-3-8-trillion-of-investment-in-renewables-moved-fossil-fuels-from-82-to-81-of-overall-energy-consumption-in-10-years/
This goes with that
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FfRpuV-XwAIvs3e?format=jpg&name=small
Over at Michael Smith, Benny Wong tells us ruinables are cheaper (3 x). But the budget says prices will go up 50%. That’s why the call it Liars Castle.
This is all good and well, but the chances of this government accepting any of it are about as high as winning Powerball, three times in a row.
“This is all good and well, but the chances of this government accepting any of it are about as high as winning Powerball, three times in a row.”
They’ve got that written in the budget papers
Coal allows steam to be made to turn turbines and generate electricity.
Nuclear reactors allow steam to be made to turn turbines and generate electricity.
The latter can replace the former in exactly the same locations, with grid connections already in place.
But that’s too sensible for the disintegrators of western civilisation.
We live in the age of ultimate political failure.
Across the pond on 23 Oct the White House said the USA had less than 25 days of Diesel fuel onhand. Not the usual “JIT inventory” situation, as in the north west states the inventory is 1/3 of what it normally is at this time of year.
Report via Redacted channel and the Epoch Times.
Once you have gone over the cliff it’s almost impossible to get back . We can see the edge coming , but the general public have their foot on the accelerator and won’t hit the brakes . Strap on your parachutes – a soft landing is preferable to one at terminal velocity . Choices made now will make future circumstances somewhat better . There is rationing and shortages coming .
Australian politicians aren’t naive innocents.
They’re calculated wreckers reaping huge personal benefits under the guise of meeting “international obligations”.
no we live in an age of political success… the politics of those that seek to destroy the west
dark age is coming much sooner than anticipated
RE subsidies should be redirected to refurbishing existing coal generators with HELE plants while Australia has the inevitable decade plus long debate about nuclear.
HELE will deliver the same nameplate generation as present but will result in an automatic carbon dioxide emission reduction of around 20%, not that regard that being important except in a political sense.
Simultaneously we can foster green jobs by dismantling all the solar and wind as they become nonfunctional and rehabilitating the despoiled landscape.
Last, instead of sending China iron ore I suggest we ship all the defunct solar and wind back to them so they can deal with its disposal.
Hate to say it, but sometimes you have to destroy the village to save it. Extreme pain is sometimes required to focus the victim. The majority in this case. People spend more time thinking about what’s for lunch than who they’re going to vote for.
Thanks for the effort Rafe.
Australia’s fuel reserves are also stored in the U.S.
What’s to stop them from simply ‘seizing our foreign reserves’?
Simply refuse to export it to prop themselves up.
They have already taken (borrowed) our reserves, Joe borrowed our reserves some time ago to bring about a reduction in fuel prices in the US for a very short period, this was when Morrison was still in the big chair.
We don’t have a reserve at the moment, it’s useless anyway when it’s stored so far offshore.
We’re led by traitors and idiots.
A resource rich country that has an energy shortage.
Which includes the taxpayer swamp pumped hydro rort.
How can this happen? Its happens For we are all Lords of the Idiots!
Plasmamortar:
Our diesel reserves are located in 4? reserve locations along the US Gulf Coast. To get to Australia they have to go via the Panama Canal or via the Cape.
Does anyone know how long it would take a tanker to load up in Texas and arrive/discharge in an Australian port?
Dunno about about youse lot, but I’ve just put in a stack of potatoes and will be firing up the new still as soon as the heating pad arrives.
If I go out, I’m not going out sober.
🙂
Fair Shake:
Because the government laid out in its plans this was what it wanted to do, and said it would save the planet from melting into a ball of lava, and the voters agreed with them and said “Go for it” and they did.
Next question?
“Short-term solution – remove the subsidies being provided to renewable energy generators and redirect them to coal-fired power stations. This will give security to the owners of the generators, enable them to provide proper maintenance to the generators and improve reliability and increase longevity. Similarly, payments to companies for loadshedding could be redirected to the reliable generation companies.”
The problem with this is that not only are the owners already committed to destroying coal plants, the finance side is fully “ESG’ed” and won’t fund new ones, or upgrades. Take Liddell, for example – AGL want to shut it down early, bulldoze it to the ground and put in a grid scale battery. The bankers are cheering them on, as is GovCo and the “green-minded” citizenry.
By the time it becomes obvious enough to the general public what the problem is, we won’t have a way back inside of 5 years minimum and more like 10 years. So it is ALREADY too late to avoid disaster. IF we acted immediately to prevent what is already planned, we might – just maybe – be able to hang on with some rationing (like California during its recent heat wave) for a handful of years, and IF we fast-tracked new reliable plant immediately as well, such rationing might be the worst of it.
But we won’t do it immediately, it’ll take until the lights go out before someone is told “Do something – NOW!”. No-one will be able to anything fast enough to make a significant difference at that point – having electricity will become a “rare and exciting event” for 5 years AT LEAST.
Poor fella, my country.
Reports suggest he is Canadian, which may or may not explain some some of that stuff.
He’s apparently an illegal alien who overstayed his visa by a decade or two.
WHoops, wrong thread.