|
Post by nautonnier on Sept 13, 2017 11:45:46 GMT
These large subsidized wind farms which stretch for 40 or 50 miles are certainly a type of pollution. I drive west for the scenery, and they are part of the scenery. Scotland's tourist industry is dying for the same reason. Subsidy farms and pylons and cables everywhere - they've turned Scotland into one large industrial estate.
|
|
|
Post by acidohm on Sept 20, 2017 18:35:26 GMT
|
|
|
Post by Ratty on Oct 11, 2017 11:51:59 GMT
POWER RATIONING The federal government will pay households and businesses across three states to turn down their air conditioning, furnaces and cool rooms to stave off blackouts during peak demand.
Under a $36 million program to be launched today by Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg, thousands of households in NSW, Victoria and South Australia will also be invited to voluntarily cut their energy use in return for incentives such as rebates on power bills.
The Turnbull government, faced with skyrocketing power prices and grid instability across the national electricity market, will over three years spend $28.6m on 10 pilot projects. The Berejiklian government will pay $7.2m towards set up and operational costs of trials in NSW.
Trial projects include a smart thermostat to control air conditioning, heating and ventilation in businesses and homes, and householders reducing energy use for one to four hours in exchange for a weekend of free electricity.
South Australian metal foundry Intercast & Forge has installed sophisticated energy systems allowing it to power down furnaces during extreme weather such as heatwaves.
Other projects involve large-scale industrial and commercial businesses such as cold storage facilities, manufacturing plants and commercial buildings.
About 50 large commercial and industrial businesses in NSW and Victoria will have hardware installed to automatically and remotely control and reduce energy. Sites include metalworks, water pumps, gas production facilities, paper mills and glass factories.
This comes as states grapple with measures to prevent blackouts this summer amid a worsening national energy crisis.
In Queensland yesterday the state government’s energy security task force released its summer preparedness plan to deal with high power demand during heatwaves, which included asking residents and businesses to set their air conditioners at 26C during heatwaves, only cool occupied rooms and turn off non-essential lights and pool pumps.
Victorians struggling under high power bills will be offered flexible payment options, lower tariffs and a six-month debt payment “hold” under changes announced by the Essential Services Commission yesterday.
In South Australia, the Australian Energy Market Operator was forced to intervene in the market late yesterday and order a gas generator to stay online “to maintain the power system in a secure operating state”.
An AEMO spokeswoman said a synchronous generator had “bid themselves unavailable” but the market operator required them back online to “provide appropriate system strength to withstand a ‘credible fault’”.
Earlier yesterday, the South Australian Liberal opposition released its energy plan ahead of the state election, promising to fast-track a new interconnector to NSW, subsidise household batteries and scrap a state-owned power plant in favour of a capacity market if elected in March.
A key plank of the policy is a $200m interconnection fund to speed up greater connection to the national energy market, with a new link between South Australia and NSW a top priority.
Privately owned South Australian transmission company Electranet is studying new interconnector options, which are expected to cost at least $500m.
Liberal leader Steven Marshall, who said the next state election will be a referendum on energy policy given last year’s devastating statewide blackout, also promised a $100m spend on battery storage for 40,000 households to potentially reduce electricity use at times of peak demand.
Mr Marshall said household power prices in South Australia, among the highest in the world because of the state’s high renewable energy mix, would fall by more than $300 a year under his plan.
He said that, unlike Premier Jay Weatherill, the Liberals would not cosy up to the likes of US tech billionaire Elon Musk, who is building a giant battery in South Australia’s mid north.
“We are going to back South Australians who want to take charge of their electricity generation and consumption,” Mr Marshall said. “Our battery program will focus on South Australians, not celebrity billionaires.”
But Mr Weatherill said the policy would give control of South Australia’s energy to east coast power companies.
Mr Frydenberg last night told The Australian that the “demand response” initiative would work by “providing a financial incentive to energy users to conserve their energy use during times of peak demand”. “The energy saved can then be directed to help stabilise the grid when and where it is needed,” he said, noting it operated successfully in other countries including the US and Taiwan.
|
|
|
Post by sigurdur on Oct 12, 2017 3:39:39 GMT
You folks are nuts! Sitting on large coal reserves and large Natural gas reserves and yet highest elec costs in world.
What in the world happened to rational thinking???
|
|
|
Post by nonentropic on Oct 12, 2017 4:06:28 GMT
Ah that silly thing called rational thinking.
The one that gets me completely confused is what the NZ greens are pushing to happen and that is the closing of the hydro electrically driven aluminium smelter here in NZ. The driver is the emission discussion it would back out gas generation from combined cycle units and they know full well that the reduced production here in NZ will be compensated for with production out of China powered by coal. How does that reduce CO2 emissions globally. I have no axe to grind with the Chinese they are great trading partners of NZ but the logic still prevails. they the greens have no great grievance with Aluminium usage in windfarms and solar plant but that logic defies gravity in the la la land renewables.
|
|
|
Post by Ratty on Oct 12, 2017 7:59:45 GMT
You folks are nuts! Sitting on large coal reserves and large Natural gas reserves and yet highest elec costs in world. What in the world happened to rational thinking??? There is just a tiny light in the tunnel (since Tony Abbott spoke to the GWPF): SCALE BACK PARIS COMMITMENT, AUSTRALIAN REFORMERS URGEI have a better idea: Scrap Paris, scrap the renewable energy target, sack the chief scientist and start afresh. .... but then, I'm a radical rational thinker.
|
|
|
Post by Ratty on Oct 12, 2017 11:22:14 GMT
If Trump can eventually drain the swamp, I would consider emigrating. Can't offer much, except that I don't speak Spanish and am too old to climb walls. Red is Trump, right? Surely there is someone red who could put me up for a while till I learned the language, customs and assimilated?
|
|
|
Post by missouriboy on Oct 12, 2017 13:59:38 GMT
If Trump can eventually drain the swamp, I would consider emigrating. Can't offer much, except that I don't speak Spanish and am too old to climb walls. Red is Trump, right? Surely there is someone red who could put me up for a while till I learned the language, customs and assimilated?
|
|
|
Post by missouriboy on Oct 12, 2017 14:35:55 GMT
If Trump can eventually drain the swamp, I would consider emigrating. Can't offer much, except that I don't speak Spanish and am too old to climb walls. Red is Trump, right? Surely there is someone red who could put me up for a while till I learned the language, customs and assimilated? Come on over Ratty. Our local accent package could use some 'freshening'. But do bring some trousers or your kneecaps will freeze for part of the year. My Hispanic spouse thinks that the locals are a little 'cool'; but I try to explain that our transplanted colonial package has never evolved a spontaneous 'oral salsa' outburst response. Being a college town, perhaps you could start a local landmark ... "Ozzie's Snowflake Bar-be-Que". And ... did you notice how that dark red edge looks a little like the edge of the last great glaciation?
|
|
|
Post by nautonnier on Oct 12, 2017 15:49:43 GMT
Hmmm ALF - Australian Liberation Front?
|
|
|
Post by Ratty on Oct 12, 2017 23:23:46 GMT
Australia is playing its part; Alf is short for Vladimir, right?
|
|
|
Post by Ratty on Oct 12, 2017 23:29:00 GMT
[ Snip ] Come on over Ratty. Our local accent package could use some 'freshening'. But do bring some trousers or your kneecaps will freeze for part of the year. My Hispanic spouse thinks that the locals are a little 'cool'; but I try to explain that our transplanted colonial package has never evolved a spontaneous 'oral salsa' outburst response. Being a college town, perhaps you could start a local landmark ... " Ozzie's Snowflake Bar-be-Que". And ... did you notice how that dark red edge looks a little like the edge of the last great glaciation? Can you buy quality king prawns locally?
|
|
|
Post by Ratty on Oct 13, 2017 0:25:30 GMT
Can you buy quality king prawns locally? Wild or Farmed? What are you offering? In all conscience, I couldn't buy anything from your area: The poor things would be stressed by all that shaking.
|
|
|
Post by missouriboy on Oct 13, 2017 2:33:00 GMT
[ Snip ] Come on over Ratty. Our local accent package could use some 'freshening'. But do bring some trousers or your kneecaps will freeze for part of the year. My Hispanic spouse thinks that the locals are a little 'cool'; but I try to explain that our transplanted colonial package has never evolved a spontaneous 'oral salsa' outburst response. Being a college town, perhaps you could start a local landmark ... " Ozzie's Snowflake Bar-be-Que". And ... did you notice how that dark red edge looks a little like the edge of the last great glaciation? Can you buy quality king prawns locally? We have crawdads in the local streams. Cajuns call em bugs.
|
|
|
Post by nautonnier on Oct 13, 2017 12:24:59 GMT
Well for once they can be bigger in the British Isles: The Dublin Bay Prawn
|
|