Cost of meeting renewables target a fraction of what CLP Govt told public: Hidden report
A renewable energy report hidden by the former Labor government has revealed the cost of meeting the
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Regardless of what we do with renewables we still need baseload power to fill the gaps and keep the lights on. That requires significant upgrading of our existing generating capacity. A battery system big enough to keep power on for extended periods is not economical. The only benefit of renewables is reduced fuel demand for a few hours a day when it’s not cloudy.
The cost of renewables and the equipment required to stabilise the output must be weighed against the fuel savings.
There is no big battery installation in the country that gives more than a couple of hours supply
You will require batteries in any case just to handle the fluctuations every time a cloud goes over, paid for, of course, by the taxpayer. Any government that buys intermittent power is stupid.
Are we able to recycle any of the solar panels,batteries and wind turbines that we are currently placing everywhere?
And ofcourse the Gunner Labor Government where world leaders in getting the cost of major infrastructure projects correct.
Good evening,
Firstly, in my opinion when sounds come out of Minister Maley it’s a good time to watch the kettle boil!
Now for those that don’t know, political party’s have their own constitution! Yes it’s true Google it!
Territorians know very well what a shamozzel the NT governments gas contract is! ARE YOU READY!
GREAT- This has been copied and pasted from the LABOR party constitution-“(s)
the use, conservation and enhancement of Australia’s natural resources and environment so that the community’s total quality of life, both now and into the future, is maintained and improved;””.
END
MAY l ask why are Territorians paying so much for electricity when we use a natural resource -gas to generate our power!
Our gas, under Labor’s constitution should be first used for Territorians, and Australians!
The CLP, Sorry but like you l lost faith a long time ago!!!
Your one nation federal Senate candidate
Darren Nugent
I live in a Darwin apartment building with 81kVa of solar panels. On cloudy monsoon days it produces as little as 2kVa when it’s daylight and of course virtually nil when it’s not. As anyone that lives in Darwin knows, monsoonal cloudy days can last for weeks at a time. We don’t need climate change for this, and climate change wont make it better. If we are forced to replace gas power with renewables for base load power, we need a backup source of base load power that addresses that. If the report you refer to does address that, they must not be planning to use batteries, because there never has been and probably never will be batteries that will run Darwin for over a week. And that is what would be needed to to have reliable base power without using gas. I would not be at all surprised if the cost of replacing gas baseload with sufficient battery power could cost 200 times more. But it is almost certainly impossible no matter how much money is thrown at it. At least we now have a government that has reality about what we know will work and what we should know won’t.
I wish the ABC and NTI would stop quoting Mr Quinn as some independent energy expert. His bio suggests he’s just another advocating for the ruinable unreliable power mob.
“Tom Quinn is Managing Director of Springmount Advisory.
He has extensive experience working with peak environmental, union, community and business peak groups with a focus on building strong cross sectoral support for rapid decarbonisation and the creation of clean industries, secure jobs and prosperous communities.”
That’s the folly of renewables. They cannot provide baseload power, which means the ability to generate baseload power remains a critical element of the energy mix. As more renewables are added to the mix, the cost of producing that critical baseload power increases through factors like having to buy gas you may or may not need.
I have read what Tom Quinn has to say. He sounds more like an activist to me than an economist.