Renewable  Energy

or Reliable  Energy

– but Not Both 

An Urgent Message from the Saltbush Club 
The Reckless Rush into Green Energy threatens Australian Industry and Prosperity. 
Blackouts and electricity price chaos are certain.
Please help us to spread this message widely.

Opinion Piece  by Viv Forbes

Australian Climate Sceptics Blog

Please Publish and Pa

14^th June 2022   

     

Australia’s new ALP Government has gigantic green energy plans to be funded by electricity consumers and taxpayers. 

They promise (with a straight face) that Australia’s electricity will be 82% renewable by 2030. They predict 43% reduction in emissions and “on track for net zero by 2050”. They threaten to litter the landscape with 400 community batteries, 85 solar banks and a $20B expansion of the electricity grid. This gigantic “green” electricity plan will need at least 150 million Chinese solar panels covering outback kingdoms of land, plus thousands of bird-slicing metal-hungry wind turbines, plus never-ending roads and powerlines – not friendly to grass or trees and with no room for native birds, bees, bats or marsupials – not green at all. 

See our sterile future being constructed: 
https://reneweconomy.com.au/hot-humid-dusty-and-boring-building-solar-farms-in-the-outback-is-not-piles-of-fun/

The whirling triffids are also invading our coastal seas. Sea birds are advised to migrate:
https://reneweconomy.com.au/large-scale-solar-farm-map-of-australia/

The ALP has also revived the hoary plan to run an extension cord to Tasmania. Naturally some greedy green Tasmanians want to keep all that wind, solar and hydro energy for themselves. Others dream of sending NT sunshine up a long cable from Darwin to Singapore.

With enthusiastic support from the new Parliament full of Climatists, Net Zeros, Teals and Greens (but very few engineers) we can expect a disorderly rush to plaster a mess of electrical machinery and appliances all over the face of Australia. They will also promote more demand for electricity for electric cars, many seeking overnight charging (despite having zero solar power and intermittent wind power at night). So we will need giant fire-prone batteries to recharge small fire-prone batteries.

When there is no sun on a single solar panel for 12 hours, no one notices; when all wind turbines sit idle for days under a slow-moving winter high, no one cares; but when one aging under-maintained coal plant falters, we notice; when three coal generators fail, we have a power crisis. 

Yet we have green millionaires urging quicker closure of our few remaining 24/7 coal-powered generators.

The ALP/Green/Teal plan will clutter the countryside with solar panels, wind turbines, transmission lines, access roads (some bitumen), giant batteries and fire-prone National Parks. 

Eastern Australia recently had several very windy days, which caused many blackouts as trees and powerlines were blown down. Imagine the outages and repair costs after a cyclone slices thru this continent-wide spider-web of fragile power lines connecting millions of wind/solar generators, fire-prone batteries and diverse markets. Picture the green energy network after the next big flood or bushfire.

Europeans can pretend to run a modern society with intermittent energy from windmills and sunbeams because they have life-lines to reliable energy from French nuclear, Scandinavian hydro, Polish and German coal, Iceland geothermal, North Sea natural gas and (sometimes) Russian gas, oil and coal. 

Australia has no extension cord to neighbours with reliable energy – we are on our own.

We can have Renewable Energy, or Reliable Energy, but not both.

(464 words)

Viv Forbes
Washpool, Qld, Australia

Further Reading:

Check below to see where electricity is actually coming from each day in Queensland (“the Sunshine State”) and what it costs:
OpenNEM: Queensland

Labor Begs for Coal Power:
https://www.spectator.com.au/2022/06/labor-begs-for-coal/?utm_medium=email&utm

Adam Creighton “Net-zero target is pure fantasy”:
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/climate-change-netzero-target-ispure-fantasy/news-story/

Experts reject climate catastrophe: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tORGRRpLUw

Why Blackouts?
https://ddears.com/2022/06/08/the-why-of-why-blackouts/

Supplying Future Energy:
https://www.youtube.com/embed/wDOI-uLvTnY

Sending solar energy to Singapore:
https://territorygas.nt.gov.au/projects/sun-cables-australia-singapore-power-link

But NT Solar Deserts are not supplying power now:
https://www.skynews.com.au/business/energy/solar-farms-not-providing-power-in-northern-territory/video/2011f4ea6e1668842aeb49f856703241

Viv Forbes has technical and financial qualifications and experience. He has solar  panels on his roof, but no vested interests in coal, oil or gas apart from diesel farm equipment and a diesel generator in the shed.