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Correct, it is a well-known right-wing think tank. I would also be sceptical of a left-wing think tank. The video poses the question, "if renewables are cheaper, why do they require subsidies?" The assumption here is that building new coal or nuclear plants would not rely on any subsidies. It very much would. If low renewables meant cheaper power, countries like Italy or Poland should have low prices—but they don’t. The biggest driver in Europe has been gas dependence, not renewables. Italy (lower renewables than Germany, high gas reliance) → consistently very high electricity prices Ireland (significant gas dependence) → also high prices Poland (coal-heavy, relatively less wind/solar historically) → not cheap, often still high due to coal + carbon costs In terms of being directly attributable to renewable, yes, there is truth there. In 2020, I had rooftop solar installed. I had an upfront cost of $3500 plus a 4-year low-interest loan with payments of around $40 a month for 4 years. If they added to my reduced bills, then it looks like solar would have vastly increased the cost of my electricity. My philosophy here was that in order to save money, I had to spend money up front. My system has definitely paid for itself, and I am now unbothered by the price of electricity. We are in a phase of great change (just like when I got rooftop solar). I regularly go for a bike ride past Geelong docks and also the oil refinery. On one side of the road, there are enormous stacks of wind turbine parts, blades and tower components as well as the nacelle structures that are awaiting delivery to the site. On the other side of the road, it is the refinery that is noisy and stinks (and recently caught fire). This is quite a contrast. It is quite exciting to live in this time of change. Sure, there will be hiccups and missteps along the way. I suppose going from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age had its challenges. As solar and battery technology improve in efficiency and cost, it is undoubtedly doing fewer people will need to be connected to the grid, giving people economic benefits as well as autonomy.

I know you wont like the source but here is another view.https://www.cis.org.au/commentary/video/the-csiro-report-that-proves-coal-is-cheaper-than-renewables-zoe-hilton/ Why has every country that has gone the intermittent generation got the most expensive power? Germany, Denmark, UK. Which countrys successfully are transition to net 0 with intermittent energy have cheaper power. Real world situations arent supporting the modelling. The modelling can be made to look like anything the government want it to be. The ISP has nothing to do with cheapest energy, just cheapest way of doing government policy. CSIRO give 30 years of life for a nuclear plant which is just plain wrong!.

You’re right that once you add storage, transmission and upgrades, the system gets more complex and costs go up. But that’s exactly what the modelling already includes. The CSIRO GenCost report looks at the whole system—firming, transmission, everything—and still finds wind and solar backed by storage are cheaper than building new coal. On EV charging specifically, high-power sites do create local demand spikes, but that’s not unique to renewables—it’s a grid planning issue. In practice, most charging is spread out (home, work, off-peak), and fast chargers often include batteries or smart load management to avoid huge grid upgrades. So yes, there are costs—but they’re manageable and already being factored in, not a dealbreaker for renewables

Bled 100s of diesels, not that hard, bit messy though. Electric cars will have problems as well, the manufacturers will see to that. They make a lot of their money on spare parts. They still have motors, bearings, gearboxes, power electronic components

Again people are looking at just the cost of one part of it like the whole intermittent thing. eg intermittent energy is the cheapest form of electricity which it is until you start adding the storage, extra transmission etc. etc.. As we get more electric vehicles the charging stations are going to get bigger. If you have say 10 350kW chargers at a station that's a maximum demand of 3.5 MWs. The wind farm I worked at had 3MW turbines, we had 3 phases coming down an 80m tower of 70mm2 copper at 33kV (Vestas have their transformers in the nacelle.). 9 wtgs(27MW) in a string had 500mm2 aluminium going back to the Sub. At lower voltages you need bigger cables. The current distribution network will have trouble coping with the extra load. You could put battery's at the charging station to buffer this a bit or reduce the output of the charger , but there goes your cheaper than a petrol station and fast charging. Still like electric cars by the way. It is the way of the future but like net 0 it is not going to be as easy or cheap as it first appears.

The Federal Government has just announced that work on the inland rail route between Melbourne and Brisbane will cease when the track reaches Parkes in Central NSW. The given reason is that to complete the trtack from Parkes to Brisbane would cost $46 billion dollars. The purpose of the route was to reduce reliance on road transport between Queensland and Victoria along the Newell Highway which is the inland route. Already millions have been spent on preliminary geophysical investigations along the proposed route north of Parkes. Rural properties have been purchased. The Gilgandra Shire created a residential estate will all the road and water infrastructure for the building of housing to rent to the construction workers employed on the nearby section. Once the work was completed those houses would be placed on the public market for sale. However, demand for housing follows demand for employment, and there is not much locally. There was nothing wrong with the concept of a dedicated freight line between these two States. The problem, no doubt, is that the ability to generate the funding for the project, amongst all the other demands on government, is beyond the capacity of a Nation with such a small population compared to its area. Perhaps if our natural resources had not been sold off at bargain basement prices, or tax concessions to foreign companies were curtailed, the Government might be able to provide the funds to finance the many demands made of it. Here's a link to the Inland Rail website: https://inlandrail.com.au/

When you run a diesel out it of fuel it will get air in the system will have to be Bled properly. Sometimes even changing a fuel filter has to be done by a competent person with the right equipment. Contaminated Fuel with water can cost thousands of dollars. None of this with EV's No turbos , No EGR Valves. No air cleaners No Mufflers to rot out. No need to warm the engine or watch it on a hot day. No starter Motor, gearbox or clutch to wear. Reduced Brake wear. Servicing reduced to tyres and windscreen wiper Blades. No fumes No tuning. . Dramatic revolutionary change. Nev

NRMA also have a battery on their vehicle to transfer energy to an EV. Battery to battery can be very high speed so it does not take long to get enough charge into the empty EV battery to enable it to get to the nearest charger. using a generator would take hours to get very little energy in the EV unless it was a massive generator capable of 150 kW plus. I don't know of anyone who has run out though. EV owners are good planners, partly because the public charging network has not kept up with EV sales. Also because the cars software knows the range and can list all the chargers within range. State & federal governments are now putting a fair bit of effort into improving the number of chargers particularly in regional areas. There are plenty in large centres and along major highways. Installing chargers is a lot easier than building a petrol station & once built at huge cost it has to be supplied with fuel. Portable units are being installed in the outback. They have a large battery and solar panels & get delivered on the back of a truck. Several companies are supplying these to Outback farms etc. Larger ones have a small solar farm & big batteries to supply several vehicles at once. NRMA have one in the NT somewhere with 4 chargers. Public EV charging is only in its infancy & some of the early ones were very unreliable. Not so now & there are plenty that are capable of 350 kW way more than almost all EVs can receive. I am off on a 350km round trip tomorrow. The battery is fully charged (free from my solar system) & I won't need to top up anywhere. If I did though there are heaps of charging options. I just hit the go to button & the Satnav guides me to the neared public charger & lists all within range. Simples.

I can honestly say I've never seen an EV stopped by the side of the road after running out of charge. After all, you get plenty of audible and visual warnings in them, as regards low charge. But I've seen plenty of broken down and run-out-fuel IC cars and utes, parked by the side of the road!

By the way, I just learned that emergency charging from RACV is from a battery pack, not a petrol generator.

Saw a Tesla being towed on youtube and it was actually charging the battery. Not sure if it was a real thing though.

I wonder how often an EV driver runs out of charge. I imagine it is no more common than running out of fuel, and probably less given the warnings the car provides. In 48 years of driving, I have never run out of fuel. If an EV does run out of electrons, there are several methods. The RAVC will give you an emergency charge or tow you to the nearest charging facility as part of road service. A granny lead and an extension cord, plus a friendly homeowner. Most clever, though, is V2V or vehicle-to-vehicle charging. As EVs become more ubiquitous, it will be easy to phone a friend or perhaps a friendly fellow motorist.

Run a diesel out of fuel and you only need to wait for someone to come by in a diesel or have some diesel. Run out of power in an electric car and you have to wait for someone to come by with a generator who has time to sit there while your car gets enough charge to get to the next charger. Reckon I know what i would rather. Most diesels aren't that bad to bleed if you know what you are doing. Messy though.

Run a Diesel to empty and you don't just fill it and drive away either. Same if you get contaminated fuel. The Longer you delve into electric the BETTER it Looks, Independence from war causing Oil and It's greedy Price and supply manipulators.. The Modern ICE Piston engines are remarkable but Now becoming an obsolete technology. Time to move on in your conceptions of it. It will continue to be even better as engines did in their day. Nev

Plastic and things like Glyphosate are much More of a Problem than these blades are. Subsidence and water contamination with disused Mine shafts and contaminated dust from Open cut Mines. Permanent damage. Look at the Hunter valley as an example. Nev

It needs to be economic to recycle the blades. if it doesn't make money it will not happen. This is not just limited to wind turbine blades either. i can't see the 2 (3 if you include the old wtg) sets of wtg blades at Coober Pedy getting done. Probably be buried in the desert somewhere. If they are not cut up on site, transport to a recycling depot would be very expensive. Especially with the size of modern blades.

A titter to run through the Crowd? Nev

Tyres are a far larger problem than worn-out wind turbine blades. You find tyres dumped everywhere you go - in remote regions, in urban areas, in rivers, and in the sea. Yet the wind turbine antogonists only see wind turbine blade waste.

It is difficult to ascertain how old this picture is. Whilst it is true that traditionally some old turbine blades have gone to landfill, this is changing. Quote "Wind turbine blades can be recycled, but it is challenging and not yet universal. While 85-90% of a turbine (steel, copper, gearboxes) is easily recycled, blades are made of durable fibreglass/carbon fibre composites, often resulting in landfill disposal. However, new recycling technologies and repurposing methods are rapidly developing, with goals for 100% recyclability by 2030. [1, 2, 3] Current Recycling and Disposal Methods Cement Co-processing: The most common method, where shredded blades replace raw materials and fuel in cement production. Mechanical Crushing: Blades are ground into materials for filler, panels, or industrial products. Thermal/Chemical Recycling: Technologies like pyrolysis or chemical baths are emerging to separate resins from fibers for reuse, though many are still in pilot stages. Repurposing: Blades are increasingly used in civil engineering, such as bridges, playground equipment, and noise barriers. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] Future Outlook and Innovation Recyclable Blades: Manufacturers are developing new resin technologies—such as Siemens Gamesa's RecyclableBlade and NREL's Pecan FRC—that allow materials to be easily separated and reused at end-of-life. Industry Commitment: Major firms aim for zero-waste turbines by 2030–2040. [1, 2, 3, 4] While landfilling is still a common, cost-effective method for older blades, the increasing number of decommissioned turbines is driving the economic viability of recycling. [1] What happens to wind farms in Victoria when turbines ... - ABC News In short: The Clean Energy Council says there are options for old wind farms as the originals approach the end of their life expec... Australian Broadcasting Corporation Recycling Wind Turbines, Solar Panels and Batteries: Fact Sheet Can wind turbine blades be recycled? Wind turbine blades are made of materials such as fibreglass or carbon fibre, as they are des... Clean Energy Council" End Quote Any newer technology creates problems that at first are challenging. We do tend to give a free pass to existing technologies. Consider the size of the pile of coal that would be required to generate the electricity that those blades generate in their operational life. Coal has end-of-life problems, also. Quote "Coal ash is managed through a combination of recycling and landfilling/storage. [1, 2, 3] 1. Recycling and Beneficial Use A significant portion of fly ash is reused, rather than disposed of. [1, 2, 3] Concrete Production: Fly ash is a high-performance substitute for Portland cement. It improves concrete durability and reduces the carbon footprint of construction. Structural Fill and Roads: Bottom ash and fly ash are used for road base, structural fill, embankments, and stabilizing soft soils. Brick and Block Making: Ash is used to make bricks, construction blocks, and lightweight aggregate. Other Uses: Boiler slag is used for roofing granules and blasting grit. [1, 2, 3, 4] 2. Disposal Methods Unused ash must be disposed of, often using "wet" or "dry" methods. [1] Ash Ponds/Dams (Wet Method): The ash is mixed with water to create a slurry and pumped into large holding ponds. This was traditionally the cheapest method, but it poses high risks for leaching toxic heavy metals into groundwater, particularly if the ponds are unlined. Dry Landfills (Dry Method): The ash is stored dry in landfills, which is considered safer as it reduces the potential for leaching, provided the landfill is properly lined. Mine Backfilling: Dry ash is sometimes placed back into old, abandoned coal mines. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6] Environmental and Safety Issues Leaching: Contaminants in ash ponds can seep into groundwater and surface water, creating toxic cocktail, according to reports in Australia. Dust Management: Dry ash, if not covered, can be blown from storage sites into surrounding communities, posing respiratory health risks. Spills: Large-scale failures of ash dams, such as the 2008 Kingston disaster in the US, have caused massive environmental damage. [1, 2, 3, 4] As coal-fired power plants age and close, the rehabilitation of these ash dams is a significant environmental concern. [1, 2]"

Decommissioned wind turbine blades.

Correct. Compass points.

This happens only at very low state of charge. My EV has a 64kWh battery with 62.1 kWh useable. When the charge shows 0% it goes in to limp mode & will still run but only at very low speed. I can't remember offhand but about 20-30kmh for 30-40km before it dies. I have never tested this & don't know anyone who has. A car review outfit in the UK took a number of different EVs on a specified drive from 100% till they died about 3 years ago & discovered this feature in some of them. I practice I rarely get below 20% but have been down to 5% at the lowest point. There is a woman who lives in my car with a nice English accent who keeps me informed of what is going on. She greets me by name when I open the door and has lots of friendly advice. When the charge gets to 20% I get a gentle reminder to charge. When it gets lower than 10% she gets a little more agitated.