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Coincidentally, I just came across this. I will post a link but here are some highlights. https://reneweconomy.com.au/wild-attack-on-batteries-and-renewables-by-7s-spotlight-program-falls-over-at-the-first-fact-check/?fbclid=IwY2xjawRSvLRleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEeRENsgXVWg03njVcjEv25LrV4q7XUJEVAYcOkDfurOU4zO3LDDzae9NSaOn8_aem_LVPR3uKcuhqbLOHAX9gfnA Spotlight, the so-called flagship current affairs program on the 7 network, dedicated more than an hour on Sunday evening on a report into the supply chains feeding into the renewables and EV industries, with a particular focus on cobalt mines in the Congo, and also activities in Australia. It was amplified on Murdoch and social media. It fell over at the very first fact-check. “Every battery, every electric vehicle, every piece of so-called clean energy technology today” uses cobalt, reporter Liam Bartlett claimed at the start of the program. Wrong. Nearly every big battery installed in Australia these days uses (LFP) lithium iron phosphate chemistry, which means no cobalt, and no nickel (that’s relevant because Bartlett did a similar hit job on the nickel industry last year, using that as a platform to attack EVs and renewables). Tesla, the biggest supplier to big batteries in Australia, now uses only LFP batteries for grid scale batteries. No cobalt. The two big batteries at Liddell and Tomago being built for AGL Energy by Fluence are LFP. No cobalt. A spokesperson for Fluence said all its batteries in Australia use LFP. “We don’t use cobalt.” Finland-based Wartsila, which is building the country’s biggest grid battery at Eraring for Origin Energy, also uses only LFP for its battery projects in Australia. No cobalt. It’s a similar story with EVs. Tesla, for instance, uses only LFP chemistry for most of the variants of its best selling Model Y and the Model 3. No cobalt. It uses NMC chemistry (which does include cobalt) only in “performance” variants, which amounts to about 10 per cent of sales. Home batteries, which are now being installed at record rates in Australia, are the same. New market leader Sigenergy uses only LFP chemistry, so no cobalt, as does another market leader Sungrow, and most others. Bartlett claims to be appalled by the conditions in some cobalt mines in the Congo, and the nickel mine in Indonesia. And so he should be. So should everyone. But the inconvenient truth is that these mines have been operating for decades, and cobalt has been used widely in many industries. The mineral is essential for the iPhone that Bartlett presumably uses, for the laptop he writes his stories on, for the jet engines that flew him from Australia to Africa, and for widespread use in medicine (hip and knee replacements), the petroleum industry, the manufacture of tools, for construction, for cosmetics, and even ceramics. The use of cobalt in EV and grid batteries is relatively new, and is already moving on. Where it is used, most EV makers are at pains to point out that the mineral does not come from such mines, and they produce blockchain style tracking reports to underline their claims. But Bartlett did not seem particularly interested in balance, or inconvenient detail. His story had three major themes – he doesn’t like the Chinese, he doesn’t like renewables and EVs, and he doesn’t like federal energy and climate minister Chris Bowen. “Bowen’s fanatical approach, aided and abetted by a conga line of true believers and latte-sipping Teal supporters is now set to send the country into bankruptcy,” Bartlett wrote in an op-ed also published on 7’s website. Bartlett – was global head of TV, creative visual at oil giant Shell in London from 2013-2015

This is where you lose me, with the kind of thinking that enables a fascist regime. It's the "yes Trump is bad, BUT..." thing. It's like saying "Yes Hitler was bad, but goddam it, real Germans could get a job." Trump is actively dismantling democracy in the USA. He doesn't have a single thought for the people of the US, except how to continue deceiving them so Donald J Trump and his dynasty can profit from them. The only reason Trump ever mentions immigrants (in Minnesota, which has less than most states but has a governor he hates) is to dog-whistle his white nationalist base and sow hatred and division. We don't need a Trump or any version of him. Democracy is not supposed to be exciting. It's meant to be calm, boring and safe. We are an immigrant nation, just ask the original inhabitants. If you can show me actual statistics that show that crime rates are higher among recent immigrants than those whose ancestors moved here between 40 years to 60,000 years ago, then go ahead. (Statistics does not mean sensationalist crap from Sky News or any Murdoch rag).

GON, you forgot to mention Trump has buggered up the American economy, having to pay $37B in taxpayer monies to U.S. farmers whose major soybean market he ruined. He has destroyed nearly every economic/trade agreement around. He's made enemies of a multitude of former Allies - then complains when they won't help with his war he started. He's done nothing to create "regime change" in Iran, and has almost certainly created a more hard-line regime there, who will just bide their time to strike back at the U.S. in bitter revenge. He's created greatly increased U.S. inflation, started wars when he claimed he was the greatest peacemaker in the world, has done nothing to stop the Ukraine-Russia war, and is preparing to invade Cuba. He's enriched himself massively by turning the U.S. Presidency position into a simple extension of his business dealings. He's lost tens of billions in U.S. military equipment losses, from aircraft to defence installations, all across the Middle East. He's had nearly all his tariff imposts overturned by the U.S. Supreme court. He's broken every election promise he made - such as, he "would stop the Ukraine War in one day". We have a good Australian name for people like him. "A Supreme Bullshit Artist".

Totally agree regarding Induction cooking. We installed a Bosch Induction cooktop back in 2008. Then it cost about $3,500.00 but the performance was amazing. While it had 4 cooking zones there was a power option than combined 2 of the zones together with the output in 1 zone. It would boil a litre of water from cold in 45 seconds. Control is superb and instant & the cooking surface never gets baked on spillages as it stays cool only getting hot from the transfer of heat from the bottom of the pot. We are renovating the house we purchased last year & installing a new kitchen. Cooking appliances are all AEG & the induction cooktop has a matt finish which is very scratch resistant & is wirelessly connected to the rangehood so the lights & fan are switched on & the speed managed automatically while cooking & both together cost less that the original Bosch from 2008.

Had an interesting morning this morning. I was at a funeral recently and bumped into an old mate I hadn't seen for many years. In the time since I last saw him, he's retired and has been making acoustic guitars for a hobby. Today I went around and he showed me a few of the guitars and where he makes them in his shed. He's a carpenter/builder by trade so already had quite a lot of the tools and some of the required woodworking skills. They're nice guitars, mostly all dreadnaughts, and all Australian timbers. He uses a lot of silky oak on the bodies and grey gum for necks and other parts. I seem to remember the Australian brand Maton using Australian timbers.

NASA just dropped the clearest view of Moon ever captured... by Artemis 2. You can even see craters in extreme detail. yeah, the moon has a colors, you can see them here. Moon 01.mp4

What do you mean, "support one nation" - you've proudly told us many times that you don't vote!

The reason why Trump is into Iran, is because we as Aussies, fail to grasp just how important Israel and the Jews are, in the American Christian Fundamentalist psyche. Israel MUST be supported at every turn, according to the majority of God-fearing Americans (and there's a lot of them, and a lot in positions of great power). The Jews are Gods Chosen people in their view, and Fundamentalist Americans believe they alone have the greatest God-given power in the whole World, to ensure that the Chosen people survive the Great Evil of the End Days - and that great Evil is Iran, and the Islamic Empires. So every attack on Israel is an attack on every American Christian Fundamentalist. So when Netanyahu says he's under attack and needs to beat back the Evil Empire, the American can only reply with, "how much help do you need, and we'll provide it for as long as you want". Netanyahu knows full well the great benefit of having both a huge Jewish influence in America, backed by Christian Fundamentalists. Trump can only see huge Trump Inc gains in resorts and hotels in any of the "conquered" areas - so he's happy to go along with Netanyahu's aims. And Bibi's aim is to devastate anyone, or any organisation, or any country that is Islamic, and threatening Israel. Remember, Bibi's greatly loved brother was killed by Islamic terrorists at Entebbe, and he harbours a bigger and longer lifetime grudge against Islamics, than the grudge that GON harbours against politicians that favour conscription. Trump is an opportunist, constantly seeking adulation and personal glory and wealth gains, and anything that helps those agendas can only be good, in his feeble mind. Accordingly, he's happy to continue to support Netanyahu's adventures into killing multitudes of "nasty" Islamics, because Trump knows that's an agenda that's got a huge level of support in America - and any "wins" over nasty Islamic terrorists (who took a couple of hundred innocent Americans hostage, and who also tortured them in 1980-82, don't forget), is a huge win for Donald. But now, the American adventure into Eye-Ran is looking a bit messy - and besides, Donny just got told his military have just expended around 11,300 VERY expensive missiles, rockets and other hi-tech armaments - and that Damned Strait is STILL blockaded! - and he's also been told, it will now take about THREE YEARS to produce another 12,000 of those very expensive missiles and rockets, just to make up their basic ammo requirements - and American arms manufactures are RELIANT on that Straits being OPEN! - because American companies are now having problems acquiring the BASICS of many arms manufacturing materials - because quite a number of those basic supply-chain materials HAVE to come through those Straits! "Here is how materials passing through the Strait impact American manufacturing: Helium for Semiconductors: Qatar, which exports through the Strait, supplies nearly one-third of the world's helium. This is crucial for cooling in semiconductor wafer manufacturing, affecting the production of computers, vehicles, and electronics. Petrochemical Inputs: The Gulf region is a hub for petrochemicals, supplying a significant share of raw materials used in plastics, polymers, and single-use packaging. Disruptions affect production and increase costs for manufacturers in these sectors. Sulfur and Fertilizer: Nearly half of all global seaborne sulfur trade passes through the Strait. Sulfur is essential for producing sulfuric acid, which is used in processing critical minerals like copper and cobalt (for batteries and jet engines). Aluminum and Steel: The Middle East accounts for a significant portion of primary aluminum production, with Gulf smelters supplying material for construction, transport, and renewable energy industries. Energy Prices: About 20% of global oil and LNG flows through the Strait. A closure causes a dramatic surge in energy prices, impacting the cost of manufacturing and transporting goods in the U.S." So....... right about now, Donny is in a BIG bind! That AWE and SHOCK attack on Iran ain't working! Those GODDAM Islamic terrorists are still beavering away, and still controlling important things like the Straits!! I reckon Donny must be looking for a quick and easy way out, and expecting some of his LOYAL associates to come up with the ANSWER! But it ain't forthcoming, and things are getting to be a little too wild for him!! This being a World Hero ain't the easy ride, he thought it would be!!

It's not so much "immigration", but "mass immigration" created by the conjoined major parties. They ignored public opinion and went ahead with it anyway. Immigration was no longer included in the democratic process, and still isn't. You can have your say, but it inevitably falls on deaf ears. Things might be changing though, with the high cost of living and shortage of housing, the pig-headed major party politicians can't help but hear rumblings from nearly every sector of the broader community. Mass immigration drove me to support One Nation, that's how it affected me. I will not support or vote for parties who find it convenient to gang up against the Public for selfish reasons. They promise sweeteners at election time, but the issue of immigration is completely off the table. As the major parties lose their influence over the general public, as is happening now, we'll get a chance to gain power over them and tell them what we want, not what they want all the time. Mass immigration is not doing what it is intended to do, making us stronger, no, it is making us weaker in every respect you can think of. Why do we have a trillion dollar debt? Why do we have so much drug crime? Why is the nation split into 200 different groups with 200 different flags? Why did we have an anti Semitic "Bondi", and blocked streets full of River to the Sea people? We shouldn't go around with blinkers on. Take them off and look around.

Thanks to my parents I'm a post war immigrant from Holland so the impact on me personally has been quite significant. Likewise, I think our family's impact on Australia has been quite significant, but that's just my opinion.

Rooftop solar isn’t the problem here—the constraints you’re pointing to are a sign the grid hasn’t caught up yet. The system we’re using was built for one-way power flow from large generators, not for distributed generation like rooftop solar. So when you see oversupply or curtailment in places like South Australia, that’s not solar “breaking” the grid—it’s the network hitting its limits in moving and using cheap energy. We’ve seen this before in other sectors: when better technology comes along, you don’t hold it back to suit old infrastructure—you upgrade the system. That’s exactly what needs to happen here with transmission, storage, and smarter demand. Yes, we need enough capacity for low-renewable periods, and yes, storage is critical—but that’s part of the transition. Excess daytime generation isn’t a flaw, it’s an opportunity to shift cheap energy into the evening peak. Even Australian Energy Market Operator is clear on this: the solution is more transmission, more storage, and better integration—not less rooftop solar. So those constraint charts don’t show solar causing instability—they show where investment is needed to modernise the grid. You don’t solve a modern energy system with 20th-century infrastructure—you upgrade the infrastructure.

In a week, it will be 61 years since I moved here ( Melbourne) for a Flying Job . Nev

The problem the Democrats have is that they aren't organised and don't have an obvious plan for what they want, apart from getting rid of Trump's mob. They need to work out their version of a Project 2025 type manifesto that makes sense for the country and that they can sell to the public before the 2028 elections. I think Project 2025 was a disaster for democracy in the USA, but it unfortunately showed what can be done if you get organised.

Pity the Democrats, whether you like them or not. They are going to be stuck with the cost of repairing all the damage the Republicans have done, as trying to restore sone semblance of respect for the country and the rest of the world. And there will be some expectation for them to contribute to rebuilding some of the infrastructure destroyed in Gaza and Iran by Trumps indiscriminate bombing.

They don't need to anymore. Trump is doing it all by himself.

One of the reasons for granting bail was that it is going to takwe a very long time to bring these charges before a court. There is no likelihood that he will commit further offences whilst free on bail, so community safety is not endangered. The only condition that I see as not being useful is the reporting three times per week to police. That is supposed to restrict his movement from the local area of his residence. As one who was able to set bail conditions, I always felt that this was an onerous condition. Once a week is sufficient if the condition is required.

Managed inverters do contribute to the stability of the grid as it is the inverter that manages the battery and decides when to charge or discharge and whether to import or export. I signed up with Amber a few weeks ago and it has been interesting watching what the software is telling my system to do as it uses algorithms to check the spot price which changes every 5 minutes and how much energy I am using and whether my battery is charging or not and what the current export price is. I had run the EV battery down to 20% with a few longish drives over 3 days & decided to charge it today. I have the car set to charge only between 10am & 2.30pm. By 10 am my battery that was depleted overnight as it exported during the peak time from about 5.30pm & 7pm had regained about 55% of charge. The charger consumes 7kWh & the solar now is generating about 6kWh. In January this would have been 9kWh. So the solar was used to power the charger & the rest of the house & the balance supplemented by the battery. When the battery depleted to 29% the system stopped drawing from it & began importing energy and the solar then was all used for charging the battery. At that time the spot price was 11c/kWh & the export price was -1cent. My charger does not have OCCP (Open Charge Point Protocol) so cannot be managed except manually. I changed the charger via its app to charge at 20 amps when it had been charging at 32 amps. The inverter then stopped importing power and supplied the charger & house & began recharging the battery with the surplus. For the last few days the inverter has used its curtailment function to reduce solar output once the battery is full to prevent export at very low or negative export prices The Amber software is in learning mode for the first 30 days so gets more accurate over time. The Amber App today shows that in the past 18 days I am $31.03 in credit. Ambers charge is a flat $25.00 a month so that is covered. The daily supply charge from Essential Energy of $1.92 has already been included. It will be different as the seasons change and if we get a lot of cloudy weather or rain.

Obviously the fire was started by radical leftist EV owners seeking to overthrow the capitalist system....... or a faulty valve.

Inverters don't contribute to the grid. Batteries help the grid because they smooth out peaks in consumption. There is a huge peak around the time people get home from work and cook dinner. Those people with their own batteries are helping by not contributing to this peak, and those who sell a portion of their stored electricity back to the grid are reducing the need to ramp up power stations or peaker plants. Most of the world is moving in this direction; can they all be wrong?

I like the rest of your post, except for this bit. I think you are not allowing for the rapidly rising number of households that are what you call 'jumping the gun'. My solar and battery do all the smoothing needed for my intermittent solar. It has hardly stopped raining for a fortnight, and my battery dropped down to 80%. That is, nil from the grid in that time. A lot of people (finances permitting) are not waiting for the government to solve the problem.

We are Not in NORMAL circumstances and it could get worse. Imagine the Hullabaloo if that Happened. Perhaps this will get us a bit weaned off fossil fuel where we can be Held to ransom at the whim and fancy of lots of people and have a cleaner World at the same time. Nev

The moon over the Persian Gulf (Strait of Hormuz) and the International Space Station. Moon 02.mp4

We haven't got a lot to Winge about compared to Many others. Nev

Trump is still better than Johnson and Nixon, they killed off 56,000 young Americans for no good reason, no good reason at all. Trump closed the Southern Border, cleaned up Biden's illegal immigrant mess, and what a mess it was. He then started clamping down on illicit drug importation, not fooling round either. Now he's letting Islamists know who's boss. Trump warned them some time ago, don't mess with the United States, Christianity nor Western societies.

What Gina wants

In the first Trump administration he lied over 35,000 times according to the Washington Post. Now that publication has been taken over By Amazon Billionaire Jeff Bezos it has become far less critical. There are now multiple organisations reporting and debunking his lies. In one 69 minute interview in 2024 he lied over 150 times.

Whilst some cobalt is mined under poor conditions, my understanding is that most is not. The other thing is that batteries are increasingly moving away from cobalt. LFP (lithium iron phosphate) uses no cobalt at all. I think it is entirely appropriate to give a sh1t about the percentage of cobalt that is mined by dubious means; however, it is often used is some sort of argument against renewables and EVs. Does anyone say oil refining is evil because it uses cobalt as a catalyst? About 20% of cobalt comes from artisanal mines with poor conditions. Some uses of cobalt Batteries (EVs, phones, home storage) Superalloys (jet engines, turbines) Magnets (motors, wind turbines) Catalysts (oil refining, chemicals) Pigments (cobalt blue in glass/ceramics) Medical uses (cancer treatment, sterilisation) Tool steels and industrial uses

I don’t see people with rooftop solar as part of the problem—I see generating your own clean electricity as a positive. If we zoom out a bit, the real issue looks different. The electricity grid we use today was largely designed and built from the 1950s through to the 1990s. It was built as a one-way system: electricity flowed from large, centralised generators—coal, gas, and hydro—out to consumers. That made perfect sense at the time, because generation technology dictated that structure. But generation technology has changed. We now have distributed energy—rooftop solar being the most obvious example—where electricity is produced at the edges of the grid, not just at the centre. I think this is where we differ. You seem to be saying (correct me if I’m wrong) that generation methods should be limited by what the existing grid can handle. I’d argue the opposite: the purpose of the grid is to distribute electricity as efficiently as possible, and that means adapting it to modern forms of generation, not restricting those forms to suit legacy infrastructure. A useful comparison is telecommunications. In the 1990s, the copper phone network was sufficient for voice calls. Then the internet arrived, and we initially squeezed it through that same copper using dial-up. As technology advanced, the limitations became obvious. We didn’t respond by saying “we must limit internet use because the network can’t cope.” We upgraded the network—eventually rolling out systems like the National Broadband Network. Electricity is no different. Rooftop solar isn’t a flaw in the system—it’s a signal that the system needs to modernise. The system was built for one-way, centralised generation. Now we’ve got distributed generation changing demand patterns. That’s an engineering and market design problem, not a reason to limit a cheaper, cleaner energy source.

There are Australians and there are immigrants. Not the same. We hope the immigrants become Australians and in the past they did. But many of the recent ones, last 20-30 years, carry such huge prejudices that they want to remain what they were and to exploit the opportunity created by the Australians.

I've worked wth a lot of traditional owners over the years. They vary a lot depending on the location of the traditional land. In areas where their ancestors were relocated, generally very few if any were living on traditional lands. All were mixed race and a lot born and bred in the cities. They used to come out to their traditional land to work with us as cultural heritage monitors. Very few had any experience or knowledge of it but they were put through training induction courses to teach them what was what. At times I sensed a bit of embarrassment on their part, particularly the city people who had to learn some of the most basic things like how to boil a billy. They were all generally good people but that sense of disconnect to their traditional land weighed heavy on them. On the other side of the coin, we sometimes worked with traditional full blood people who had never left their land. Some could barely speak English, but those that you could converse with were very knowledgeable about their country and the ways of their part of the world. I must admit, when I first worked with full blood traditional people in the early 80's, I got a bit of a surprise to see young men with big thick tribal cicatrices on their bodies. I thought at that stage in history it might have been a dying practice and only found on the older men, but not so. Tribal customs are still solid in some of those areas.

Did you not see the bit in the video - and these stats apply to Australia too - that immigrants are statistically more law abiding, more likely to start small businesses that employ locals, and do the jobs that the locals don't want to?

This is very chilling:

Sometimes the anthropologists on projects can be a problem, more so the inexperienced young ones fresh out of uni and on their first job in the real world. I remember in 1983 when the pilot survey line for the Moonie/Jackson pipeline was going through and it got held up at Cunnamulla. The job ground to a halt for four days because the young anthropologists has found some axe cuts on some tree roots where the pipeline was to cross the Warrego River. They were metal axe cuts and generations of local whites had camped and fished there as well as the local aboriginals, so it was anyone's guess whether a white or black person had used the axe. The anthropologists thought they were doing the right thing by checking with their bosses in the city but it was in the days before mobile phones and email, and head office had closed up on Friday afternoon for the long weekend. Eventually when their office opened the following Tuesday and contact was made they approved the crossing. It cost some companies a lot of down time money, but the anthropologists thought they were doing the right thing. Their inexperience was a bit of a problem in that area. The issue with a metal axe is that any object made by non aboriginals that aboriginals use is deemed to be a post contact artifact. That's where the grey area comes in. A shard of a broken beer bottle that some ringers left on the ground can be taken to be a possible knife used by aboriginals. The archaeologists I've worked with have generally been a fair bit more sensible than some of the anthropologists, probably because their field is more defined and direct and less guesswork involved.

Baseload is a term that used to describe Coal Fired generation as it couldn't be turned off and had a very limited window of generation variation. The only people who use this now are those who are living in the past or conservative politicians who don't understand electrical generation, usage or demand. Terms like "we have to keep the lights on" and "what do we do when the wind doesn't blow and the sun doesn't shine" just displays their ignorance. The generation industry, distributors and anyone with a smidgen of intelligence know the problem is "Peak Demand" so we need available energy to meet this. For many countries this occurs in the middle of Winter when heating demand stresses the electricity supply but in Australia it is in the Summer when heat waves stress the network due to massive use of Air conditioning systems. Rooftop solar has had a huge impact on reducing this during daylight hours and now with large multi megawatt batteries and home batteries set up as VPPs the problems are reduced. Add community batteries and pumped hydro and other storage to the mix and we go a long way to a fully sustainable renewable energy nation. Already rooftop solar produces more energy in Australia than all of the fossil fuel energy producers do combined during the middle of the day.

Iranians have More reason than ever to Hate Americans. Imagine you are Living there Now and being threatened with Obliteration by a Maniac, and His Weirdo hangers on, who have recklessly and Illegally smashed a lot of the essential Infrastructure and Killed innocents. Nev

This could be true, but it is many decades away. 1.6% of our cars are electric. The percentage of heavy vehicles is so small it is a rounding error. At the best historical rates of fleet replacement we have barely begun to change. And the replacements are still dominated by non electric vehicles and will be for the foreseeable future for a range of reasons. An economic recession is inevitable and no one will be rushing to replace their car. And anyway, oil is needed for many non fuel purposes.

We coulld stop selling canola overseas and turn it into bio-diesel.

Yeah l mean, here he is now, fighting with the damn pope, the pope !!!! Just wtf ! The popes brother in the US is now getting death threats. Man, tell you what , Leo might be a lovely man no doubt about that l'd say, but when the Vatican chose what- an American, l'm thinking what the hell, haven't you seen what Markle 's done to the Royals, Harry, have you not seen that disgraceful shytshow, yaknow. Now your gonna put one into what's suppose to be the most sacred of sacred positions in the world. Andddd, here we go. l know it's not Leo's fault and l know he's not full blooded Yank but man, that won't matter. Chump is the most disgraceful, classless animal , l reckon we've ever seen in a position like that , makes Pootin look like an angel. Speaking of, man, love that puppet pic , l mean that's it isn't, sums it up, in a nutshell. Hope Chump sees that someone send it to him.😁

I should have made the title Victoria's Secret, because not many people know how serious it is. In a way it will be a good thing, because the other states and the Feds will have a chance to see how a treaty really works. Unfortunately, in my opinion, some of the so-called leaders are just in it for what they can get for themselves and close family. Some have criminal records or are known drug dealers. Some, perhaps many, have a tenuous claim to aboriginality. At present there is a fight to see who comes out in control or with veto rights on public lands. At the same time, as in the greater society, probably 90% are good people wanting to get on with their lives, but they are not the high-profile activists. If you ask me for hard evidence I probably don't have any, just my own experiences and observations and those of people around me.

There's Phase Balancing considerations also Lot's of Lost efficiency Possible there.. We have only just begun this Journey . Remember we used to have Horses and Carts or walk and only the very Rich had Cars . Now they are regarded as essential. Nev

China is Probably doing the Sensible and Responsible thing more effectively than Most. Rent seekers in Corrupted Capitalist Places put a Brake on it to maintain their Profits They don't want competition which is what makes capitalism efficient and keeps costs down. Nev

When i moved to my new property I installed a new solar array & a battery. Total cost after subsidies. $11,600.00. I have charged my EV exclusively from the solar supplemented by the battery when solar generation falls below 7kW. I am now a VPP (virtual power plant) & buy & sell energy on the wholesale market. Also for doing this I am getting another $675.00 rebate. The company I am with charges $25.00 a month to manage my system. I was getting 2.7c/kWh & now I get much more as I sell what is in the battery when the price rises during peak demand. The sun is almost gone today & the export price is 19C/kWh so my battery is exporting. This will stop when I begin using power for cooking etc. My battery is usually full by 10am & unless I have the EV charging my solar production is constrained so i don't export at a negative value. The software they have is called Smartshift & it manages the Inverter. I have been a wholesaler for only a few weeks but I am well in credit after paying the monthly fee. My original payback was 5-6 years & now with my EV costing zero to run & the ability to export only when the spot price is hign, that has reduced to 2-3 years

It would be a BIG Mistake to think that Those running IRAN are stupid.. It's clear where the Bulk of the stupidity resides. Nev

Midsomer.

I maintain that we produce a higher grade of bullshit than AI could.

We will sill need a doctor to sew up our wounds and set our bones. We will need teachers to show our children how to read and count. We will need plumbers to clear our blockes drains and sparkies to wire in our fuse boxes. Every new technology displaces those who performed the activity the is displaced. Humanity always finds something new to do that the technology hasn't caught up with. We are not looking at disaster. We are seeing new opportunities.

This one has been seen before, but worth a rerun.

The maximum I have seen on the wholesale market is 25 cent/kWh at between 6:30 & 7:00pm. There is no solar being produced then so it is only export from batteries that can get that much. For most of the day the wholesale export price is 5 cents maximum to negative 3 cents. The best retail solar export plans I have seen are 10 cent/kWh & that is only for the first 10kWh per day then it reduces by half but this is countered by their high kWh charges when importing.

I am not quite clear what you are saying here, but here is my understanding of it. During the day I am using my own electricity. My excess is sold to the grid for a tiny 8 cents a kWh, which they resell for 30ish cents a kWh. I appreciate that I am using the network; however, I would expect that the large disparity between the price they by my KWh and the price they resell takes into account the cost of the network of this transaction.