nomadpete

I do wonder whether tRump has managed to get all the foil off his FIFI Peace medal, before he ate the chocolate.....

We had a lovely warm sunny day yesterday. Today was gloomy grey and rainy. Tonight is forecast to snow on Mt Wellington (Hobart). I blame BOM. They are doing this to us just to upset us.

Maybe you should send a stern letter to BOM?

There seems to be some folk in Yew Hess Hay, who seem somewhat disenchanted with the incumbent *resident of the White House. One such kind soul recently suggested their next election preference thus:- "Once again, if a 'Flaming Bag of Dog Poo on my Doorstep, that Someone Left after Ringing my Doorbell and Ran off' is on my ballot, and the only other choice is Trump or some other bullshitter MAGA tool who sees Americans as his enemy, I’ll vote for the bag of shit that doesn’t pretend to be something else." (American eloquence par excellence)

Maybe not today.... But let's see what tomorrow brings.

The Climate Change Debate.... I am pretty sure that there is no debate to be had about Climate Change. It is changing. - That debate is over - Further, it is pretty much universally agreed that anthropogenic climate change is real. - That Debate is over - There seems to still be some relatively minor uncertainty about how much of this climate change is caused by human activity suddenly adding significant amounts of greenhouse gasses. Is that really a debate? The media attention focuses on CO2, mostly from the burning of coal and oils. There is a big fuss over CO2. There is a negative side to that. I think this is distracting the public from noticing the other greenhouse gas emissions and the othe massive global pollution problems. The way I see it, the human animal has evolved to react when an immediate crisis threatens. In the case of the above complex poisoning of our environment, the threat, although ultimately catastrophic, is gradually occuring and seems distant. So we sit at home in a comfy armchair, doomscrolling & watching cat videos.

The new normal?

Statistics prove that people who live longer are more likely to say something stupid than people who don't.

A small point, but the 'underutilised generation' argument doesn't hold much water when we talk about solar power. Sure, underutilised coal power costs money to run. (It's called 'spinning reserve'). Unused solar energy costs nothing to run. So why would it impact the consumer's bills?

I like the concept of having independant power sources. Once I get an EV I won't care who owns all the oil wells. My driving cost is not going to rely on some foreign cartel setting the price of fuel. I won't care about the anti renewable lobby. nor will I care about grid stability. Furthermore, I suspect that quite a lot of others are following this same path.

Catering for brief system underutilisation does not equal overcapitalisation. The old capacitor banks are stoll doing their job. Old style mecanical system inertia (to maintain 50 cps system synchronisation) is now being replaced by fast electronic system synchronisation. I know which one is fastest to respond to sudden load changes. Hint:- not the old steam engines!

Such devices have been steadily installed throughout the grid, over the past 20 plus years. I was involved in commissioning some in Qld. It was originally done for phase correction back in the dayse before "alternative" energy. Advances in semiconductors has brought a newer, faster breed of active stabilisation. Barring some catastrophy, I doubt the grid is going to collapse anytime soon.

I object to Americanisation of Australian heads. We must immediately deport anybody seen wearing a baseball cap. Especially if they wear it backwards. America will be held accountable for all ear melanomas occuring in our great country. Thank you for attention to this matter.

Here is a map showing the grid and the major state interconnectors. These have been upgraded from time to time to meet demand. Media has made hysterical claims about 10,000k of grid required for renewable energy. However, most of this comes from progressive upgrades of existing transmission. IMHO it's a misrepresentation. The AEMO produce annual maps of planned grid development. Note that only a minority of the stuff on it is totally new pathways (land, towers,etc). Most is simply upgrading existing feeders. Eg most of the feeders on the second map (fromAEMO) are already there. Yes it costs to grow. It has always done so for the 40 years I was involved in the industry.

I disagree:- From Wiki:- "The NEM operates the world's longest interconnected power systems between Port Douglas, Queensland and Port Lincoln, South Australia with an end-to-end distance of more than 5000 kilometres, and 40,000 circuit kilometres" That is the east coast interconnecting grid at the moment. Sure there are segments that need reinforcing to cater for changes in demand, and extra bits will be added to bring new generators into the grid. So, the grid is there. It will continue to grow to meet the needs of the electricity market.