nomadpete

But still we are relying on a multinational enterprise ! Banana republic!

Good luck Nev!

Quite so. However it is also not at all complex, engineering wise. It has a proven track record of reliability and safety, worldwide. And although its efficiency may not be perfect, we are only storing surplus energy that cost nothing to make (if the energy is solar). It can be built relatively quickly and has a extendable design expectany of 50 years. I can only speak personally of the SE Qld plant. As I noted before, it works on a low head of about 65mtrs, yet it can match the output of a coal fired power station. There are other options, of course. In my opinion, each state needed a pumped storage many years ago. But dams are always a political hazard for politicians and NIMBYs.

And may 2025 be kind to everyone.

You could build your own pumped storage on your steep block. You already have a running creek and a dam - you are halfways there already! A neat little project to fill in your spare time!

That dog sure knows oligarch eghics!

Simplicity

My cat was a snob. He only ate from a cut crystal bowl. He even brought a mouse in and put it in the bowl to eat later.

Religions claim to have different weddings, but in reality, the priest is simply a trusted scribe acting for the Registrar of Births, Deaths & Marriages. All the rest is fuss and bluster and a party.

My parents had a very successful way to stay slim. They mostly ate what they could grow, and they lived nearly an hour from any food shops. In spite of smoking all their lives, they never ate a lot, but didn't suffer malnutrition either.

Prior to our marriage, we referred to each other in conventional terms - husband and wife. For me, the existence of a piece of paper makes no difference to my personal commitment to my partner. Anyway, legally, after a brief period of living under the same roof, the law sees 'living in sin' as having the same legal obligations as formal marriage. And sometimes knowing my wife is my partner elevates her above the old demeaning label of 'the wife'.

Veering back toward thread - 'the nuclear option'. I would prefer the national debate to include an unspoken option. Whether Nuclear is included or increased Solar, or community batteries, the east coast grid need investment to stay usable. The option that is conveniently ignored, is.... Should we start planning the downgrading and eventual dismantling of the grid in favor of community batteries? Major industrial users of electricity are mostly located adjacent to power stations or could retain a HV spur to the bearest solar farm. Communities can have their privately owned and run community batteries.

To you or to me, I'd agree. To a millennial that needs 24/7 phone charging and high speed internet, an hour's outage is unbearable.

I disagree. The 'doubling up' of batteries gives double the capacity which (although not needed daily) caters for the less common extended periods of lack of sun.

Also, the medicated weight lost always comes right back when the user stops taking the pills - which makes it a total waist of time. It would be better for fat people to buy a tapeworm.

The worst is murder fiction - the popular whodunnit 'mystery'. There is so much real murder and cruelty carried out today, that I cannot abide the creation of more for macabre 'entertainment'. But traditional SF is usually opening my mind to the inner workings of human nature. I don't get off on violence, or impressive theatrical visuals that have become essential to modern movies.

Yes, every state has a couple of these truck mounted gensets now. Mainly used to supply communities during planned maintenance of poles and wires.

I think the suggested longer term idea was to have islanded distributed power. Nev doesn't like the grid. He has a point - it is an expensive overhead. Approx 40% of your power bill is just covering grid infrastructure. Further to that expense, the Dutton Nuclear costings fail (I think) to include the cost of upgrading the existing grid over the period of waiting for a nuclear plant to come online. (Over that time the demand is expected to increase ~40% so HV grid will need upgrading anyway). This would not be necessary if there is a plan to implement distributed community battery storage.

Ask OME - "battery" is a curious word meaning a singular containing a multiple. Anyway, the concept of a single lithium battery on each city block is fine as long as there is an alternate source available. Outages may be due to battery repair / replacement. Or a control system/ charging system/inverter/ battery monitoring failure. Any of these complex, expensive items represent a single point of failure. Have you tried to get an electrician out to quickly fix something in the home? In the above examples, one fault has the potential (pun) to leave multiple homes without power (no fridge, no cooking, no lights, no tv) until a repair is completed. Your example of a dead cell in a battery does not address these risks. Maybe not a problem if you use the Boeing system of 3 systems with an engineer to watch over it.

Random thought because we don't have a thread for it..... Have you read a good book lately? My present read:- "The Sea Was Kind" Long out of print, the story of a bloke you wouldn't get your lotto numbers from. A German jew who in the 1930's thought it a good idea to get as far away from Germany as possible so he moved to Japan, learnt the lingo,built a business. But the 1940's started to look bad. He then started moving to a safer place - Philipines .... A story of survival against the odds. And sailing. https://archive.org/details/seawaskind010917mbp/page/n8/mode/1up

It takes a concerted effort at self delusion. Smaller plates with smaller serving, helps trick the mind. Each morning grab a glass of water before brekky - it give the stomach some sense of being a bit full. Have a bowl of fresh fruit near the kitchen - after a meal force yourself to eat a piece (when you are heading for the fridge for a snack. Eat more vegetables. Avoid weight loss drugs. Etc.

It is a valid point. But it could be mitigated at nominal expense. I spent 30 years in the power industry. Everything involved (except street wires) is backed up by redundancy. My career revolved around fixing stuff before anybody noticed. Some folk called it 'Gold plating the system'. But Australia has had less major outages than USA.

What other flowers do you like?

Why are we buying musky batteries? Pumped storage is a better plan in the long term. Another possible storage media (in spite of % turnaround losses) is HOT AIR. A private company has started building a compressed air storage system for Broken Hill. It uses old mineshafts to hold compressed air and can supply the town for 8 hrs.

https://arena.gov.au/renewable-energy/pumped-hydro-energy-storage/ https://arena.gov.au/blog/there-are-22000-possible-sites-for-pumped-hydro-storage-in-australia/ There are 22,000 possible sites for pumped storage in Australia