Cost of living

[Old Koreelah]

6 hours ago, onetrack said:

…Then there's the angle that a recent Danish start-up is going to be given the contract. Surely we can build this kind of stuff in Australia?

If not for the stupid shorts-sightedness of Abbott, the mad monk, Australia would have a world-class industry building wind turbines. His policies directly caused big investors to pack up and close down local manufacturing projects.

 

We lost a decade to these pillocks.

6 hours ago, onetrack said:

My personal view is that pumped hydro energy, utilising a number of the thousands of huge, abandoned, open pit mines that are now scattered across the Goldfields and Pilbara regions of W.A. would provide a better option for power generation than endless numbers of wind turbines.

The trend towards longer and deeper droughts might make hydro less viable in some areas. I have faith that the fair application of market forces will bring the best combination of energy sources.

Waves and wind are probably most reliable.

[Jerry_Atrick]

1 hour ago, Old Koreelah said:

We lost a decade to these pillocks.

Far longer than a decade. We have to catch up first, and even idf we started now, that would take years to do.

 

Maybe, Albo with his commitment to buy Australian could have a chat to McGowan and suggest that maybe between them, they fund a starrt up venture.

Edited August 6, 2022 by Jerry_Atrick

[spacesailor]

With the future longer droughts. 

Those very big pits could be used for ' water catchment '.

Then at least we could go for a swim. LoL

spacesailor

[gareth lacey]

A few years ago I was the workshop manager that fabricated wind turbine towers (only the tower) they cost millions each and the company still lost money on each project, the company that we manufactured them for ,as part of the contract they had a resident engineer from o/s paid for and accomdation by us,also the documentation process was over the top, we had more staff on that side than in the workshop, at any one time I had 20 to 25 tradespeople in the shop, but 30 peeps in the office non producing , the costs were going up all the time , I feel that value for money in building these wind farms will over time get higher they do not have a long service history, and the wind does not blow all the time , great ideas for clean power(forgetting the HUGE enviromental costs to build them) nuclear is the only way forward 

[onetrack]

We've got a massive windfarm in the Wheatbelt of W.A., at Collgar, 25kms SE of Merredin, and about 270kms E of Perth. It's located in flat farmland and covers a very large area (18,000Ha), and produces around 700GWh's of power annually. It's been in operation since 2011 (11 years) and seems to be performing to the predicted performance level. The expected life of the turbines is 30 years.

 

The Collgar windfarm produces about 4% of W.A.'s power requirements, and there has been little opposition to it, thanks to its location in a sparsely-populated area. I believe more thought needs to be put in to locating power generation away from populated and scenic areas.

 

https://www.collgarwindfarm.com.au/about

[pmccarthy]

I have just been driving around South Aus and they seem to have a solar farm near every substation or where power lines converge. It is an impressive distributed system.

[spacesailor]

I have seen a video of those "wind farm propellers " being BURRIED " !.

As there is no use for the obsolete carbon blades.

Seems a huge waste.

spacesailor

[red750]

There are lots of photos of wind turbines on fire, and recently in Texas, lightning struck the blade of a wid turbine and it melted.

 

 

[onetrack]

Peter, the people producing these photos of wind turbine failures don't show you the photos of coal-fired power station failures! - of which there are plenty!

 

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/may/26/coal-fired-power-plant-that-caused-queensland-blackouts-broke-down-eight-times-in-past-year

 

Spacey - Correct, the wind turbine industry has a lot of work in front of it to dispose of worn out turbine components in an environmentally-favourable manner.

The onus should be on the wind turbine manufacturers to show they have a method for environmentally-friendly disposal for end of life components.

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-51325101

[old man emu]

2 minutes ago, onetrack said:

to dispose of worn out turbine components in an environmentally-favourable manner.

Can't the blades be chopped up like plastic bottles and used in another product? 

[onetrack]

A bloke in the U.S. has a proposal for recycling the blades into fibreglass pellets, see the BBC article. I'm sure, with a bit of effort, the disposal problem can be addressed.

 

It's not anywhere near the problem produced by used tyres, and I haven't seen anyone cease using tyres because there's no environmentally-friendly method of disposal attached to the tyre purchase.

[spacesailor]

YES

Sainty Speed Works, made the Alluminium wheels for a royal coach.  Thar was said to be the nices ride ever.

Just a bit of local knowledge. 

spacesailor

[red750]

3 hours ago, onetrack said:

there's no environmentally-friendly method of disposal attached to the tyre purchase.

 

 

[onetrack]

Unfortunately, the QUT Biodiesel project is simply a research project, it's not at a "commercial stage", which is necessary for it to become a viable, self-supporting operation.

It's highly unlikely any tyre recycling setup will ever survive without major financial input via Govt subsidies, or a disposal tax on every tyre.

 

The available money is going into treating garbage and sugarcane waste, which are both much more profitable, than tyre recycling ever will be.

 

https://www.qut.edu.au/news?id=178745

 

A tyre bloke close to my workshop has garnered an income slicing up car tyres and baling them. He imported an American machine which cuts the sidewalls out of the tyres, leaving three flat rings of rubber, which are them tightly baled and bound with wire. This reduces the tyre volume by a huge amount for easy transport.

 

But he only operates this facility with Govt subsidies, and only takes car tyres, and the baled tyres are only diced up in hammermills to make crumbed rubber, which is used to make matting, mudflaps, kids playground surfaces, etc. Nothing is really recovered from tyres this way, it's just a method of re-using the tyre remnants.

 

We're still storing used vast numbers of tyres here in W.A., waiting for a system that can show it's a sustainable and viable tyre recycling arrangement. The bigger earthmover tyres are a real problem.

 

https://www.westernmaze.com.au/services/tyre-storage-and-recovery-wa/

[nomadpete]

COST OF LIVING......

 

 

[old man emu]

22 hours ago, onetrack said:

disposal tax on every tyre

I paid a fee to the tyre retailer for the disposal of the tyre I replaced recently.

 

22 hours ago, onetrack said:

It's highly unlikely any tyre recycling setup will ever survive

If there is one thing our generation should have learned is that "Never" simply means "at the moment" . We'll never have electric powered cars. Never will every person have access to a computer. We are never going to get rid of ScoMo.

[onetrack]

One of the problems with tyre recycling facilities is the massive, constant, and ongoing fire threat potential. We've already lost one major tyre recycling facility here in Perth to a fire. The firies generally struggle to save the setup when it goes up.

 

https://www.9news.com.au/national/perth-news-welshpool-tyre-recycling-factory-destroyed-by-fire/5a46d4ec-56fb-4a2e-98d9-530653abdfbc#:~:text=A tyre recycling factory in,fuel tank inside the building.

[spacesailor]

Tyre disposal! .

Turn them into a ' reef  ', the marine environment will suit Large box made of tyres.

Much nicer to bump into than a rusting ship hulk.

Morton island, has a sand retaining  reef that actually works.

SO the same idea but with tyres should be a nobrainer.

think outside the square !  , use doughnuts to make that square box.

spacesailor

[red750]

On 08/06/2022 at 3:24 PM, red750 said:

Our local fish shop sells peices of flake that hang off both sides of the plate, with potato cakes (scallops in some locales) larger than a saucer. YUM.

We had fish and chips for dinner tonight. Here is a photo of my serving. You can see the size of the flake (with tartare sauce) and the potato cake. Three servings, son, daughter and I, $32.70

 

[Jerry_Atrick]

Holy Guacamole! Will you look at the size of that potato cake!!!  I remember those.. Over here, the birthplace of F&Cs, you are unlikely to find one.. but I did find a shop that did them.. about 1/4 of the size and.. yep.. more a greasy cake than a potato cake. 

 

The fish looks a decent size... hard to compare from that angle, but I do know we still get cod.. One that size will set you back between £5 and £6.. So, for 3, it will be between £15 & $18.. which at £18 is about $32. Large chips (which will easily cover 3 people with their fish) is about £3 - so about $5.50, and the grease cakes were something like 50p. 

 

When I go the local chippie, 1 burger (which is nothing on Aussie F&C burgers - or as they were), 1 serve of scampi (8), one large cod (1/2 each for my daughter and I), and a large chips is a tad over £18... last time I went, which was before the cost of living crisis here.. Businesses are paying up to 4x for their energy than they previously did, so dog knows what it costs now..

 

 

[Edit] I am a pie man more than a F&C man, and the prices of those have skyrocketed.. a Pukka pie, about the same as a 4nTwenty or that ilk was £1.80 cold from the local convenience store, which is not much more expensive than supermarkets (rarely do they have pies, pasties, and sausage roll warmers over here). The are now around £3.80.. and that is in a few months. The local boutique larder now has their gourmet pies at cheaper prices!

Edited August 27, 2022 by Jerry_Atrick

[Bruce Tuncks]

Well of course poms have more expensive food than we do here. In ww2 the Germans tried to sink the food-ships. In recent years, I knew this from watching "all creatures great and small" where the farmers would find it worthwhile to pay for a vet to treat a single animal ! . Nothing short of a racehorse would get that here in oz. A Ewe is now worth over a hundred dollars, still not enough to pay for a vet.

Jerry, I once read that stupid Australian backpackers could earn money in London,( the employers apparently liked their work ethic,)  but after rent, there was not enough left for food, so they lived on chips till they got scurvy.

[Bruce Tuncks]

All my life, food has been way too cheap, so I like stories like how it is going up.

[facthunter]

You keep saying that. Crap food IS cheap. IF you love living don't eat processed stuff FAT SALT and SUGAR are cheap and addictive. and you end up looking like the MICHELIN MAN.  Nev

[Bruce Tuncks]

I don't agree Nev. Good food is cheap, but the poorest people eat the worst and expensive stuff. For example, tinned baked beans is much more expensive than unfashionable meat cuts and fresh veggies in season.

 You sure are right about how the junk foods are  laced with bad things, sugar and salt being the most common, and as you say, plenty of fat too.

What about taxing those things to have lots of money to spend on having a healthier population? 

 

Edited September 3, 2022 by Bruce Tuncks

[facthunter]

They have spoken of a sugar tax. It's a bit like Big Mother. Education should be enough. (but isn't) Sugar is rocket fuel. Not food. It won't worry me .I don't eat cakes or Fizzy carbonated sugary drinks or white bread,  Nev