The climate change debate continues.

[red750]

US giant commits $1b to batteries - from the Sydney Mmorning Herald.

 

The world’s biggest fund manager, BlackRock, has selected Australia for the rollout of its largest investment in grid-scale batteries that will be crucial to driving the shift from coal to clean energy.

 

BlackRock, which manages $US10 trillion ($14 trillion), will announce today it intends to commit $1 billion for nine battery-storage projects spanning the east-coast electricity grid after agreeing to acquire Melbourne-based battery developer Akaysha Energy.

 

The commitment marks the American behemoth’s first investment in deploying battery storage projects in the Asia-Pacific region.

 

‘‘This is the largest investment BlackRock has made into battery storage by some margin,’’ said BlackRock Asia-Pacific’s co-head of climate infrastructure, Charlie Reid.

 

Reid said BlackRock had selected Australia because it was experiencing many challenges of the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy much sooner than other countries.

‘‘That’s creating this fundamental need for battery storage, which, in some other markets, hasn’t arrived yet,’’ he said.

 

‘‘For Australia to become a renewable energy superpower, battery storage is going to be required at vast scale.’’

 

While coal-fired electricity still accounts for most of the nation’s power supply, the influx of cheaperto-run renewable energy has been undercutting its economic viability, leading to power suppliers Origin Energy and EnergyAustralia bringing forward the closures of some of Australia’s largest generators.

 

As the transition gathers speed, authorities say big batteries must play a more significant role in stabilising power supplies and keeping a lid on volatile prices because of their ability to store renewable energy when it’s abundant and dispatch when it’s not sunny or windy.

 

The Albanese government has set a target for the grid to be 82 per cent powered by clean energy by 2030. The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) expects 60 per cent of the eastern seaboard’s coal fleet could exit the grid by that time, requiring a massive lift in spending on projects such as grid-scale batteries to provide back-up for renewable energy.

 

Established in 2014, Akaysha has nine battery storage projects in NSW, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and Tasmania. Its most advanced is the 150-megawatt Ulinda Park battery at Queensland’s Western Downs substation, which will have two hours of storage duration. Another is the 200MW, fourhour Orana battery near Wellington in central-west NSW.

 

Akaysha managing director Nick Carter said BlackRock’s involvement and access to capital would be vital to fast-tracking its nine east-coast projects.

 

‘‘Akaysha and BlackRock both appreciate that there is a window in time now, leading up to these coal closures in the next five or six years, to get moving,’’ Carter said. ‘‘So we are trying to accelerate that pipeline as quickly as we can.’’

 

BlackRock said it had identified Akaysha as its ideal ‘‘platform’’ for energy storage projects in the rapidly evolving energy market in Australia and the wider region.

 

‘‘Australia is becoming a key market for renewables, batteries and net-zero technologies globally,’’ Reid said. ‘‘It’s a very interesting point in time for the Australian market and the Asia-Pacific market.’’

 

Akaysha is among Australian energy companies targeting plans to roll out more big batteries, including many of the nation’s largest utilities. Origin Energy has plans to build a 700MW battery at its Eraring coal-fired power station in NSW, which would be the nation’s largest, while AGL is seeking to roll out 1000 megawatts of batteries across several sites.

[facthunter]

When the rules are spelled out the money will flow. It's a pity it's going to pay off for other O/S investors, rather than people here. Nev

[onetrack]

It's all just too much power - and I'm not talking about batteries. I'm talking about the monstrous power that BlackRock has garnered to itself, taking over the positions of power previously held by Lehman Bros, JP Morgan, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs.

It has engineered this by acquiring control of US$6T in pension funds, and presenting itself as the only group who can be relied on to assess financial risk, and also by investing its massive funds in companies and projects around the world. The problem here is that there is a large level of conflict of interest in what BlackRock does.

 

https://www.investigate-europe.eu/en/2019/blackrock-the-financial-leviathan-that-bears-down-on-europes-decisions/?ie_s=ga&pk_campaign=en-blackrock&pk_source=google&pk_medium=cpc&gclid=Cj0KCQjwgO2XBhCaARIsANrW2X2ad52i87ywBaDRBR12lnRE0xErVKNVQvcK5uAK9WcUAJh_Upo6s8waAp-rEALw_wcB

[red750]

Note the date on this article...

 

[red750]

I am not a climate change denier, I have seen evidence of what is happening. Our record floods and the heat wave in Europe are just two indications that all is not well. However, I found this graph interesting. The Greens (and the Government) are hell bent on putting us through all sorts of deprivation in the rush to shut down our coal fired power stations to save the world. Look where we are on the world scale. Taken in the context of our land mass, our impact is minute, when you consider countries like China are continuing to build coal fired power stations. Just being a bit of a devil's advocate.

 

 

 

[octave]

9 minutes ago, red750 said:

I am not a climate change denier, I have seen evidence of what is happening. Our record floods and the heat wave in Europe are just two indications that all is not well. However, I found this graph interesting. The Greens (and the Government) are hell bent on putting us through all sorts of deprivation in the rush to shut down our coal fired power stations to save the world. Look where we are on the world scale. Taken in the context of our land mass, our impact is minute, when you consider countries like China are continuing to build coal fired power stations. Just being a bit of a devil's advocate.

 

 

 

 

It is a reasonable point to make.    If we are to make international agreements we can hardly ask other countries to do what we are not willing to do.   If we are clever, innovative and progressive we may in fact end up benefiting financially.   The argument that we should do nothing until he biggest polluters do something effectively means we will probably end up doing nothing. Our grandchildren will not look kindly on us.

 

If I am driving down the road and have an empty drink container, I could just toss it out the window, after all  it is just a drop in the ocean compared to all the pollution and rubbish discarded however if everyone thinks this way then we are effectively screwed.

We are not really acting alone.  The US has just passed an important bill  Scientists welcome ‘enormous’ US climate bill — but call for stronger action.    China is a mixed bag.

 

Technologically we surely want to be with the progressive innovative countries not the countries who are stuck in the past.

 

Many of the things we need to do are inherently good things to do anyway.  I just rode my bike to the shops.  I was waiting at the traffic lights behind an EV.  This was great, no noise and not breathing carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides, particulates, sulfur dioxide.  This is better than my usual experience.

 

I cant see that building more fossil fuel power plants or sticking to fossil fuel transport will help us in the long run.    Even if as a country we rejected EVs or hydrogen or other cleaner fuels, much of the rest of the world is moving in that direction.  A planned transition to the next phase of energy production is much better than waiting until we are behind the rest of the world.

 

I am actually feeling more optimistic than ever.  We are pretty much stuck with some of the negative effects however at least for the most part things are starting to change. We have started to turn the super tanker around, it will take time but at the very least we can tell our grandchildren that we tried. 

[facthunter]

Hardly any country is better  suited to go Renewable than we are Individuals or communities are not beholden / captive to fossil fuel "Gouging" any more . THEY know this but still fight to keep the status quo, They behave like the Tobacco companies NO responsibility for the damage they do and fake the facts. Nev

[onetrack]

And back in the world of the oil rorters, Saudi Aramco has just reported making $700M a DAY, in profit! We've still got a long way to go, to make these Arab rorters end up on their knees, trying to sell oil.

 

Saudi Aramco actually plan to increase oil production by another 1,000,000 barrels a day by 2027 - and you can bet that when the EV revolution gets into its stride, the oil producers will reduce the price of oil to levels so low, it will start to make car owners think twice about going electric.

 

https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/oil-giant-saudi-aramco-company-makes-700-million-in-profit-every-single-day/news-story/38126c896d378d930c25447150f57cb2

[kgwilson]

From 2035 there will not be many new ICE cars to choose from. There will continue to be quite a demand for oil for use in the chemical & plastics industry. Aramco & others are making their hay now while their sun still shines. The oil price may drop but it will never get down to prices we knew last century. Even when the price of crude went negative during the pandemic the average price at the pump never went below $1.29 a litre. By 2027 the costs of transport and refining will most likely mean prices well North of $2.50 a litre even if they give the crude away.

Edited August 17, 2022 by kgwilson

[facthunter]

Their sun still shines alright. Temps above 50 degrees. Nev

[Bruce Tuncks]

I reckon that plastics and lubricants will turn out to be the last and best uses of oil reserves.

[Bruce Tuncks]

For myself, I reckon I have bought my last IC car. We went shopping today and saw 6 liters/100km on the clock, so it isn't a guzzler.  But we could have done the same trip in an electric car for power from a wind-generator and solar panels.

wowww,,,,  the worst recurrent cost might be the tyres then.

[old man emu]

Talking about climate change - what happened to the August winds this year?

[pmccarthy]

They are the trade winds, and you can't get tradies these days.

[kgwilson]

Virtually no strong Westerlies this year at all. I flew every week in August.

[onetrack]

It has been a very quiet month or two for wind. Perth is reputed to be the 3rd windiest city in the Southern Hemisphere, but we've certainly lost the crown this year.

[spacesailor]

EAT MORE BEANS !.  L o L

spacesailor

[facthunter]

Perth is by far the windiest airport I've been to though maybe some in New Zealand might rival it.   Nev

[spacesailor]

WELLINGTON 

In a stiff southerly,  your forward speed could be half of Normal . ( jumbo jet  )

The ' inter-island ferry ' " Wahini " was blown onto rocks while trying to get into Wellington harbour. 

spacesailor

 

[Bruce Tuncks]

I reckon you are right Space. Wellington is the windiest city in the world I think.

As for landing, the directions of the runway and the wind matters more than the speed of the wind. Here at Edenhope, we only have a paved 180/360 runway, with a disused cross-strip about 90/270.

I hoped for them to fix the cross-strip but they said it was too short. But a short runway is ok in a wind. ( they would have had about 700m, but the water-bombers like more. On a couple of days though, water bombers could not operate here at all.

Don't let this put you off visiting edenhope though, as Naracoorte is only 50 km to the west and has its main runway e/w.

[facthunter]

I think Invercargill would be worse. Trees grow along the ground there.  Nev

[Bruce Tuncks]

Yep, trees can cause the headwind to suddenly drop and so you can stall it on....  I hope to avoid this by allowing extra speed  on approach.

[pmccarthy]

Geraldton comes close. Trees are flat there too.

[kgwilson]

Anywhere with a generally stiff prevailing wind has shrubs & small trees that grow downwind. Chicago is called the Windy City in the US as it gets some mean North winds that blow down lake Michigan but Boston is actually the windiest. Wellington has got to be one of the windiest. I have flown a 172 in there on a completely calm day of which there are few. I have flown in & out commercially numerous times and hair raising is praising the experience.

[octave]

My son lives in Wellington and we spend a few weeks a year over there, although covid temporarily stopped that.   I have probably flown into Wellington 5 or 6 times and touch wood it has always been on good weather days.   Also had a fly with an instructor in a 152 from Kapiti Aero club.  We flew around Kapiti Island and then down the coast (or up the coast) almost to Welly,  There was a tourist campaign that we do take the p1ss out of, "You can't beat Wellington on a good day" the good day being the important part.