Australian power prices go insane

[markslawson + 1,042]

It's taken me a few days to get around to posting this. Unfortunately, the article is behind a pay wall, but the excerpts should give you an idea of the lunacy. All prices are in $A but one $A is about $US68 cents, so to convert to USD reduce all amounts by one third. Also bear in mind that before green lunacy took hold, average wholesale prices used to be around $40 MWh and until a couple of years ago were still about $80 MWh.

From Australian Financial Review on Monday

"Prices for wholesale power more than doubled to an unheard-of average of $323 a megawatt-hour in Queensland in the June quarter, easily the highest of any state in the past two decades, according to adviser Energy Edge. 

“And the quarter was so high that it nearly lifted the average price for the entire financial year above the previous highest quarter in Q1 2017,” Mr Stabler said.

"Price increases were even higher in other states, rising 293 per cent from the March quarter to $$224/MWh, of 247 per cent in NSW to $302/MWh; and of 260.5 per cent in South Australia to $256/MWh, according to the Energy Edge data."

Of course not all of this is due to green lunacy. The problem is that continued green activism has demonised coal so much that no-one is building new conventional plants (there is one gas plant in the pipeline which the government is building, that's it) and the aging plants still in service cannot cope. The part below is a fair summary of what's happening. Remember its winter in Australia.

"The elevated prices have been driven by record prices for coal and gas, exacerbated by the war in Ukraine which has caused international buyers to turn away from Russia, a major supplier of global energy. At the same time, several coal-fired power stations have been shut for maintenance work, suffered breakdowns or have had coal supplies constrained, tightening up the balance between supply and demand during the peak winter months." 

 

[Meredith Poor + 883]

What are the power prices in Adelaide? Why are they different from anywhere else?

[Eyes Wide Open + 3,537]

What green energy implementation has done across this world has become readily apparent. It is time for the conversation to turn to.

Who authorized such malfeasance?

Who implemented such malfeasance?

Until such matters are addressed this chaos will continue. 

Edited July 18, 2022 by Eyes Wide Open

[Jay McKinsey + 1,489]

14 hours ago, markslawson said:

It's taken me a few days to get around to posting this. Unfortunately, the article is behind a pay wall, but the excerpts should give you an idea of the lunacy. All prices are in $A but one $A is about $US68 cents, so to convert to USD reduce all amounts by one third. Also bear in mind that before green lunacy took hold, average wholesale prices used to be around $40 MWh and until a couple of years ago were still about $80 MWh.

From Australian Financial Review on Monday

"Prices for wholesale power more than doubled to an unheard-of average of $323 a megawatt-hour in Queensland in the June quarter, easily the highest of any state in the past two decades, according to adviser Energy Edge. 

“And the quarter was soC high that it nearly lifted the average price for the entire financial year above the previous highest quarter in Q1 2017,” Mr Stabler said.

"Price increases were even higher in other states, rising 293 per cent from the March quarter to $$224/MWh, of 247 per cent in NSW to $302/MWh; and of 260.5 per cent in South Australia to $256/MWh, according to the Energy Edge data."

Of course not all of this is due to green lunacy. The problem is that continued green activism has demonised coal so much that no-one is building new conventional plants (there is one gas plant in the pipeline which the government is building, that's it) and the aging plants still in service cannot cope. The part below is a fair summary of what's happening. Remember its winter in Australia.

"The elevated prices have been driven by record prices for coal and gas, exacerbated by the war in Ukraine which has caused international buyers to turn away from Russia, a major supplier of global energy. At the same time, several coal-fired power stations have been shut for maintenance work, suffered breakdowns or have had coal supplies constrained, tightening up the balance between supply and demand during the peak winter months." 

 

Coal and gas are at record prices and you blame the high cost of electricity on renewables, pathetic. More coal and gas plants would just mean you were using even more outrageously priced coal and gas. The cost of electricity would not go down.

[Eyes Wide Open + 3,537]

2 hours ago, Jay McKinsey said:

Coal and gas are at record prices and you blame the high cost of electricity on renewables, pathetic. More coal and gas plants would just mean you were using even more outrageously priced coal and gas. The cost of electricity would not go down.

Energy Crises In Germany and Texas Are Exposing The Folly of Renewable Energy | Opinion

over the world, consumers are being slammed by soaring energy prices. In Australia, the wholesale cost of electricity jumped by 141 percent in the first three months of 2022. In Britain, residential customers are paying about 43 percent more for their household energy than they were last year, and prices are expected to jump another 65 percent in October. And here in the U.S., we're paying close to $5 a gallon—for the first time in generations. That's thanks in no small part to the Biden administration, which has restricted oil and gas drilling while continually promoting renewable energy. Among the most recent moves: a pledge to deploy 30,000 megawatts of offshore wind by 2030.

Pushing for offshore wind—one of the most expensive forms of electricity production—may please some of Biden's supporters, but the latest evidence shows that investing too much in wind energy is terrible for grid reliability, as well as bad for consumers.

[footeab@yahoo.com + 2,129]

Its really simple solution... $$$ upfront: Watever nameplate capacity all the wind turbines or solar installations add up to, by law they should be FORCED to INSTALL and OPERATE as base load just like every other form of energy production.  Install nameplate capacity of Geothermal, NG, Oil, Coal, Nuclear good for months of operation during winter with an equation for battery or other energy storage backup but only if the ENTIRE nameplate capacity of battery backup is equal to the inverse of the LOWEST capacity factor per day of wind/solar   

So, in winter, capacity factor day for solar in a VERY sunny location is roughly ~1/3 summer and obviously lowest for say Northern Europe is in effect ZERO so by law to get any subsidy or preferential treatment must have a battery equal to Nameplate capacity * 2/3 of a day in a nice desert location and 100% in a lousy location.  

No more dumping all the cost onto others while pretending to be "cheap"

[markslawson + 1,042]

3 hours ago, Jay McKinsey said:

Coal and gas are at record prices and you blame the high cost of electricity on renewables, pathetic. More coal and gas plants would just mean you were using even more outrageously priced coal and gas. The cost of electricity would not go down.

Jay - go back and read the post .. the article I cite notes that its mainly due to high prices of coal and gas but one big part of the problem is that coal plants are now becoming old and unreliable and falling out of service because nobody dares build new ones. The sudden losses of capacity at crucial times due to this demonisation of coal is now really hurting.. rather than renewables themselves. They are no solution, as we can all agree, but they are not directly the problem. I hope that clarifies your thoughts on this matter.   

[markslawson + 1,042]

11 hours ago, Meredith Poor said:

What are the power prices in Adelaide? Why are they different from anywhere else?

The prices for South Australia - which basically means Adelaide - are given in the post. There are any number of reasons for the variation. SA is the wind capital of Aus, but it could simply have been somewhat warmer in the state.

[Jay McKinsey + 1,489]

1 hour ago, Eyes Wide Open said:

Energy Crises In Germany and Texas Are Exposing The Folly of Renewable Energy | Opinion

over the world, consumers are being slammed by soaring energy prices. In Australia, the wholesale cost of electricity jumped by 141 percent in the first three months of 2022. In Britain, residential customers are paying about 43 percent more for their household energy than they were last year, and prices are expected to jump another 65 percent in October. And here in the U.S., we're paying close to $5 a gallon—for the first time in generations. That's thanks in no small part to the Biden administration, which has restricted oil and gas drilling while continually promoting renewable energy. Among the most recent moves: a pledge to deploy 30,000 megawatts of offshore wind by 2030.

Pushing for offshore wind—one of the most expensive forms of electricity production—may please some of Biden's supporters, but the latest evidence shows that investing too much in wind energy is terrible for grid reliability, as well as bad for consumers.

Yep, electricity prices are way up because of fossil fuel costs to generate. Good thing we have low cost renewables to move to.

A UK government auction has secured a record 11 gigawatts (GW) of new renewable energy capacity that will generate electricity four times more cheaply than current gas prices.

The projects are all due to start operating within the next five years up to 2026/27 and have agreed to generate electricity for an average price of £48 per megawatt hour (MWh) in today’s money. This is four times cheaper than the £196/MWh current cost of running gas-fired power stations.

Most of the new capacity – some 7GW – will be offshore wind. Notably, for the first time, these projects were cheaper than the 1.5GW of onshore wind or 2.2GW of solar.

Edited July 14, 2022 by Jay McKinsey

[Jay McKinsey + 1,489]

6 minutes ago, markslawson said:

Jay - go back and read the post .. the article I cite notes that its mainly due to high prices of coal and gas but one big part of the problem is that coal plants are now becoming old and unreliable and falling out of service because nobody dares build new ones. The sudden losses of capacity at crucial times due to this demonisation of coal is now really hurting.. rather than renewables themselves. They are no solution, as we can all agree, but they are not directly the problem. I hope that clarifies your thoughts on this matter.   

The solution is more renewables, batteries and green hydrogen. Burning more outrageously priced fuel would not solve anything.

[frankfurter + 562]

1 hour ago, Jay McKinsey said:

The solution is more renewables, batteries and green hydrogen. Burning more outrageously priced fuel would not solve anything.

disagree.  the solution is:  to stop aiding and abetting wars by the western countries; to allow unrestricted trade in natural gas; to allow trade in any currency.  this will enable the world to have fair prices for energy, based upon scarcity and transport, and not upon some jewmurcun cartel.  the costs saving from wars, combined with royalties on sale, will create $trillions of cash that can be invested in fission-fusion reactors and related science [such as the batteries you infer].  fission-fusion is the only solution for the entire planet.

[Tom Nolan + 2,441]

20 hours ago, Eyes Wide Open said:

Who authorized such malfeasance?

Who implemented such malfeasance?

Authoritarian Technocratic Elite are responsible.   People need to realize that the Media and Government and Big Corporations are the Davos Club...and they implement dictates and propaganda in order to control the masses.  "Why Big Oil Conquered the World" lays it out.  Great documentary!...and from 2017.

[Tom Nolan + 2,441]

13 hours ago, Jay McKinsey said:

The solution is more renewables, batteries and green hydrogen. Burning more outrageously priced fuel would not solve anything.

The solution does not hinge on the current system of governments.  All of this crap...inflation, wars, energy crisis, climate change,...all of this has the agenda of controlling the populace, just like what happened during the Covid-19 Scamdemic.  Control of the populace is the objective of the current system. 

[markslawson + 1,042]

On 7/14/2022 at 10:46 AM, Jay McKinsey said:

A UK government auction has secured a record 11 gigawatts (GW) of new renewable energy capacity that will generate electricity four times more cheaply than current gas prices.

Jay - you could at least acknowledge the fact that the UK's already extensive use of renewables has not saved the country from massive power price hikes. Although, as we discussed, the renewables are not directly responsible for the present high prices they have not helped at all in offsetting the effects. In fact, they have not reduced prices anywhere - they are linked with higher prices (leaving aside the present crisis). Best to face reality on that one. 

[Jay McKinsey + 1,489]

46 minutes ago, markslawson said:

Jay - you could at least acknowledge the fact that the UK's already extensive use of renewables has not saved the country from massive power price hikes. Although, as we discussed, the renewables are not directly responsible for the present high prices they have not helped at all in offsetting the effects. In fact, they have not reduced prices anywhere - they are linked with higher prices (leaving aside the present crisis). Best to face reality on that one. 

You could acknowledge that the UK's use of renewables has saved them from much worse price hikes than what they have had.

Reality is that renewables are cutting the price of electricity in Australia:

ACT is the only jurisdiction bucking the trend of soaring power bills now plaguing the rest of Australia

 

The ACT will cut electricity prices this year, bucking a trend of soaring power bills for the rest of Australia, as the territory benefits from long-term contracts that locked in low-cost renewable energy.

Basic tariffs will fall by a minimum of at least 1.25% from 1 July, the ACT’s independent competition and regulatory commission said on Monday. “This is equivalent to a real decrease of 4.93% after excluding inflation,” it said.

The reduction in the regulated tariff will shave $23 off the annual power bill for average households using 6500 kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, and $88 for average non-residential users.

The ACT reached 100% renewables in 2020.

Edited July 15, 2022 by Jay McKinsey

[footeab@yahoo.com + 2,129]

Meanwhile, here in REALITY where thermometers not in cities are king and computer models are trash:  Antarctica just had the coldest winter on record....  Greenland's/Antarctica's ice volume has been increasing for a decade and currently the Arctic had its 2nd coldest winter on record and is having the coldest summer on record so far, but still has most of summer left to go. 

Oh and even the IPCC admits the TTO (Tropical troposphere), you know, the driver of pushing heat north/south to the poles, has been negative for a decade compared to their thermometers mostly in cities on the ground...Pretty damned hard to argue against balloon/satellite data. 

Edited July 15, 2022 by footeab@yahoo.com

[Jay McKinsey + 1,489]

Two-thirds of new renewables were cheaper than coal in 2021 – IRENA

In 2021, 163 gigawatts (GW) – nearly two-thirds – of new renewable power added was cheaper than the cheapest coal-fired power plants in G20 countries, according to a new report released by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).

The G20, or Group of Twenty, is an intergovernmental forum comprising 19 countries and the European Union.

IRENA’s report, Renewable Power Generation Costs in 2021, states that the cost of electricity from onshore wind fell by 15%, offshore wind by 13%, and solar by 13% compared to 2020.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine drove up coal and natural gas prices, and high gas prices in Europe mean gas will become increasingly uneconomical.

As Electrek reported on Tuesday, plans in Europe to place a small number of coal plants on temporary standby would only add 1.3% to EU emissions annually, even in the worst-case scenario where they run at the highest levels.

 Francesco La Camera, director-general of IRENA, said:

Renewables are by far the cheapest form of power today.

2022 is a stark example of just how economically viable new renewable power generation has become. Renewable power frees economies from volatile fossil fuel prices and imports, curbs energy costs, and enhances market resilience – even more so if today’s energy crunch continues.

While a temporary crisis response might be necessary in the current situation, excuses to soften climate goals will not hold mid-to-long-term. Today’s situation is a devastating reminder that renewables and energy saving are the future.

 

United Nations Climate Change (UNCC) reports:

Investments in renewables continue to pay huge dividends in 2022, as highlighted by IRENA’s costs data. In non-OECD countries, the 109 GW of renewable energy additions in 2021 that cost less than the cheapest new fossil fuel-fired option will reduce costs by at least USD $5.7 billion annually for the next 25-30 years.

High coal and fossil gas prices in 2021 and 2022 will also profoundly deteriorate the competitiveness of fossil fuels and make solar and wind even more attractive. With an unprecedented surge in European fossil gas prices, for example, new fossil gas generation in Europe will increasingly become uneconomic over its lifetime, increasing the risk of stranded assets.

[RichieRich216 + 454]

On 7/13/2022 at 2:37 AM, markslawson said:

It's taken me a few days to get around to posting this. Unfortunately, the article is behind a pay wall, but the excerpts should give you an idea of the lunacy. All prices are in $A but one $A is about $US68 cents, so to convert to USD reduce all amounts by one third. Also bear in mind that before green lunacy took hold, average wholesale prices used to be around $40 MWh and until a couple of years ago were still about $80 MWh.

From Australian Financial Review on Monday

"Prices for wholesale power more than doubled to an unheard-of average of $323 a megawatt-hour in Queensland in the June quarter, easily the highest of any state in the past two decades, according to adviser Energy Edge. 

“And the quarter was so high that it nearly lifted the average price for the entire financial year above the previous highest quarter in Q1 2017,” Mr Stabler said.

"Price increases were even higher in other states, rising 293 per cent from the March quarter to $$224/MWh, of 247 per cent in NSW to $302/MWh; and of 260.5 per cent in South Australia to $256/MWh, according to the Energy Edge data."

Of course not all of this is due to green lunacy. The problem is that continued green activism has demonised coal so much that no-one is building new conventional plants (there is one gas plant in the pipeline which the government is building, that's it) and the aging plants still in service cannot cope. The part below is a fair summary of what's happening. Remember its winter in Australia.

"The elevated prices have been driven by record prices for coal and gas, exacerbated by the war in Ukraine which has caused international buyers to turn away from Russia, a major supplier of global energy. At the same time, several coal-fired power stations have been shut for maintenance work, suffered breakdowns or have had coal supplies constrained, tightening up the balance between supply and demand during the peak winter months." 

 

Should push back on the greenies, use you natural resources to the max and stop the loudmouths who spew “ The World is Ending” and tell them to Fuck Off!

[Jay McKinsey + 1,489]

1 hour ago, footeab@yahoo.com said:

Meanwhile, here in REALITY where thermometers are king and computers are trash:  Antarctica just had the coldest winter on record....  Greenland's/Antarctica's ice volume has been increasing for a decade and currently the Arctic had its 2nd coldest winter on record and is having the coldest summer on record so far, but still has most of summer left to go. 

I suggest you stop using your trash.

European cities set all-time temperature records amid unrelenting heat wave

Updated 1:01 PM ET, Thu July 14, 2022

 

Firefighters operate at the site of a wildfire in Pumarejo de Tera near Zamora, northern Spain, on June 18, 2022.

New records have been set as temperatures topped 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) across much of Spain and Portugal Wednesday amid a persistent heat wave across western Europe.

In northwest Spain, the city of Ourense set its all-time temperature record of 43.2 degrees Celsius (109.76 degrees Fahrenheit) on Tuesday, according to Spain's meteorological agency, AEMET.

On Wednesday, Zamora set its own record after reaching 41.1 degrees Celsius (105.98 degrees Fahrenheit), according to climate statistician Max Herrera. Soria set a record of 38.7 degrees Celsius (101.66 degrees Fahrenheit) that same day.

 

Extraordinary Antarctica heatwave, 70 degrees above normal

Updated 4:30 PM ET, Mon March 28, 2022

 

The Concordia Research Station in East Antarctica in 2013.

(CNN)Scientists were shocked this month when a research station in Antarctica reported extraordinarily warm weather.

The temperature at Concordia Research station atop Dome C on the Antarctic Plateau -- typically known as the coldest place on Earth -- surged to an astounding 11.3 degrees Fahrenheit (minus-11.5 Celsius) on March 18.

The normal high temperature for the day is around minus-56 Fahrenheit (minus-49 Celsius), which puts the March 18 reading at close to 70 degrees Fahrenheit (around 38 Celsius) warmer than normal.

 

Greenland Ice Mass Loss 2002-2021

Updated on January 5, 2022 

 

 

---

The mass of the Greenland ice sheet has rapidly declined in the last several years due to surface melting and iceberg calving. Research based on observations from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites (2002-2017) and GRACE Follow-On (since 2018 - ) indicates that between 2002 and 2020, Greenland shed approximately 280 gigatons of ice per year, causing global sea level to rise by 0.03 inches (0.8 millimeters) per year. These images, created from GRACE and GRACE-FO data, show changes in Greenland ice mass since 2002. Orange and red shades indicate areas that lost ice mass, while light blue shades indicate areas that gained ice mass. White indicates areas where there has been very little or no change in ice mass since 2002. In general, higher-elevation areas near the center of Greenland experienced little to no change, while lower-elevation and coastal areas experienced over 16.4 feet (5 meters) of ice mass loss (expressed in equivalent-water-height; dark red) over this 19-year period. The largest mass decreases occurred along the West Greenland coast. The average flow lines (grey; created from satellite radar interferometry) of Greenland’s ice converge into the locations of prominent outlet glaciers, and coincide with areas of highest mass loss. This supports other observations that warming ocean waters around Greenland play a key role in contemporary ice mass loss.

 

June 2022 was Earth’s 6th-warmest on record

 

Antarctic sea ice shrank to a record low for the month

 

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July 14, 2022

Polar ice coverage hit near-record low: Globally, June 2022 saw the second-lowest June sea ice coverage (extent) on record. Only June 2019 had a smaller sea ice extent. Antarctic sea ice extent for June was a record low at 4.68 million square miles, or about 471,000 square miles below average. Arctic sea ice extent last month was 347,000 square miles below the 1981-2010 average — roughly the size of Sweden, Norway and Denmark combined — and the 10th-smallest June extent in the 44-year record.

Edited July 15, 2022 by Jay McKinsey

[Jay McKinsey + 1,489]

2 minutes ago, RichieRich216 said:

Should push back on the greenies, use you natural resources to the max and stop the loudmouths who spew “ The World is Ending” and tell them to Fuck Off!

They just threw your crew out of office and elected the greenies. 🙂

[Eyes Wide Open + 3,537]

59 minutes ago, Jay McKinsey said:

They just threw your crew out of office and elected the greenies. 🙂

Indeed they did. There are times i shrudder knowing what's to come. 

[Jay McKinsey + 1,489]

4 minutes ago, Eyes Wide Open said:

Indeed they did. There are times i shrudder knowing what's to come. 

A lot of renewable energy and low power costs are to come.

Edited July 15, 2022 by Jay McKinsey

[Jay McKinsey + 1,489]

Hybrid wind-solar-battery renewable power plants progress in Australia and the UK

 

July 14, 2022

 

Squadron Energy executives and staff join members of the Barada Kabalbara Yetimarala community – traditional custodians of the land – in a groundbreaking ceremony. Image: Squadron Energy.

Construction has begun on a large-scale hybrid renewable energy project combining wind, solar PV and energy storage in Australia, while another has been announced in Wales.

Squadron Energy, a renewable energy firm owned by Australian billionaire Dr Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest’s Tattarang group, said earlier this month that construction has begun on the first phase at Clarke Creek Wind, Solar and Battery Farm in Queensland.

An initial 100 turbines capable of generating 450MW of wind power is being installed at the site between the cities of Mackay and Rockhampton near Queensland’s coast in the northeast of Australia.

While that capacity will begin generating by 2025 and selling electricity to state government-owned power company Stanwell for 15 years through a 346.5MW power purchase agreement (PPA), plans are to add 400MW of solar PV, bring the wind power capacity up to 800MW in total and add battery energy storage system (BESS) technology.

 

[Jay McKinsey + 1,489]

Australia 'on track' to generate half its electricity from renewable sources by 2025, report finds

 

Posted Mon 11 Jul 2022 at 12:57pmMonday 11 Jul 2022 at 12:57pm, updated Mon 11 Jul 2022 at 5:41pmMonday 11 Jul 2022 at 5:41pm

Solar is seen as the leading contender to decarbonise global energy systems.(ABC News: Michael Franchi)

Australia is on track to generate half its electricity needs from renewable sources within three years, according to a report highlighting the extraordinary pace of change underway in the country's energy system.

Key points:

• The Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering says the country's renewable energy share will rise to 69 per cent by 2030
• The academy is calling for changes to help guide and coordinate massive investments needed to transition away from fossil fuels
• It comes as amid upheaval in the eastern states' power and gas industries, which have been hit hard by soaring prices and fears of supply shortages

 

In what it described as a snapshot of the industry, the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (AATSE) found renewable energy adoption was galloping ahead as wind and solar power became cheaper.

The group, which is comprised of technical experts, said renewable energy was "tracking towards" 50 per cent of Australia's electricity generation in 2025, a share that was expected to rise to 69 per cent by 2030.

It also suggested Australia's electricity networks would be capable of running on 100 per cent green energy for periods at a time by the middle of the decade.

[RichieRich216 + 454]

13 hours ago, Jay McKinsey said:

They just threw your crew out of office and elected the greenies. 🙂

Jay: I'm speaking to the Australians!