This article is an insult to the intelligence. Wind and solar do not work. South Australia is touted as a leader in wind power for instance for instance. Yesterday there was NO electricity produced by wind at all:

http://windfarmperformance.info/

Even when wind and solar do produce electricity it is unusable. It is unusable because it comes in surges which no grid can accommodate.

The only relevant fact in this article is:

"Luke Beattie is involved in the renewable energy industry."

Taswegian also contributes to the general hilarity in stating:

"The price would factor in the need to maintain steam pressure and standby readiness by the big thermal generators. The early supporters of the RET said it would be temporary but they've since fallen silent on that point. Time for it to go."

Continual back-up for renewables can never go, assuming you want power. If you want to live in the dark, sure then you can turn the fossils off

preaching "economies of scale", "get big or get out".

Funny how millions of Australian households have installed solar and are quite happy with the results.
Every "tinpot factory" would have to include all of the "tinpot" houses that are generating their own power and are not beholden to big corporations squeezing the last dollar out of them.
Now that the lobby groups for big power have made the governments reduce the feed in tariff to a pittance, hoping to stop the haemorrhaging of profits, the next step that is in the pipeline is to install storage batteries as they become more efficient and cheaper and cut the grid out of the loop all together.

Another day and another troll-fest by the regular anti-science mod on OLO led by runner, ha ha led by runner. Nothing fires them up like a gobal warming post.

Just how much governement funding do you guys think got the coal base electricty network going in the first place?

I must hand it to you guys though. Your determination to never let reality affect your opinion is testement to your obsession if nothing else.

happy hanukkah.

Hi Luke,

The ducking and weaving round the real issues makes for very poor reading. The “greedy grid” owners to which you refer used to be state owned industries. Since the introduction of RET’s, subsidies, rebates, CO2 taxes, investment guarantee’s, CO2 trading markets and green energy onto the grids, suddenly these industrial opportunists are now the “greedy ones”.

What you fail to recognize is that government interference in any market results in it’s virtual destruction. It is green energy “tosh” that has brought the energy market to its knees globally.

Much as you might plead for this baby to be not thrown out with the bathwater, this “enfant fatal” needs to go immediately, along with all those vulnerable idiots that got behind this rubbish in the first place.

So many articles being posted on this subject are pure “laying of blame”, not me, I didn’t do it, not my idea, I just wanted to be a little bit green.

Well you got green, you screwed our nation along with many other nations, you consigned third world peoples to eternal dependence and you have brought about the plague of austerity upon us. You and your conservationists bled developed nations of almost one trillion dollars and nothing came out the other end.

You have the audacity to blame the victims of your stupidity as greedy. Pure reflective angst Luke, we know damn well who the greedy ones are and this article was written by one of them.

"Just how much governement funding do you guys think got the coal base electricty network going in the first place?"

Nothing. And nothing new about this assertion. It is de rigueur for alarmists to lie; as in that person believes in AGW; they're a liar; that person is a Green; another liar etc.

Bren stated, “There is… more merit in the author's suggestion that the rising impact of grid upgrades on electricity bills merits examination for possible over-charging.”

The Industry Minister stated that electricity bills for business had more than doubled in the last 5 years. Inflation accounts for approximately 15% of that (calculated at an annual rate of 2.8%) and I can guarantee that the RET does not make up the difference. The cost of producing coal-fired power has decreased in this period and yet the price has grown exponentially. Did I mention greedy?

Unfortunately the power companies generate such revenue for state governments that they’re reluctant to rock the boat, not unlike the poker machine cancer in the Eastern states.

My suggestion was never for large energy consumers to disconnect from the grid altogether (this presents its own problems such as battery lifecycle/replacement, space for panels, initial investment etc.). I’m advocating that businesses can reduce and lock in a portion of their energy costs by integrating renewables. A good example of this is the NEXTDC M1 Datacom centre in Melbourne. Their daily energy consumption exceeds that of Crown Casino. They installed 400kW of PV panels that don’t meet the energy load of the centre, but they produce 550 megawatt-hours of electricity annually (start crunching those figures!). All of which they don’t have to pay the energy company for. They are one large energy consuming customer to take this path, amongst many.

http://www.nextdc.com/data-centres/data-centre-locations/m1-melbourne-data-centre

It surprises me that people still treat solar energy as some kind of mysterious science that is questionable – just speak to your neighbour or relative with panels on their roof.

Taswegian, I agree that energy exporters should receive the same price that they pay for electricity.