Professor Quiggin, in a report released today:

“My research comprehensively finds that the free-market based reform process in energy has been a failure.”

Of that the residents of Victoria and South Australia should be in no doubt. All we got from privitisation was junk mail and high prices

I keep looking at my electricity bills here in Melbourne and then doing back of the envelope calculations on alternatives. A solar PV or solar thermal are starting to look like an attractive investment with a potential for an internal rate of return around 5-10% Certainly not an investment or commercial level return but more than enough to cut my bills by a very significant amount. Oh and that's not counting any form of government rebates

Put the electricity price up a little more and the ordinary customers might just rush for the exits and look at the bleating and demand for stopping it that will then occur from all the industry players. Just like the super industry and it's financial fiends (sorry planners) in relation to SMSF's.

DKit

cheap gas would be available if a portion of resources were reserved for domestic use, does the Mineral Council of Australia support this or do their members compel them to argue against reserving a portion of reserves for domestic market

Curmudgeon,
I cannot see where our views are far different.

Solar panels have a conversion factor of about the percentage you quote but they are virtually offline ten to fourteen hours per day (summer to winter) on even sunny days and even on those days only produce at peak capacity for five or so hours.

Wind farms can shut down because there is no wind or because it is too windy. Having thermal plant on standby is inefficient and the cost of that inefficiency should be charged against the farms.
While thermal power has pollution effects renewables have far higher real costs.

The book by Robert Hargraves advocates prompt research and development of Thorium based nuclear. Mainly China and India are undertaking that research but the USA could have a flying start as they operated an early model of such a unit for years in the sixties.

Waste products are not a problem for this type of reactor. Even for uranium reactors the waste problem is overstated. Most of the waste could be mixed with the mine-site overburden and put back in the mine pit. The resultant radiation need be no higher that the radiation that led to the discovery of the uranium in the first place.

Solar has had a huge impact on the grid. During the heatwave across vic and SA peak demand for power generation shifted five hours.
Someone said how can you have competition when you only have one power line into your house. There are many retailers of electricity, in vic and it's a matter of who you want to bye electricity from. The power is bought from the electricity pool at a market price, then on-sold to consumers at a retail price. You have Retailers ,Generators, and service providers. That's why you only need one connection.

Foyle - okay, I seem to have misread your post.. my apologies..