There are some that just can not see past filthy coal and any alternative does not exist.
The likes of Hasbeen and Ttbn are past it, and have no need for a year other thoughts,stuff those that come after them.

I would like to know where the cost base for solar and wind come from. Both are largely unattended, and need no feeding. so does anybody know where the cost of $50 / MwH is calculated from.

Coal power is sold at auction in MwH lots. Which is I,ooo KWH @ around 5cents / KW. Which is $50 / MwH.

So why should wind or solar be any different from coal power.
The only difference I can see is one is black and filthy and one is green and clean.

I used to live in SA when Pt Augusta coal and Torrens Island gas baseload supplied most power. I don't seem to recall complaints about blackouts or frequent price rises. Now I live close to a couple of the hydro stations (Repulse, Meadowbank) that had diesel gensets during the big Tas dry when Basslink cable was fritzed. Actually the dry might be coming back with an unusually warm March and April. Let's hope there's enough diesels for both SA and Tas.

At the micro scale it is sometimes pointed out in the US you may be better off with a fuelled generator than a battery bank. Walmart sells a cheap generator and transfer cable that runs on town gas or liquid fuel. It will keep going as long as it has fuel unlike the battery which will be flat after a couple of rainy days. I think the Sydney-Hobart yacht race is a metaphor.. when yachts get dismasted and can't use wind power they come home on the always reliable diesel motor.

Doog (what an appropriate moniker!),

“So why should wind or solar be any different from coal power. 
The only difference I can see is one is black and filthy and one is green and cl

You need to be more than just a little thick not to notice the main and most important difference: coal is reliable, wind and solar is not.

Aidan,

You are the lazy and deceitful one. You are also an embarrassment to SA. Even proud South Aussies like me know that our energy set up is a total stuff-up. No other state has black outs like we do.

Hi Doog,

Good question re cost of PV. Check out this article http://www.apricum-group.com/dubai-shatters-records-cost-solar-earths-largest-solar-power-plant/

Cost of PV at this plant due to be commissioned in a year or so are under AU$40.

Coal has only been so cheap ($50 ish/ MWh) because they are old plants either owned and paid off by Govt or sold by Govt for a song to private enterprise.

This means they have very low if any capital costs. Also they don't pay for the cost of their health impacts estimated to cost $60/ MWh - that's left to Govt for disaster relief (climate events) and the Govt health system (respiratory damage). But those avoided costs aside, new 85% wind and PV with standby gas is still cheaper than replacing old coal stations with super-critical (so-called 'clean') coal. Adding carbon capture and storage increases the cost by > 30% above that, so like new nuclear plants, carbon capture and storage is a prohibitively expensive pipe dream.

Taswegian,

When did you live in SA? When I first came here, in 1988, there were occasional blackouts. ISTR they occurred more then than they do now, though people complained about them less. But I remember when the Heywood interconnector was constructed, we were told it would increase reliability - yet a few weeks after it opened, we had a blackout because we were importing Victorian power and for some reason it had to shut down, and it took a while to get our power stations to generate enough to replace it.

Prices weren't rising so fast in those days, as making a profit wasn't the objective.

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ttbn,

You're the embarrassment to SA, as you have the racist attitudes of a stereotypical Victorian!

"No other state has black outs like we do."
That's a total lie. All states have blackouts.

I'm guessing what you meant was that no other state has had a statewide total blackout. But the one in SA was the result of a freak sequence of events. SA had never had one before, and measures were taken to ensure SA will never have one again.

Don't get me wrong - we're still far from perfect. But the issue is at last being addressed by the state and (thanks to Xenophon) federal governments.

And unless The Advertiser's reports in 2000-01 were just a media beatup, the state's power supply problems were far worse then than they are now.

Doog,

I would like to apologise for suggesting that you are thick. I could have said that you have overlooked coal's biggest difference - it is reliable. There was no need get personal.

Aidan,

You really are a dill. “ you have the racist attitudes of a stereotypical Victorian!” What has 'racism' got to do with electricity?

And “and measures were taken to ensure SA will never have one again.” Oh yes? We have yet to discover what the very expensive plans of the most incompetent government in Australia will bring. Labor hasn't got a thing right so far. Why would they suddenly get smart?