Premier Eyechart of Queensland said on TV tonight that there will
not be a new coal fired power station in Queensland.
She said QLD will have renewables.
I was disappointed that no one asked, what will we use when the sun
goes down and the wind does not blow hard enough ?

Do they really still believe in 100% renewables ?

Have a look at

http://tinyurl.com/y9n75xkf

See how Queensland is always exporting power to NSW and some is most
of the time sent on to Victoria.
NSW NEVER generates more than it consumes.
Watch the flow between the states, and you can see why some
politicians are chewing their fingernails.

If Queensland closes a coal fired power station the whole country
will be very deep in it and it won't hit the fan because there will be no power.

Sth Australia's wind goes from over 1000 megawatt to zero occasionally
but often around 300 megawatt. That is not needed reliability.

Just this morning SA's wind was 1, ie ONE megawatt !
Power was flowing from Victoria.

NSW, Vic and SA depend most of the time on Qld & Tas.
QLD is always exporting power.
If QLD closes a power station then we are all in big trouble.

Wind from SA is at present producing 7 megawatts. ie up 6 Megawatts.
Dear oh dear, the highest I have seen it is over 1000 Megawatt.
It will really need some massive batteries, 12 times the size of
the one they have just installed. err actually 12 + 30% the size to make up for internal losses.
Now a point I have never seen mentioned;
If batteries are the backup, that all presumes they are fully charged.
OK, then when will they recharge them and what power source will they
use ? If the batteries are big enough to carry the grid you will need
twice as many windfarms & solar to be able to carry the grid and recharge !
It looks to me to be a VERY expemsive option.

Bazz,

Once again SA dodges a bullet by importing huge amounts of power. Labor deserves an award for its power management. The Darwin award.

Well SM, they do not import "large" amounts of power generally but
they do seem to be skating on very thin ice.
A heat wave in NSW and or Victoria will be a problem for everyone.

The battery they have installed in SA is 110 Megawatt/hrs and is
rumored to cost up to $150 million. Have you heard a real figure ?

Bazz,

In the year 2015/16 SA imported 2000 GWHrs of power mostly during their periods of maximum demand which is a roughly 300% increase in 4 years.

As for the battery, the final cost is a state secret. I guess that JW and SA labor is ashamed of it.

Traditionally, Vic and QSL have been the big power exporters, and the other states incl NSW, Tas etc big importers of power, now that Vic has lost Hazelwood and power demand is increasing, if there is another hot day with no wind as there was last summer, the crap could hit the fan. Does Vic look after itself and dump SA or NSW?

The fun to come...

SM, you touch on what could be an interesting point.
The power that at any time may be flowing from Qld to NSW to Vic to SA
might have been paid for by SA and Vic could not "steal it".
Likewise the same heatwave might be in NSW and could NSW refuse to
send it onto Victoria if it had been purchased by SA or Victoria.

Do I sense some very expensive legal bills in th offing ?
Likewise constitutional legal challenges.

There could be some very interesting auctions this summer.
$10,000 a Mw/hr anyone ?