We're not smart enough to have mighty fjords and rivers for HEP, demanding an inquiry into our stupidity. The Chinese, Scots and Swedes are abandoning coal and nuclear, and will soon run on solar-panels, windmills and tread-wheels 24/7/365, like South Australia. AGW isn't happening and we should be doing something to make it happen.

Bored.

Luciferace, don't believe the BS. Renewables are a childish dream. For renewables to be even partly effective we will need a lot more smarts. Even when it might happen in the future they will be the most expensive power ever conceived. Wind is grossly inefficient. Solar equally so. Natural hydro, geo-thermal, nuclear and even thorium salt are workable and reliable, cheap forms of energy. The other thing no-one wants to talk about is we are trading one pollutant for another. Many agree with me, the visual pollution we will have to endure to have to tolerate all those bloody windmills and solar panels. No-one has had the stones to broadcast the true acreage involved in wind and solar farms. They're footprint will be many times greater than the area they provide power to. This is idiotic. The maintenance/repair/upkeep costs make them an absolute idiots folly. The cost to consumers will be disgustingly high, and we will be told that it will eventually come down. It never does. I am forever frustrated at how gullible and naive people are. What is even worse is that they refuse to admit it. This the major reason we are where we are, today.

Well at last I am not a voice in the wilderness on batteries.
A study was done on the UK system for January 2016,
The UK grid of course has some nuclear backup so that is useful.
However it turned out that the UK grid would need, wait for it
14,000 batteries the same size as the Sth Australian battery.

Taking into account that we have no nuclear component and proportioning
to the Australian grid, we would need about 6000 batteries.
The cost 6000 x $120,000,000 = $720,000,000.
The battery cost is a state secret but strongly rumoured to be
$1 a watt so the whole system including upgraded interlinks would
not be less than a $1trillion.

Storage both hydro and battery is about 70% efficient.
Effectively batteries are out of the question but Malcolm's hydro
scheme would be a big help, although more needed, but does this
country have the geological and water available.
We need to make the hot rocks scheme work as aside from nuclear it is
our only option.

We do not have a lot of time. The Energy Return on Energy Invested
has been falling for years and coal 80 down to 10, and oil 100 to approx 10.

Once they fall to about 7 they are finished no matter what price
you put on them, there is just no point.

The politicians do not seem to realise that the 100% renewables
argument is over and are unable to accept that what they have been
preaching for years is just plain nonsense.
Our difficulty is that the fossil fuels have a limited time also.
Except in Australia coal has a limited time and oil world wide is
starting to see the end. Even tight oil is showing worrying signs.

Nuclear and fusion are our only real firm possibility.
Sooner or later the greenies will have to be swept aside.
It is either that or starve. It was no accident that the number of
aborigines in 1788 only numbered several hundred thousand.

Remove the power system from political control and give it to the engineers.

I can't agree with the general thrust of thust article. For example, in respect of them being "unfair to the poor", rooftop PV has actually decreased the cost of electricity for everyone by around $3.3 billion in the year to April 2017 because the suppliers didn't need to use very costly gas fired peakers to fill the demand gap.

This is because, during times of greatest need for cooling, the sun was shining and PV owners used that to power their A/C. Check out this RenewEconomy article from October 2017: https://reneweconomy.com.au/how-rooftop-solar-is-saving-billions-on-energy-bills-for-all-consumers-56676/

GJOESQ, a personal friend had solar panels installed very early on when they were first released. He is quite proud of the fact he was getting a discount and it was highlighted in his power bill. Some years later he had some more installed. I'm not sure if he missed the lecture on solar panels and their cost benefits, but, as I recall, he found out later that the discount rate had a shelf life and it would therefore run out. The second lot of solar panels had a much smaller discount rate. And no-one has been able to give a 'reasonable' time for the replacement of his current panels when they begin to fail, which they eventually will. Now the game plan from the energy providers was always going to be a con-job. You see, eventually a lot of people will have SP's because they do help in producing power. What no-one has considered is that eventually the public will be supplying power, for free, to a commercial profit taking entity like synergy and so on. So to recap; the private sector will harvest the energy at their expense, and pass it on to the energy providers for free. Any maintenance and on going repairs are ALL at the expense of the public or private sector or the 'owners' of the SP's on their roof/property. So eventually the energy suppliers will be collecting money for electricity they did not pay for and contribute nothing towards their maintenance or up-keep. And people say that pollies and their mates are not evil, disgusting, corrupt mongrels. I'd like to know if I can set up an electricity supply company? Not a chance, all the scum have taken the available openings.