Thanks to the humbug of climate change, which is enriching a minority of individuals and corporations at the expense of the majority, electricity is no longer "fit for purpose" It is not meeting the demands of Australians, and it is most certainly not affordable; and it is getting less affordable with every bill received.

And yes. The unreliables are causing damage to the environment and farms - thanks to governments and the faux environmentalists who falsely claim that the essential gas, carbon dioxide, is damaging the environment.

"Our present energy policy is very risky and the proponents are likely to be gone when the costs of electricity may become unaffordable and unreliable".

Note that well. The current clowns will be gone: kicked out, or dead - just like the covid clowns, who look like getting away with ruining the jobs, lives and freedoms of millions of innocent people.

Also, compare this article with the ignorant ravings of Blackout Bowen.

As we speak people in Texas are being asked to refrain from using aircon. It seems that character building or going without is another hidden aspect of the renewables dominant economy. When Australia is coal free I find it hard to see how the mainland aluminium smelters can survive. No probs just send the rocks to China and buy back the finished goods.

Swarms of windmills on previously bucolic vistas and high voltage pylons through prime farmland must be added to the psychic costs of renewables. Yet proponents keep pointing to the moderate NEM bid prices. They could be as low as $50 per MWh yet storage will cost another $150 plus new transmission, frequency correction, gas backup and the conveniently not spoken about revenue from selling green certificates. Small nuclear reactors located at former coal stations could use the existing transmission and retrained staff. On our present course we're heading down a dead end road.

Great to get a reasoned logical article on the limitations of renewables. I find it really frightening that so few realise we have joined the lemmings, following dills like Bowen towards the cliff.

The most frightening thing is some of the lemming pack. I belong to a number of auto forums, mostly classic car related. One has a bloke continually talking up battery cars & renewable power generation. He is a wealthy man, owning a couple of new Teslers & a number of expensive classic cars. It is impossible to know if he actually believes the rubbish, or is making his wealth from the scam, & therefor wants to promote it.

Her professes a blind belief that cheap batteries are just around the corner, & that the wind will always blow. That is disproved by another forum I frequent. This is a remote control flying forum, with members from Cairns to Adelaide, right around our highly populated east coast, & also in the wests iron ore district. We have all been enjoying mostly perfect flying conditions of little wind for a couple of months now, confirmed by the small amount of wind power generated. Without coal & gas power we would be eating cold food in the dark.

Are people like Albo & Bowen really so stupid they believe this rubbish, or are they trying to destroy our prosperity.

Well yes, as for coal and gas, they're not part of any current solution but part of the problem. Ditto renewables only more so. Any viable manufacturing sector needs ultracheap energy 24/7.

And neither fossil fuels nor renewables can meet those requirements affordably. So, if we stay with fossil fuels at current prices, all our manufactured goods have to come from China or elsewhere. And a recalcitrant labor (moronic mouth flappers) knows it!

Conventional nuclear comes with waste (90-95%) and the problem of safely storing for thousands of years. The only solution that's extremely affordable and has little waste is MSR thorium. And with that we could have prices as low or lower than 3 cents PKWH and is carbon free!

Moreover, MSR technology is able to use nuclear waste, we're paid annual millions to take, as fuel, (mostly unspent fuel). And the result is a far less toxic waste and as little as 5% and only needing to be stored for 300-500 years.

Anybody with half a brain can see that MSR thorium and or MSR nuclear waste burners are the only games in town that's doable. Only the brain dead (economic illiterates) or the abysmally stupid would stay with coal or renewables!
Alan B.

Yes Hasbeen, Albo and Bowen REALLY ARE STUPID !
I know it is common to say politicians are stupid, but that generally
is just a way of putting them down.
However in this case Albo and Bowen really are STUPID in the real
meaning of the word.
Re cars well California is trying to control the charging of electric
cars because their renewables are failing.
Mind you the car companies are not making electric cars because they
want to, they are making them because they have had the word;
The oil companies are planning their exit from the oil industry.
The cost of exploration and development of new oilfields is uneconomic.
It had to come ever since peak crude oil occurred in 2005.
As far as batteries are concerned I think we will never get far past
the energy density per kg/vol that we have now.
For stationary use Nickle/iron batteries might be the best choice.
You can short them, no problem, leave them stand for years no problem
charge them at whatever rate you like, no problem. Very rugged.

There will be hell to pay when the public wakes up to be big con that
has been rammed down their throats over the last 30 years.

Further we will need five more large power stations if all cars are
electric and 12 more if we include diesel replacement.
The Greens will oppose them all but it should force a change to nuclear.