Hi Hasbeen,

CSIRO's annual GenCost report confirms wind and
solar with storage are the cheapest sources of
electricity in Australia.

There's more at the link given below.

We're told that renewables remain the cheapest new
build electricity generation option in Australia, although
we're also told that inflation and supply chain disruptions
will likely put cost reduction on hold for the next year.

The link tells us that each year Australia's National Science
Agency - CSIRO, and the Australian Energy Market
Operator ( AEMO) work with industry to give an updated cost
estimate for large-scale electricity generation in Australia.

The report considers a range of future scenarios to understand
the mix of technologies that may be adopted and costs for each
of these possible pathways.

The 2021-2022report confirms the past year's findings that
wind and solar are the cheapest source of electricity and
storage in Australia, even when considering additional
integration costs arising due to the variable output of
renewables such as energy storage and transmission.

There's more at:

http://csiro.au/en/news/all/news/2022/july/gencost-2022

Hate to tell you this Foxy, but no one who understands the industry believes the CSIRO Gencost figures. They are contradicted by a huge number of other organisations, such as the IEA, plus any reasonably robust back of the envelope calculations. You might like to check out the NetZero2050 report compiled by a number of universities, like UQ, as well as the Conservation Council. We'll need $1.5. trillion by 2030 to reach the government's targets using renewables and $9 trillion all-up. That is not cheap.

The GenCost report mentions dispatchable energy once. When discussing levelised cost of energy, the report states:

"LCOE does not take account of the additional costs associated with each technology and in
particular the integration costs of variable renewable electricity generation technologies"

That confirms mhaze's observation that non-dispatchable renewable cost calculations in the report exclude numerous costs like inverters and transmission lines. Include storage to make renewable energy dispatchable and the price of energy skyrockets.

The report also states:

"LCOE does not recognise that electricity generation technologies have different roles in the
system. Some technologies are operated less frequently, increasing their costs, but are
valued for their ability to quickly make their capacity available at peak times."

What the above statement means is that the cost of energy from fossil fuel generating technology will be higher if used below capacity, which is frequently the case.

So the report uses its methodology to make renewable generation look cheap and fossil fuel generation look expensive. And the assessment of nuclear energy costs is likewise a joke. What a con job of a report. How far the CSIRO has fallen.

A country that throws up a thing like Albanese is on the way out.

A country (mis)governed by a gang that received less than a third of the primary vote is done for.

A country is only as good as its people. Australia is a divided, multicultural mess. A lunatic asylum, run by lunatics, with nothing much in the way of opposition to give hope of a change.

I'm not a scientist so of course I can only quote from
our country's pre-eminent public research organization's
findings, CSIRO.

We've been told in the past by leading academics like
Prof.Tor Hundloe who was the first Australian recognized by
the Order of Australia for his development and practice
of an economics in line with ecological reality and
ethical imperatives.

It was
Prof. Hundloe who stated that Australia is one of the standout
countries in terms of human development status. That Australia is
not corrupt. And that it's science is world class.

He also stated that new ideas, instead of being
welcome for the opportunities they opened up for the
improvement of the human lot, are often seen as threats
to those who have become comfortable in their ideologies.

He said - we have to be aware that on issues which require
radical solutions that are likely to harm vested interests
as well as political interests, censorship will exist.

Only time will tell - where our energy's future lies.
One thing is certain - the new technologies will
begin to test vested interests by scientific facts.

How our governments will take up the challenge we shall
have to wait and see. Hopefully we shall be more advanced
in understanding which economic levers can move us in
the right direction.

New ideas are fine with me. What concerns me is taking the country into the unknown, blowing up our bridges behind us. There is no plan b if it fails. That is crazy.