579,

Actually, that is necessarily the case. Most power sales are based on the time of use, and the cost of keeping generators spinning. Gas turbines start faster, but still need an hour or two to run up.

Big base load producers have generators of 100s of MW and take days to start, but can vary the load they take from hour to hour. The big generators have large capital costs, but low cost per kWhr of generation. Nuclear has the highest capital but the lowest variable cost of about 1c per kWhr. Coal comes in next at 2-3c, and gas comes in at about 6c.

Coal and nuclear take the vast majority of the load when the price is low, but when the demand spikes, typically in the early evening, the bidding price on the open market spikes up to 40c and the gas turbines spool up to clip the peaks and make their money.

Renewables, because of their cost they cannot compete with coal or nuclear, and so have to get preferential access to the market. This essentially means that the base load generators have to ramp up and down to cater for the variability of the wind and solar. In the case in Germany that the renewables reached 75% of generation for 1 hour, the big generators could not shut down fast enough and were essentially paying people to take their power, whilst 75% of the power was being paid for at the enhanced renewables price.

The result was that the renewable generators made a packet, but the traditional generators lost a fortune. While this might seem a vindication of renewables, the problem is that the traditional generators will either contract higher fixed costs to the network to cover these losses, or they will close plant. Already gas generators are closing down as a result.

The end result is that back up for renewables is lost, and when the grid hits peak load in the early evening when there is no wind, there will be black outs, as is also starting to occur.

If a state or federal government needs to raise money either to pay for specific projects or to cover any shortfall between the government's annual revenue and expenditure - known as the deficit - it will issue bonds or notes.

Where the government agrees to pay the person who buys the bond or note the full purchase price at the time the loan matures, usually two, five, 10 or 15 years from the date of issue. The government pays interest on the loan at fixed intervals, usually twice a year. The initial purchaser of the bond or note can sell it on the open market at the prevailing price, which is based on traders'views.

According to the 2014-15 budget, Australia's interest-bearing liabilities in the year to June 2014 are expected to reach $358 billion. About 97 per cent of these liabilities are Commonwealth Government Securities (CGS). These are Treasury bonds, Treasury indexed bonds and Treasury notes.

Treasury bonds, defined in the budget as having a fixed annual rate of interest payable every six months (face value $301 billion)
Treasury indexed bonds where the capital value is adjusted for movements in the consumer price index, with interest paid quarterly, at a fixed rate, on the adjusted capital value (face value $23 billion)

Treasury notes which are short term securities generally maturing within six months of issuance (face value $4 billion)
Figures as of June 10, 2014
At the moment, there are $329 billion worth of Commonwealth securities on issue.

What is the interest owing on outstanding debt?
The federal budgets include details of how much interest the Commonwealth pays on its debt each year.

The 2014-15 budget shows $13.2 billion will be paid to service CGS liabilities for the year to June 2014, and $13.5 billion next financial year, rising to a projected $16.4 billion by June 2018.

Paul Bloxham told Fact Check that a generally accepted way to find a "back of the envelope" calculation of interest payments on government debt is to use the interest rate that the market sets for the 10 year Treasury bond.

Germany is not an indication of what happens here. There are big gas turbines and small gas turbines ours are small capacity of 20 to 60 mWh
A bank of 60 small turbines that are constantly being regulated as and if need arises. We can not wait for 2 hours for generators to run up.

Electricity Generation has been falling for the past four years, as a result of solar and wind.

The electricity generated in SA VIC TAS NSW and QLD are all connected and power is sold from the pool by capacity bidding by retailers, then on sold to household and business. Bidding is from 10am to 2pm only.

Currently NSW 5.0, QLD 4.4, SA 3.2, TAS 3.4, VIC 4.1, cents / kW

Swiss-based Glencore - Australia’s largest coal miner - has paid almost no tax over the last three years on income of at least $15 billion, Fairfax media has reported.

Fairfax Media conducted an independent analysis of the company’s accounts and found that Glencore claimed tax breaks in Australia after borrowing money from associates overseas.

The report, published in the Sydney Morning Herald, says Glencore borrowed from “associates overseas” at inflated rates of 9 per cent on $3.4 billion in loans – a rate “double what the company would have had to pay had it simply borrowed the money from the bank.”

Glencore is headed by Swiss-based Ivan Glasenberg, who ranks No.5 on the 2014 BRW’s rich list released yesterday. His wealth lifted by $1.01 billion thanks in part due to Glencore’s rising share price.

579,

I'm not sure why you are spouting a random selection of facts.

Small gas turbines that are essential jet engines can spool up more quickly but are less efficient, not much more than coal.

The problems with renewables is that you still need fossil fuels or nuclear for 100% at the peak at 7pm when there is no wind.

Last year the Australian Energy Market Operator was commissioned by the federal government to examine the feasibility of operating the eastern states’ National Electricity Market using entirely renewable energy sources for the period of 2030 and 2050. On Friday a draft version of its modelling results was released.

It finds that it is indeed possible to operate the NEM with 100 per cent renewable energy while meeting the current NEM reliability requirement. This means that even with 100 per cent renewable energy it was possible to meet the energy needs of the NEM 99.998 per cent of the time.

The 2014 forecast compares to the average annual decline of 1.8% that occurred between 2009–10 and 2013–14, which was partially driven by sustained retail electricity price rises over the past five years, mainly due to network costs.

SA is currently selling for 2.9 cents / kWh