I've always been under the impression that the former Premier Campbell NEWMAN was a real tyrant and a very much an authoritarian with the way he handled his ministers and staff alike ? To have such a resounding fall from grace in their first term just shows that something wasn't right ? Further it appeared he broke many of his electoral promises as well, and treated the people of Queensland with absolute distain ?

Like Mr NEWMAN, Tony ABBOTT has also broken many of his electoral promises, consequently it would appear that he to is headed in the same way, not even managing to complete his first term, so it would seem ? Apparently it will all be made crystal clear, after the Party Room meeting, Tuesday next, where it's been inferred, a 'spill' will occur ? My only question, when will somebody start to govern Australia ?

Aiden said;
and instead modify it to accept distributed power sources.

But with what will you back up the distributed system ?
Wind and solar cannot do it and coal will be unmentionable or have too
low an ERoEI in the future to be usable.

O sung wu "when will somebody start to govern Australia?".

Sorry old mate, no chance of that any time soon.

Labor could never do it, the unions would never let them, even if they found someone in their ranks capable of rational thought.

The LNP can't do it. The voters won't give them a senate that will pass sensible laws to allow the place to be governed.

Nope old mate, we are going to have to wait for the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, or the Chinese government to do it after the collapse.

I'm not sure if we will see it, but our kids will. I suppose that is as it should be, after all it is they who have voted themselves onto the gravy train, & now into a corner they will not climb willingly out of.

Who was it who said democracy must fail, once enough realise they can vote rather than work for a living.

Why don't you come up & see us some time, while we have all this lovely cheap petrol. Could be the last chance of affording a trip.

Whatever's available. Hydro is the best choice if suitable sites are available, but there are other options such as CST with molten salt storage. And of course batteries; the amount of battery capacity needed for system backup is much less than that needed for individual backup.

Now I'd agree with you on that one Aidan, apart from a few little problems.

1/ As soon as you want to build a damn you have 40 thousand smelly greenies camped on site, lowering the tone of the neighborhood.

2/ Once it is built, some greenie long haired radical ratbags will demand the water for environmental flows, so they can piss it uselessly out to sea.

3/ Most of our few sights are already owned, & we are not very good at compensating people when we take their land/homes for the common good.

4/ We don't have enough sights to catch enough water for our towns. Better to use the water we have more economically for coal & nuclear plants, that actually supply reliable economical power.

No, batteries and other storage systems do not work.
Solar falls below 1 ERoEI and wind falls to about 2 with storage.
That quantity of hydro would need enormous amounts of water.
No those solutions are no goers.

Just read a review on a Finnish book on this very subject.

http://tinyurl.com/pxg9sog

Also another article part 2 by Gail Tverberg.

http://tinyurl.com/kjqds39

The first link is closer to our discussion.