In Sydney Morning Herald the Greens announce their policy for the state election.
They will close all export coal mines in five years and start closing
our use of coal, presumably including power stations.
However they gave no information on how they will backup the solar and
wind generation.
They appear not to understand that solar & wind cannot carry the load.
It seems that their plan will mean, if it comes to pass, that people
who live or work in buildings more than three floors above ground
should consider moving or find another job before everyone else wakes
up to the risk of being caught between floors.
If we are dopey enough to vote the greens into a position of power,
ha no pun intended, that is what they will do.
They seem to have no concept of what their policy means.

A very intermittent power system seems to be the inescapable result
of their policies. I cannot see a way around that.

Bazz, it's only inescapable because of an idiotic presumption of yours. If you instead assume the Greens AREN'T morons then it's VERY easily escapable! Phasing out coal fired power stations doesn't mean destroying capacity, at least not initially. It probably would do eventually when an alternative backup is in place, but it makes sense to go for the low hanging fruit first.

Bazz,
<<No, batteries and other storage systems do not work.>>
False.

<<Solar falls below 1 ERoEI and wind falls to about 2 with storage.>>
False again! How many decades old are your sources?

<<That quantity of hydro would need enormous amounts of water.>>
Arguably true, depending on what you mean by "enormous". But remember that the water can be reused, and in some coastal areas there's scope for using seawater.

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Hasbeen, environmental flows are far from useless in most cases. An exception at some times of day is the Lower Lakes/Coorong because the weir is not coordinated with the tides. And I reject your stereotype of greenies and point out that sutuability includes environmental wnd social factors as well as technical factors. And pumped storage is not a significant consumer of water.

Aiden;
The information I have read is only weeks old.
It is true that the eroei falls even further when you add the battery
backup to it.
Solar & wind cannot build the new new energy regime and it is doubtful
that it could even maintain itself.

Aiden said:
It probably would do eventually when an alternative backup is in
place, but it makes sense to go for the low hanging fruit first.

True, the easy bit should be done, but getting started without knowing
what the backup will be is just crazy.
The only backup in sight at this time is nuclear but will they, the
greens, put nuclear even on the bottom of their wish list ?
Frankly most of them would rather we have no electricity than have
to build a nuclear power station.

However it is probably a moot point because it is probably too late
to start building a fleet of nuclear stations.
Further we may never have the money and certainly no one would lend
us such a heap of money. Our current debt rules that out.
We could of course blackmail other countries, no uranium unless they
fund our nuclear stations.

No, it is THE major problem being made worse by the Greens and Labour.
Labour would probably wake up and change its policy but too late.

Aiden I should have said;
It is true that the *overall* eroei falls even further when you add
the battery *or other* backup to it

Bazz
<<The information I have read is only weeks old.>>
Then where is it from? When the figures are that  low there's likely to  be somehting wrong with the  assumptions.

<<It is true that the eroei falls even further when you add the battery
backup to it. >>
Falls, yes. But even further than what?

<<Solar & wind cannot build the new new energy regime and it is doubtful
that it could even maintain itself.>>
Your  conclusions and doubts are  based  on false assumptions.

<<True, the easy bit should be done, but getting started without knowing
what the backup will be is just crazy.>>
On the contrary; failing to get started because we don't yet know  what the backup will  be is crazy.

<<The only backup in sight at this time is nuclear but will they, the
greens, put nuclear even on the bottom of their wish list ?
Frankly most of them would rather we have no electricity than have
to build a nuclear power station.>>
Frankly your stereotypes of Greens are ridiculous!

<<However it is probably a moot point because it is probably too late
to start building a fleet of nuclear stations.>>
Even though I reject your  reasoning, I share your conclusion. With hindsight we should've opted for nuclear a decade or more ago. The falling cost of renewables will make nuclear uneconomic, but so far the implementation is far slower than I thought it would be.

<<Further we may never have the money and certainly no one would lend
us such a heap of money. Our current debt rules that out.>>
It does no such thing. Australia owns the Reserve Bank therefore has unlimited credit. We don't need to rely on foreign funding.