Hi there AIDAN...

Thank you for that extract you've shared with us all. I note they described the 'aging' black coal generators were breaking down every three days or so. I suppose they would when the operators never sought to engage in a proper maintenance schedule, especially as some of the generators pre-date that of the inception of Colour Television?

May I ask Aidan, if you were all-powerful, and you knew the community, in 2019, would no longer countenance regular blackouts or brownouts, how would you ensure reliable, uninterrupted power, to the community as a whole?

individual,
NOBODY is claiming there is global cooling. 'Twas a hypothesis that got rejected many decades ago (1970s I think, but it was before my time) because the evidence showed the planet was warming.

Since then some people have advocated deliberate attempts to cool the planet, and a few have predicted that we will have global cooling due to changing solar activity, but the claims we're having global cooling are confined to your head. As are the claims that funding would enable us to control what we currently can not.

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Bazz,
>Since the war ended in 1945 from that time right up to the last few weeks blackouts have been absent.
That's certainly not the case on the case in my state. Are you sure it is in yours? If so, would I be correct in deducing you live in Tasmania?

>The quickest way to get reliable power is to undertake a program of refurbishment, repair and replacement.
Really? How much quicker would it be than installing some more batteries or gas turbines?

>Maintenance has been neglected because the priority given to wind/solar has taken away the stations profit
Are you sure about that? I understood the changes to the maintenance regime occurred just after privatisation (when the new owners cut costs by cutting staff numbers) well before there was significant wind and solar power supplying the grid. Do you have any evidence that I'm wrong about this?

Aidan,

The cost and complexity of tying solar and wind to the grid and making it a reliable energy source would bankrupt this nation. AlanB's oft touted thorium would likely be much cheaper, but would likely take decades to develop. High efficiency coal fired power is a cheap, reliable and proven source of energy available now. Pursuing the socialist renewable energy fantasy, like all other socialist fantasies, will end in social and financial disaster.

The Greens Leader Richard Di Natale:A uninformed small minded idiot blaming fires in Tasmania and the drought in Central Australia on Coal. Last week he was blaming Cubby Station on the fish kill in the Murray, again ignorant of real issues. He refuses to recognise where does lithium come from for batteries? What mined products are used to create charge in the batteries. Where does the steel come from to make wind turbines. The idiot has no idea. Most products are made in China by coal fired power.

http://www.facebook.com/SkyNewsAustralia/videos/1105822882912636/?fref=mentions&__xts__%5B0%5D=68.ARACxjwIcPd4-cUAKvQcsyFxjuVDYfFZDz8facFWWJzFfoNsSRMJXIM7EI_a00BPMnpTS0ECgrJauGcCYFzeRHHqfffbucT9c1r4XCrQ2hYI29SzA1OmQCEbRD7u5m-SBoPJzR4pW87_juS2CNeC27mgSmfqNoz6JdjPFMfd8vSC26UZmu5qSzUqbMBH01DoqgY6Qc5Ew3uGNOnCZRv4VcXinRaXQv5Jrw2zSWlI1FJLsUd5Tt6DCXkVE0lukKMtD4XUOLZS151G34WX1eAvy30-_NGg9L0UGnwm_87LGIMiBOIgCg5OYT1xXBgo5CwItyILSu_t_W6OQV4I6dPRd-37t4NVXo5dTIDgYv35VTIyfJJns8013tA&__tn__=K-

No Aiden I am in NSW. There has never been any blackouts here.
There would have been if Tomago Aluminum had said go to b--- when
asked to switch off their pot line.

Gas turbines probably the quickest, but gas supply uncertain politically.
Batteries fairy land stuff, you would never get them recharged in time
for the next blackouts.

The priority of renewables getting the load undercuts their income.
Now you must know this so why do you pretend not ?
Re maintenance, I am told that they cut back on maintenance but only
to minor extent, they still needed them on line.

Yes my neighbour worked all his life in power station maintenance.
It is him that is certain that they could be kept running for a
hundred years. Sure to build new maybe a little more economic and
better design is probably the cause of that.
He says that the boilers are the biggest problem as at sometime one
will need major repairs, and one could even be renewed with one
unit shut down for the months it would take. I am told that by doing
the job in a more difficult way it could be quicker.

Frankly I think there is no alternative, new stations could take
three years for a 2GW station, if they were in a hurry.

Anyway there is another problem coming over the horizon.
On 1st January 2020 all ships must use "cleaner" fuel.
The shipping world has already started the change. Most seem to be
switching to diesel and it is already causing some problems.
A world tightness of supply is already noticeable and gluts of the
heavier oils is likely to develop. At present Venezuelan heavy oil is
at low production rates. It is normally mixed with diesel like
fractions to make it saleable.

There have been suggestions that serious shortages of diesel may develop.