Sorry, Bazz, I thought you were in Melbourne.
I accept the Sydney housing situation is as you've described, but I'd expect the chances of having to resort to load shedding to be remoter in Sydney.

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JBowyer,
It's cheaper to generate electricity from renewables because the fuel cost is zero.

Fifteen years ago, when we were jut getting started with renewables, they did work out as more expensive than fossil fuels because of their high capital cost. But since then two things have happened to change the economics: firstly the capital costs have come down because of advances in design and manufacturing. Secondly financing costs have dropped, so high capital costs are less of a problem than they used to be.

The need former transmission infrastructure did not depend on renewables, and was clear before it was decided to install wind turbines. But there are other factors that greatly raised the price of electricity, including the development of gas export facilities in Eastern Australia, resulting in our gas prices getting much higher (to match the international gas prices) which increased the price the gas fired electricity generators were willing to supply power at.

Are you under the impression that the amount the RBA lends out depends on people's savings? That's not the case at all; the RBA has unlimited lending capacity (in Australian dollars) even if there's no savings at all.

Belly it is much more likely that your 50 year old will be witnessing a huge fight over who is going to pay to demolish all those ugly proven useless towers that currently carry windmills.

Wind power is a dead end technology, & will be proven so in the not too distant future.

Hasbeen I am confident if in that future, 50 years from now, someone researches these pages they will have huge fun
And looking back 25 years, see the date coal, like whale oil before it, was no longer used
Too from that date look back at these days with stunned disbelief at just why we ignore near daily evidence man made or not the climate is [now] changing
But coal,ALDANI forces true reasoning, while people do not want new mines new coal fired power stations, they do not in numbers, have the power to stop it yet
Pushing for things you can not achieve is unwise and gives head start to conservative in every election

Aidan the cost of renewables is nothing to do with it. State and federal governments both tip in for the construction of wind generators. Direct subsidy to build and then preference of supply and subsidy to supply. Otherwise it would not get built. Trouble is the erratic nature of wind means no certainty of actual supply. This was why coal powered steam replaced wind.
Solar is on the same lines except the power is so diffuse it makes no sense either.
We can argue now but time will sort out who of us is right.
The RBA is an anachronism lead by a bunch of total overpaid fools. You think you just print money? I suggest you have a read about the South Sea Company and the contemporary French economy. A depression that went for just over one hundred years and resulted in things being worth less at the end than at the beginning. That was the poisoned fruit from that particular tree.
My main frustration will be that dick at the RBA blaming me, making me pay for his inattention and stupidity. Especially as he will walk away from his disaster with a big fat pension.
Tell me why not print one million dollars each for every Australian adult to fire up the economy? Jokes on you, in 2008 when Australians withdrew six billion in cash the RBA had to print more notes. Of course only four billion eventually returned so there is two billion under beds right now. RBA would like to abolish cash to steal our savings too and we sneer at Zimbabwe?

Aiden, many of those towers of say 10 stories and up are standing there
empty. Dive past at night and there might be 5% of the windows lit up.
Much of the money tied up in them is Chinese and having got it out they
are happy so sit and wait.

There is more to the cost of renewables than zero cost fuel.
That is the point of what I have been saying for a while now.
It is the multiplication factor. As I have said previously the only
factor I have seen is 12 which seems too high for my guessing.
However it can be easily demonstrated that 3 is too low.
I know that batteries help, but like hydro they have to be recharged.
They have to be recharged when the wind is blowing when running the current load.
So another set of turbines & solar is needed.

There was a report last night, forget where, that Germany is in a
financial bind over capacity and cost of electricity.
It is affecting their economy badly. Sound familiar.

Will go of topic, well sort of, to show a reason we are indeed paying too much for power
First how many are prepared to believe this truth, politicians on every side made cash out of the privatization of power plants
And that some, and their family's own shares in them and other privatized things
Do we also know many politicians are in fact millionaires
They thrive on us blaming renewable s, standing against new fuels, until they get the opportunity to invest in them, or are given shares to help along the way
A challenge, [sorry about the spelling] Roth bury riot, a coal mine shutout
READ how the judge, yes judge, who ruled in favor of that mines owner Brown, inherited that mine!on Browns death
Justice has not changed money buys influence