Being pounded with 20% increases in power bills, year after year, is all part of the grand wind and solar transition. Every single country that’s tapped into subsidised wind and solar has seen retail power prices rocket – no exceptions. It’s one case where whatever goes up, never comes down.
The promise of cheap electricity courtesy of sunshine and breezes remains firmly in the hoax class, up there with time travel and perpetual motion machines.
The catastrophe playing out in Europe, parts of the US and Australia is what happens when ideology trumps sound economics and engineering.
And that’s a theme that has been recently seized on by Australia’s Federal Opposition Energy Spokesman, Ted O’Brien. Here he is being interviewed on Sky News by Chris Kenny.
Renewables are only the cheapest form of energy ‘for investors’
Sky News
Chris Kenny and Ted O’Brien
19 December 2023
Shadow Minister for Climate Change and Energy Ted O’Brien says renewables are the cheapest form of energy “for investors” only.
Mr O’Brien told Sky News host Chris Kenny that it is not the cheapest option for consumers.
“We’re meant to have a system plan that is driven by engineering and economics.
“Not by political targets, but that’s what’s happening.
“There are all these political targets out there, plucked out of the air and that drives a system plan.
“It’s meant to be the other way around.”
Transcript
Chris Kenny: Well, to explore this mess further, I’m joined by the Shadow Minister for Climate and Energy. Fresh back from COP 28 in Dubai, Ted O’Brien, joining us from Queensland. Thanks for joining us, Ted. Now you’ll be very well aware of these general issues and what’s in those reports, the GenCost Report and the Integrated System Plan. But you must be concerned about what Aidan Morrison has uncovered here. He has really, as a data scientist, done a deep dive on this stuff. He’s put some of it out there on YouTube. He’s going to continue the work with the Centre for Independent Studies. But it suggests that these reports that the government relies on so heavily are really not worth the paper they’re printed on.
Ted O’Brien: Good evening, Chris. And what’s sadder still is I think he’s right. And it exposes the lie that is at the heart of Labor’s policy, because Labor’s policy is the ISP effectively. And you know how Labour always says that renewables are the cheapest form of energy? Well, they fail to finish the sentence. Renewables are the cheapest form of energy for investors, for investors, not for consumers. And I think the work that Aidan Morrison is doing is uncovering the economics behind this thing. We are meant to have a system plan that is driven by engineering and economics, not by political targets, but that’s what’s happening. There are all these political targets out there plucked out of the air, and that drives a system plan. It’s meant to be the other way round.
Chris Kenny: You’re absolutely right. It is the politics driving this, not the engineering and the economics. And to put a layman’s spin on it, when you talk about that, making it the cheapest for the renewable energy companies rather than consumers, this plan effectively throws in the transmission lines. It throws them in at tens of billions of dollars, perhaps a hundred billion dollars around the country for consumers to pay for. But they’re really there for the benefit of those renewable energy companies.
Ted O’Brien: And when you look at things such as distributed batteries, rooftop solar, upgrades to distribution lines, big projects like Snowy 2.0, these are not costed into the plan. And so on one hand, Labor waves this thing around saying, “Look, it’s going to be cheaper.” But at the end of the day, we all know because we’re the ones who pay our bills at home. Bills keep going up, and there’s a reason behind it. And it’s because Labor is waving this thing around knowing full well it does not account for the costs that Australians have to pay, Chris.
Chris Kenny: Yeah, and Lord knows what’s going to happen to energy security reliability this summer and next summer. We’ve already had problems so early in this summer. Adi Paterson is another terrific expert that I’ve interviewed many times. He used to run Australia’s Nuclear Energy Organisation. He’s the former CEO of that. He’s a nuclear scientist and nuclear engineer. Here’s what he said today with Kieran Gilbert about the prospects of our energy grid looking after us into the future.
Adi Paterson: We’ve lost the plot because we are trying to pursue renewables, not low-carbon energy, and we are doing it in a way that compromises the fundamental integrity of the electricity grid.
Chris Kenny: That’s it in a nutshell, Ted O’Brien. How can you formulate a plan to fix this should you get back into government in a year and a half?
Ted O’Brien: Well, I think it’s to come at this, Chris, from a very different angle. Instead of coming at this politically, setting a target based on absolutely nothing and hoping to God somebody like the operator can throw together a mix of technologies to make it work. Instead, we need to be driven by economics and engineering so that we actually have a total system cost planned for the Australian grid. That means a balanced mix of technologies. Each technology doing what it’s best doing on that grid, which also means we need to consider all types of technology, not just the technologies we’ve got today, but next generation technologies including zero-emissions nuclear energy.
Chris Kenny: Just finally and quickly, Ted, does that mean that if you were to come into government, you would order the CSIRO and AEMO to reformulate, recalculate, redo the GenCost Report and the Integrated System Plan with all costs and all options on the table?
Ted O’Brien: So Chris, while we’re yet to announce our policy, there’s three things I would say that Labor should be doing today, not waiting till we’re in office. One, put consumers at the centre, not investors; two, take a total system cost approach, use that methodology; and three, engage with the engineers and the economists who actually know how the grid works. If they did those three things, Australia could start turning this mess around immediately rather than just waiting for the Coalition to come into power to fix the damn mess.
Chris Kenny: That would be handy. Thanks for joining us, Ted, and thanks for your support throughout the year.
Ted O’Brien: Thanks very much, Chris.
Chris Kenny: We’ll catch you in 2024. Ted O’Brien there, the Shadow Minister for Climate and Energy.
Sky News
STOP THESE THINGS 
Ted O’Brien claims: “…we are meant to have a system plan that is driven by engineering and economics, not by political targets, but that’s what’s happening. There are all these political targets out there plucked out of the air,…”. So, Ted, do ‘splain to me how it was any different when your party were ‘in charge’?
I’d be less inclined to think Ted is just another bullshit artist if I saw his party’s policy statement note that gullible warming is a big-club scam and it will no longer be the excuse for continued ruinables led energy malpolicy. But alas, their energy policy is more or less “we are meant to have a system plan that is driven by political targets that are plucked out of the air…”
So far as I see it it’s only a few minor parties who have the testicular fortitude and the integrity to write “we are meant to have a system plan that is driven by engineering and economics…” into a policy statement.
So on balance, I won’t be taking the time to watch this interview. I’ll spent the time more gainfully doing more or less the same thing Ted is doing; the difference is that once I get done wanking, I’ll have something tangible in hand to show for it.
All I ever hear from politicians is blah, blah, blah.
When they get in power they don’t do what they promised or they do the opposite in a few cases.
The uniparty in Australia consisting of Labor/Greens/Liberals is not to be trusted with anything they say.
At this stage a used car salesman has more credibility than most politicians.
Nu Clear energy!