Category: power prices

Sweating It: Renewable Energy Crisis Means Australians Can’t Run Air-Conditioners During Heatwaves

  Once upon a time Australians enjoyed reliable and affordable power, but that was before heavily subsidised and chaotically intermittent wind and solar entered the scene. Over the last few summers, Australians have been treated to power rationing and load shedding, as well as the odd mass blackout. These events have an uncanny correlation with … Continue reading Sweating It: Renewable Energy Crisis Means Australians Can’t Run Air-Conditioners During Heatwaves

So Simple: Fixing Australia’s Power Pricing & Supply Crisis Easy As One, Two, Three

Solving Australia’s power pricing and supply calamity means killing subsidies for wind and solar and kickstarting nuclear power, by removing the ban that prohibits it. As Rafe Champion details below, there are three easy steps that would resolve the current debacle: killing off the subsidies for intermittent power generation; adding a capacity market to the … Continue reading So Simple: Fixing Australia’s Power Pricing & Supply Crisis Easy As One, Two, Three

S-O-S: Coal-Fired Power Only Answer to Australia’s Power Pricing & Supply Calamity

  Faced with rocketing power prices and a grid on the brink of collapse, the Morrison Federal government remains committed to the policies that caused the debacle. Instead of ensuring the survival of Australia’s extensive coal-fired power fleet and building new High Efficiency Low Emissions coal-plants, the PM and his Energy Minister have selected a … Continue reading S-O-S: Coal-Fired Power Only Answer to Australia’s Power Pricing & Supply Calamity

Gassed Up: All-In Policy Brawl Over Renewables Driven Power Pricing & Supply Calamity

  The adage that success has a thousand fathers, whereas failure’s an orphan applies to Australia’s self-inflicted renewable energy disaster, one that no one wants to own. The Federal Coalition’s ‘plan’ to power Australia with gas-fired power plants it has yet to build, with gas supplies it does not have, sounds more like the ‘last … Continue reading Gassed Up: All-In Policy Brawl Over Renewables Driven Power Pricing & Supply Calamity

No Future: Australia’s Renewable Energy Roadmap = Road To Economic Ruin & Despair

  Australia’s power pricing and supply calamity was entirely self-inflicted; the consequence of an obsession with heavily subsidised and totally unreliable wind and solar. The recent policy announcement by PM, Scott Morrison (referred to as his ‘Energy Roadmap’) is like using a Band-Aid to treat a severed leg. Everything that features as an ‘answer’ to … Continue reading No Future: Australia’s Renewable Energy Roadmap = Road To Economic Ruin & Despair

Power Brawl: German Power Prices Rocket As Excess Wind & Solar Dumped On Neighbours

German energy policy is a fiasco; the so-called energy transition is a debacle. Germans suffer the highest power prices in Europe, all thanks to an obsession with intermittent wind and solar. When the sun sets and/or calm weather sets in, Germany is forced to import huge volumes of power from its neighbours, particularly nuclear-powered France … Continue reading Power Brawl: German Power Prices Rocket As Excess Wind & Solar Dumped On Neighbours

Ships Ahoy! Giant Diesel-Fuelled Ship Engines ‘Solution’ For Australia’s Renewable Energy Crisis

  Australia’s obsession with chaotically intermittent wind and solar has left it with a power pricing and supply calamity. It’s a disaster that was as predictable, as it was avoidable. To date, the Federal Liberal/National Coalition’s feeble attempts to resolve it provide a study in practised inertia, mixed with a series of pointless Band-Aid ‘solutions’. … Continue reading Ships Ahoy! Giant Diesel-Fuelled Ship Engines ‘Solution’ For Australia’s Renewable Energy Crisis

Déjà vu: ‘New’ Coalition Power Policy Means Australia’s Energy Crisis Continues Unabated

  Throttled by Draconian lockdowns, the Australian economy is on life support, the only hope of resuscitating it is by restoring reliable and affordable power, to all and sundry. Last week the Federal Liberal/National Coalition announced what purported to be a cure, but, in reality, it’s more like palliative care. PM, Scott Morrison and his … Continue reading Déjà vu: ‘New’ Coalition Power Policy Means Australia’s Energy Crisis Continues Unabated

Code Black: Mass Blackouts Just Beginning of California’s Renewable Energy Debacle

California’s a place renowned for its woolly-headed thinking, not least its suicidal obsession with chaotically intermittent wind and solar. A couple weeks back, during a blistering Californian Summer, a spike in electricity demand (think millions of air conditioners running at full tilt) combined with calm weather, desert cloud cover and, later, sunset to leave millions … Continue reading Code Black: Mass Blackouts Just Beginning of California’s Renewable Energy Debacle

Reality Check: Green Energy Fantasies Threaten Post COVID Economic Recovery

There’s debate over which did more harm: the coronavirus or government policy responses to it. But there’s no argument that our economic recovery requires reliable and affordable electricity. Which means that the current arguments about recharging economies using heavily subsidised and chaotically intermittent wind and solar are as dangerous as they are delusional. Ross McKitrick … Continue reading Reality Check: Green Energy Fantasies Threaten Post COVID Economic Recovery