Touted as the saviour for subsidised wind and solar, pumped hydro turns out to be a whole lot harder in practice. The Snowy 2.0 plan (see above) never stacked up economically – see our posts here and here – and never will. One of the tunnel boring machines (TBMs) critical to the project, Florence had barely struck … Continue reading Mega-Pumped Hydro Project Becomes Total Economic & Environmental Disaster
Tag: Economics of pumped hydro
Snowy 2.NOTHING: Giant Pumped Hydro Scheme Becomes Costly & Pointless Disaster
Along with giant batteries and ‘green’ hydrogen, pumped hydro is touted as the solution to wind and solar power’s hopeless intermittency. Five years ago, Australia’s PM, Malcolm Turnbull pitched his very own mega-pumped hydro project, tagged Snowy 2.0. The numbering was meant to be a nod to computer program upgrades and signal an improvement on … Continue reading Snowy 2.NOTHING: Giant Pumped Hydro Scheme Becomes Costly & Pointless Disaster
Energy Transition Turns High Farce: Power Prices Surge 80% After Coal-Fired Plant Shutdown
Destroying coal-fired power plants is all part of the grand wind and solar ‘transition’ and precisely the point of the subsidies to wind and solar which are designed to allow the unreliables to undercut cheap and reliable coal-fired power, thereby driving coal-fired plants out of business. The inevitable consequences include rocketing power prices and rolling … Continue reading Energy Transition Turns High Farce: Power Prices Surge 80% After Coal-Fired Plant Shutdown
Grand Delusion: Why Battery Storage Can’t Fix Wind & Solar’s Intermittency Problem
Claims that mega-batteries will fix wind and solar’s natural intermittency problem turn out to be mega-myths. First, lithium-ion batteries of the kind pitched by Tesla (see above) - like every kind of battery - do not generate a single watt of power and are net consumers of electricity during their charge/discharge phase. Second, they are … Continue reading Grand Delusion: Why Battery Storage Can’t Fix Wind & Solar’s Intermittency Problem
All Downhill: Australia’s Largest Pumped Hydro Scheme Grinds to Insanely Costly Halt
Loose talk about ‘green’ hydrogen, mega-batteries and pumped hydro is the default response from rent seekers forced to face up to wind and solar’s hopeless intermittency. None of the aforementioned generate a single watt of electricity; all of them chew up mountains of energy and resources in their creation; and all of them consume electricity … Continue reading All Downhill: Australia’s Largest Pumped Hydro Scheme Grinds to Insanely Costly Halt
Impossible Dream: Why Energy Storage Systems Can’t Solve Wind & Solar’s Intermittency
Renewable energy storage is literally setting the world on fire. When giant lithium-ion batteries aren’t exploding in toxic balls of flame, their limited capacity means that they add a trivial occasional trickle of electricity to the grid; and do so at an astronomical cost. The wind and solar acolyte would have us believe that if … Continue reading Impossible Dream: Why Energy Storage Systems Can’t Solve Wind & Solar’s Intermittency
Wicked Waste: Snowy 2.0 Pumped Hydro Project Australia’s Biggest Energy White Elephant
With a price tag in excess of $10 billion, Australia’s biggest pumped hydro project, Snowy 2.0, is easily its single biggest white elephant. Sure, the Feds have already squandered magnitudes more on subsidies and soft loans to wind and solar. And the purported benefit of Snowy 2.0 is to use excess wind and solar power … Continue reading Wicked Waste: Snowy 2.0 Pumped Hydro Project Australia’s Biggest Energy White Elephant
All Uphill: Australia Squanders $10Billion on Giant Pumped Hydro Power White Elephant
Australia has its former PM, Malcolm Turnbull to thank for its largest and most expensive renewable energy boondoggle, the Snowy 2.0 pumped hydro project. Touted by the patrician and aloof Turnbull and his hapless sidekick, Josh Frydenberg as the Nation’s mega-battery, the heavily-hyped pumped hydro scheme (shelved in the 1970s because it was uneconomic then) … Continue reading All Uphill: Australia Squanders $10Billion on Giant Pumped Hydro Power White Elephant
Water Wise: Time To Kill Off Snowy 2.0 Pumped Hydro White Elephant
Wind and large-scale solar are doomed, but the saviour is said to be pumped hydro; paid for, of course, with other people’s money. Touted by ex-PM Malcom Turnbull and his hapless sidekick, Josh Frydenberg as the Nation’s mega-battery, the heavily-hyped Snowy 2.0 pumped hydro scheme (shelved in the 1970s because it was uneconomic then) has … Continue reading Water Wise: Time To Kill Off Snowy 2.0 Pumped Hydro White Elephant
Déjà vu All Over Again: Liberal PM Determined to Squander $10 Billion on Pumped Hydro White Elephant
Australia’s obsession with hopelessly intermittent wind and solar has rendered its power supply both unreliable and unaffordable: it’s time to stop digging. Except, on both sides of the political divide, it seems the obsession is one without reason or respite. Labor’s opposition leader, Bill Shorten is determined to destroy Australia’s economic prosperity - literally … Continue reading Déjà vu All Over Again: Liberal PM Determined to Squander $10 Billion on Pumped Hydro White Elephant
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