Gas Demand Driven By Need to ‘Back Up’ Wind & Solar Using Fast-Start Gas Turbines

Before the obsession with intermittent wind and solar took hold, gas was rarely used to generate electricity if coal, nuclear or hydro sources were available. Gas-fired electricity, in the main, was simply too expensive, by comparison with coal-fired power. Coal-fired generators are designed to run around-the-clock. Wind turbines and solar panels only run according to […]

Government Uses Fake Gas ‘Crisis’ to Force Suppliers to Guarantee Gas to Costly & Inefficient Peaking Power Generators

AGL shows why power generators shouldn’t be energy retailers The Australian Judith Sloan 26 September 2017 Former senior executives of AGL must surely be shaking their heads in dismay. As the oldest listed company in the country, AGL has a tradition of measured and conservative conduct, as would be expected of a utility in the […]

The Obscene Cost of Australia’s Renewable Energy Debacle

What a difference a 20% year-on-year hike in retail power bills can make. Add in the South Australian experience of routine load shedding and statewide blackouts. Top it off with the threat of widespread blackouts this Summer; and not just confined to SA, but likely to send Victorians back to the Victorian age and New […]

Wind Power: Just an Ugly ‘Hood Ornament’ on the Conventional Power System

**** As time marches on, the ability of the wind industry to ‘hood’-wink power punters is running into a deluge of ‘unhelpful’ facts: here’s some more from Michigan Capitol Confidential’s Jack Spencer. Renewables Just a Hood Ornament on Fossil Fuel Power System You can’t have renewable energy without fossil fuels backing it up CapCon Jack […]

Why Coal Miners, Oil and Gas Producers Simply Love Wind Power

**** The wind industry parades as an “alternative” energy source. Which begs the question: “alternative” to what? The lunatics from the hard-green left (like “Greens” head-muppet, Christine Milne) continually whine that “coal is DEATH“; and wax lyrical about the fantasy of going “100% renewable” – all the while pocketing $millions in campaign funding from the […]

Why South Australians Pay the World’s Highest Power Prices

**** South Australia is “blessed” with energy market gurus like Labor’s Mark Butler – who loves giant fans and is currently fighting a rear-guard action to save the RET (or, more to the point, the huge wind farm investments held by Union Super funds run by his mates, like Greg Combet and Gary Weaven). His […]