Senior Seagull wrote: Labor in SA have just done a massive backflip and announced they'll spend $550mill on 2 new Gas (fossil) fueled power stations to help solve their 3rd world power supply system. In an attempt to show they still have green credentials they will also build the worlds biggest "eveready" battery to store power when the sun isn't shining and the wind isn't blowing, apparently they hadn't factored in those two possibilities when they went large on the renewables, imagine the greenies doing something halfbaked!!
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for renewable energy but only as an add on to proven base-load capacity power supply which at this stage is coal, gas, hydro or newks.
SA has massive uranium deposits so I'm stuffed why they wont consider a truly long term safe energy supply using N energy. Britain's had them for decades and only when there's a tidal wave or they forget to build the containment building are they a major issue. Plus SA or WA could make billions as safe storage places for newk waste as we have the most stable geology anywhere in the world and plenty of totally isolated places to park the stuff. Hopefully in the not too distant future they will perfect the fussion process which will make everything else defunct and provide endless safe power.
You could not make it up.
They had coal fired stations, closed them down then blew them up.
Leaving a couple of gas fired ones that are privately operated, however they closed down any new gas exploration and limited the supplies forcing the price of gas up and of course the power price.
meanwhile they embark on a 50% RET, pretty ambitious even if you have back up. The Renewbles are all subsidised of course but the gas fired power was not, meaning the gas power could not compete and went into partial shut down.
Anyway to back up they hooked into Victorian Coal Power as a back up, ( whats the point of that RET Wise?) A storm came blew the lines down and the rest is history, SA didn't have a back up. Rolling blackouts..
The joint was drifting back to the dark ages.
Now Jayboy announces he is building a half billion gas power station as a back up and un locking some gas reserves i.e. fracking. Yep rebuilding what they have wrecked, anyway of course SA needs WA GST to do all this.
Yep and batteries, will store enough power to supply a town of about 20,000 for 2 hrs..lol
Oh and btw Vics are closing down their power station as well.
Yep this is really happening.
