By Jo Nova
The cause of the mysterious oscillations and the big Iberian blackout is still a mystery, and it will take six months before the world has forgotten, sorry, I mean before the official report is finished.
In the meantime, baffled Spanish grid managers, who couldn’t possibly speculate on the cause, have cranked up the nuclear power and the gas, and reduced solar generation for no reason in particular. It’s all very odd, because gas is more expensive, and sun is free.
The Minister accidentally called this “Strengthened Mode” . (Didn’t they used to call it pollution?).
Lest we forget — in the hours before the crash, solar power was providing 60% of the energy, while nuclear power was covering 11%, and gas was just 3%.
Net Zero Spain leans on Nuclear, Gas to keep the lights on after historic Blackout
By Oliver JJ Lane, Breitbart
Spain is running its national power grid in “strengthened mode”, using more nuclear and natural gas in place of the renewables it vaunted before last month’s historic blackout, but still hasn’t said what started the outage.
Bloomberg energy industry journalist Javier Blas, who is Spanish, further notes in a digest of Aagesen’s remarks that she also said — without elaboration — in her address to Parliament that the grid operator was now running the system in “strengthened mode”
The people deserve no hypotheses, says the Minister (covering her #$%)
[Minister for Ecological Transition and Energy Sara Aagesen] said: “The government is working with rigour and not making hypotheses, because that is what the Spanish people deserve. Rigour and truth”.
Per the latest data, in recent days, more reliable traditional generation is being used more, with nuclear responsible for between 14 and 23 percent, and natural gas-fired plants accounting for up to 25 percent at times.
It’s just bad luck, you know, that these mysterious oscillations hit Spain. And thus, they have to use CCGT gas turbines for a while, because they can “adjust more promptly to mysterious oscillations”. It’s just a quirk:
Spain Boosts Costlier Gas Power to Secure Grid After Blackout
By Thomas Gualtieri, Bloomberg
Still, energy regulator CNMC head Cani Fernandez told lawmakers that the system is currently working with more expensive backup mechanisms that would adjust more promptly to unwanted oscillations. That’s a good description of CCGTs versus solar.
“It seems that Red Electrica wants to have tight control over the generation mix to stabilize it” said Javier Pamos, an analyst at Aurora Energy Research. “Combined-cycle plants are being included in it even though there are hours of the day when they wouldn’t be necessary as renewable production is enough to cover demand.”
The output of combined-cycle gas turbines, a more steady generation technology than solar, jumped 37% in the two weeks after the outage, compared with the two weeks prior, data from power grid operator Red Electrica show. Their average share of Spain’s power mix increased to 18% from about 12%.
On May 15th the Spanish Government claimed that there were mysterious oscillations right across the continent:
Spanish government provides further details in blackout update
PV-Magazine
Two oscillations in the system variables detected at 12:03 pm were observed, lasting five minutes, during which strong fluctuations in voltage and frequency occurred.
The second, at 12:19 pm, lasted three minutes. This, according to Aagesen, “is more common within the European system, comes from the center-east, and oscillates with respect to the European synchronous system, which, in turn, oscillates with respect to Turkey. The system operator acted to dampen these oscillations.”
After these oscillations, demand was 25,184 MW at 12:30 pm, at which time there was 3 GW of pumping.
Portugal is now blaming France, saying that because France runs on nuclear power it’s been very slack about building interconnectors to Spain. The unhappy Iberians have said for years that Paris was “resisting” the flow of cheap (but unreliable) energy “to protect its own nuclear power plants and maintain its control over the European energy market.” (Which, of course, it was.)
France is 68% nuclear powered, and the last thing they’d want is surges of useless solar and wind power that the nuclear plants would have to dance around. Unreliable solar and wind generators don’t provide France with anything it doesn’t already have, but the surges would make French nuclear plants operate in a less efficient, more expensive mode.
The EU set a target of 10% electricity swaps between countries by 2020, but at the moment it’s only 3% between Spain and France.
Portugal Scapegoats France After Iberian Blackout
By Javier Villamor, European Conservative
France’s electricity grid operator (RTE) denies any obstruction.
Portugal’s Energy Minister, Maria da Graça Carvalho, has not hesitated to describe the lack of interconnections with France as a direct barrier to the European single market. According to Lisbon, systematic delays by the French government in expanding electricity infrastructure across the Pyrenees have contributed to the energy isolation of both Spain and Portugal, multiplying the impact of the recent system collapse.
Portugal has announced that it will take the case to the European Commission, requesting formal intervention against France for violating the principles of the EU’s internal energy market. The EU had set a target for member states to have electricity import capacity equal to 10% of national generation by 2020 and 15% by 2030. However, the connection between Spain and France barely exceeds 3%.
So the Spanish and Portuguese complaints are undoubtedly true — naughty France.
If only the Iberians had been selling something France actually wanted, it wouldn’t be so hard to make them build the interconnectors.
Image by Greg Montani from Pixabay. | Tunnel by Jo Nova
An engaging overview of the recent outage in the Spanish region.
It’s engaging because in the first two paragraphs there’s special treatment of the official stories; sarc.
The “cause” of the blackout and the inablity of the “baffled” griddies to explain things are highlighted for what they are: duplicitous dissemination in order to hide the real cause of this crash.
For politicians to pretend to ignore the fact that billions of people are using alternating current and nobody knows how it’s generated is almost beyond belief.
There’s money flowing in them there wires and it mustn’t be stopped.
“that is what the Spanish people deserve. Rigour and truth”
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No-one knows or no-one is prepared to say ?
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Rigour and truth. With neither rigour nor truth.
Just like safe and effective.
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The official report by the expert panel on the fatally injured camel will be released soon. It shows unequivocally that the sole cause of the camel’s broken back was the 307,486th straw. The first 307,485 straws have been cleared of any and all fault.
The same expert panel will soon start their investigation of the Iberian blackout. It is expected to take a similar time to complete.
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Ruinables, wind and solar, produce DC electricity at non grid frequency. Rooftop solar needs inverters to smooth the surge output to consistent grid frequency and convert the DC to AC. The big solar farms have big inverters called synchronous condensers. These condensers provide a semblance of grid inertia which is the capacity of the grid to handle changes in frequency. But if enough of the condensers break down there will be effectively no inertia in the grid. Ironically this can also happen when ruinables are producing too little power, OR too much.
But this is just the tip of the problems with ruinables. For instance if the wind and solar aren’t working batteries are supposed to be the backup. Batteries can release either DC or AC but they do not release a sustained consistent amount. As the stored amount depletes their release rate will decrease. Batteries therefore need condensers with the problems described above.
More generally ruinables are the confected solution to a non existent problem: global boiling as the repugnant sec-general of the UN says. Global boiling is the biggest lie since Lysenkoism.
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MFGA by France.
Self interest dictates that they don’t hook up connections to Spain and Portugal.
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Would you? France may be many things but it isn’t stupid. I saw a number of its beautiful nukes last year and thought how wonderful it would be to have them here. The dream was shattered when Bowenasaurus Ignorati was returned to parliament.
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It’s wet at Wingham! More floods!
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Is the Manning coming up.
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The French farmers are pragmatic, I read. When asked if they approve of nuclear power stations in their area they say it’s OK, it gives their kids jobs off the farms.
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Perhaps they learnt from watching Germany screw over the Scandi countries via their inter connectors. Importimg instability doesnt help. BtW How is that fantastic SA_NSW interconnector project going?
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Why would NSW chip in for that? SA has nothing to offer them. Qld is a reliable supplier when they are short, and they often are.
00
I speculate that an electrical grid based on random weather-dependent wind and solar generation is a metastable system in which very minor fluctuations can be rapidly amplified to a catastrophic level. Much like the Butterfly Effect of chaos theory.
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Why would any idiot depend on weather dependent power in a world in which in their own words ‘will become more chaotic as the planet warms’, it just defies common sense.
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Bit like promoting solar panels and then wanting to dim the sun.
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The obvious answer is to use high inertia generators. With inertia, oscillations are cancelled.
My question relates to the use of artificial inertia. Let’s say that I have an inverter and I want to simulate inertia, (which in this instance is a resistance to a change in the AC frequency).
I could use a phase locked loop, (PLL), which is a type of circuit that is designed to apply feedback to a system so that the OUTPUT of the system is only slowly allowed to drift away from the target. It MUST be allowed to drift, if not, then some real event which does move the phase a few degrees would be a major problem, causing the inverter to overload as it fights against the other generators rather than supplying the load.
So the question is…. do I trim the PLL to MATCH the exact performance of the nearest large, (classical), generator or do I pick some random settings and hope? The obvious problem is that if I pick a more responsive set of numbers then the inverter will be able to react quicker and may overshoot, and then realise that error, over correct and undershoot, etc. An oscillation.
So you decide that you need to match the large generator. That leads to some findings which the solar farm may not like. The amount of POWER available in the spinning mass at the classical generator is several orders of magnitude ABOVE the solar farms output. Of course, that inertial power is very short lived but it’s still there. How do you match that? You could incorporate some massive short term energy storage on the DC side of your system and massively over build your inverter but that costs real money. Imagine the size of the battery bank and inverter array to allow an order of magnitude increase in output from the solar farm, (even for just a few seconds), those batteries are going to have to be extremely high current sources.
Of course, a simpler approach would be to use a brushless DC motor to spin up a large spinning generator and take your AC power from it’s outlet, just like the classical units do. Again, this costs money and there are NO grants to do that.
And before people jump up and down about the inefficiencies of this system over an inverter, remember that it’s good enough to run an electric motor and a water pump to send water in a pipe, (hydraulic losses), up a large hill just to let it come back down to turn a water turbine. Refer Snowy 2.
Inertia costs money, the generation company needs to pay for it.
And of course, for those who have soaked this up, EVERY piece of inertia adding equipment has a response function that CAN generate OR dampen an oscillation. When several have or are harmonics of each other, expect the fireworks to go off as they create beat patterns on the grid. Oscillations need to be damped not electrically driven.
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Eng_Ian,
I remember the NSW Electricity Commission being proud of the fact that their AC waveform was very regular. Yes, it slowed down when heavy loads hit, but they deliberately ran it overspeed afterwards so that, at the close of each day, there would be *very* close to 50*3600*24 AC cycles. This was useful to keep industrial control systems (and people’s clock radios) pretty accurate.
That’s kind of irrelevant now. We have caesium clocks sitting in GPS satellites for timekeeping. These same clocks *could* provide a synchronisation signal for a grid, where each generator would be allocated a phase offset (say in microseconds) according to the conductor length from their neighbours. This would suit inverter-based generators quite nicely, but the inertia-based ones would not cope well with it.
The inertial and inverter AC outputs seem to be fundamentally hostile to each other and it’d be wiser to keep them on separate grids, transferring the power between via HVDC bridges.
Interestingly, the inverter-based grid would be the easier one to fire up from a black start.
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I remember how, back in the day the Electricity Commission of NSW would have a display at Sydney’s Royal Easter Show. They took great pride in their achievements and would show graphs how electricity consumption dropped during the running of the Melbourne Cup, I believe I recall something about the precise frequency control you mention Robert, they had a thing called “House Power Plus” where they encouraged people to install more power outlets in new home builds and they had something which would probably terrify the Sheeple today (who don’t understand electricity), a Jacob’s Ladder running at a seriously high voltage and current.
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It’s all about the poles and zeros. Perhaps they should publish some system charts both before and after renewables.
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Poles and zeros are about passive control, eg corner frequencies and similar. I was talking more about the active part of the circuit. If a PV inverter has a badly tuned PID loop, then it MAY overshoot and undershoot all day long. BUT only if it has the ability to cut and add power.
It more than likely has the ability to undershoot by 20% but overshoot by 0.0% Such an imbalance is not going to be fixed by looking at the poles and zeros, (which work well in amplifier circuits where the signal is no where near clipping either rail).
I expect that a solar powered inverter has the ABILITY to immediately drop power but has NO ABILITY to instantaneously increase it’s power output. Most likely because it is programmed to run at 100% of the available solar inputs all the time, (effectively sitting at the top rail when considering amplifier circuits). This imbalance is going to cause havoc on the grid, (just like it would for an amplifier when the signal bumps into a rail).
10
Rotating generation can absorb energy temporarily counteracting frequency increases, it also naturally compensates for phase differences, by settling at just in advance of the phase at its location. Solid state can do the second, but not the first as it only has facility to source energy, but not sink.
It’s like economics, the phase retardation / frequency drop is like deflation when demand exceeds supply. Frequency increase (aka inflation) when (money) supply exceeds demand. Both are incomputable due to complexity, so a distributed system without rotating generation rapidly becomes unstable at load changes, especially switching in and out of complex loads. Complex loads are like financial engineering is to the real economy, work is only done by real loads, just like the economy is only driven by real value-adding enterprises – not banking / government. Speculation is like a battery, can bring future work to the current instant, but in excess causes instability.
So asking the State to control an economy is just as futile as asking them to control a renewables based grid.
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Sounds a lot like “for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction”?
The State answer to “asking the State to control an economy is just as futile as asking them to control a renewables based grid.” is to block out the sun.
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Under fault conditions, a heavy turbine will put out many times its rated power for a a few seconds as the speed slowly reduces. Imagine sticking a crowbar in a 200tonne rotor spinning at 3000rpm is would ne like breaking toothpicks. It takes a lot of energy to slow it down and that means a huge amount of power for a fraction of second.
For a battery system to achieve the same result, you would. need to be able to produce the same amount of power for a few seconds. So to match say a 660MW steam, turbine, you would need a battery able to produce say 6.6GW for a few seconds. So a very large battery with equivalently rated electronics. It could use a large capacitor capable of delivering say 6.6GW for a few seconds but the inverter electronics still need to be able to pump out 6.6GW. That is to achieve artifice inertia similar to a 660MW steam turbine.
The big batteries in Australia get maybe 50% of its income from the 5 second FRAS market where energy at rated capacity is very useful because batteries can respond faster than steam plant governors. But the millisecond to second inertia has to come from rotating mass or very high power capacity from storage systems.
My off-grid battery system has an inverter rated at 2.5kW with peak of 5kW. It only has two loads but one is an old fridge that is on or off and has high starting demand. When running it pulls about 300W but starting is maybe 6X that. I have tried to run it on a smaller inverter rated at 800W with Perak of 1200W. and it will not start the motor in the fridge.
Mine winders and draglines operating on long networks are required to advise system controllers when they are coming into operation so the system controllers can make sure there is power available in their network to allow for the cyclic operation.
30
RickWill,
Inverter-based AC has no reason at all to slow down when faced with an increased load. So where an alternator will both slow down frequency *and* lose some voltage when faced with a step-up in load, the inverter will maintain frequency but, if there’s not enough herbs on the DC side, may lose a whole lot of voltage. Kind of infinite inertia, but with a slipping clutch.
There’s nothing profoundly wrong with either approach, but they won’t get along mixed on the one grid (as I said upthread).
00
How small do they make synchronous capacitors?
A cheaper out would be to buy a new fridge with an LG linear compressor. NOT a recommendation, some swear by them, some are suing the company.
00
Rick,
That was exactly my point. An inverter would need a MASSIVE and IMMEDIATE injection of power to match rotational inertia, as offered by a classical generator. Until they build that into the system, then any effort at providing synthetic inertia is just lip service.
30
Quite likely David, or perhaps in plainer English the people in charge of building and controlling the power grid don’t know how it works.
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The blackout in Spain
falls mainly on the plain
but also on the montana.
20
It’s never a good idea to directly connect random sources of power to a formerly stable electrical grid.
It should only be allowed via a battery system to ensure a stable and predictable supply. But, of course, that would be infeasibly expensive, even more so than the inherently expensive nature of wind and solar.
However, if Leftoids want to buy wind and solar electricity because they believe their own lies that it’s cheaper and good for the planet then let them. Smart metering is able to allow a consumer to purchase only solar and wind electrons. In Australia Red Energy already does this with what they claim to be renewables.
But the Thinking Community shouldn’t be forced to pay for the lies of the Left. Let us buy coal, gas, real hydro (not SH2) and in proper countries, nuclear electricity.
Let the Left pay for their own ignorance and lies. Don’t force thinking people to subsidise their electricity. If they are right and it really is cheaper, then why wouldn’t people buy it anyway? Others wouldn’t neee to be forced to buy it, market forces would do that.
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Not enough votes in reality thinking D!
30
Maybe someone in the background hit a little red button as a test run of what could happen to any country now. O but Australia must go net stupid err zero!
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China has already done that for us with the master off switch in solar panel inverters.
Albanese (PM) just needs to call his comrade Emperor Xi to ask him go try that.
(Jo reported on Chicomm back doors in solar inverters a few days ago.)
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I have watched in amazement for two decades as politicians and politicians alone decided that they have to cripple Western democracies with this utter nonsense. And the money flows to China. The UN is driving these societies over the cliff, on behalf of their friends. The Wuhan Flu was obviously from Wuhan, but China controls the WHO.
Spain, Italy, France, Germany, UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the US are just victims. 5% of the world’s populations. And their leaders are all complicit, active and willing and devious participants in the robbery. Or just cowards. It’s not just ‘misinformation’, its all lies, non science, “The Science”, science perverted.
And the IPCC, the UN political committee is a total disgrace. Apparently there is no prediction of crisis at all in the last report, but who cares? The anti carbon dioxide steamroller is crushing everyone. Whole countries have blown up their means of production.
The fact that it is not true is just ignored. And anyone who speaks out is also ignored or crushed, so you have only a lot of old retired scientists crying out that it is a total fraud. And everyone else is intimidated into silence. As with DEI, ESG, BLM, Covid, LGBITQAA++, Gaza, Trump.
And in all this the UN has acted faithfully as a willing agent of China. And Hamaz, Hezbollah, ISIS, Houthis as agents of Iran.
Meanwhile Russia and Ukraine have agreed to start ceasefire talks. And the leaders of Hamas are history. Thanks to Trump. Drill, baby, drill.
As for man made CO2 driven Climate Armageddon, the atmosphere has almost zero fossil fuel CO2. 2.0%. So there never was a problem. That was proven in 1958. Fossil fuel CO2 goes straight into the ocean, as was also known in 1958.
Why are politicians deciding science? Why isn’t there a Royal Commission? Why are all the massive and illegal climate payments cunningly hidden from the public?
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TdeF – Lunacy in Australia – Carbon war: it’s the offset firm versus green activists
A major carbon player has joined dozens of corporates walking away from the federal government’s flagship carbon offsets scheme.
Industry giant GreenCollar attacks green activists as big business abandons carbon scheme
GreenCollar, the country’s largest environmental markets investor, abandoned the government scheme, known as Climate Active, on May 5, marking one of the highest-profile corporates to shut the door on the offset program as the sector battles integrity accusations.
Pressure is now growing on the federal government to scrap the program after dozens of big businesses walked away. The rift over carbon credits, bought by polluters to offset their emissions, threatens to derail a key plank of Labor’s bid to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.
The co-founder of GreenCollar, James Schultz, said the government program had become too risky for businesses, with activist groups tarring the carbon credit scheme as a greenwashing front for fossil fuel producers. “Climate Active has been attacked and attacked and attacked. Here is our best opportunity to actually change things around, and we’re blowing it up,” Mr Schultz said.
“The debate has been entirely captured by a group of organisations that want to paint everything through a lens of good and bad. Offsets supporting fossil fuel industry equals bad.”
GreenCollar, backed by Canada’s $400bn Ontario Teachers Pension Plan, develops carbon projects, including revegetation, soil carbon development and savannah burning, to reduce carbon levels on behalf of Australian companies and investments. The company has 300 projects and manages more than three million hectares of land across Australia.
Labor is already juggling a raft of contentious calls on the broader issue, with green groups telling new Environment Minister Murray Watt he has a mandate to block Woodside Energy’s $30bn North West Shelf gas plant extension in Western Australia.
The Climate Change Authority is also weeks from finalising its advice on an upgraded 2035 emissions-reduction target, which will be more aggressive than Labor’s current 2030 pledge to slash emissions by 43 per cent.
Parents for Climate, a registered charity, last week successfully argued that EnergyAustralia’s promotion of its Go Neutral product gave consumers the impression they were meaningfully reducing emissions
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Meanwhile – Energy bill rebates must end: Albanese’s welfare experts
Members of Anthony Albanese’s welfare working group are pushing Labor to end its $6.8bn power bill rebates and instead funnel taxpayer money into solar panels and renewable batteries for poorer Australians, reducing power prices more sustainably and reining in the deficit.
Economists, including those on the Prime Minister’s Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee – which itself has called for radical welfare spending in the past – want the rebates scrapped.
However, Jim Chalmers has refused to rule out extending them beyond the end of the year, saying: “From budget to budget, we see if we can do more.”
The one-year, $300 rebate announced in last year’s budget was set to expire on June 30 but will be extended to the end of this year, adding $150 in support for every home in the country.
The Treasurer, who was not able to keep a pre-election promise of cutting power bills by $275, said the highest priority of the Labor government in the first term was to get on top of inflation and that “electricity bill rebates are an important part of that”.
While the rebates have reduced headline inflation, the unwinding of state government rebates led to a spike of 16.3 per cent in electricity prices in the first quarter of this year, adding 0.30 percentage points to inflation.
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More irony than a foundry.
The haters of fossil fuel have worked out that growing trees does not stop or even reduce CO2 production. It allows people to pay for the (fake) certificates and milk the system but CO2 does not go down. Which is insane as you cannot make metals without producing CO2. Or concrete. Or many other things like glass.
So it’s all fake, but from their point of view coal is still 83% of the power in Australia and they want that stopped.
The consumers, us, pay for it all. Our electricity prices go up. Our cost of transport, being buried, going to the toilet or going on holiday or buying anything just goes up. For nothing.
But the people who want coal turned off don’t get what they want. And the government is now subsidizing poor people paying for overprices carbon loaded power bills.
The only solution is to just stop the madness. Growing trees does not reduce CO2. NASA proved that. Green hydrogen and green steel do not exist. Windmills don’t work much of the time and solar doesn’t work at night and is not storable, except in plants, trees, coal, gas.
At no time were any of these mad ideas based on actual proven facts.
And it is quite amazing that we have laws based on things which are not true.
CARBON CREDITS (CARBON FARMING INITIATIVE) ACT 2011 – SECT 54 Sequestration offsets projects
For the purposes of this Act, a project is a sequestration offsets project if it is a project:
(a) to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by sequestering carbon in one or more of the following:
(i) living biomass;
(ii) dead organic matter;
(iii) soil; or
(b) to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by sequestering carbon in, and to avoid emissions of greenhouses gases from, one or more of the following:
(i) living biomass;
(ii) dead organic matter;
(iii) soil.
So you can reduce CO2 by storing CO2 in trees? No, you can’t. CO2 is constant because no matter how many trees you grow or animals there are or volcanoes explode, it is utterly dominated by CO2 from the oceans in dynamic equilibrium as a vapour pressure. CO2 goes up 14% between 1988 and 2014 and trees go UP 14%. You don’t have to pay to grow trees. More CO2 and they grow themselves and CO2 does NOT go down. It’s all fantasy science.
Trillions of tons sequestered in trees and billions of $A paid in cash for fake carbon credits and CO2 is a dead straight line.
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And now the people who demanded we grow trees are complaining that coal is still being used, factories are still working, planes are still flying and people are not all on Chinese bicycles. The Inconvenient Truth is that humans CANNOT control CO2 levels. It is insane to think that we control world size dynamic equilibrium of dissolved CO2. It’s megalomania founded on ignorance and outright lies and a lot of greed.
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And on Quora one self appointed expert demanded proof in published papers that atmospheric CO2 cycled through the ocean every ten years. So I cited just one 2023 paper with 36 references in Table 1. (Click on it)
It amazes me that people think CO2 and O2 sticks in the atmosphere like a bucket of air. So Net zero.
And that while we can pump extraordinary amounts of CO2 into a bottle of Coca Cola the ocean does not absorb all CO2 continuously. Especially at pressures of 1 atmosphere per 10 metres. At 50 metres gaseous CO2 would be a liquid.
Then you get the next group who believe but say the ‘surface’ ocean is the only part involved and it is ‘full’. A quick calculation shows in the surface ocean at sea level the [CO2] is 1/100,000th that of soda water.
And those who argue that the increased CO2 in the surface must have come from the atmosphere. Even if 98% of all CO2 is already in the ocean and has to go through the surface to get to the air.
People are desperately trying to defend a truly silly idea, that warming oceans do NOT release extra CO2.
90
And people who discount the enormous speed of continuous exchange of CO2 at the ocean surface. And they are sitting there breathing. In every single breath CO2 0.0042% going in and 8-14% coming out. O2 21% going in and 14% coming out from a thin layer above salt water. Amazing. Living proof that they are wrong. Developed over millions of years by trial and error. Amazing.
100
I enjoyed a lecture decades ago by a physicist who spent his life studying gaseous exchange in drops. The exchange of gases on the ocean goes at the FOURTH power of wind speed. He suggested the reason was that waves in wind produce huge numbers of tiny droplets of immense area relative to volume. Without wind and waves, in a river bend, the water can lose oxygen and become stagnant. But in the open ocean, the exchange is furious. You also see it as the waves crash and the air bubbles are physically submerged as light blue water. Great to watch.
So our lungs have 200M2 of very thin skin over what is old salty sea water full of CO2 and wanting O2. And the narrowness of the brochial tubes pushes up the velocity enormously. It allowed lung fish to leave the water. They carried it with them and the very saltiness of the saline dates when we left the ancient oceans.
Now we are to believe we control CO2, the very gaseous surface exchange which keeps us alive and powers us. What is being taught in schools? Or for that matter, at university.
110
Thanks TdeF, a fascinating set of comments.
00
This all proves yet again why politicians and Leftist activists shouldn’t be allowed to make scientific and engineering decisions, especially designing power grids, a fundamental infrastructure element of modern Civilisation.
330
Thought the main photo (at top of post) was the new statue of ex-Caesar Andrews from Vicdanistan, then realised it was just another blob of bronze covered in seagull guano.
First Spain, then Victoria?
110
Unlike Daniel Andrews, guano is very valuable. Otherwise identical.
110
David,
there was a comment in The Australian Article above – A major carbon player has joined dozens of corporates walking away from the federal government’s flagship carbon offsets scheme.
The public can surely see right through this dangerous carbon dioxide climate change myth and if you ask them they would say they do not want to pay for this bulldust particularly while they are flat out simply making a living.
No the Public have been brainwashed by Education, including my Kids & Grandkids on Global Warming/Climate Change
Last Night 9 Year Old Grandson read to my Wife & Myself, speech that he had composed for School re Leaders covering Internationals like Nelson Mandela, unfortunately he then went onto Greta Thunberg Climate Change – he did follow that up with Teachers etc, and then moved onto how your own inner self can be a leader, by looking to befriend someone sitting by themselves etc
However the Climate Change Religion was reinforced by Education throughout the lives of my Kids & Grandkids
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Kids have very effective cognitive dissonance. That and natural curiosity are two of the major forces behind all learning.
Don’t be too stressed about the remnant Greta glorification. Just saying those words will sooner or later trigger a “hang on” reflex. And the difficult task of convincing the individual that they have been conned will begin.
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” how your own inner self can be a leader, by looking to befriend someone sitting by themselves etc”
Yes, the latest ships to be on, ‘everyone is a winner’ and a disturbing focus on being sad, sorry ‘depressed’. These fascinations will pass soon enough and there will be some other stupidity flooding the education system. We will still get schoolyard thugs and hence politicians.
Children learn very early that what you say to an adult depends on the circumstance. They don’t say the same thing to parents as they do to teachers.
I do hope the 9-yr-old read yesterday’s discussion on the state of South Africa since Mandela took over…
30
” how your own inner self can be a leader, by looking to befriend someone sitting by themselves etc”
KP,
I was really happy as my 9 Year Old Grandson expanded on this theme, that was just one example
I feel he is learning what I had hoped he would, from the Jesuit Philospohy
Jesuits have enjoyed a long tradition within our schools in striving to cultivate an influential eloquence in our students – a persuasion in the written and spoken word.
Those early Jesuits styled the product, the vir eloquens, (‘an articulate person’). Or one possessed of eloquentia perfecta (‘a flawless eloquence’). The person who could say what they mean and mean what they say.
Jesuit schools emerged on the crest of Renaissance humanism.
The humanistic schools, which we emulated, responded to and complemented the existing Medieval Universities. Those universities sought to educate for the professions – law, medicine and theology. We might call that “head knowledge”. They sought to solve intellectual problems, thriving on dialectics and debate, delighting in proving an opponent wrong.
But the humanistic schools wanted to educate the whole person, head heart and hands.
To educate someone who would, yes, be skilled up for their life’s vocation, but also schooled as a good person, one who wanted to contribute generously to the commonweal. And to take up that task, they must needs be influential.
A significant development in these schools was to shift combative debating into almost conversation mode. The art of rhetoric was to be geared now for persuasion, for winning consensus, and building bridges. Finding common ground for the common good.
Good literature was at the centre of the curriculum.
For two purposes. Great literary works – the histories, narratives, poetry, plays, legends – treated some of the great themes of humanity. These included the nature of the good life, heroic virtues and destructive vices, the struggle between good and evil, greed and redemption, the ambivalence of decision-making.
Secondly, good literature cultivated style and elegance in language, be it in spoken or written mode. Isocrates, Plato’s contemporary, used to argue that “The proper use of language is the surest index of sound understanding.”
Our Jesuit schoolmasters were sometimes criticised for teaching from those ‘pagan texts’.
But they believed Christian literature did not have a monopoly on virtue.
Rather, God’s Spirit – the graces and the gifts – could blow where it will, including through the Greek and Roman classics. In addition, these other sources invited the students into new and different cultures, stretching their minds and imaginations.
30
A good read. Thanks for that OldOzzie, it’s good to known that there may be a useful path to follow out there.
30
I would love anyone to challenge these laws in the High Court by refusing to buy Green credits. Then watch the fireworks as lawyers establish that these laws are firstly illegal, not being taxes and then real scientists prove they have no basis in any known science or worse, have been proven to be lies. And the politicians hide behind “climate agnostic” and “not a scientist”. Neither of which covers the overt fraud. It was their job to get expert advice.
And as these illegal ACTS have been copied around the world, especially the UK. So a single success would rock the planet. Just like the UK Supreme Court deciding that Men and Women are different. Wow! It is amazing that a court had to make that ruling. You would not go to a doctor or veterinarian who did not know the difference.
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They know. They are just pretending lest the truth get out, and voters get Red Pilled.
210
And in the meantime Spain is increasing its use of gas and cutting solar.
Portugal is complaining that the French are being uncooperative by not increasing more connections so the (stable) nuclear plants would be less stable.
The French are saying nothing, possibly because they are still counting the Euros from supplying electricity to those who want to sabotage their own.
180
Amazing. There are eight interconnectors between France and Spain. France has done enough to support Spain. If Spain want to continue wrecking their power system, I doubt that the French will allow them to also impact the French system.
60
At Callide it has taken a lot longer than 6 months.
A modern power station taken out by lack of maintenance or worse.
Should have been a police investigation from day one. There are people in the community who would regard sabotage as an act of heroism.
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I read a detailed explanation of Callide ages ago. Iirc the system needed one more interlock, then Murphy took over. It’s out there. Here’s a summary:
Callide 4 Failure
Callide 4 failed due to a series of complex events that could not have been anticipated, according to CS Energy’s report. The failure involved the simultaneous malfunction of key electrical equipment and system backups. Specifically, the battery charger failed to maintain the DC voltage within the required operating range, and the Automatic Changeover Switch (ACS) did not operate as designed. Additionally, the loss of DC supply incorrectly triggered arc flap protection, which led to the loss of AC supply and prevented the battery charger from recovering the DC voltage. These issues contributed to the catastrophic failure of the unit on May 25, 2021.
Part of an AI generated reply.
20
Don’t forget it was fake conservative Howard that set Australia on the road to economic destruction with expensive and unreliable electricity when he introduced the Renewable Energy Act, signed us up to Kyoto and allowed random generators to connect to the grid.
Also see https://jennifermarohasy.com/2023/07/wind-turbines-are-not-windmills-and-john-howard-is-not-an-environmentalist/
Just think if the billions of dollars literally thrown to the wind on “renewables” had been spent on something feasible and useful like drought proofing and flood proofing Australia and irrigating desert areas. We probably could have done that for much less than this wind and solar insanity.
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Yes. I ask myself what political problem he was trying to solve at the time.
Because politicians are famous for doing apparently clever things to find favour with the 49th and 50th percent of the population.
50
Those billions could have been spent within the energy industry with much more “utility” than “renewables”.
11kV and low voltage poles and wires are a huge hazard within our community and certainly pose more of an immediate risk than CC.
Compare London with Oz cities. London street poles are nearly exclusive for communications – light weight with low risk wires. Nearly all power mains are underground.
In Oz cities, local blackouts (and human deaths) from car-hit-pole and storm-induced conductor clash adversely affect so many people every year.
It’s kinda like tobacco smoking that was so normalized in the 60s but very different today.
And above-ground mains (including Aerial-Bundled) are just plain ugly and such a blight on amenity – similar to wind turbines.
In the future, folks will look back on this era and see the waste AND the opportunity-lost of “renewables”.
I really do not understand why industry unions are not pressuring their political arm to use this money for more underground mains work.
(over to you ETU …)
00
How is SA coping?
Yesterday NEM reported 2pm generation in SA was solar 74%, wind 21%, gas 5%.
40
Peak solar? What was it at 4pm
30
Good Point!
It’s all about the interconnectors to Victoria!
SA sheds its excess ruinable electricity to Victoria at peak times and is stabilised by the brown coal generators. Victoria takes on the risk that France is refusing to do.
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Perhaps the King Island powers that be had the right idea with solar. Build it on an island where almost constant cloud cover is a fact of life.
I can’t recall more than one or two occasions when I flew into King Island that I didn’t first have to get down to circuit height before commencing a visual approach. Straight in visual approaches there are fairly rare.
As I type solar is producing 14% and wind is at 1% (in the middle of the roaring forties). https://www.hydro.com.au/clean-energy/hybrid-energy-solutions/success-stories/king-island
An object lesson of how to pretend to go with intermittent power knowing the result would be continuing to power with diesel.
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Flinders Island is on 100% diesel @ 07:45.
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Strange Wind Pattern in https://www.ventusky.com/?p=-33.2;154.4;4&l=feel&t=20250520/0100
20
Apparently resulting in weather… stuff that is now ‘smashing eastern NSW.. intense..large..powerful..bitterly cold..”
Sounds like it was written by someone who doesn’t go outside.
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It seems the Spanish authorities are hinting ever so slightly about the cause of the instability problem, as they are using more rotating generation such as gas turbines.
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“Per the latest data, in recent days, more reliable traditional generation is being used more, with nuclear responsible for between 14 and 23 percent, and natural gas-fired plants accounting for up to 25 percent at times.”
30
I’m only lukewarm on nuclear for Aus and this passage explains why:
While ruinables get preferential/predatory market access more conventional base load generation will suffice.
120
Windmills and solar are allowed to dump their wobbly and uncontrollable power on the grid, forcing more responsible coal and gas fire generators to support and correct the resulting chaos at their and our expense.
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^^^^ This
30
Not only preferential purchase over coal and gas but they sell carbon credits for cash even if their output is not purchased. This is absolute licence to overproduce.
50
Can someone explain to me how the “spinning reserve” of the traditional grid was paid for?
What sort of generation mix would we have if the average billable quantity times the wholesale price was allocated to all generation on a pro rata basis? In other words, everyone gets slightly less per unit but the available reserve is paid for.
00
Before this wind/solar rubbish happened “spinning reserve” meant that there had to be enough generation available to replace the biggest gen set on-line in minutes should it trip. This could be un-utilised hydro, OC gas and other “turn key” generators or coal generators hot but not at max capacity.
Even these took a few minutes to spool up and a warm furnace will take longer to get to full pressure but the contract the Northern Electricity Authority, my employer at the time, had with the coal mines was that they were the first off and last back on line. The Gladstone generators would have a similar contract with the aluminium smelters.
The cost was just the cost of doing business. I suspect that has all gone to ‘ell now.
It costs the airlines to carry the extra fuel to reach an alternative airport, but as a passenger you don’t pay for that as a surcharge. Cost of doing business.
10
BURN COAL AND EXIT NET ZERO
It is time to plan to exit net zero and we are suffering from paralysis by analysis, dissecting the entrails of a system that is simply not fit for purpose. The Energy Realists of Australia have been explaining for years that the so-called transition is not happening, won’t happen, and it was never going to happen due to the conjunction of wind droughts and lack of grid-scale storage.
It is a matter of simple observation that trillions of dollars have been spent around the world and incalculable damage has been inflicted on the planet to obtain electricity which is ever more expensive and unreliable.
In Australia, most of the cost is still to come, and blackouts on windless nights will be inevitable when we lose one more coal burner. It is less stable in frequency and voltage which can cause crippling malfunctions of equipment in households and industry (see South Australia.).
Expectations for the energy transition should collapse like a punctured balloon when there is widespread awareness of the number of times when breakfast and dinner would have to be served cold without coal power in the grid to provide heat. And also light and all of the other things like trains, traffic lights, coffee shops and lifts that you might encounter on the way to your unlit office, where the computers are not working.
People are advised to regularly check the NemWatch widget at sunrise and sunset to see how much green (wind) you can find alongside the black and brown (coal) on the bars representing the power supply in each state.
https://www.nem-watch.info/widgets/RenewEconomy/
Imagine, if you dare, the multiples of the current number of windmills that would be required to turn the black and brown into green in that picture!
For the alternative energy futures in Australia, see the paper by Holland and Tunny that provides the skeleton of a program to get cheaper power in the near future and save some sticks of industrial furniture for the time in a decade or three when nuclear becomes competitive with coal.
https://rafechampion.substack.com/p/slowing-the-rise-of-power-prices?r=5c3gj
Starting at the bottom with 100% renewables, calling for $332 billion in investment. Retail electricity prices will rise by up to 70% and there is no guarantee that it is achievable.
Number three is the current policy pathway with an Investment of $261 billion. Retail prices are expected to rise by 30 to 69% while the destruction of forests and farmland continues.
Number two is the technology-neutral pathway or “all of the above,” including nuclear energy, with a capital investment of $163 billion.
Retail prices could rise 35% in the short term with the possibility of a 4% decrease in a decade or three. Again, forests continue to be trashed while toxins in solar panels become the asbestos of the future.
Option 1 is “No net zero” with cheap and reliable power from new coal burners. Capital investment is $103 billion with retail prices potentially decreasing by 25%. Pillage of forests and farmland stops.
We urgently have to fast-track a reliable and cost-effective energy supply that is not captive to the scientific illiteracy and ideological obsessions of the Greens and their fellow travellers in the major parties.
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The cost of building a high-efficiency, low-emissions (HELE) coal-fired power plant in Australia has been estimated. According to the Minerals Council, a modern 1,000 megawatt HELE power station could be built for approximately $2.2 billion.
Vs
Snowy Hydro Cost and Capacity
The cost of the Snowy 2.0 Pumped Storage Power Station has significantly increased, rising from an initial estimate to $12 billion as of August 2023. The project’s construction cost was initially reported as $4.8 billion, but this figure has since been revised to reflect the higher costs.
The project is designed to deliver an additional 200MW of generation capacity when operational, bringing the total capacity to 2,200MW (2.2GW).
It will be connected to the grid via the HumeLink transmission line. The construction of overhead power lines by TransGrid has faced opposition from community advocacy groups.
The project is currently 40% complete,
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They imply it’s a generator, leveraging the good name of the properly engineered original Snowy Hydro, but it’s only battery.
In fact, if it’s ever finished, it will be a net energy consumer.
140
And wearing commercial losses of 40% in pumping and regeneration. So they have to charge 40% more than the commercial rate just to break even. We all seem to ignore the sheer cost of pumped hydro, windmills, solar panels. The second two are renewables only in the sense of not lasting long, replaceables. They are not investments in infrastructure. Factory based generation can be maintained indefinitely like Grandpa’s axe, but not these two, the only choices being pushed. Because both are made in China.
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I’m surprised it’s only 40%. The more the tunnels/pipes are off vertical, efficiency is lost. At Snowy2 the pipes are at 27 deg.
50
Hydro is so over rated, it’s not funny. Even the original Snowy Hydro scheme is over-rated when you look at its puny electricity generation. Its compensating factor was the contribution to the irrigation system of NSW. Maybe also that it employed a lot of migrants to Australia and we were re-building post WW2. When it’s a drought, the water cant be used to generate power because of scarcity. When it’s wet, the outflow is restricted because it contributes to flooding in the immediate downstream river area. We haven’t really contributed to any more dams in the last 50 years, so hydro is not expanding. Then we have SH2- pumping water uphill with non- existent daytime excess intermittent electricity. All hype and very little substance. Typical Malcolm Turnbull.
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I’m a great fan of hydro but one must understand it’s strengths and weaknesses.
I was in the control room of Kareeya when the operator smiled broadly and said they had achieved 105% capacity for the month.
As water levels drop the generation is reduced. This was in the days when the north only had a small feeder south so Kareeya maintained frequency control manually – easy – just turn a knob. The coal stations just powered on.
Later, as water is rationed, hydro will still be there for EVERY peak, twice a day, dispatchable. Those are valuable electrons.
Our’s is a dry continent so we will never have enough but we aren’t getting any power from the Burdekin. Hells Gate scheme could produce a lot, I forget how much, and because it’s discharge would be on the west of the divide the water could irrigate a lot of otherwise dry country.
Forgot to mention permanant staff at Kareeya today may be a gardner whose wife can cook for overnight workers.
20
States diverge on way ahead for renewable energy plans
What happens in Victoria will have big consequences for South Australia, which relies on electricity supplies from Victoria when wind and solar resources run short.
And by turning its back on gas, Victoria is increasing the risk for its ability to sustain heavy industry in the state and shifting the onus of grid resilience to other states.
The Crisafulli Liberal National Party government in Queensland has taken a different approach to its energy transition to minimise these risks. In April, Queensland Treasurer and Energy Minister David Janetzki set out a five-year energy road map that he described as pragmatic and “geared towards economics and engineering” and that “sets aside ideological bias and preoccupation”. Under Queensland’s new approach, coal-fired power will be extended and bolstered, and gas generation will be greatly expanded. Queensland will remain open for business for renewable energy investments, including in wind, solar and pumped hydro, but it is investing in known technologies as an insurance policy against failure.
Mr Janetzki says Queensland remains committed to a bipartisan target of net zero by 2050 because this is critical to unlocking private sector funding for the energy transition.
But he wants private funding, not state subsidies, to make it work.
Queensland has withdrawn support for pumped hydro and hydrogen projects because they were ill-conceived and deemed neither economically nor technically feasible.
There is no doubt that Victoria will require a good deal of public subsidies to deliver its renewable energy plans.
And while wind drought has been identified as a potential issue, little attention has been paid to what the large volumes of excess energy that will be generated when the wind is blowing everywhere at the same time will do for grid stability and project economics
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I love that Janetski bloke. He is possibly the most pragmatic and effective politician in Australia. We need a dozen more Janetski types in real power, but he must also have a practical ministry supporting him. Could Qld perhaps lend him to Victoria , SA and NSW? I’d be very happy to contribute to his overtime. Better value than paying an Emergency Services state levy, that’s for sure.
70
Great stuff Rafe. We’ll just have to rest on our laurels in the knowledge that the industrial revolution and 90% of global advancement would not have occurred could not have occurred without fossil fuels!
60
Spain and Portugal should be very grateful to the French for helping to restart their grids via the interconnector so quickly or more than just 8 people might have died.
210
Huh! Why am I reminded of Atlas Shrugged.
You know ….. if they have it, then they are obliged to give it to those who don’t have it!!
Tony.
180
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I read these missives almost daily and despair and like Atlas I shrug because at my age and stage that’s all I can do. However, in my defence it is, at least, with alacrity
50
Shades of ‘The Ant and the Grasshopper’ or ‘The Little Red Hen’.
40
Would they be complaining because Spain and Portugal have nowhere to dump their excess midday generation in order to stabilise their grids?
Anyhow, powerlines across the Pyrenees. Why?
70
Looking at the map of the eight interconnectors, it appears that at least some cross the Pyrenees.
50
So now we know what did it, it was AI obviously.
The Absence of Interconnectors.
Maybe we could sell them our Snowy Hydro 2 tunnel and avoid having those ugly wires draped over the mountains.
70
Now that would be a truly consistent Green industry. Tunnel exports. And as practical as an undersea cable to Singapore or hydrogen exports.
50
Do we know yet why it failed…………yes, yes we know renewables done it but do we know why the grid failed. The current cover story is it was “hot, damn hot” which caused voltage and freq variations, obviously this is a lie.
So what is the truth? Hopefully we get that quicker than Jo has predicted 🙂
50
‘So what is the truth?’
Clearly, France has a case to answer.
15
“Clearly, France has a case to answer.”
I don’t see one- France should put diodes in the supply to all other countries so it exports only and to hell with the EU. With Germany collapsing itself to an Italian-style basket-case, France will be the dominant voice in Europe from now on. They certainly don’t need to be told what to do by their second-raters to the South.
80
The truth of the matter, according to Gosselin.
https://notrickszone.com/2025/05/18/speaks-for-itself-pv-power-reduced-30-after-spain-blackout/
20
It’s not rocket surgery. PV must be reduced. Anything else is a political decision with predictably disastrous consequences, even deaths.
10
Somewhat related, the latest article at Judith Curry’s is by Planning Engineer on why adding wind and solar makes electricity more expensive. Mostly old news for Jo Nova regulars, but I thought the car analogy was one that might be useful in discussions with (non-rusted-on) renewables believers.
50
Fortescue shuts US plant paid for with a tasty American grant
The gas has well and truly escaped from hydrogen-loving Fortescue which has shut a newly opened US plant after pocketing a lucrative financial incentive of almost $18m to set up there.
First Gladstone and now Fortescue has mothballed a newly-opened plant in Delaware
Andrew Forrest’s Fortescue has shut down another newly opened manufacturing plant – this time in the US, as part of its broader retreat from green hydrogen.
And of course there’s a government grant involved.
Fortescue’s FFI Ionix subsidiary only moved into the new $US12m ($18.7m) laboratory facility in Delaware 15 months ago, after promised grants of up to $2.7m from authorities in the state.
Margin Call is told the plant recently started production of membranes needed for Fortescue’s electrolyser plant in Gladstone, Queensland which was also mothballed this week.
The company’s retreat from the technology has cost another 20 jobs in the US, on top of the 90 lost in Perth and Gladstone, as the company quits its electrolyser manufacturing ambitions.
That’s something that might sound familiar to Queensland taxpayers, who stumped up about $15m in assistance to Fortescue to help build the Gladstone manufacturing plant.
But that wasn’t the only help given,
Labor’s then Queensland government, led by premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, also granted the company the land on which it is built – potentially worth something north of $50m – in order to help kickstart hi-tech manufacturing in the Gladstone industrial estate.
100
So, we would expect Fortescue to pay back those grants and subsidies sometime soon. Hey look, there’s a flying pig.
130
America has Elon Musk. We have Dr. Forrest playing God. The real test of ability not luck is to achieve success in multiple fields, which Musk has done so many times and with his own money and at his own risk. Whole new technologies. What’s a stockbroker turned successful miner to do? At least RM Williams is still going.
30
Gotta love the new age terms dreamt up during recent times. Let’s add “Strengthened Mode” to the list. Along with “abundance of caution” etc. I prefer “drill baby drill” to be honest. Or, if you have 500 years supply of coal- “dig, baby dig”. 🙂
100
Thanks for the reminder Ross. Have you seen any recent reliable estimate of our coal reserves? I haven’t chased one for some years in which time our rate of exporting has increased significantly. Maybe even by an order of magnitude? So could your 500 years have reduced to 50?
Cheers,
Dave B
20
No, I don’t think so. I’m talking Victorian brown coal supplies here. If you look at easily extractable supplies only and the amounts required each year for electricity generation it’s about that figure at a minimum. So, that’s the reserves in the Latrobe Valley Victoria. There are other potential reserves but are harder to extract. Here’s the figures as at 2022 :-
Economic coal supplies in LaTrobe Valley alone= 33000 (x million tonnes). (double for whole of Victoria, all supplies)
Annual brown coal use in Victoria = 67 (x million tonnes)
So, total future supplies = 33000/67 = 492.5 years.
Rounded off = approx. 500 years of cheap, readily accessible, 24/7 power and majority of infrastructure already established.
Don’t have the latest usage figures, but I’m guessing it’s way less than 67m t/ annum. So, that 500 years figure is even more. But who cares if it’s only 100 years- in that time we could build other generation sources. Nuclear anyone?
40
And ALL our gas used to come from coal. Our coal came from Newcastle to the Lagoon pier in Port Melbourne, near the Gasworks.
We had gas in our houses long before electricity. My house was plumbed for gas in 1887, even if there were no toilets. All that innovation and building and investment in brown coal, turned to dust by politicians who knew better or had a deal going. As always.
In Victoria the usual scam then was to plan a new railway and the MPs would buy up the land and then announce the railway. Fortunes were made. Which reminds me of Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi and many other politicians on basic salaries now worth a good fraction of a billion dollars. Plus the Clinton Crime team, running their business from the garage while Secretary of State.
Too few politicians are investigated for making fortunes without explanation. Joe Biden’s salary for most of his life was $140,000 a year, but tripled when President. It’s so obvious and it’s all ignored. Hunter Biden had a reason to be on 24 flights of Air Force 1 as his business adviser and agent and that was just as VP. And received a million dollar a year salary from Ukraine without ever going there or speaking Ukranian.
50
Thanks Ross.
10
Yes David, that’s a good string of posts, telling it like it is.
eg Twiggy the subsidy-grant gobbler.
Have any of his subsidised exploration been taken to the operational stage?
10
‘No one knows what caused the blackout’
After beginning with this Jo, with NO evidence, puts her foot in her mouth.
This ‘I don’t need evidence’ approach has worked so well for her fighting science ( for how many years ?), she feels it can be applied to any field.
I personally prefer her political musings.
013
Some evidence to start with:
A major blackout did occur;
The locals haven’t suggested a cause;
A high % of “renewables” was in operation;
The Alice Springs blackout occurred when such a high % was being experienced and hasn’t recurred since they reverted to their previous setup which is diesel if I remember correctly; and
No mechanical failure has been identified.
And what explanation do you have?
70
Alice springs is in Spain ?.
Who needs facts when you have imagination.
00
Hang around, read comments with an enquiring mind and you, like Jo, may change from being a CC believer to being a sceptic. Did you know she was once an avid believer?
Even if you never change your mind Jo will not make life hard provided your arguments are sensible.
70
Me too…. I used to be avid believer once. In fact I even voted for Kevin Rudd because I wanted Australia to sign the Kyoto climate protocol. But purely by accident I came across an internet link on the subject and what I read didn’t agree with what I had been told. I spent days following links and reading, reading and even more reading and was amazed with what I found. One week later I knew that everything I thought I had previously understood about global warming/climate change was wrong.
10
PS, I can’t remember which website the original accidental link pointed to but I’m very glad I found it!!
10
I was never infected. I had spent a few years as a communications tech for a generating authority which got me in touch with many aspects of generation and bulk distribution so An Inconvenient Truth never impressed me. To make it even less likely that I believe, I watched the late Bob Carter’s rebuttal first, THEN I watched Gore’s missive.
I miss Bob, taken too young, treated terribly by JCU.
00
An OPEN inquiring mind is great, but when all you do is make baseless assertions , fail to engage with the scientific community , ignore evidence to the contrary, then you are in denial and stuck in blogsville.
01
But you are displaying a closed mind.
reneweconomy.com.au used to have a rogue’s gallery of hundreds of “those you must never listen to” which included a couple of hundred PhDs. I thought this odd. On the one hand they insist that 97% of scientists agree…. and then they publish a long list of sceptics who disagreed, most vehemently. Haven’t been there for years and couldn’t find it just now, maybe they realised the hypocrisy.
There is no “science” just a scientific method which is constantly changing opinions.
10
Interesting handle. Miasma was once settled science as the cause of disease. Do you still believe that “science”?
00
There’s a great deal of good science and electrical engineering and professional experience and debate in the comments here.
Perhaps take the trouble to read them. Or just answer the question yourself.
40
Just out of idle curiosity … could you please explain what you are talking about?
That would be great! 😏
20
And:
“Redeia, which owns Red Electrica [Spain’s grid operator], warned in February in its annual report that it faced a risk of “disconnections due to the high penetration of renewables without the technical capacities necessary for an adequate response in the face of disturbances”.
https://legalinsurrection.com/2025/04/spanish-grid-operator-warned-of-nations-heavy-reliance-on-renewable-energy-in-february/
[Sorry that was meant to be a reply to #21.1]
30
It’s definitely a talk of the generation source ” mix “. I think Australia had that mix almost perfect, until the climate catastrophist idiots came along. I didn’t discount hydro but said its role was exaggerated. Also, the SH2 was sold on the ” hype” of the original scheme. We’ve been conned Hanrahan, sure as hell.
40
Brilliant. The Portuguese are blaming the French for being rational. You couldn’t make it up.
40
Are they trying to guilt France into solving their power problems, try again guys.
10