By Jo Nova
Repowering with intent to deceive…
When the subsidies run out, and an old industrial wind plant is due to be demolished and rebuilt, there are perfectly good English words the industry could use like demolish, rebuild or replace, but instead they call it “repowering” — as if we could just plug a bigger extension cord in and let those turbines grow.
In the headline above, Reneweconomy could have just as easily have said the cost of “rebuilding” the old wind farm was too high, and most of the country would know exactly what that means. Instead “repowering” sounds like a minor low cost maintenance job. Nothing to see here!
Think of the difference between someone saying they want to repower your house compared with saying they’re going to demolish and rebuild it…
You might agree to a little repowering without thinking about it. And that’s the point isn’t it? To sneak in a giant civil works operation and a set of 200 meter towers with blades bigger than the wingspan of a Jumbo Jet. Those new foundations will need 3,000 tons of concrete each. Just call it repowering!
Old industrial wind turbines are only 1MW or so, but the new ones are 6 to 8 MW. That’s six times more powerful, and nearly three times as tall. Obviously, none of the old bearings, gears, blades or footings will be reused in the new towers. Ironically, the only thing about repowering that doesn’t change is the power-cord.
It also hides the short, pathetically non-renewable, life of the old wind turbines
Old wind towers don’t die, of course, it is unmentionable, they just get repowered. (Don’t think about the cost, the waste, the disposal. Don’t think about how coal plants run for 50 years.) Shh!
The term is an official industry term now, o-so-conveniently, and even the commentators admit in the details that it means a complete rebuild.
Repowering a wind farm involves completely decommissioning the existing site – nothing can be reused except perhaps the connection to the grid. — Reneweconomy
So the underlings of the industry just absorb the term and use it in their press releases. But someone in a deep-marketing-bunker had to come up with the deceitful PR term in the first place, and they were not hoping you would understand it. It was never meant to inform — only to reframe.
Out with the old, in with the subsidy:
Think of “Repowering” as a shield to deflect attention
Before long, the absurdly meaningless marketing word fills headlines, legal documents and precious seconds of our day. And harried, heavily-taxed voter’s eyes glaze over. Less of them notice that renewables are not renewable, or that the cost of all this demolition and construction must be pushing up electricity bills. The local community-group leader might not pay attention until too late, when the trucks arrive with the supersize 747 wings and 18,000 tons of Repowering Concrete.
Every abused word is a win for the parasites unless we name and shame them for the deceit. The Collectivist Left wordsmiths abuse language all the time (and the foolish Right let them get away with it). Climate change used to mean the climate changed, but now it means your car causes cyclones. Liberal used to mean free. The word-thieves steal perfectly good words and distort their meaning. They destroy our common language one word at a time.
Our language is our heritage. It is our power to understand. Tell the children we must protect it.
“the revolution will be complete when the language is perfect”
“if thought corrupts language, then language can also corrupt thought”
“political language is designed to makes lies sound truthful and murder respectable and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind”
— George Orwell
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in the late 90″S I visited the wind farm at Esperance, a windy place. It was being closed as it was uneconomic we where told. Only months be fore that we had been at White Cliffs, the only solar powered town in Australia run by the ANU, and the powerlines where on there way and the residents couldnt wait. That ment no more individual generators.Why turn the clock back???
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The wind systems at Esperance were Australia’s first wind facility, and were shut down after only 15 year’s operation. Because they were govt owned, they were not regarded as the first “commercial” wind facility to shut down, as Codrington is now being termed. I’ve heard that the turbine blades were just dumped in the sand hills – no doubt that will now be termed “temporary storage”.
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To be found in a thousand years and called a sacred site no doubt.
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The US Altamont Pass wind turbine mess was discussed here several years ago:
https://joannenova.com.au/2022/06/wind-industry-insider-laments-15-years-waiting-for-the-bright-future-that-never-seems-to-come/#comment-2562682
The only good news from this US example is that it shows that Australians are not the only gullible mugs on the planet.
The new word, “RePowering” is, as Jo says, an extraordinary diversion from reality that profits only one group: our manipulators.
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I’ve recently asked a few US Democrat friends if they believe in open borders.
All replied, “no human is illegal”.
A spiritual statement.
“Repower” strikes me in a similar way.
Methinks the West, lo these many centuries after the Reformation, has evolved a form of non-secular politics.
The Levant less so, after attempts … as is center stage today.
(I would never mention the issues with men in funny hats.)
Secular and non-secular co-habitation in the West made us, uh … the West.
(My Democrat friends pretty much dislike the West, and consider it the originator of original sin. And we all know that which is the only modern sin … ’cause they never fail to bring it up in all possible context.)
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As old Thomas Sowell pointed out, wordsmiths, those with the gift of the gab, are the best as justifying bad ideas.
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Much of the current Climate Change activity is advertising.
Wordsmiths are an integral part of advertising.
A problem arises when “How it is said” is allowed to dominate over “What is said”. This open the door to fiction, dishonesty, fraud.
Much advertising is invoked because the product itls failing to sell.
Aussie mass media advertising just now is big on funerals and insurance. ???? Geoff S
Geoff S
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Sounds like polispeak to me. The current government is so incompetent, it must be amongst the worst ever. All they seem to do is chase net zero when almost everyone is realising that is impossible and put up taxes. I read somewhere there are vast numbers of solar panels ending their life, where will they go? Where do old wind turbines go to die? Maybe they should all be stacked around Canberra seeing they all love them so much.
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https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2025/06/20/britains-largest-glass-fibre-factory-to-shut-down-amid-energy-crisis/
Typical shoot my own foot
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The entire net zero flying circus has turned into a literal ‘circus’, as it now resembles a circular firing squad.
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When these old subsidy-harvesting machines are torn down, their massive concrete foundations are never removed. Thus the site is never returned to its former state.
I think the windmills should be left in place and the words MONUMENT TO STUPIDITY painted on the blades as a permanent reminder of this insanity.
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Even fully woke Goolag AI understands there are problems leaving wind turbine foundations in place:
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Removing is easy. Drill and blast.
Picking up the pieces, often several hundred metres away. Not so.
Concrete can always be removed, crushed and reused as aggregate and reusable steel. It just comes down to cost. No different to the costs associated with recycling the blades. Oops…. that wasn’t economic either.
Maybe they should put a levy on quarries so that they get more expensive than the concrete recycling fees?
Can anyone hear Bowen’s gears spinning? You just know he’s got this one churning his neuron pair.
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That indicates you think he has two working neurons. That is a big call because his actions thus far lead one to conclude he probably has no working neurons.
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So many of our “leaders” come from the social “sciences” class (including law). Their skill set lies in “reframing”, using words and language structures to make it “nicer” to think about. “Repowering”; is a great example of reframing.
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In the last few years we have had one of the most divisive reframing of language here in Australia with Aboriginal tribes being labelled as “first nations”.
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Copied from the Canadian experience.
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Michael,
We also have oft-repeated claims of Aboriginal tradition, belief, land use, fire use, even lately, town building and significant contributions to “Science”.
Trouble is, there does not seem to be any accessible source of these matters. All we seem to have is claims. I cannot find an item like a Register of Original Aboriginal Legends”, only material that could have been affected by the academics collecting stories.
Geoff S
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A real-time game of Chinese whispers.
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The Thinking Community must be much more conscious of this.
The altering and abuse of language is one of the Left’s most powerful weapons against truth, reason, science and freedom as George Orwell knew.
AND
AND
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For example:
A naturally occurring, beneficial, minor trace gas being reframed (since 1988) as ‘pollution’.
As the waiter said to the thirsty Greens: Would you like pollution in your champagne or merely a glass of flat grape juice?
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“Australia’s oldest continuously working wind farm is the Huxley Hill Wind Farm on King Island, Tasmania. It was established in 1998 and is a key part of the island’s off-grid hybrid energy system. ”
So the entire eco Green energy model on King Island, Tasmania of wind, diesel, solar, flywheel is a total failure?
27 years and it’s dead? No more subsidies, eh?
What then is the point of 30,000km of transmission lines across Australia to such wind farms and solar farms which will no longer be ‘operational’? Or half dead already?
We are not building for the future. We are building money pumps for the Chinese and for the very short term. We are also building at $12Billion inefficient water battery for what is dying and will likely be dead before the absurd Snowy II is ready. Maybe there will be a big brass plaque for Malcolm and Lucy Turnbull? Solid gold would be nice. Where is the $444 million they stole? And the $140million in interest payments. How is the Great Barrier Reef?
Besides, the Government has switched to the hidden 35% CO2 taxes in everything we buy, goods and services and manufacture and agriculture and transport called the “Safeguard mechanism”. This time we will be paying massive amounts for trees which cannot be removed and whatever else qualified for Australian Carbon Credits here and overseas. Explicitly to destroy farmland and agriculture plus the billions of dollars in cash to opportunists.
Exactly why our government has decided to silently and illegally and decisively destroy the country based on fake science is itself unclear. What is very clear is that there is no possibility this massive ripoff will make any difference to the weather. Then you will soon add a jump in the GST, Death Taxes, taxes on the family home and on ‘unearned’ and ‘unrealised’ and non guaranteed capital gains. Why don’t they just take the lot? They say they have a ‘mandate’ at 36% of the vote.
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I would love to know why no economics commentator and in fact no one at all has noticed the Safeguard Mechanism? It has never been mentioned? How much is it pulling in today? Again, not a whisper.
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Very simple. The Albanese government might well be a fully owned subsidiary of the Chinese Communist Party. Don’t believe me, then ask who benefits from their many decisions which cause Australia and Australians pain.
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They are ‘The local branch managers’.
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“Exactly why our government has decided to silently and illegally and decisively destroy the country based on fake science is itself unclear.”
TDF, not unclear. All part of the plan to destroy Western Civilisation. I have found some old info in my archives, but valid.
Glen Beck introduced UN Agenda 21 to me while watching his show back in 2011. The control of everything, everywhere. The plan. The next year they had the Agenda 21 meeting in Rio and China was in charge of the meeting.
Glen never told us China was in control of Agenda 21, it took a year and then I had the Ah Haaa moment. Almost ten years ago and they have ran it ever since. If you want to qualify as “sustainable”, China must approve. Coal no good for UK but it’s great for China. US coal is shipped to China EVERY DAY !!!
It never was about Global warming, it’s about taking energy from the West and giving it to China, crashing the West and putting the UN in charge of everything with no borders with China in control. It worked, all countries are “IN” and to get Central Bank “money”, you must be in the sustainable loop which ultimately puts them in control because they control the loot.
And thennnnn… they drop Blovid and shit hits the fan and now they control everything everywhere even worser. Scripted takeover of the planet, just like a bad sci-fi flick or a Clancy Novel. but this is real and there’s no Hero to step up and save the day. Trump is a chump, he played his “part”, a Reality TV Superstar. The Fed and the Pentagon are “in”, creating , funding and DEFENDING the UN takeover, controlled by China. If you want to get control back, your Freedom, all you have to do is beat them – the Fed and the US Pentagon and all the militaries that are in the UN which is EVERYBODY.
No problem, all you need is to print the new World currency and build a new military stronger than all that now exists and build a new tech system to run it all on. A new Matrix, because they control this one. Sure, no problem.
Glen Beck Show on UN Agenda 21, way back in 2011:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9p0sfF7jE78&t=65s
BRICS lead the UN Agenda 21/30 program. China’s Belt Road is the same as UN Agenda 21/30, it’s the largest construction project in history. Sha Zukang from China chaired the UN Rio20 Agenda 21 meeting eleven years ago and China is still in charge.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sha_Zukang
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wu_Hongbo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liu_Zhenmin
WEF back UN Agenda 21/30 and the Belt Road, all one big happy team. Joe Biden, John Jerry, Oturdtamper, Hillary, Nancy P, Bill Gates. Elon Musk, Zuk and all nations leaders are on that team including Putin. You don’t think Trump has money on the Belt Road? All the money is on it, there is no other project.
No more borders, erase all history, all former nations under one blue UN flag. No more free speech, no more voting, one world currency, and if you don’t like it, you will be eliminated. The Fed and the Pentagon are all in so all you need to do to stop them is print more money and get a bigger military than all the countries on the planet in the UN. including NATO and the BRICS. Our weps just got used up and the SPR and won’t get replaced. Weapon replacement requires parts made in where? Kentucky? Russia has the fuel to build the nuclear future under the UN the cheap oil age is over. We went off the gold standard fifty-three years ago when we became a net oil importer and the debt cycle started, nothing new, Divide annual debt by barrels of oil used and you get debt per barrel, DPB. When you’re an exporter you get profit per barrel exported exceeding use. All the cheap oil goes to China, they drink your milkshake. Blow up Nordstream, Germany dies and China gets the ng.
https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/arctic-silk-road-comes-alive-russia-sends-first-lng-tanker-asia-year
The West = free speech in independent nations as opposed to the united nations with no free speech, no voting, no independence.
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Trumps no chump. He got shot and came back for more. He didn’t have to do any of this. He could have played golf and said nothing, and just lived rich and famous.
Same with Elon. He didn’t have to risk his business empire, and spend billions to buy Twitter and play politics.
No man is perfect, but these men are heroes.
The CCP is grateful though, when people undermine Trump and Musk…. That would suit President Xi.
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TDF, forgot to add this to my reply:
There are no real autonomous countries
What we are taught about nation states stopped applying after ww2
It’s all clandestine multinational corps/deepstate and banks running things
The population-side civics is just s façade to corral the public
The innovation of mass media has proved to be a mind control medium for a large enough swathe of voting demos to remove opposition to the most powerful
Jo refers to the media as the enemy of the people.
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The old Microsoft tactics, Embrace,Extend and Extinguish applies here.
EMBRACE the term repowering.
EXTEND its use to include all other forms of power generation (We can repower old coal plants with USC technology and reduce emissions 50%)
Thus we EXTINGUISH the political utility of term “repower”.
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Of course Renew Economy has told us the truth about the true cost of TOXIC W & S and it’s 7 to 9 TRILLION $. Here’s their summary and link and dated 21st June 2025.
Again how can we increase our Aussie grid to 3000 GW by 2030 (?) and this is an increase of 100 times the size of our grid today? Does anyone really believe their delusional nonsense?
Would Aussies really vote for this lunacy in a referendum?
Net zero study finds Australia needs nearly three terawatts of wind and solar | RenewEconomy
“Australia will need nearly three terrawatts, or 3,000 gigawatts, of wind and solar if it is to meet its goal of a net zero economy by 2030, a plan that could cost up to $9 trillion, according to a new study”.
“The astonishing numbers are revealed in a new report – Net Zero Australia – put together by Melbourne University, the University of Queensland, and the Nous Group, and released on Wednesday”.
“To put the 3,000 gigawatts of wind and solar in some context, Australia currently only has about 30GW of large scale wind and solar across the country. So it has a lot to do.
The report underlines the scale, complexity and cost of the net zero challenge, which it describes as a “once-in-a-generation, globally significant and nation-building opportunity” that will transform the domestic economy, and Australia a key player in global decarbonisation efforts thanks to the exports of green energy and metals”.
But it won’t be easy.
“First off, Australia will need to triple the power capacity in the National Electricity Market’s by 2030 to be on track for net zero by 2050, and it will ultimately need to increase the size of the NEM 40 times over to meet that economy wide and clean export target”.
“(The energy transformation) requires us to grow renewables as our main domestic and export energy source such that by mid-century we have 400-500 GW serving our domestic energy system and potentially several thousand GW producing energy exports, compared to roughly 25 GW today,” the report says”.
“Australia will also need to establish a fleet of batteries, pumped hydro energy storage and gas-fired firming that is larger in capacity than its domestic energy system now, and greatly increase electrification and energy efficiency across all sectors, including EVs and replacing gas-fired heat in homes and businesses”.
“The report models six different scenarios – ranging from a reference point and slower electrification, to rapid electrification that sees no impediment to renewables (E+ RE+) to constrained renewables (E+ RE-) and local “onshoring” (E+ ONS) which makes the sensible conclusion that Australia should use clean energy to export refined products such as iron and aluminium rather than lumps of coal, minerals and fossil molecules”.
“Some of the scenarios appear designed to satisfy some of the key sponsors of the report, including gas companies APA and Dow and Worley, Andrew Forrest’s Minderoo Foundation (big interest in hydrogen), and other organisations who favour carbon capture and storage”.
“Their big bet appears to be that the deployment of wind, solar and storage is somehow constrained by infrastructure, land access/, labour and other supply issues. That, they say, will create opportunities for more gas, CCS, and offshore wind”.
“Nuclear is written off as too expensive, and it says that even it can achieve substantial cost reductions and renewables were somehow constrained it would likely only play a limited role at best”.
“It should also be noted that while the report focuses heavily on costs and opportunities, it doesn’t model the cost of inaction, or fossil fuel supply constraints, and it draws a straight line pathway to zero emissions, when most analysts reinforce the need to do much of the easy stuff quickly for a 1.5°C outcome”.
“Still, the report is remarkable when you consider that little more than a decade ago the likes of Beyond Zero Emissions were rolling out 100 per cent renewable scenarios and being widely mocked for doing so”.
“Now, even what could be described as the “energy establishment” accepts that the transition to wind, solar and storage is inevitable, and desirable, even if there is still debate about the scale and timing. This report acknowledges that in every scenario, fossil fuel generation in Australia will slump by 80 per cent by 2030”.
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Sorry here’s the link and does anyone know how we could increase toxic W & S one hundred times in such a short space of time?
https://reneweconomy.com.au/net-zero-study-finds-australia-needs-nearly-three-terawatts-of-wind-and-solar/#:~:text=Australia%20will%20need%20nearly%20three%20terrawatts%2C%20or%203%2C000,to%20%249%20trillion%2C%20according%20to%20a%20new%20study
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Anything is possible I guess… I saw a flying elephant yesterday.😉
Our kids and grandchildren will be paying for the stupid ideological decisions made by the net zero fanatics today.
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Could they draft in some workers – China may have a million who could be trained – who may also be of military age and sex . . .
Auto
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Neville reports this from the Renew site: (my bolding here)
The total Nameplate of all industrial wind and solar plants in Australia is currently 24,174MW. (that roughly 25GW figure) Incidentally, mind you, that total Nameplate is now just a tick HIGHER than all the remaining filthy dirty disgusting stranded asset unreliable ancient clunkers of coal fired ‘farms’ (huh, see what I did there?)
Wind and solar Nameplate – 24,174MW. Actual power delivered across the most recent 365 days 12 Month year – 47,838GWH.
Coal fired power Nameplate – 23,000MW. Actual power delivered across the most recent 365 days 12 Month year – 117,213GWH.
Total consumed power across the AEMO for the same most recent 365 days 12 Month year – 215,394GWH
So, here we have similar Nameplates, and yet the state of the are wind and solar plant can only deliver 41% of what those coal fired plants deliver, and only 22% of what is required, and that requirement is an ABSOLUTE, and it’s increasing inexorably each and every year.
Wind and solar replacing coal fired power.
Huh! Tell ‘im ‘e’s dreamin’!!
Tony.
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Based on United Arab Emirates Barakah Nuclear Power Station completed in recent years and took 12-15 years to build four units wth installed combined capacity of 5,600 MW Australia could have 12 of that specification for the A$600 billion Labor Green Teals claim would be the cost of the Dutton Plan for 5 large and 2 small Nuclear Power Stations/Plants.
Contractors a South Korean firm and various other multinational companies.
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See how the ‘use of language’ becomes a case of just writing it ….. and people think nothing of it at all, so already it has become commonplace ….. until someone actually draws attention to it.
Joanne actually did it herself in her very first sentence of this Post, where she wrote: (my bolding here)
She used that highlighted term instead of that single most detestable green diversion ever used, wind ….. ‘farm’.
Thank you Jo.
The sooner that ‘wind farm’ term is dropped from the vocabulary the better.
It’s subliminal ….. farm, repowering. It just gets accepted without any questions the very first time it gets written, and from then on , well, ….. they’ve got away with it, haven’t they?
Tony.
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I don’t like the term “industrial wind plant” either Tony.
That may imply that they have an industrial use or are built to industrial standards.
In fact their purpose is anti-industrial as they cause the closure of industry.
And their short lifetimes aren’t consistent with industrial electrical plant either like coal, gas, hydro or nuclear power stations that have minimum economic lifetimes of 50+ years.
The correct description of these machines is subsidy harvesters. They have no purpose beyond that.
As Warren Buffet said:
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‘Sacred Tri-brachts’ possibly – STBs in short? Thus … revered three-armed excrescences …
Or, to misquote the Batperson, Holy Bat-busters!!
Auto, in suggestion mode.
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No matter what language Renew Economy speaks, it will always be the stupidest site in the renewables, ahem, space.
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Here in Central Victoria. I am surrounded by the damn things. I can drive any point of the compass and within 30 mins be passing wind turbines. Which for the last 6 weeks have been mostly motionless. Zero, nada, nil electricity production. But we also have some older installations. Waubra and Challicum Hills. They’re still running the old smaller turbines and must also be up for “repowering” or demolition very soon. But we have an idiot Victorian Labor Party /Greens coalition in government- they’ll probably subsidise the foreign owned wind companies to rebuild the sites. Probably call it part of the “Big Build”.
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Since I visit the six monthly Lake Goldsmith Steam Rally I am familiar with the drive from Beaufort to the Steam Rally site.
The installation of 149 subsidy-harvesting machines of the Stockyard Hill Wind Farm has destroyed the surrounding landscape and it looks horrific, a dystopian nightmare of a place.
The subsidy-harvesting installation is 49% owned by Qatar, 2% by Chicomms, rest by Australia (Palisade Investment Partners and Aware Super).
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Ross,
Photography is one of my long term hobbies. I have a collection of thousands of colour slides, from before digital took over.
Every old windmill slide shows the blades not turning.
Geoff S
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Geoff,
I saw what you did there.
Tony.
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Thank you, Tony.
Perceptive, as usual. Geoff S
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The Victorian Government is aiming to effect legislation that will empower them to impose hefty fines on farmers who refuse construction of transmission lines on their land.
This Bill, the National Electricity (Victoria) Amendment (VicGrid Stage 2 Reform) has just been introduced to the parliament.
One of the provisions in the Bill “enables authorised officers, accompanied by officers of electricity corporations, to enter private land without owner or occupier consent”.
https://www.skynews.com.au/opinion/draconian-victorian-government-imposes-hefty-fine-for-farmers/video/e4f0e1a991b58e90114b73c94b00e8ef
Watch this space to see if Jacinta Allan, who is determined to establish a treaty, acts differently if any transmission lines are going to affect any culturally significant Aboriginal sites.
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” Ironically, the only thing about repowering that doesn’t change is the power-cord.”
In this case , the cost of having to upgrade transmission lines was presented as an obstacle to “repowering” It struck me as spin. The site was supposedly commercial with the existing fans, it seems illogical that it could not be “repowered” with fans of the same capacity or fewer larger fans so as not to over tax the transmission lines. As Jo points out there seems to be layers of lies and wordsmithery afoot.
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Haha Geoff, a few years ago Coles supermarkets were doing a promotion- how their supermarkets were running on renewables, or something. Then showed a video in the background with wind turbine blades not turning and solar panels in the dark. Which actually was accurate. There’s a current TV ad for one of those industry superfunds. Again shows wind turbine blades motionless. Suppose it’s truth in advertising. Imagine doing that at a coal plant, when they’re running mostly at 100% output.
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Repowering is a weasel word. Weasel words are used by ‘weasels’ for reasons of weaseling out of consequences.
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Here’s a new short video describing China’s new molten salt Thorium reactor that doesn’t need water for cooling.
Even in the very hot Gobi desert these reactors are safe and can also burn waste from other reactors.
These Thorium reactors were first invented and tested in the USA in the 1960s, but were abandoned soon after.
The USA has the largest number of Nuclear reactors but China is catching up fast and Thorium may be the choice from now on.
Of course Nuclear Fusion is the dream of the future. Who knows?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W95DY3q61T4
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A good summary. Will be interesting to see how this reactor goes over time.
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Hi Neville,
Be careful in what you claim.
The present reactor is very much a test facility. It is capable of 2 MW thermal.
I have not been able to find any mention of it producing electricity.
The next reactor, the one that might produce electricity, is still under construction.
It might generate 10 MW of electricity, all things going well.
In pointing this out, I am not seeking to underestimate the achievements so far.
However, do not underestimate the scale of the hurdles still to be overcome.
To successfully operate a molten salt reactor requires the overcoming of some very significant high-temperature materials issues. These are not trivial.
Where you say “these” reactors, there is at present only one. And, it is tiny.
To be saying anything about burning waste from other reactors is premature.
To say anything that suggests that there are full-scale production MSR’s operating reliably and producing lots of electricity is nonsense.
The US gave up on the development of the MSR concept at the time because of the materials challenges they then realised they faced.
In the US, Thorium was used as fuel in a mix with Uranium fuel in an otherwise conventional power reactor at what was the Fort St Vrain plant, a high-temperature, gas-cooled reactor. It was eventually but this became plagued with serious technical issues, since cleaned up, and was operating successfully toward the end of its operating life, but overall, these accumulated materials issues rendered its continued operation uneconomical at the time.
Again, I am not wishing to downplay the achievement, but to speak of MSR’s whether Thorium or Uranium fuelled, (will be both), taking over the world is at best premature.
There are lots of excellent reasons to develop the MSR concept, but I think you will find that there is yet a long way to go.
Furthermore, the use of Thorium as a nuclear fuel does not require the MSR design.
As with the Fort St Vrain example, both Canada and India, using the CANDU reactor design, have been experimenting for many years with the use of Thorium fuel bundles. This work is being carried out in full-scale on-load, operating power reactors.
Other nations too have successfully developed full-scale power reactor designs using Thorium in the fuel mix.
A useful review article may be found at:
https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/current-and-future-generation/thorium
Regards,
Paul Miskelly
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Paul
IIRC there was a similar plant in eastern US
They de-commissioned the reactor part of Fort St Vrain and replaced it with gas fired steam.
I got a look at that plant as part of a radiation course way back in BC
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An example of real value that has deliberately been disappeared from public awareness, even by those commentators who claim scepticism over CO2 AGW, is the catastrophic full black power loss in Spain and Portugal in late April (just 5 days before the Aus population anyway voted for the Spanish experience).
The Spanish Govt has finally released a report on this here:
https://watt-logic.com/2025/06/18/should-neso-be-allowed-to-lower-its-minimum-inertia-requirement/
There is an English translation noted in the WattLogic cover, plus a longer one in Spanish that needs further AI translation. Both of these are downloadable pdf’s, with the download links in the WattLogic cover.
Essentially, in the middle of a perfectly sunny day, the various large scale solar installations found their output was overmatched to demand. So their prices went negative. Their response (for at least two of the larger installations) was to abruptly earth their output to stop losing money. This caused cascading and unexpected losses of voltage across the grid, collapsing it and causing the French Connection (shades of a film in the 70’s) to disengage for protection. The excuse proffered for this brigadeering was that it was believed there was sufficient spinning inertia in the grid (from the few remaining nukes) to ride through the dislocations.
There is also a link reported in WattLogic to a discussion on how to prevent this mis-allocation from recurring while still maintaining economy. And presumably avoiding actually killing people again.
Given that the Net Zero Aus plan as touted by Bowen, Renew Economy and the myriad of bubble speakers contains only a few gas peakers to supply spinning inertia, and those peakers are allocated a diminishing life span, it is easy to understand why the Spanish experience has been banished from public awareness here.
90
Thanks Ian,
The ABC has a story about it also, a bit less explicit, but I guess we all expect that anyway.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-06-21/what-caused-spain-blackout/105228732
Does obfuscation qualify as wordsmithing?
Cheers,
Dave B
30
“And he notes that once events were in train, there was little anyone could have done to prevent such an outcome.”
A similar thing can happen to aircraft, at least non computerised ones, called PIO, which is ‘Pilot Induced Oscillation’, which where a pilot makes big correction to the flight path and then another correction in the opposite direction, each one getting bigger than the preceding one.
Also known to riders of older motorcycles as a ‘tank slapper’.
00
Spain was called the factory of europe until Zapatero the socialist (read: communist) came to power introducyoon extremist zero carbon targets. Then when the world economy sneezed Spain-s manufacturing base collapsed as a result of high green energy costs. Spain’s unemplyment statisttics shot up to 25%. 1,000,000 moving to Germany for work.
50
The Spanish to Germany crew will be back home soon enough applying for unemployment benefits …
20
Barnaby Joyce has said that taxpayer funded government subsidies paid for each turbine to wind farm developers are $660,000 per annum. If this is correct it is no wonder that big overseas firms like Canada’s Brookfield Renewable are moving into Australia and have already tried unsuccessfully to take over AGL and Origin Energy. I did a quick calculation of figures showing that 2077 wind turbines had RET payments of $1.09 billion per annum which works out at $524,795 per turbine. Barnaby’s $660,000 is probably for 5MW and 7MW turbines so is most likely correct.
Jarrod Bleijie, Queensland Deputy Prime Minister has recently stopped Brookfield building the Moonlight Range Wind Farm with 88 7MW turbines about 40km west of Rockhampton. 126 objections from local residents and 473 regional submissions against the scheme were received during a consultation period and listened to by the government. The writing is now on the wall for developers trying to ride roughshod over landowners here in Queensland.
80
Yarpos mentioned a oft forgotten part of the electricity “grid”. cost of having to upgrade transmission lines
Western Power seems to randomly consider this item as it removes the cost of maintaining the long thin lines to WA’s rural/regional agricultural farms and replacing with solar panels / battery and local diesel generators.
Which makes me wonder why Western Power and the WA government are so reluctant to support the Denmark Community Wind Farm (DCWF). The relatively low voltage regional distribution line connecting Denmark to Albany (with its higher voltage connections) passes through my son’s property. The problem for the DCWF is that this line would not support larger exports to the main (Albany) grid. Thus the initial installation was limited in size. And due to that size (actually anything under 20MW) the DCWF’s output is not reported anywhere “useful”. Though even with all its restrictions, it apparently is making an acceptable ROI.
It now wants to “upgrade”. And its wind profile is at least as good as the Victorian south coast.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-27/community-owned-denmark-wind-farm-to-double-output/105318020
And Denmark is one of the fastest growing (population) areas in WA with its accompanying increase in power demand.
Recall that minimal regional connection line to Albany.
it may be that a voltage increase on that line would be more expensive than adding those proposed batteries in Denmark?
I have often wondered how much it would have cost Western Power to upgrade the 130kV line to Albany if the Albany Wind Farm was not in place (also just under the nationwide reporting levels).
From my 2017 exchange with one of the Denmark “engineers”
Be aware that Denmark was derated to 1.44MW (end of weak line and far from the substation – Albany) and that the wind turbines are class II machines located in a wind regime bordering on class I. So, we would expect Denmark to do better than Albany, better than almost anywhere.
The whole question of regional/local rather than national is being ignored in the power generation arguments.
30
They claim that it’s profitable, yet it appears that the project won’t go ahead without substantial govt subsidies. If it is really profitable, then surely it can proceed without any more govt money?
And the Hepburn wind farm, one of the few that released its annual statements, was never profitable- it could only continue operating with substantial govt subsidies.
60
Not only is it ‘profitable’, it also produces ‘cheap power’, voila, magic. LOL>
00
What is really funny is that those wind towers that remind me of “The War of the Worlds” and HG Wells need some stuff called oil to lubricate those ball bearings. Let alone the Hydrocarbon energy needed to make the flaming things. A Carbon free World. Lol. Humans are made of carbon and water and other stuff. We breathe in air and expel CO2.
Oh dear. LOL.
70
I asked the Council (who were very helpful) which authority was responsible for ensuring the land will be returned to its original condition. The answer is the Council. Will they ensure the removal of the tonnes of concrete? I hope so but its of concern as who checks the checker?
70
Spain was called the factory of europe until Zapatero the socialist (read: communist) came to power introducing extremist zero carbon targets. Then when the world economy sneezed Spain’s manufacturing base collapsed as a result of high green energy costs. Spain’s unemplyment statisttics shot up to 25%. 1,000,000 moving to Germany for work.
40
No country is more confused than the UK.
“Britain is set to have its first heatwave of 2025 this weekend, with health officials warning of a risk to life from temperatures of more than 30C.”
Further..
“The report offers multiple warnings about the fallibility of net zero technologies in such temperatures.”
I remain amazed that people in the UK think 30C is a threat to life. Where do they holiday again?
70
I think it is not the ‘population’ of the UK …
Whilst some of the inexperienced, indoctrinated, under-21s may consider 30C a threat to nice clothes (as they’ll sweat a bit), I fear it is Blobsters, determined to further destroy the UK, indeed the whole of Western civilisation.
Not just the Met. Office, and, naturally, the Britsin-despising BBC.
Also, sadly, parts of the Civil Service, and our politicians – most of whom wouldn’t recognise a statistical term if it bit them.
Auto
30
Not only is “Repowering” a misnomer, I feel this government will use the opportunity to show how they are in fact saving the planet by re-using existing sites and also contributing towards their insane net-zero objectives.
I guess technically, they are increasing capacity, but just as with cars – you can put a 700 horsepower engine in a roadworthy car, but the legal speed limit still stands.
30
I’ll buy the simple word theory.
The politicians on the left are liars and thieves.
40
as the site’s grid connection would require significant upgrades and today’s turbine siting requirements would preclude the installation of latest generation turbines, resulting in a non-financially viable project,” the spokesperson said. From the article, so it’s not about subsidies.
But clutch the pearl!
07
What rot! So is what you quoted.
00
Thank you Jo. On Monday I am attending a protest meeting against a proposed new wind farm in the country area of NSW where we have a farm. I will be printing this article and speaking of the facts of this “renewable” madness.
50
Good luck. Community effort stopped the Ben Lomond (near Guyra) project going ahead. Locals had the good sense to understand the falsity of AGW. NIMBY’s don’t always cut it.
10
Replacing / rebuilding a flogged-out “generator at the top of e 200 ft tower is one “issue”.
“disposing” of the equally flogged out composite turbine blades the the other.
The bladed flex a fair bit as they spin. add to this, the wake turbulence each blade endured as it follows another.
Top that with those naughty Ultra-violet rays from the big Nuke in the sky doing evil things to the resin binder in the composite structures, and you have the potential for spectacular blade failure AND then the unspoken problem of “disposing” of something that big in a “responsible” manner. And, there will be a LOT of “fatigued” blades to “disappear” every year. Not that the parasitic classes EVER even consider “responsiblilty”; it has ONLY ever neen aboyt “subsidy harvesting and the associated “spillage”.
50
Nice, condensed summary.
🙂
20
of course, coal fired power plants that have been abandoned include Balmain, Bunnerong, and Lithgow. not to forget that even larger coal fired power plants have also been abandoned like Liddell, Hazelwood, Munmorah, Redbank, and Wallerawang A
So this is the decommissioning of a wind plant is total normal
05
Coal fired power stations have a working life of 50-60 years on average, but depending on condition and maintenance costs could extend operating life.
And now conversion to nuclear technology to replace boiler system is possible, two recently completed in China, US have conversions prepared.
The coal power stations in Australia now closed and/or demolished were until the late 1900s state owned public assets. They all had scheduled replacement dates or plans to upgrade until Labor RET 32% transition 2000s and that included phasing out coal and gas.
10
As observers from the time here that Labor legislated Renewable Energy Target 32% and transition away from coal, gas and diesel controllable generators governments here set about restricting new coal and gas ventures and even extending existing ventures, get rid of those emissions fuels.
Now as the original wind installations they call farms are reaching end of operating life 20-25 years on average from start up date there is a new “transition fuel” and it’s natural gas. In fact the new transition realities are causing governments to negotiate and compensate to extend the operating life of coal fired power stations.
By the way, removal of wind turbines is estimated to cost subject to location and access from A$500-700,000 each unit.
20
” Reneweconomy ”
Shorthand for Gaslighting.
00
The 3 stooges, Albo Jimbo and Bobo, have created a power problem, that they don’t know how it happened, don’t how to fix it and don’t know they don’t know.
00
There was a time when every politician wanted to be photoed with a windmill in the background. As they begun to rust and the public became aware how intrusive and ugly and costly they were, the politicians stopped being so keen to be associated with them.
we are definitely in the dying days of the fad. There will of course be another fad along shortly, to channel public money into the hands of the funders of politicians. Maybe covid was it, maybe the new tranche of wars is it. We may well look back at the utter waste of money on windmills and say: “at least that scam wasn’t killing thousands of people”.
00
So just as they are trying to build more wind farms for additional capacity, they also need to start replacing the wind farms that are already there. It only gets worse.
00