By Jo Nova
It’s hard to keep up with the bad news
Is Australia finally waking up to the ugly truth about unreliable electricity?
Last week, the Australian Bureau of Statistics dropped the bomb that electricity costs were up 37%, foiling hopes of an interest rate cut. They tempered it by saying it was due to the government stopping the rebates, as if that made it understandable instead of being a national disaster. The government promptly promised to make electricity cheaper by giving up plans to change the the polar vortex with our power plants. No, wait, — of course, they promised to think about paying rebates again…
The coal is dead, long live the coal
And so we reach the point of where headlines fill our main newspapers this week with warnings that blackouts are coming if one particular coal plant closes and prices are destroying businesses just like we said they would years ago. The old coal plant that was supposed to close in August now looks unlikely to close in 2027, because of blackout fears. Eraring supplies about 20% of the energy to our largest state grid. Suddenly newspapers are explaining what system inertia means and talking about frequency stability.
It’s like were training up a nation of electrical engineers. They’re also explaining SynCons, the big spinning machines called synchronous condensers which cost $150 million dollars each, and don’t generate any energy at all. They just provide the stability we get for free with every coal turbine, except for only for a tenth of a second or even less.
Meanwhile, investments in large scale solar and wind power crashed by 80% in the last year
Not one single wind project reached a final approval in Australia this year. We’ve slid all the way back to 2016 levels of spending:
Trapped in transition torture: solar, wind investment crash puts renewable target in doubt
By Perry Williams, and Rachel Baxendale,– The Australian
Australia faces its worst year of investment in large-scale solar and wind in a decade, heightening concern the nation will fail to meet its 2030 renewable energy target.
Large-scale investment in solar and wind generation totalled 1.05 gigawatts at the end of October compared with 4.5GW for the 2024 calendar year, Clean Energy Regulator data shows.
Origin Energy chief executive Frank Calabria last week said Australia’s shift away from coal was increasingly being held back by a stubborn gap in onshore wind development. No onshore wind project in Australia has reached a final investment decision this year – a striking absence that has cast doubt over Anthony Albanese’s climate ambitions.
As the illusion wears off, and the subsidy farming gets tough, investor interest disappears. Soberingly, most of this collapse occurred before the Australian Opposition finally came out with a No Net Zero policy. Imagine how bad things will be next year, if the Liberals start to actually fight the Net Zero fight?
Then we found out our grid Managers weren’t even planning for the worst wind droughts
The Australian caught the AEMO preparing for a worst case scenario where our wind turbines fell to only 14% capacity for a few days in a row. Embarrassingly for them, the same month they released the 2024 Integrated System Plan, our wind turbines fell to half that. In response to that news last week, they have quietly tweaked their assessment and preparations for wind droughts or dunkelflutes. In May 2024 for seven days in a row, the entire fleet of Australian NEM wind turbines was running almost entirely below 14%, apart from two brief periods.
Our grid managers are so inept that even mainstream journalists are correcting their errors in system planning. It’s that bad.
I mean, “yay for the free press”, but really, our Blob-o-crat web must be so one-sided that all the other government funded agencies, the ABC, AER, AEMC, CER, CEFC, ARENA, ECA, ESB, CCA, CSIRO and all our universities, didn’t notice that the AEMO modelling was wrong?
The red line marks 14% below which wind turbines were not supposed to stay for long. Graph by Anero.id
All these agencies are just cheer-squads for Blob Renewables. Not one of them is paid to serve the public. Shut them all down…
When I was a boy growing up in England, it was always called “King Coal”.
And today. being 73 years young and living in Australia, it is still “King Coal”.
Get a grip Blackout Bowen, Airbus Albo and all you Marxists.
Reality beats an Ideology every time.
830
The reality, at least in the UK, is that we don’t have enough reliable power.
We may scrape through this winter .. we may not.
“BP pulls out of building Teesside hydrogen plant”
Or this –
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c865jwpw9p4o
It’s on the BBC, so it might be true – unless they have – accidentally – edited it.
Or – inadvertently – utterly changed the meaning.
Which, of course, they would never do, except to ‘Trump’ … or anything to do with Israel, or the Great Climate Scam or …
This cancellation decision allows Sir Starmer’s Wonderful Brainwave – an AI centre not much bigger than Texas – to be built on the exact same site.
No indication, anywhere, yet, of here the reliable power for this Giga-watt-hog might come from.
The Misguided Mr. Miliband – our Energy Security Secretary – is understood to have bought a book – ‘Unicorn Breeding 101’.
Auto
590
Why would you be building a huge AI centre when you barely have enough power to keep the lights on. Our politicians down here are equally clueless. They’ve just announced their grand plan for AI infrastructure, believing it will attract investment. Investors will be about as interested in this scheme as they have been in wind farms in recent times.
https://www.minister.industry.gov.au/ministers/timayres/media-releases/national-ai-plan-empowering-all-australians
240
The policy regarding AI has just opened the henhouse doors to the foxes!!!!!!!! AI is probably the most dangerous and uncontrolled thing devised in the history of modern mankind.
141
More like Artificial Ignorance at the moment.
Where is there any intelligence?
60
Certainly not in the users.
10
All tat the :investors” care about is the bottom line. The damage done to increase that has NO standing in the equation!
00
In Australia there are state governments paying compensation to private sector business electricity users to close down operations when high peak demand periods are expected, the objective is to hide the supply problems from most voters and therefore domestic electricity users.
80
BP ditched the Hydrogen project ‘following a row’. BP used that ‘row’ as an excuse to pull out because it had dawned on them that the fabled hydrogen economy is a fata morgana, a delusion. To produce green hydrogen, that is without fossil fuels involved, hence with electricity, is six times more expensive than mining natural gas having the same calorific yield. An economic non-starter.
50
Correct. Coal is King! The chatter from AEMO is Eraring must be kept open. Minns in NSW is playing both sides by keeping Eraring open while ripping the rest of NSW up to plant wind turbines. I was on Chris Smith (the best radio program currently) this morning talking about Eraring and wind turbines in the context of energy density.
What I said to Chris was that one of the key limitations of ruinables, their energy density, is overlooked. Energy density is the amount of energy stored in a given system, substance, or region of space per unit of volume or mass. With ruinables it can simply be judged by how much land space they take up. This makes a comparison with real energy sources easier.
For example Eraring, a 24/7 energy source occupies 11 sq kilometers and produces 3000 MW.
By comparison a 5 MW wind turbine requires 300 acres. if you put them closer together they interfere with each other. It would therefore take 600 5 MW wind turbines to equal Eraring’s Installed Capacity, IC. That’s 180,000 acres or 730 sq kilometers.
But wait, wind turbines only produce electricity for about 30% of the time, that is their Capacity Factor, CF.
So, since Eraring has an effective CF of 100% we need to multiply that 730 sq Kilometers by 3.3 which gives 2,409 sq kilometers of wind turbines to match what Eraring produces on 11 square kilometers.
This comparison does not take into account the new grid which has to be built to accommodate the useless things. Ruinables produce DC power which has to be converted into AC; and that requires inverters, synchronosity condensers and batteries. Anyone who supports ruinables is an ecological vandal as well as being an economic illiterate.
541
Science Direct
130
“By comparison a 5 MW wind turbine requires 300 acres.”
You left out the part where the 298 acres of other land can be used for growing crops. Farmers here in North Dakota get paid for leasing the land for the wind turbine.
https://northdakotamonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/North_Dakota_Wind_Energy_Center__MG_7272-1-2048×1365.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power_in_North_Dakota
As to solar energy, Australia seems to be doing okay.
https://solarcalculator.com.au/blog/solar-energy-facts-and-statistics/
So to summarize, the anti-renewable crowd thinks things are going to fast. The pro-renewable group thinks things are going to slow. Steady as she goes captain. 🙂
111
If there were no wind turbines the farmers could grow crops on the whole 300 acres.
The part you left out is that the whole farm is let to wind turbines as part of the deal. Then there is the new grid which has to connect the useless things which takes up more room than the turbines as we are now seeing huge amounts of virgin forest being knocked down. The big part you left out is that wind turbines don’t work so the whole exercise is for nothing.
As for solar doing okay you must be kidding. It’s more useless than turbines because it produces nothing at peak times early in the morning and at dusk when folks are leaving and arriving home; and produces too much in the middle of the day when demand is lowest.
Anyway all of this ruinable garbage is contingent on global boiling being real. It is not.
150
It is Global Bawling and not Boiling. LOL
10
“The North Dakota State University report listed payments of $4,000 to $6,000 per megawatt of rated power or royalties of three to five percent of gross electricity sales.”
Read More: https://www.sciencing.com/info-8337416-much-farmer-make-wind-turbine/
“If you allot your 100-acre land to crop farming with crops such as corn, soybeans, or oats, you may earn from $5,000 to $45,000 a year.” https://bootstrapbee.com/smallholding/average-profit-in-farming-100-acres
So for a 3 MW turbine the farmer will get $12,000 to $18,000 a year. If the farmer planted crops on those two acres he would make between $100 and $900. A farmer with 3,000 acres could have 10 turbines and make $120,000 to $180,000 a year!! Why would a farmer pass up that kind of money? It is a win-win.
I do not know what happens in Australia, but in ND the farmer does NOT give up his land.
In North Dakota we have coal plants, natural gas plants, hydro from Garrison Dam and wind energy. And it all works together. MISO keeps things running very well. https://www.misoenergy.org/ We might see one brief power outage every 1 to 2 years. And that is with blizzards, tornadoes and high winds.
00
Does Eraring actually occupy as much as 11 sq kilometres? I find that hard to believe. Looking at it on google maps it looks quite compact, unless all that pondage to the north belongs to the generator too. Whatever, your comparison is enlightening but one which will never be admitted by to protagonists of ruinables.
10
Yes. The area to the north, or rather north east, is where the coal dumps are, the pondage is immediately to the south of the plant buildings.
Plus it has a fairly substantial green belt around it. If you look closely you can track the property line.
10
Apologies accidental red thumb – cellphone, shaky hand, fat fingers.
Why aren’t these votes reversible?
30
Re “Why aren’t these votes reversible?”
“Elbow” wouldn’t like that! Magnified only
00
Coal plants only have a capacity factor of around 80% to 90% because turbines do need to go down for regular maintenance. However, it’s still significantly better than wind.
The space consumption of wind and solar isn’t such a big deal. A good chunk of solar is on rooftops and that space wasn’t being used anyhow. Australia has plenty of spare land, and most of it is empty. If all you are doing is grazing sheep at very low density, might as well have a few windmills and still graze just as many sheep.
But the real problem is the cost … building a lot of windmills all over the place ends adding up to huge costs, Anywhere remote from the coast immediately imposes a transport cost, and lack of local infrastructure. Then they are difficult to do maintenance on, they only last 20 years at best, then they need to be brought down and replaced. Then you end up needing extra wiring to connect them up, and usually batteries as well to stabilize the output.
Although energy density is a bit of a nuisance, it isn’t the showstopper people make it out to be.
10
Can’t see our woke grid surviving a La Nina.
Has this been modelled?
60
Only by Jane Fonda.
50
I thought Jane only modelled for foreign guns. And I also thought Cher was the best for gun modelling.
80
You maybe on the case as I forgot about Cher.
She certainly modeled well over those big Warship gun barrels with all those randy sailiors wanting to get into her………………..mind…….LOL
30
With a gun barrel like that she would not have needed any randy sailors.
20
Net zero hitting the wall is good news.
571
When your investment relies on a subsidy to be profitable and a potential government says it will favour your opposition power generator I would run away as quickly as possible. I would also drop my investments in wind turbine manufacturers and those companies building transmission lines. If the Opposition said they were committed to providing reliable power ( they say they are but then talk about emissions) then who would build those lines to non-existent wind and solar projects. One simple statement from Ley could bring the whole rotten mess to a halt tomorrow. Queensland could become the powerhouse for the East Coast and make a fortune. NSW would have to follow suit. Who cares what happens in Victoria.
511
I care…I live here.
170
Amazing you haven’t left Vicdanistan like the rest of the thinking people!! 😳😳
82
After c. 30 moves in my lifetime, including several international ones, I no longer have the energy. It’s not that simple.
20
Not only that, but if everyone just jumps up and runs away, the Left truly have won, and so easily.
Where does it end? Do we stand up and fight for any ground?
10
White farmers in South Africa have had to address this question, and have mostly decided to vacate.
The same problem has been discussed over the 40+ years that we have been farming here in Godzone on the outskirts of the adjacent city.
With what do we defend what was Grandad’s farm, that we recovered at a public auction, when the city dwellers find that there is no food in the supermarket?
Theft of sheep , goats and cattle has always been a problem, but in a SHTF scenario it would be a lot worse.
In addition , we now have the threat of being driven off the land by the imposition of exorbitant rating demands based on inflated land values- effectively land taxes because no services are supplied, currently running at $50,000/annum and rising.
So good question : I don’t know the answer.
00
David,
the problem is that the Young have swallowed the Kool Aid of Climate Change/Global Warming, and Net Zero Fairyland Fantasy, Holus Bolus as the Joy Fantastic!
Going on my 3 Kids and 9 Grandkids, in the case of the Kids, both through Education & Peer Pressure to be part of the Correct Social Groupings, hence the TEALs, and in the case of the Grandkids, non stop brainwashing from pre-school, kinder, primary, high school to Uni
Reading the Australian Article Comments, I would take a Guess that a large perecentage of Paid Subscibers are over 65.
260
Which is more or less the age you would have to be to have graduated from school and/or university before the Left completely took over the “education” system starting in the late 1960’s early 1970’s.
However, there are rare examples of younger people who are not fully indoctrinated and are capable of independent thought and action.
Those numbers will be lessened as soon as the social media ban for under 16s is implemented in Australia, the Stupid Country, thus removing access of children to alternative points of view and debate thereupon. They will only have access to the Official Narrative as indoctrinated at “schools”.
260
Maybe in Oz but in the U.S. half the adults are republicans and most of those are skeptics so if their kids take after them there are lots of skeptical kids. Conversely a lot of teens are looking to disagree with their elders, teachers and their peers, which should create another bunch of skeptics. I have yet to see serious polling on this issue.
180
Having worked in the secondary school system as a maintenance worker I can assure you there is no debate on climate change.No dissenting argument will be tolerated particularly in the science department…the irony of which was lost on the young science “teachers”.
80
You should use “science” as well, because they sure as hell don’t understand it and can’t apply it.
00
“Eraring” was unknown to me, I found it on Google Earth with “Origin Energy Eraring Power Station”, 92km north of the Sydney Opera House.
170
Eraring will never close in 2027 IMHO.
I predict that this Power Plant will get an upgrade and power on past 2030.
The ‘Ruinables’ just can’t do it. Even with an up and running Snowy 2.0 (If ever it gets completed) which is just a big ‘White Hefalump’.
490
I hope you’re right, Johnny. Regarding Eraring I mean. Your other point that Ruinables can’t do it – well, they never could. Sadly not being an Engineer, all I could do was intuit that but it stone cold astounds me how many of the populace are still falling for it. People really are that stupid, especially when they are in groups.
480
I would not say stupid, they are ignorant because they have not been given enough information to make stupid choices, applause for the ABC, MSM, Universities and labor/greens for a constant one sided climate propaganda machine that is obviously working just fine!
Shame on the “opposition” who are still still debating what that word means!! 🙁
340
All true and correct, the propaganda has been intense, but now the situation is turning around and the MSM is finally discussing the issue.
This is going to bring about a reevaluation of climate change and certain victory at the next election.
92
el+gordo
sorry, but I am pessimistic given LINOs & Nationals
No Coherence in supposedly Conservative Parties
50
Patience is required, we have time to enlighten them.
11
Not so much not given enough information as force fed wrong information.
They’ve been ramming the fraud, the scam, and the lies down their throats for at least 30 years, and for the 20 years prior to that they were already indoctrinating them not to think.
110
I used to think they couldn’t do it, but then I was using logic, rational economics and common sense, if you look at from the Government / Pro ruinables crowd’s perspective, it’s do-able ,it’s just a matter of how much of other peoples money is spent, and in their mind, that too is limitless…
We’ll have a completely stuffed economy, third world living standards, electricity rationing and a malnourished population, but by hell or high water, they’ll have their 82+% ruinables grid to “save” the planet!!
50
I bought a backup generator just in case 🙂
30
Why Nations Fail
“The pattern is clear: nations that secure affordable, firm, reliable energy prosper; nations that treat energy as ideology decline.
Energy policy is destiny.
It determines which nations manufacture, innovate and attract investment, and which lose industries, competitiveness and geopolitical autonomy. It shapes household living standards, regional cohesion, national budgets and strategic security.
Australia is not doomed to failure. But it is drifting – and the drift is psychological, not technological. A refusal to re-examine assumptions, even as evidence accumulates, is precisely the dynamic Why Nations Fail describes: institutions that stop learning.
The warnings are clear. The global lessons are visible. The data is unambiguous. The only question is whether Australia’s leaders can overcome the inertia and self-protective instincts that have undone other nations, and act before the correction becomes severe.”
From the Spectator Australia –
More at –
https://www.spectator.com.au/2025/12/why-nations-fail/
440
The author is a Climate Change™ scammer. She is pushing nuclear.
The only way energy policy will be beneficial to Australia is a complete focus on lignite and modern. high capacity lignite fuelled generators.
That requires killing the Climate Change™ scam.
180
RickWiil,
I have no problems with Nuclear, although we are 40 years behind when we could have taken action,
and I thought it was a well written article.
Australia is not doomed to failure. But it is drifting – and the drift is psychological, not technological.
A refusal to re-examine assumptions, even as evidence accumulates, is precisely the dynamic Why Nations Fail – Institutions that stop learning.
The warnings are clear. The global lessons are visible. The data is unambiguous.
The only question is whether Australia’s leaders can overcome the inertia and self-protective instincts that have undone other nations, and act before the correction becomes severe.
160
She is a full on climate scammer.
The way back is to sanity is to crucify the scam. The scam is at the root of the energy mess.
Dutton pushed nuclear and out was an easy target. We could reduce electricity costs over night by simply requiring all bidding generators to be dispatchable over a 24 hour cycle. But that cannot happen until the CO2 climate monster is slain.
200
How can she be a Scammer if she is pushing Nuclear.
I like Coal and Nuclear so what’s your beef? Maybe she likes Coal as well.
60
She is a climate scammer. Making money out of Climate Change™ scare mongering.. That is a climate scammer Grade 1.
You will not see her pushing lignite fired generation because she is a CO2 demoniser.
I am a climate scammer Grade 2 but the difference is that I acknowledge it and make pragmatic choices to limit my exposure to nut cases. She thinks she is doing good work. She is not.
30
Thanks Johnny,
Excellent Article by Cristina Talacko – the CEO of GLOW Strategies, a global advisory firm focused on energy and sustainability, and founder of the environmental charity Coalition for Conservation.
Why nations fail – Energy policy is destiny – Cristina Talacko 1 Dec 25
Australia’s energy debate drifts further from engineering and economic fact.
Australia can be paired with Germany:
two wealthy nations risking their future not through corruption or scarcity, but through institutional overconfidence and narratives that no longer match how energy systems actually work.
Entering the ‘vicious circle’: where Leaders become so invested in a narrative that they defend it long after evidence has turned against them.
Germany’s Energiewende is a textbook example – a prosperous nation clinging to a renewables-only vision even as prices rose, dependence on Russian gas deepened, and energy-intensive industries suffered.
Australia now shows similar traits: ignoring rising bills, growing curtailment, and slowing investment because acknowledging them would require challenging a political identity rather than adjusting a policy.
Contrast with societies that ‘break the mould’ when circumstances demand it.
France, Japan, South Korea, the UK, and the Netherlands have all revised their energy strategies by reinforcing nuclear, securing gas, and strengthening firm capacity.
Australia and Germany, by contrast, resemble cases where institutions become psychologically captive to their own storyline.
The danger is not sudden collapse but steady erosion of competitiveness as nations choose narrative comfort over practical competence.
Governments rarely fail because information is unavailable – they fail because it’s inconvenient.
Australia’s insistence that an advanced industrial economy can be powered primarily by intermittent renewables within a decade has shifted from policy position to political identity.
Evidence is treated as threat rather than guidance.
The pattern is clear: nations that secure affordable, firm, reliable energy prosper; nations that treat energy as ideology decline.
Energy policy is destiny.
100
Energy wasters,
landscape destroyers,
civilisation pillagers…
the ruinable -loving lunatics
have truly taken over
the asylum.
70
The lunatics are on the grass and probably smoking it (MaryYuana). LOL
Well done Pink Floyd
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YB_3w0AZYTA&list=RDYB_3w0AZYTA&start_radio=1
40
I’ll see you on the dark side of the moon…
40
As the Nut Zero carnival float hits the tank-stopping bollards of reality.
They lied and lied and lied about “free wind” … and now the massive costs of this insane policy can no longer be ignored … yet still the carnival float keeps going despite the grinding crunching sound of metal bending and twisting.
“Nothing to see here” they all smile as the carts jolts from side to side “It’s all going to plan” … etc.
430
The only wind that is free comes out of my butt. If da gummint truly wanted free wind they would feed me pickled onions and i would travel (for a small fee) to where they needed it. 🙂
230
Natural gas
120
If you’re all about doing good and saving the planet, massive amounts of money fails right into your pocket.
170
I am worried that the next phase of Leftist madness in Australia will be to force superannuation funds (retirement funds like US 401(k)) to invest in these stranded assets.
Many superannuation funds are already controlled by corrupt unions or other Leftists and in Victoriastan the Premier is getting dangerously close to forcing superannuation funds to “invest” in Victorian stranded assets.
Our super funds are not safe if they throw money into these stranded assets.
Politicians and public serpents who make the decisions won’t need to worry, their retirement funds are guaranteed by the taxpayer.
280
Investing in something that is destined to lose money with a change of government would be against the law. Superannuation funds have an obligation to invest in the members best interest. I doubt whether Allen can overrule a Federal law and a fund that does will be in trouble from ASIC.
170
Agreed, but no one in Government or Leftist activist judges would ever agree that ruinables are not economically viable and they would see actual power stations *coal, gas) are the real stranded assets
170
We know they are economically unviable and so do the Super Funds. Government has no chance of getting our money.
12
What is the investment earnings from a thirty five thousand million (budgeted so in Vicdanistan you could double it)underground suburban rail loop.How could any dividends ever flow.Public transport in this rust bucket state has run at a loss for all my adult life.As soon as is possible I will be self managing my hard earned super.
10
The Trustees of a Superannuation Fund have a fiduciary duty in Law to look after the best interests of the Benficiary(ies). If they don’t, then the Law can come down on them like ‘a ton of bricks’.
So Jacinta, as a failed ‘Pollie’ (is there any other), mind your own business.
70
The Victorian Premier can have an opinion, even a stupid one, however Super have an obligation to ptotect funds and maximise returns. I doubt investing on anything the Premier has in mind will do that, at least without massive finacial chicanery.
50
Union super funds already have a half interest in the Wonthaggi white elephant de-sal plant.
That’s why it gets fired up every year and the Victoristan misgovernment shells out money for water that is not needed.
10
People have got to get over these terms like net zero and emissions. They get confused easily.
Ms
140
Easy.
Just say ‘Nut Zero’ and ‘Emissions Impossible’.
00
Remember when South Australia had a blackout?
What did they do?
Urgently import some diesel generators that are still occasionally used.
290
As did Tasmania when an unforecast period without rain occurred, emptying the dams dangerously low.
The diesel generators, leased from the US, were huge … grid-size, one might say. Ho ho !!
170
And they cancelled the trend following removal of their sole gas turine generator.
20
Thanks again to Jo Nova and Sky News etc for trying to make these loonies think, but this mess will take some time to start the long turn around.
I just hope the farmers can help to stop the clueless increase of useless wind farms, but in Allan’s VIC they now face big fines for not allowing these parasites to enter their farms.
All just unbelievable but true.
330
And with it being illegal for farmers to stop the subsidy harvesters entering their properties, farmers lose control of biosecurity. Thus plant and animal diseases will spread between farms and the food supply will be compromised. And farmers will probably be held liable!
240
This is good news from Aunty.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-o6vPtGLVuc
A crowd had gathered at the gate, neighbours from roundabout, and told the man to clear out. But he stood his ground and a small lad voiced the collective opinion, ‘go away … go away … go away.’
A rural uprising against insanity.
82
As soon as the approach is made, the biosecurity inspectors should be called in to supervise every move the renewables workers make.
Aren’t their heavy fines for breaching biosecurity? Use lawfare against access, and force the premier to go public on the risks.
61
Also I’ve heard that while on site the farm is considered a work site and all farm work must cease.Now I’m hoping that isn’t true.
40
“I’m from the energy company”, the man with the badge and the clipboard said”, and the government has authorised me to inspect your farm.”
Don’t go in that paddock over there said the farmer.
The man arrogantly pointed to his badge and said, “Jacinta Allan has authorised me to inspect your farm. I can go wherever I want and you can’t stop me.”
Ten minutes later there’s yelling and screaming and the farmer was treated to the sight of the man in the paddock he was warned about, running for his life with a massive bull in hot pursuit.
Laughing his head off the farmer yelled out, “Show him your badge!”
310
I hope that will happen. Farmers should stock up with dangerous animals and make sure there’s at least one in every paddock (field).
140
“yay for the free press”
Should read “Ya pay for the free press”, and it costs us dearly.
80
Bought the Herald Sun (Victoria) the other day- $3.50!!!! Definitely not free!
70
Probably no news either.
How did you go for crosswords?
00
The world works in funny ways. In Victoria all native wildlife is protected, you cannot take, interfere with or harm any animals from tiny little lizards all the way to wedge tailed eagles.
Now here in the low part of the high country a solar plant is being mooted to cover hundreds of acres in a beautiful river valley. This area currently is productive grazing land.
So, good thing, if the cattle are removed allegedly no methane emissions from this land ( wrong, but hey) but what else will go with this coverage of solar panels. Well this area has a high reptile populations, wombats, a huge assortment of birdlife from wedge tailed eagles to several varieties of quail, platypus in the river, potentially critically endangered legless lizards ( a major highway was re alined near here because a legless lizard was located ) eastern grey kangaroos and a myriad of other creatures all to be sacrificed on the alter of free electricity. Now it gets even more weird . This valley is the home of the first fully automated hydro electric scheme anywhere in the world, built in the 1920’s and still working to this day. 5 hydro power stations linked into a channel system that uses a great fall in elevation over about 20 kilometres in a straight line. Now expanding or fully upgrading this system will never happen, it’s essentially in forested country, because of environmental concerns. Remember in Victoria you can’t even cut a native tree down without a permit and all native timber harvesting in Victoria has been banned. Hmmmm, now it gets even more bizarre. Below this hydro scheme when the river reverts to its natural run, there is a fish farm. This property wanted to build, at its own expense, a run of river hydro electricity plant, admittedly small but no cost to government and already on a river that has been utilised. Part of the reason this will not go ahead is environmental concerns. The hypocrisy and simply a lack of understanding by government ministers and bureaucrats is absolutely mind boggling!
350
In NSW, a road has been widened to accomodate transport for a new wind subsidy farm. The local vets in Mudgee have been overwhelmed by the number of nestlings brough in – many have since died – purely as a result of the rampant clearing of native trees along the side of what was a pleasant country road.
Where are the environmentalists decrying this demonstrated and cruel distruction of wildlife and their habitat? Where are the Greens? Where are the loving Teals? Where are the Moderate Liberals? They are all condemned by their silence, driven by their naive and ignorant belief that it alright to utterly destroy large swathes of nature if it is to be saved.
290
You try living in a Teal electorate, they’ve got other things to worry about – a world of post-materialism hubris, where everyone is fretting about climate change, Gaza and the need for truth telling before their next ski trip to Japan. It’s a daily struggle.
90
I live in a Teal electorate – I am still waiting for the windfarm to be built along the Harbour and the Northern Beaches. But they are NIMBYs – happy to support wind and solar farms where they don’t have to endure the visual and sound polution, or the utter degredation of their views, the loss of land values and the desolation of the national parks in their electorates.
20
Complain to the department charged with protecting the native flora and fauna, copied to the electricity moguls. Quote the legislation on the penalties.
Then approach various wildlife protection groups, and give them your explanation of the problem. Video the discussion.
Environmental legislation can be used to produce bad publicity for the renewables mob.
60
The King Valley is also a flood plain, floods relatively frequently. They are going to have to build this solar far well above flood levels, otherwise, zapp, zapp zapp..
40
Separating Myth from Fact on Wind Turbine Noise – Prof. Ken Mattsson, Copenhagen 2025
YouTube
Vindkraftsupplysningen
11 October 2025
30
Separating Myth from Fact on Wind Turbine Noise – Prof. Ken Mattsson, Copenhagen 2025
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpHDJPcqCQY
About infraSound from turbines. Suggesting that animals move more than 5 kilometres from wind turbines
Safe distance from large turbines should be 5–10 km, according to Prof. Mattsson.
The second lecture, “Infrasound Affects the Brain,” by Dr. Håkan Enbom, M.D., Ph.D., ENT specialist and otoneurologist, was also hosted by Landsforeningen Naboer til Kæmpevindmøller and is available in a separate video.
100
Fear not, real engineers will work out a way out of this climate change madness ( at great cost sadly ). An example follows…
Many years ago now, the company I worked for won a tender to install a temperature monitoring system on the outflow water canal of the Eraring power generator. This came about because the tree huggers and greenies had decided that the warmer water coming out of the power station was heating up Lake Macquarie. We installed the equipment at a pre determined spot on the canal, with a very expensive temperature probe hanging down in the canal. This temperature information was linked back to the Control room via a radio link and displayed on a large panel meter with digital setpoints so if a pre-set maximum temperature was exceeded, an alarm sounded and generation was supposed to be throttled back to lower the outflow water temperature. Personally, I thought this was nuts, but remember, Greenies were involved here.
On commissioning, I gave a demo of how to set the pre-set alarm setpoint with a small screwdriver that was inserted through a hole in the meter front. One of the System Operators asked me about this , and confirmed with me that they could raise the alarm setpoint. I seriously doubt that the alarm ever went off.
So…Engineers worked out a solution that only required the use of a small screwdriver, the Greenies were happy, and Eraring powered on. If these idiots think that they are going to shutdown Eraring in 2027…dream on.
The Company I then worked for has long since disappeared, my ex Boss has sadly passed away, and I’m long retired, so I doubt Greta Thunberg and her mates can do much about this.
160
The warm water of Lank Macquariue creates a unique breeding ground for crabs. The eastern shoreline of Pulbah Island is literally infested with tens of thousands of small sand crabs at certain times of the year. The bigger ones roam the surface at night and one can scoop up a couple of dozen in an hour or two if you have the knack.
That was in the 1980s. Not sure if they are still there in those numbers.
80
This is the lesson from the recent Spanish experience. And it was noted within a week of that disaster.
Yet none of our MSM have ever covered that story apart from the initial shock. Crickets, as requested by the Feds, the subsidy farmers, the banks and those who want to suppress information flow on the internet.
Now the need for “inertia” is being presented as something new and shiny. In aggregate, this country is really, really stupid. And that can’t be fixed.
220
There’s an element of this that mirrors the COVID situation. “We” initially all had faith that the experts were wise and knowledgeable and that the government would do the best thing for the people. Same applies to the whole electricity grid. The greater majority of the population had ( have ) no idea how their electricity is generated. You turn on the switch, dummy. There was an expectation the army of electrical engineers and public servants were managing the grid in our best interests. Instead “we” are finding out is that the opposite is true. We’ve got a bunch of ideologues stuck in dogma running the show and they’re really doing a crap job of it.
200
BTW Wiki is still showing average Aussie CF for W is only 24% and S average CF is only 15%.
So over an average 12 months W only generates for 2.88 months and S on average only generates for 1.88 months.
Does anyone think this is a good deal and does anyone really think we should be wasting TRILLIONs of $ on this lunacy and destroying thousands of klms of pristine areas of Australia?
Then we have to clean up this TOXIC mess and repeat every 15 to 20 years.
210
“Heightening concern we won’t reach….”
What “concern” are they talking about? Who exactly is concerned? What a load of rubbish.
150
That struck me too. ‘Concern’ at losing subsidies and cash flow?
100
Of course Australia and the entire SH are already a NET co2 SINK and again we only emit 1% of global co2 emissions.
Why can’t Labor’s BO Bowen + Albo, Greens and Teals etc just look up their CSIRO Cape Grim data and start to invest in new BASELOAD energy SECURITY and ensure we have national security for our immediate and long turn future?
130
Neville, the sad conclusion one reaches (actually reached many decades ago) is that these beggers have no intention of understanding facts, physics or reality.
They are protected from the consequences of their decisions and diktats.
120
What a shame this article, isn’t just reproduced across all the MSM outlets. It’s concise, hard hitting and accurate. The old metric of an article length measured by how long you sit on the toilet applies. Has a great heading, not a lot of scientific babble, a pretty graph with both a hard hitting intro and final statement. You could have Jo presenting the article on Behind The News (BTN) , that kids news summary show on their ABC, and it would be impactful. Even the kiddies could understand it. If the kiddies could understand it, then hopefully a lot of our politicians might as well.
120
You rate our politicians IQ and common sense much higher than I do.
Voters are looking for alternatives.
USA has Trump.
UK is looking good for Farage.
Australia??? We haven’t reached that stage of anger yet but the incompetency of the major parties is ensuring that voters look at the alternatives.
140
Ukraine’s Energy Scandal || Peter Zeihan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHi4S9f7K_M
Some officials over in Ukraine have been stuffing their pockets with $100 million stolen from the energy sector. Before you get worried that someone has been dipping into the US or EU aid. They were collecting “transit fees” for Russian gas being shipped to Europe (while taking some gas to fuel Ukraine).
No wonder that Putin cut off that supply. Makes me think that the Nordstrom pipelines sabotage may have had a Ukrainian edge.
90
You have to wonder why Origin is not building wind farms if they are needed. Obviously Origin or anyone else cannot make a business case for them even with loads of OPM from Blackout.
The facts are that both utility scale wind and solar are stranded assets. Only a moron would put their money into them or even encouraging OPM in to them would be fraud as they are a losing investment..
The story is made clear by examining the curtailment in November 2024 with curtailment in November 2025.
For wind, 19.3% of potential was curtailed in 2025 compared with 10.4% in 2024.
For solar, 32.8% in 2025 compared with 18.2% in 2024.
So curtailment for both has almost doubled in a single year. Meanwhile rooftops grabbed another 427GWh of November market share; increasing from 2796GWh to 3123GWh 03 17.3% of the market share.
So as all the heavy industry disappears, rooftops just take over and the wholesale market dries up.
And the fundamental that the guaranteed output of wind and solar being ZERO is often forgotten. All the available coal plants in the grid worked at capacity from 8pm to 10:30pm last night. At 5am, just before solar in QLD (6am) was noticeable, the 13.5GW of installed wind was pumping out just 3.2GW.
It does not matter how much wind is added, it will never be enough without 7 more Snowy 2s or equivalent storage.
It is time to ask the question – Why is Australia destroying its economy in the vain hope of changing the weather?
230
Because the Blobsters of the Left know that destruction of the energy supply is the easiest way to destroy Western Civilisation. TRUMP is the only Western leader who understands this and is standing up to them. The Left benefit from the societal chaos that arises from the destruction of our standard living and chaos from economic collapse due to lack of energy.
How do they benefit?
Social unrest creates an opportunity to implement radical Left changes such as nationalisation and/or a shift away from capitalism, which would otherwise be politically infeasible.
120
Thanks for this RickWill.
For some more context, the total generated electricity that has been curtailed from both wind and solar power plants in the last year (the most recent 365 days to Midnight last night) comes in at 7,000GWH.
And to use wind generations own ‘explainer’, then that’s enough to power 1.2 Million homes for that year.
Tony.
140
The renewables madness is obvious to all the pro-science, pro-engineering, pro-reason people here, but remember that the Australian Sheeple keep voting for Labor and the so-called “Opposition” Liberal Party, fake conservatives, more or less agrees with the Official Narrative.
Their claim of abandoning Net Zero is only a postponement and they still believe in the BS and are still committed to Paris. It’s meaningless.
130
“Last week, the Australian Bureau of Statistics dropped the bomb that electricity costs were up 37%, foiling hopes of an interest rate cut.”
Is it any wonder then that Boofhead Bowen is getting out of town on the fastest horse he can find.
170
So we’ve known about the toxic W & S rubbish for decades and yet voters still want to support delusional pollies who believe toxic W & S + batteries are the answer.
Here’s a good quick online summary for the meaning of the word delusional……
“delusional “(adjective)
“characterized by or holding false beliefs or judgements about external reality that are held despite incontrovertible evidence to the contrary, as a symptom of serious mental illness:”
“hospitalization for schizophrenia and delusional paranoia””he was diagnosed with a delusional disorder”
“based on or having faulty judgement or perception; severely mistaken:
“their delusional belief in the project’s merits never wavers””I think the guy is being a bit delusional here”
90
BTW here’s a check on Aussie rainfall since 1900 to 2024 and yet delusional people still BELIEVE our rainfall today is worse than the earlier 20th century.
So why can’t they just look up the BOM data?
https://www.bom.gov.au/cgi-bin/climate/change/timeseries.cgi?graph=rranom&area=aus&season=0112&ave_yr=7&ave_period=6190
80
And NSW rainfall from 1900 to 1949 was a horror show, but delusional people today couldn’t care less about the data.
https://www.bom.gov.au/cgi-bin/climate/change/timeseries.cgi?graph=rranom&area=nsw&season=0112&ave_yr=7&ave_period=6190
70
Sometimes, boring old mundane statistics point out realities. (umm, that no one really cares about IMO)
What are we ‘really’ looking at when an attempt is made to explain what it is when we look at what coal fired power actually delivers?
Look at this, and this is a comparison between the State with the largest Nameplate for coal fired power, and wind power in its TOTALITY for the whole of Australia.
Queensland now has the largest Nameplate for coal fired power in Australia. This wonderful State I live in has EIGHT coal fired power plants, just 22 Units in total, with a Nameplate of 8200MW.
As a whole, in its totality, when it comes to wind generation, Australia, this wonderful Country I live in has 91 Industrial wind plants with around 3500+ turbines in total, with a Nameplate of 13,460MW.
Okay then, here’s what was delivered to the grid last year 2024.
Queensland coal fired power ….. 42869GWH.
Australia wind power ….. 28199GWH.
When it comes to the actual delivery of generated electricity to ‘run things’, (you know, like a Country) it looks to me suspiciously like the answer might be, umm, coal fired power.
And you can bet those 22 coal fired plants cost less than 91 Industrial wind plants, ….. and just on that ‘cheaper’ topic if eight coal fired plants (with only 60% of the Nameplate) deliver 52% MORE generated electricity than 91 Industrial wind plants, umm, how can wind be cheaper?
Maybe all of this needs to be mentioned in a National daily as well.
Tony.
PostScript – But hey, the power just comes out of the hole in the wall, doesn’t it?
300
Substitute eight for 22 after the text you can bet those….., d@mn, I should have seen that as I was proof reading it. (eyes work faster than the brain)
Tony.
120
It’s much worse than that. A coal power station has a 50 year life. A windmill about 10 – 12 years. Let’s say the coal plant has a 2,000 MW nameplate with a capacity factor of 65%. Let the average windmill be rated at 2.5 MW with a capacity factor of 25% and a lifespan of 12 years. Then for one coal power plant over 50 years, you require 2000 * 0.65 / (2.5 * 0.25 * 12 / 50) = 8,667 windmills. There are currently around 2,000 windmills installed in Australia. The unit cost replacement capital required for the equivalent of a coal plant in windmills is stratospheric.
60
Uber, you’re possibly a bit unfair on the lifetime estimates there, what if we were more generous to wind of a 2o year lifespan and coal less at 40 years? My guessimate, around 4000-4500 Windmills required?
Coal plants aren’t cheap to run and maintain, say 1-2 mil per year for labour and parts, ironically these cost don’t vary much regardless of how often the unit is run, and running them up /down, off /on is worse on wear ‘n’ tear than constant running. Labour costs are fairly fixed and go up with CPI, Parts and external services go up with inflation which is hurting a lot of budgets in the last few years. Fuel costs are relatively cheap for mine to mouth arrangements with most Aussie coal plants are.
10
Liddell: 52 years
Bayswater: 40 years and still going
Eraring: 41 years old and still going
Vales Point: 47 years old and still going
Nobody is saying a windmill will last 20 years. Coal plants are very cheap to run and maintain compared with any alternative.
00
Something I’ve been wondering about. If you cut synchronous generation out of the network, if you make the network mostly reliant on solar and wind, if, having removed all heavy loads (refineries, etc) from the network to force a lessened load to fit a dodgy network with less capacity, and if network infrastructure money is fleeing the country, how do you in the future add heavy loads back into the network? Or do you just say sorry, you’re Australia, you don’t do heavy loads?
160
Even Greta seems to have given up on the Climate bandwagon and has transferred her efforts to the ‘Palestian cause.’
Swedish professional protester Greta Thunberg on Sunday delivered a profanity-laced rant against Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and her “f**king fascist” government during a pro-Palestine rally in Rome.
60
Who cares?
The only problem I see as when she slides into violent delusion will the authorities take action.
90
The female? should be sectioned. What a nutter.
60
As a recent article pointed out
Two of the most powerful words in the English language are –
So what?”
00
This is exactly what Julia Gillard and every single journalist wanted for Australia. Mission accomplished.
30
So why are the Labor govt still lying to us and when will they stop?
This interview with Matt Canavan proves we can’t change anything about the climate even if we closed down all of our co2 emissions, or ditto Dr Finkel’s evidence.
See Matt Canavan pin down the correct answer in the Senate yesterday.
Note Matt also mentions the 7 to 9 TRILLION $ penalty we will all pay if we accept their lunacy of net Zero.
BTW note that the govt also admits that net zero is all BS and nonsense during a recent court case.
IOW they always lie to the voters, but tell the truth in court. Just unbelievable but true.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lISxiY5yyBU
50
It’s ridiculous that the previous inflation figures included the government rebates/subsidies on electricity. These were hiding the true cost of electricity and were masking the “true” inflation figures. Even the ABS inflation figures are not true or real, they are based on a small basket of items, and no one consumer spends just on a small basket of things.
Seems the government were gaming the inflation figures to make themselves look good, not that they’d ever do that. The true price of electricity should have been used to calculate the inflation figures for the past 3-6 months and not the rebated costs. The truth would not have been hidden, what were the real inflation figures over the past when we were getting these rebates?
70
The Marxists were only using Taxpayer/Borrowed money to reduce the cost of Electricity to the Consumer. Even that didn’t work.
Its all ‘Electrickery’.
Up 37% in cost to the Consumer in the one year to October 2025.
The CPI (Corrupted Price Index) is not a very good measure of Inflation for the Consumer.
Yes, the cheapest form of Electricity. LOL.
Back to School for you stoopid, corrupt ‘Pollies’ and then off to the Slammer you go anyway..
40
So that you’re not ‘powerless’ during the now more frequent blackouts, invest in a good inverter generator that will keep your house fully powered. One of the pro’s of an inverter generator is that the power is cleaner and more stable for sensitive equipment like computors.
NOTE:If you do decide to invest in a generator get a qualified electrician to install an an isolating switch in your power box for the generator input. This is called a generator changeover switch, which is a safety device that connects your home to either the utility grid or the generator, but not both at the same time. This prevents “back-feeding” power into the grid, which protects utility workers and your equipment.
Another safety must is not running the generator indoors or in a confined space because the generator will be powered by either petrol or diesel and the exhaust gases will be hazardous to health, possibly causting death by asphixiation.
70
We had our election neighbour wire a plug to our meter box with an over ride switch.All legal and legit.Power drops out wheel out the inverter Genny and away we go.8 hrs from a tank of fuel.Split system and electric oven exempt…too much current drawn.A great investment.
10
Dreams die hard. If you’re stubborn, delusional or stupid, this effect is magnified.
10