By Jo Nova
Australia is supposed to be going hell for leather to install renewables in order to pretend it has a chance of making Labor’s 82% reduction in emissions target by 2030. Instead investors are running away:
Investors desert Australia’s renewable rollout at ‘critical juncture’
Mike Foley and Nick Toscano, Sydney Morning Herald
Investment in renewable projects collapsed by 50 per cent over the past year, wiping out $4 billion in spending on the rollout, compromising the Albanese government’s clean energy targets and spurring industry warnings that the delays could raise electricity bills.
It’s always a critical juncture for renewables isn’t it? It’s like that for things that serve no useful purpose and levitate on subsidies. Investors must bet on which way the political wind will blow, and last year, after the Trump win, renewable energy took a hit.
Financial commitments for new renewable generation projects fell to a 10-year low in 2025 of $4.4 billion, half the value of projects that reached financial close in 2024, according to the Clean Energy Council’s annual report, published on Tuesday.
Investors are fleeing because of all the usual reasons not to invest — there’s a glut of solar power at noon that curtails every kind of generator and makes prices so low they go negative. Manufacturing and transportation costs are lifting off. Added to that, all the new areas for wind and solar plants have no transmission lines built to them yet, and the farmers hate the proposed high voltage lines. Community resistance is organized and growing. Around the world skeptical governments are winning elections and the golden subsidy deals might vanish any day now.
Cue the next crazy plan where our Energy Minister thinks data centers will rescue his ludicrous target:
Energy Minister banks on data-centre boom to prop up flagging investment in renewables
By Perry Williams and Elizabeth Pike, The Australian
Energy Minister Chris Bowen has bet that Australia’s booming data-centre industry can reverse the slower-than-expected rollout of wind farms amid fears a slump in financing projects will result in Labor failing to hit its 2030 renewables target.
Data centres could help wind farm projects get off the ground as part of a proposed edict for operators to underwrite new renewable power supply and pay their full share of new grid connectivity, so costs are not passed on to consumers or businesses.
As if AI data centres would want to jump through all those Australian hoops and regressive taxes to make it happen here, when they can set up in the US where electricity is half the price?
The kind of dumb datacenters that serve up Netflix need to be near their customers because the lag times matter, but AI datacenters don’t because no one cares if their answer comes 500 milliseconds later. Australia could have been a master hub of AI development for the world if we wanted to burn our coal, gas, or uranium, instead, we pray to the Eco-Lords to attract datacentres for gaming or watching reruns of the Hunger Games so they might install a few more industrial wind parks, kill off some excess koalas, and cool us by zero degrees by 2100.
The fact that the Anti-energy Minister Chrissie “Blackout” Bowen thinks you can run a data centre (or anything) on intermittent power generators is further proof aa to why politicians shouldn’t be allowed to make engineering decisions. He just doesn’t have a clue.
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Couldn’t happen to a nicer Grubbnmnt.
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Bowen hasn’t been filled in on Elon’s plans…
With Starlink satellites connected to solar panel driven AI datacentres in orbit there won’t be any AI in Australia or non-AI in our gummints either!
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Bowen doesn’t know his a*se from his Albo.
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“With Starlink satellites connected to solar panel driven AI datacentres in orbit there won’t be any AI in Australia ”
In that case I’ll bet our Govt pours money into building them! If anything is a white elephant or a dead duck, the Govt will be all over it with billions to spend.
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It could have been worse. A few weeks ago a question on one of the afternoon quiz shows was, “who replaced Wayne Swan as treasurer?” The correct answer was Chris Bowen
10
Isn’t it the case, as pointed out by RickWill or TdeF, that many recent intermittent energy projects in Australia have secret deals that use taxpayer money to give them a guaranteed return on “investment”, even if they produce nothing?
And is investment even the right word? These are not legitimate business operations you invest in, their sole purpose is to harvest subsidies of one kind or another which ultimately come from suffering taxpayers. These operations are more like legalised criminal enterprises.
As Warren Buffet said:
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David,
the term that comes to my mind is “Fraud”.
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The emerging problem is the difficulty of providing a bankable estimate. Blackout’s guaranteed ROI is on the estimated cost (they are Build Own Operate (BOO) contracts). If the estimate is $500M but the final cost ends up at $1bn then the ROI is much worse than what was banked and agreed by government. The guaranteed payments may not even cover interest.
A good deal of the NetZero conference last December was devoted to land access and appeasing locals; termed community engagement. As if the locals could not smell a rat.
Look at the time and money that Southerly Ten has spent engaging the locals for their offshore wind farm:
https://southerlyten.com.au/
About half the money is coming from retirement funds. The rest from governments.
ON the matter of easy money – Blackout has set aside $150,000,000 of taxpayer money for his role as COP31 president. With any luck the UN will be out of money by the end of the year and the whole charade will be another flop.
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The ultimate “Go woke go broke” enterprise. It could not happen to a better bunch of crooks.
I still support the Nationals but I do give them lots of free advice. They must attack the amount of money being spent on renewables and compare that to the cost of new coal plants. It should not be too hard to add up the costs. Speaking in general terms will never work. Just saying that renewables are cheaper might convince the dumb and disinterested but to win them over they have to be told the real costs. They blew up the chimneys at Liddell yesterday and even if the station was replaced those would need to be removed. What cost to replace that power with wind and solar? Someone must have done the sums. I think it would cost over $100 billion with 20 year replacements and sufficient batteries plus additional transmission lines. A new coal plant would cost less than $5 billion and be on 24/7.
To me such revelations should shut down Chris Bowen’s ridiculous fantasy.
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That “community engagement” is now just plain old bribing. In central Victoria the Western Vic Renewable Link powerline has faced significant opposition from local farmers.
So, what does the government do? They setup a fund associated with the power link that community groups can apply to for funding for playgrounds, improvements to sporting facilities etc and then advertise via local radio. Grants up to $100k which buys a lot of sympathy if you’re a struggling club or charity.
It’s so deceitful.
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“About half the money is coming from retirement funds.”
I’m waiting to see a couple go broke, and just how much money the Govt will be willing to pour into them on the bargain of nationalising them. Then it will pay everyone the same amount from their super fund, averaged out over all of them, and sell the whole thing once again.
NZ did it with the Bank of NZ, poured in $1.3billion to ‘buy’ it and then sold it back in the 80s. Air NZ another one..
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Rick,
I cannot imagine what $150m could be spent on, let alone who would benefit, or whether there are better ways to spend such a sum.
I am starting to get repetition elbow from suggesting that our national legal industry needs to redefine, in clearer terms, what constitutes a criminal offence.
The act of securing a winning vote to politics is not to be taken as providing immunity from prosecution for violation of acts like fraud.
Geoff S
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I suspect you are talking about AEMO’s Capacity Investment Scheme:
https://www.dcceew.gov.au/energy/renewable/capacity-investment-scheme
This scheme was originally intended to guarantee a minimum amount of dispatchable power would be available on the grid. But instead of logically bidding for coal or gas generation, Dan Andrews asked for this scheme to be limited to renewables only.
Ignoring the stupidity of renewable power being considered dispatchable, the issue of “guaranteed return” was some specific wording in the contract provided with the first tender which talked about “shared volume risk”. As the article below indicates, this wording implied that the government was expected to pay out more if volumes fell below some agreed value, because of curtailment:
https://wattclarity.com.au/articles/2025/07/does-the-capacity-investment-scheme-cover-curtailment-risk-and-how-to-interpret-its-force-majeure-term/
That wording was quickly changed in the implementation design document, to ensure that any volume risk fell on the operators.
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Your link points out the opposite of that statement. This is the final paragraph:
I any case no one but the proponent and a few in government actually know the details of what has been agreed. Until I get to see a contract, I will continue to believe it is a guaranteed return on the project estimate.
In any case, the sovereign risk is mounting as ONP rides up in the polls. So no private firm or individual will be wanting anything that involves subsidies for wind and solar projects. Batteries can make money without the wind and solar for now.
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I don’t see the lack of “investment” in Australian subsidy-harvesting operations as a good thing (although it is in theory, of course).
This is Australia….
It just means the Government will increase taxpayer subsidies for the building and operation of these economy-destroying monstrosities.
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Have they yet given up on the lie that “renewables are the cheapest way to generate electricity”?
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So the 10% reduction in power prices scheduled for July, and according to AEMO all down to renewables would directly contradict your unsupported assertion
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If you triple the power prices due to “renewables” and then take off 10% you are still paying vastly more than what you would if we had a fully coal, gas, nuclear or real hydro grid mix.
(x X 3) X 0.9 = 2.7x
You are still paying 270% of what we should be.
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Still no attribution
03
And Peter, why aren’t renewables viable without massive subsidies and forced purchase arrangements?
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But renewables are the cheapest form of energy with mandated feed ins and forced purchase arrangements and the subsidies and because the ABC and Bowen say it’s so. So , Peter would you care to respond?
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It has nothing at all to do with unreliables.
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That’s Bowen giving us a band aid after he’s shot us in the foot.
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We are about to see huge increases in the fixed component of the power bill. This will vastly offset the price of the power.
The net bill is going up.
It would keep rising even if the power was free.
It will get to the point when no-one can afford the grid connection fee.
Just like housing. Add in all the taxes and suddenly there is a permanent housing crisis even if you increase the government mandated house builds.
Government will run out of other people’s money. Then net prices crash.
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I have a small solar and already the service component of the bill is more than double the electricity cost.
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AEMO is another grifting Government propaganda arm so you’d be a fool believing anything they say on unreliables and power prices. Their chief clown Daniel Westerman is another climate zealot like Bowen that has no place being in charge of Australia’s Energy market.
Also this headline in the Australian: ‘Electricity bill relief slashed as regulator backflips
Energy companies have successfully lobbied against steep electricity price cuts, forcing the regulator to reverse course and deliver far smaller savings to struggling households.“
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I saw the Peter Fitzroy comment yesterday, the first comment to the ABC and Guardian expose ….. Bubble Pops, and the first thing I thought of was ….. how come he gets to vote five times!
Tony.
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Jo neglects to mention that for Q1, renewables delivered 46.5% of National Electricity Market (NEM) generation.
Batteries are increasingly absorbing excess renewable energy during the day, more than tripled their daytime-to-evening energy shifting and delivering 1,115 MW into the evening peak.
Wholesale prices fell 12% from the previous year to $73/MWh, despite summer heat events.
https://www.energy.gov.au/news/renewables-surge-batteries-reshape-australias-grid
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Why would she mention that in an article about renewables investment dropping?
You should be happy she mentioned solar produces well in the middle of the day.
.
And yet here we are, 12:48pm, prime renewables time (because of the solar hit) and AEMO dashboard shows wind and solar producing just 18%.
Solar at 14%, battery 0%. Just 14% more than it will for all of the time 5pm to 8am at this time of year.
Last 24hrs – 21% (includes 2% battery)
Last 48hrs – 21% (includes 3% battery)
Last 3 months 27% (includes 2% battery) (hydro adds 7% to reach 34%)
Such a wonderful reliable system. /s
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What were the wholesale prices three years ago?
Or ten years ago.
Adjust for inflation and compare to current prices.
I also note that what matters to individuals and companies is the DELIVERED price not the wholesale price.
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“…for Q1, renewables delivered 46.5% of National Electricity Market (NEM) generation…”
Literally decades of “investment” in what we are told is the cheapest form of energy, and that’s all we have to show for it, aside from the highest electricity prices and lowest reliability we’ve ever had?
Why do you continue to defend the indefensible…?
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Yet more evidence that solar, wind, and batteries push down electricity bills for homes and business, despite the global fuel crisis.
https://reneweconomy.com.au/solar-wind-and-batteries-push-down-electricity-bills-for-homes-and-business-despite-global-fuel-crisis/
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What business?
We don’t make anything anymore.
00
Cherry well picked PF
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Peter,
I’ll bet your latest, greatest hero is the Sex Discrimination Minister!!
😵💫😵💫😵💫
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I recently heard Tom Koutsantonis, the SA ‘energy’ minister, again make the claim that renewables assisted by batteries are the cheapest method of generation.
He was arguing that SA needs more gas extraction as that would lower the price of gas generation, intimating that gas was the cause of high power prices.
Green logic escapes me:
– renewables require backup (as even the green luvvies know that the sun goes down at night and the wind does not always blow)
– add imposts on fossil fuel generation to raise their costs which impacts on selling price
– rely on gas generators for when renewables fail then castigate them for charging higher prices due to short periods of use
– if insufficient gas power then very expensive batteries are utilised – for even shorter periods and at even higher prices
– ignore that all generators are paid at the highest price (that is, batteries) but claim that gas is the cause of our high prices
– ignore the poles and wires costs of adding renewables spread over distant areas of the state
– ignore the guarantees of income paid to renewables, whether they produce or not
More gas will not make renewables more productive. It may lower gas prices but not by much, I suspect, as extractions costs also have to be repaid
If he said this in a parliament setting he would not be allowed to be called a liar, true or not
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The renewable energy boosters in SA are a bunch of hypocrites.
Love to boast when the minimally populated state with virtually no heavy industry runs on wind and solar for some short period. Usually via social media.
Then when someone suggests they cut off the interconnector to brown coal generated electricity from Victoria, they go suddenly stumpf.
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“Have they yet given up on the lie that “renewables are the cheapest way to generate electricity”?” ….Nope, idiot Bowen still says it at every opportunity and the dopey media parrot his every word like he is some wise messiah. But as Brian’s mum said, he’s not the messiah, he just a very naughty boy.
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Of course not. The CSIRO does admit that it never costed coal because they were not asked to. They had a limited number of options to compare, hydro, wind, solar, wind with solar, solar with batteries. Much like Bubba and his 101 ways of cooking shrimp; it was still shrimp.
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IMO, the future of data centers is orbital platforms rather than terrestrial sites. They can get 24-7-365 solar power without any atmospheric interference, don’t require any energy to cool them, and are a much friendlier environment for the eventual emergence of quantum computing (where temperatures near absolute zero and operating in vacuum are an advantage). That is a big part of Elon Musk’s vision for xAI and will provide a monstrous competitive advantage for the company (which is why he merged xAI into SpaceX … because SpaceX will be used to build out his orbital infrastructure). He’s already making plans for stuff that other companies won’t even think about doing for another decade or two. Which is why he’s going to be the world’s first trillionaire. He was already in the EV market before the EV craze hit, he was already in the space launch market before modern satellite networks got built out, he was already in the satellite internet business when everyone else was thinking in terms of fiberoptic cables, and now he’s going to change AI by building data centers in space.
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The energy consumed mightn’t be great but huge radiators are required for cooling which translates to higher launch costs due to weight and volume. Then the radiators have to be constantly moved to keep them edgewise to the sun.
However, I’m sure Elon will be successful.
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David, Elon Musk has a whole new silicon fabrication plant coming online (in the USA) with next gen processors that are far more efficient at AI than NVIDIA. Power requirements for these (he claims) will be orders of magnitude less.
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The future of AI data centres is bleak. As ESR ( yes, *THAT* ESR) notes, the future of AI is locally run, locally stored data,open model open weight AI agents.
The big AI players want to charge a monthly subscription fee to use their models and data centres, unfortunately their costs are already so high that any profitable subscription is far beyond even the means of large businesses.
Elon needs to maximise the value of the upcoming SpaceX IPO, and the AI bandwagon is an easy one for people to get on board with.
What he needs the cash for is a separate topic.
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One bout of space pinball and we will be very glad we have optical fibre cables.
30
Why do they keep yapping about toxic, unreliable W & S as clean and green?
W & S in Australia only generate for about 24% and 15% of every year and destroy our Eastern Aussie environment and kill thousands of birds and animals, so why are they referred to as clean and green?
We know Labor tells lies about everything and yet enough stupid voters still haven’t woken up to blackout Bowen, Albo and the rest of these crazy Labor donkeys.
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“critical juncture”. Boo hoo. Cry me a river, grifters. Imaging having to run a business without govt subsidies. Wow.
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Someone, anyone, please stick a pin in Renew Ecomedy’s balloon to stop them polluting my X feed with stories about how the renewable transition is going gangbusters and is the best thing since sliced butter. I don’t want to just block them, [Snip]
Oh, and by the way, with respect to finance drying up for renewables projects, don’t rule out the ominous introduction of “guaranteed returns” as Bowen and his gang of accomplices get more desperate to further smash the economy.
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[SNIP]
With Elbow at a 90+ Lower House seat number with a 50+ majority, and the addle-brained Greens to back him up in the Senate, it’s difficult to see any substantial change in the situation for yet another electoral cycle. ON may be able cause a sharper knife edge but keeping elected ON reps (either House) on target is akin to herding cats. Still, this is a hope.
The constant economic bleed imposed on the country is truly worrisome. And so far, less than 10% of the country’s energy consumption is covered, enormous ongoing tax subsidies included. Governments don’t go bankrupt in any normal sense. The country’s infrastructure simply falls apart, with increasing civic unrest following step by step.
Saying this adds little to any solution. Wishing “bankruptcy” to end a quite mad political impasse is not in the least desirable.
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What’s this [snip] business? Does a face full of potato salad really require censoring?
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“since sliced butter.”
Auto-infill maybe, or just to generate a chuckle?
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Just keep responding with a link to the lack of investment story. They will work out how to avoid you.
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Australia’s primary energy consumption in 2023/24 was recorded as 5976.7PJ:
https://www.energy.gov.au/energy-data/australian-energy-statistics/energy-consumption
The “renewable” component includes hydro, rooftops and biomass. Grid scale wind and solar contributed 55.7GWh in the past year:
https://explore.openelectricity.org.au/energy/nem/?range=1y&interval=1w&view=discrete-time&group=Detailed
That translates to 200PJ.
So the vast fortunes already spent on grid scale wind and solar has managed to produce approximately 3.3% of Australia’s primary energy while increasing wholesale electricity price 4-fold over the past 25 years since Howard introduced the Renewable Energy Theft.
Is it any wonder that households are taking advantage of the theft on offer similar to those being offered grid scale wind and solar to limit their exposure to the horrendous increase in electricity costs. In the past year, households produced 29.7GWh up from nothing just a decade ago and 12% increase in the past year.
The household sector is serving ALL the growth in electricity demand as the wholesale market volume continues to decline.
In the past week, grid wind and solar served just 18.7% of the total grid demand. So close to useless after spending massive fortunes.
The only “investors” willing to build wind and solar farms are those guaranteed an ROI on the estimated cost. The problem now is that estimating the cost is near impossible because there is so much resistance to turning productive farmland into industrial energy parks.
The greatest leader ever, POTUS Trump, was right when he told the UN General Assembly that countries pursuing the UN Climate Change™ hoax would impoverish their nations. Australia has done the easy part and managed just 3.3% from grid wind and solar at huge cost. Vast sums already wasted on dead ends like green hydrogen.
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Rick, what percentage of our total primary energy consumption is made up from our electricity consumption?
Is it 20% or 25% or….?
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Last year NEM and WA grid served 241electricity was 219.4TWh or 877PJ. That includes the AEMO estimate for rooftops but not rooftops off the grid nor subsidy free.
The result is 14.5% of the primary energy is from grids and subsidised rooftop electricity.
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Thanks Rick, but why are we told that electricity generation is about 20 to 25% of total primary energy consumption?
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Mines are using gas and diesel to generate electricity. I have only counted the grid electricity managed by AEMO which includes SWIS and NEM. There are northern grids in WA and also NT. Mt Isa is not yet connected to the NEM and there are other mining operations using gas or diesel to generate electricity. So it is a matter of how it is counted.
The total electricity could be 20% if all the isolated grids are counted. Where do you stop – Is a diesel-electric locomotive diesel or electricity.
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“Lies, damned lies, and statistics”
The legal definitions of words used in current laws would probably increase the text volume of the actual legal construct by a factor of ten?
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Yes. I believe the northern part of WA consumes around 2.5GW of power, more than SA. Most of this is derived from gas. Some industrial power stations are quite large – one is 500 MW.
This amount needs to be included in the total energy generated in Australia.
30
“So the vast fortunes already spent on grid scale wind and solar has managed to produce approximately 3.3% of Australia’s primary energy while increasing wholesale electricity price 4-fold over the past 25 years since Howard introduced the Renewable Energy Theft.”
Thanks Rick, I’ve been looking all over for that exact statement.
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But PF is excited by falling prices no matter from what plateau, and I am sure Lily D’Ambrosio is still on a room somewhere rocking back and foward repeatedly saying “downward pressure on prices”
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That’s a sure bet. It’s like banking on a prosthetic horse leg manufacturing boom to prop up three legged horse rehabilitation for the horse racing industry.
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It really is one of his more inane statements. Its troubling that he can even connect them in his fevered imagination.
30
Which said horse will then go on to out-perform Winx or Phar Lap!
20
Sorry, scrolling accidental touch on red.
00
Data centres won’t be viable if cheap power is only available for a few hours in the middle of the day.
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They’ll never work that out on their own.
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With the help of huge batteries they should get at least 30 minutes extra.
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AI model training isn’t time critical. You do that when there is surplus capacity.
Running the model and returning results might be. Depends who is asking and what the use case is. Anyone who want time critical processing won’t be putting data centres in Australia unless their clients are Australasian.
08
The (awkwardly named) AEMO NEM Connection Scorecard for March 2026 paints an equally grim picture.
https://www.aemo.com.au/-/media/files/electricity/nem/network_connections/connections-scorecard/2026/march-2026.pdf?rev=1b95a41bc277479e9832cdc9e361bf81&sc_lang=en&hash=C7865E97763DAB45B92186B2B25D80AC
The key takeaways:
Supposedly 64GW of new renewables in Bowen’s Pipeline. However 55GW+ of that are applications and expressions of interest by robber barons for a share of the tray of OPM.
In the financial year to March 2026, approximately 6GW of ‘renewables’ were actually commissioned:
– 3GW+ of this was battery storage – so not generation at all – totalling a magnificent 6GWh capacity. Half of that was grid following, so unavailable in case of a brownout. The other half was FCAS mining, so subsidised and eye-wateringly expensive when released.
– 2GW+ was renewable generation. Mainly wind, because investment in grid-scale solar has tanked because zero/negative pricing thanks to a daytime surplus of rooftop solar. At a 30% cf, this totals about 700MWh of theoretical daily supply – but mainly occurring during sunlit hours. (See also rooftop solar-induced zero/negative pricing.)
– A tiny proportion was gas. Investment in which tanked in 2024/25 due to oversupply crowding out the rich cream of the capped $20,300/MWh NEM shortfall rate.
The sunny uplands of ‘Too Cheap to Meter’ are receding.
But Bowen is still a deluded little tick.
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Here’s them blowing up the Liddell Power Station chimneys and presumably other infrastructure, unless the other explosions were just for show.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05-26/liddell-power-station-demolished-to-make-way-for-energy-hub/106699870
It’s tragic.
It’s Australia’s very own Nerobefehl, the “Nero decree” of the National Socialist dictator to destroy all German infrastructure as punishment of the people for losing the war.
What’s Albo/Bowen punishing us for?
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DM, I think the other explosions off to each side were water containers designed to make a spray of water to catch the dust, which sort of worked, I guess it was easier than setting up high pressure hoses and water sprays for the required few minutes of dust suppression.
Because he is also a delusional, maniacal dictator who wants to see the populous cowering to his every word.
81
Gazza,
Should that word be ‘populace’?
Geoff S
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Former Labor Cabinet Minister Joel Fitzgibbons former MP for Hunter yesterday criticised the demolition of Liddell Power Station and pointed out that all machinery can be replaced subject to cost-benefit analysis and needs, using the existing infrastructure.
Commenting separately Deputy Opposition Leader Matt Canavan also expressed concern about another loss of generator capacity and pointed out that replacement if necessary with latest ultra supercritical boiler technology would have been a good plan. And that if elected to government the Coalition will support building of new coal fired power stations, he also mentioned LNP QLD has lifted the future closure schedules introduced by the previous State Labor government for state owned coal fired power stations, last builds and youngest of the total interstate fleet are HELE.
The Morrison and following Dutton plan was for existing technologies to be retained without subsidies and penalties imposed and building some nuclear power stations and plants to replace lost generator capacity after demolition of coal fired power stations.
Another story yesterday the the AEMO draft report on lower wholesale electricity prices flowing to some retail customers was changed by the Minister to remove references to the power stations improved reliability (eg NSW Eraring has been reconditioned supported by NSW Labor and partly taxpayer funded, and since the owners have announced additional extension of years of operating) – including that power station generator top of all states QLD has the highest estimated price discount and SA with the highest renewables has the lowest of all states.
20
Clean renewable energy is a dirty lie. CO2 does not cause climate change, climate change causes CO2 change due to the inverse relation between temperature and CO2 water solubility. The cold polar regions are the CO2 sinks and the warm Equatorial zone is the source of atmospheric CO2 as it effervescences from the warm ocean surface.
Climate change is due to the continual change in the temperature differential between the Poles and the Equator driven by the variations in the intensity of the Sun’s radiation modulated by the location of the Moon. If the New Moon is overhead during day-light hours the temperature is lower due to the Moon passing between the Sun and the Earth. When the Full Moon occurs the temperature is higher as it is on the far side of the Earth from the Sun. The major temperature change is at the Equator because that is where the Sun is vertical or near vertical overhead while there is minimal temperature change at the Poles as the Sun’s radiation is at or near horizontal to the surface causing a continually changing temperature differential between the Poles and the Equator hence Climate Change.
The CO2 climate hoax has been promulgated by evil forces intent on taking over control of the World.
90
I was discussing rooftop solar with a group of old white men last Friday and used the term “Renewable Energy Theft”. They asked why I called it theft so went on to explain how it is a highly regressive mandated transfer of wealth to home owners with rooftop solar from those who do not own a home or have not put solar on their home.
The discussion then got on to correcting the injustice other than voting One Nation to render some form of retribution. So the idea of a class action came up.
The immorality of poor households paying money to wealthier households is clear to every reasonable person. Whether laws that guarantee that outcome are illegal is a different question. But there is a whole lot of spin around the RET being called a Target rather than Theft.
The immorality stems from legislation so governments are to blame for that. All grid scale subsidy harvesters have benefitted as well as rooftop solar owners. Copilot estimates that the total theft for both STCs and LGCs is now in the range $62-$72 billion. So not peanuts.
I wonder if any of the legal firms that specialise in class actions could be persuaded to have a tilt at this injustice. It may be that the legality could be attacked on grounds of discrimination.
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It may be that the legality could be attacked on grounds of discrimination.
The only problem here is that shortly thereafter, Albanese and Chalmers will be up on their hind legs explaining the trans-generational equity embodied in the exciting multi-billion dollar Solar Sharer Offer copayments to the discriminated.
The swine are waste deep in this.
71
Copilot indicates that there is no grounds for discrimination because wealth or lack there off is not a protected attribute.
If you could show that transgender men do not put solar panels on their roof then you might be able to mount a case on discrimination grounds. Transgender is a protected attribute like race, sex etc.
50
I had a long discussion with Copilot on the legality of the RET.
Discrimination is not a pathway because socio-economic circumstances is not a “protected attribute”
Copilot suggests that the likely legal foothold would be around the lack of any financial impact modelling that the Clean Energy Regulator has undertaken to assess the impact on poorer households.
This would give a clear target. From Copilot:
A class action could allege that the Clean Energy Regulator relied on unreasonable or outdated economic modelling when setting STC and LGC obligations, causing consumers—especially non‑solar, low‑income households—to bear disproportionate and unjustified costs. It would argue that the Regulator failed to consider relevant distributional impacts, resulting in an administratively unlawful burden that systematically disadvantaged a definable class of electricity consumers.
With a transfer payment now totalling $72bn, there should be a reasonable carrot. Taking this on now would be a godsend for One Nation because they are the only party untainted by the “renewables” hoax.
40
RW,
Taking this on now would be a godsend for One Nation because they are the only party untainted by the “renewables” hoax.
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It will be at least a decade before there is a new coal fired power station. The quickest way to reduce demand on the existing clapped out units is to install more household batteries.
The approach would be to run all coal flat out unless the demand was too low. No export from rooftop solar if coal is not at full capacity.
Grid wind and solar only used to charge dedicated batteries or if the demand is above what can be met by coal plant.
The aim is to force all generators to be scheduled.
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Gazza,
The legal objection being examined does not arise because people like or dislike solar. People are free to buy it if they wish, as with general items of commerce.
The objection deals with people who for reasons other than preference are unable to contemplate solar installation. Like those owners and renters in a multi-story high rise with a tiny roof.
Such people are not eligible for a government subsidy, but their taxes are used to fund the subsidy given to others.
What is being asked us that such non-starters be returned the dollars that have been taken and given to starters.
It is called equality.
Geoff S
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Support for Renewable Energy Projects
As Deputy Prime Minister, Barnaby Joyce actively supported several renewable energy initiatives, particularly in his electorate of New England. Notable projects include:
Project Name Type Capacity Expected Output Employment Impact
White Rock Solar Farm Solar 20 MW Approximately 46,000 MWh annually Up to 200 jobs during construction; 10 full-time positions over 20 years
White Rock Wind Farm Wind 175 MW Contributes to the national grid Part of a hybrid project with solar
Joyce emphasized the benefits of these projects, stating they would create jobs and help lower power prices by increasing energy supply.
Skepticism About Reliability
Despite his support for renewable energy, Joyce has expressed concerns regarding the reliability of these sources. He has suggested that renewable energy can lead to supply issues, indicating a belief that they may not always provide consistent power. This skepticism reflects a broader debate within Australian politics about the role of renewables in the energy mix.
Conclusion
Barnaby Joyce’s tenure as Deputy Prime Minister showcased a dual approach: advocating for renewable energy projects while also questioning their reliability. This complex stance highlights the ongoing discussions about energy policy in Australia.
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Both federal and state governments in Australia provide support for home solar and battery installations through various programs. These initiatives aim to encourage the adoption of renewable energy technologies.
Another example of Federation of States, areas of responsibility and powers
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Denis,
But the money comes partly from other people who, for various reasons, some beyond their control, are no eligible for subsidies. Geoff S
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Are you aware that the Albanese Labor Government has requested sovereign wealth Future Fund to invest in Renewable Energy Target and transition?
And the reason being that private sector investment has been declining.
Future Fund was established with $60 billion invested Howard Coalition Government period, Treasurer Costello later appointed to the Future Fund Board and it has paid all public service pension liabilities removing the funding provision from financial year budgets after 2008/09, Rudd Labor Government the first to benefit from the budget provision saving.
The Fund has grown reinvesting income after pensions have been paid and is now close to $300 billion of funds invested.
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The hand wringers at the SMH are upset. Things are going well.
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yarpos, Read the SMH comments section though, lots of pro renewables /climate cult followers attacking the “deniers”, that its all their fault… eg Qld Libs, O.N. Nationals, us logical people etc..
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