The totally off-topic thread

[cove]

Mal we would all want to chase that CC deal!

 

[feezable]

I wonder if I can invoice them for selling my IP?

However, it is great, youngest can do Pokemon, and I can do Ingress at the same locations. win win
Apparently the local park is full of people in tracksuits.
BTW, I have all the data and battery life solutions for anyone serious about the pokemons...

I am admitting to playing Pokémon go I have had great fun with my teenage boys this week and clocked up 30km walking, my eldest has done 66km in a combination of skating and walking.

I would love the battery solution, my my Samsung Note 4 drains at a rapid rate. I have put all obvious battery saving in place, any more help would be appreciated.

 

[amaroo]

I'll just leave this here...

An energy crisis in South Australia created by an over-reliance on untrustworthy and expensive wind and solar will force the state Labor government to seek greater access to cheaper coal-fired electricity from the eastern states.

This comes amid rising concern that federal renewable *energy targets will force other states down the path taken by South Australia, which has the highest and most variable energy prices in the national electricity grid.

South Australian Labor’s *admission that it needed urgent reform of the national energy market rules, so that in addition to upgrading connection with Victoria it also could tap into NSW baseload power, reveals the vulnerability of its reliance on *renewables. The last coal-fired power stations in South Australia closed in May.

Wind and solar make up more than 40 per cent of the state’s *energy mix under a green policy agenda driven by Labor, in power in South Australia since 2002.

The comments are worth a read


Nocookies | The Australian

 

[Pushka]

Dont get me started on our reliance on windmills that were stopped last week because it was too windy.

 

[love_the_life]

Ah Sunday morning - time for a rest? No chance. Been for a walk and coffee/breakfast with a friend, back home and we are having lunch guests so have made the chocolate coconut torte for dessert and a batch of crocodile crackers with fennel and sesame to serve with antipasto and the cheese. Just having a lovely cup of tea and then will put on the main (Arrosto Misto though am cheating and there are only 4 meats ).

 

[Pushka]

Collins Street a mass of Police for rally against the police violence in the US. Major Hotels barricaded - Hyatt and ilk. Good we are leaving now - later will be impossible.

And now road blocks because of US VP here. Hope we get to airport eventually. Cutting into lounge time here.

 

[whatmeworry]

Dont get me started on our reliance on windmills that were stopped last week because it was too windy.

83% of SA's power needs were meet by wind during the wild weather. ADL airport has just installed 1.17MW of rooftop solar bringing its total solar capacity to 1.28MW.

 

[Pushka]

83% of SA's power needs were meet by wind during the wild weather. ADL airport has just installed 1.17MW of rooftop solar bringing its total solar capacity to 1.28MW.

So what happened with BHP? Their power cost for one day was $2.5 mill prompting Koutsantonis approaching a private electricity provider to amp its production.

 

[whatmeworry]

Don't worry with all the major industry shutting down in SA, I am sure their will be plenty extra capacity.

 

[Pushka]

Don't worry with all the major industry shutting down in SA, I am sure their will be plenty extra capacity.

I am pleased you are sure but that isn't the reality. It is rather much agreed by industry leaders and consumer groups that we have embarked on a green strategy that is risky as it does not have the required back up and is too expensive.

 

[RAM]

I'll just leave this here...
SA wind power quotes...
The comments are worth a read

Nocookies | The Australian

Dont get me started on our reliance on windmills that were stopped last week because it was too windy.

The quotes are a little out of context.

For some strange (profit maximising to the extreme though) reason a certain near monopoly gas-fired power station operator decided to mothball its most efficient gas-fired power station completely (Pelican Point) and continue operating its least efficient gas-fired power stations - go figure?

One 'unfortunate' side effect is that it increases the profits for its remaining gas-fired power stations - who would have guessed?

So - comment on the inter-connector means that if upgraded one near-monopoly generator could not game the SA power consumer to increase their profits.

Gas power price was just as high when wind were producing near max and gas-fired production was very low, seems that they coincidentally decided to throttle back gas-fired production by more than the wind farms had increased production (quite predictable in power market terms). Seems there now needs to be a premium for gas-fired power produced in SA vs in Vic, or brown coal-fired in Vic at 1/5th the price.

Upgraded interconnect would stop SA producer holding the State to ransom.

Then again so could a State Govt if it wanted to.

Don't suppose a certain power company makes any political donations to one or more major political parties does it?

 

[RAM]

Equally OT question - is the Snowy Mountains Hydro Scheme producing "green" or "environmentally friendly" electricity or is it effectively one of the worst polluters there is?

 

[eastwest101]

83% of SA's power needs were meet by wind during the wild weather. ADL airport has just installed 1.17MW of rooftop solar bringing its total solar capacity to 1.28MW.

And what happened for the next few days after when all the wind stopped blowing, and it was overcast, cold and grey throughout SA and everyone turned their heaters on? The coal fired power plant in Port Augusta is currently shut down so no base load there, solar and wind didn't contribute much because they rely on the sun shining or the wind blowing, and as others have pointed out, the SA politicians went crying to the owner of the Pelican Point peak gas fired power generator and large SA based industries went into power saving mode. The interconnector to VIC was never built large enough, and even if it was the same weather system going through southeast australia would increase national power prices and reduce renewable supply there. Guess what the interconnector to VIC provides? Oh thats right - base load brown coal fired power generated in VIC and profiting the generators in VIC... so the SA government has effectively transferred money from SA power consumers to coal and gas fired generators in VIC.

 

[RooFlyer]

Equally OT question - is the Snowy Mountains Hydro Scheme producing "green" or "environmentally friendly" electricity or is it effectively one of the worst polluters there is?

Well, the Greens here in Tassie loath the renewable, base-load carbon free hydro power that usually services 80-odd% of this state's energy needs. Hydro would have supplied more but of course Bob Brown and his ilk stopped the construction of more carbon free, base-load renewable hydro energy schemes, such that now, when hydro isn't enough, we now rely on a tiny amount of wind, but mostly that nice brown-coal produced base load from Victoria (and other coal from elsewhere) to keep the wheels turning. Oh, and when the interconnector went down last spring, and we couldn't suck on that nice coal made electricity, they re-started the gas power station and brought in a whole heap of diesel gensets to get some electrons going.

Major win for Bob there.

But to answer your question - neither. The Greens will tell you that hydro is not environmentally friendly (its wonderful to see them squirm when asked whether renewable and carbon free energy is good or not) and it produces dreadful 'cold water pollution'. They do like wind power of course, notwithstanding it chops up lots of wedge tailed eagles and other coastal birds here. Solar is good they tell us, notwithstanding the energy and industrial processes required to produce the arrays. Geothermal is apparently bad, notwithstanding the Flannelled Fool is an investor.

 

[drron]

A much better bit of Bastille day in Paris-
[video=youtube_share;YaybI6dIE7k]https://youtu.be/YaybI6dIE7k[/video]

 

[drron]

And another with some good footage of the fly past at ~ 2 minutes
[video=youtube_share;wcb57lgibbE]https://youtu.be/wcb57lgibbE[/video]

 

[whatmeworry]

The quotes are a little out of context.

For some strange (profit maximising to the extreme though) reason a certain near monopoly gas-fired power station operator decided to mothball its most efficient gas-fired power station completely (Pelican Point) and continue operating its least efficient gas-fired power stations - go figure?

One 'unfortunate' side effect is that it increases the profits for its remaining gas-fired power stations - who would have guessed?

So - comment on the inter-connector means that if upgraded one near-monopoly generator could not game the SA power consumer to increase their profits.

Gas power price was just as high when wind were producing near max and gas-fired production was very low, seems that they coincidentally decided to throttle back gas-fired production by more than the wind farms had increased production (quite predictable in power market terms). Seems there now needs to be a premium for gas-fired power produced in SA vs in Vic, or brown coal-fired in Vic at 1/5th the price.

Upgraded interconnect would stop SA producer holding the State to ransom.

Then again so could a State Govt if it wanted to.

Don't suppose a certain power company makes any political donations to one or more major political parties does it?

Would I be correct in saying that most power utilities have been privatised across Australia?

How I see it, we have auctioned off vital public utilities such as power and telecommunications, simply for unproven political and economic ideologues and thus given away billions of dollars to faceless multi-national companies.

 

[RAM]

And what happened for the next few days after when all the wind stopped blowing, and it was overcast, cold and grey throughout SA and everyone turned their heaters on? The coal fired power plant in Port Augusta is currently shut down so no base load there, solar and wind didn't contribute much because they rely on the sun shining or the wind blowing, and as others have pointed out, the SA politicians went crying to the owner of the Pelican Point peak gas fired power generator and large SA based industries went into power saving mode. The interconnector to VIC was never built large enough, and even if it was the same weather system going through southeast australia would increase national power prices and reduce renewable supply there. Guess what the interconnector to VIC provides? Oh thats right - base load brown coal fired power generated in VIC and profiting the generators in VIC... so the SA government has effectively transferred money from SA power consumers to coal and gas fired generators in VIC.

Not really.

Does the owner of Pelican Point also own the lowest cost brown coal-fired power station Hazelwood? Two guesses...
Why were NSW's black coal fired power stations throttled back to 58% of capacity? Coincidentally they made greater profits at that production rate than they would have at 90% and the 'normal' power prices.

How does a State levy a tax when it cannot levy taxes?

A few points to consider:

1. The concentration of gas and coal-fired producers has increased significantly over the last few years.
2. The entire coal/gas producer lobby got caught out (Australia-wide) in claiming need for more capacity and more transmission capacity due to "consistent annual demand growth for electricity across all major demand blocks" - reality was total demand peaked 5-6 years ago.
3. Roof-top solar power has removed the previous 'mega' profit period from 11.30am to 2.30pm M-F.
4. Despite world gas prices dropping 78% - cost of gas to Aust domestic customers (us) went up. Last year in Qld gas prices actually went negative at the wholesale level for periods!
5. NSW electricity domestic prices are the most expensive in the world despite having the near lowest cost of supply (State owned black coal-fields or previously State owned).
6. NSW State Govt decided to enter into some 'interesting schemes' to get an up-front lump sum on coal mine sales with guaranteed above-market rates for future coal purchases. Made budgets look better at huge future cost to the State.

Australia-wide National Electricity Market report - not an SA problem alone...

"Spot electricity prices in the week to June 18 were more than double those for the same week of last year and at levels that must give enormous encouragement to those seeking to finance new renewable investment. That encouragement will be deepened by futures prices which are up 10% or about $5 MWh on the levels of 2-3 months ago. A NSW wind or solar farm is looking at base load futures price of $50 for three years, no negative correlation because wind and solar are still a small share of the market, and a LGC price of $83/MWh. At a total $130/MWh its astonishing we aren’t seeing daily announcements of new wind farms."

"At a price of $9/GJ, the short run marginal cost of gas generation jumps to between $70/MWh for the most efficient gas generators to more than $140/MWh for the most inefficient.

At that price, the Torrens gas generators that AGL operates in South Australia cost around $110/MWh to $120/MWh ro tun. But with gas prices at twice the price, the cost will likely be closer to $250/MWh.
That at least partially explains South Australia’s soaring electricity prices, particularly with one of the most country’s most efficient and cheapest gas generators, the Pelican Point plant, not operating. A spokesman for Pelican Point owner Engie said that “in the current market conditions, including high gas prices, Pelican Point is unable to capture value.”

That leaves essentially two suppliers, AGL and Origin Energy, in control of the market. At these prices, it means that alternatives such as solar towers with storage are an obvious and cheaper option."

Over the same period Engie's Hazelwood Brown coal-fired power station made super profits...

Swings and roundabouts - just a coincidence really!

 

[RAM]

Would I be correct in saying that most power utilities have been privatised across Australia?

How I see it, we have auctioned off vital public utilities such as power and telecommunications, simply for unproven political and economic ideologues and thus given away billions of dollars to faceless multi-national companies.

1) Depending on the state Yes and No.
2) Amazing what commissions these sales generate. Always interesting to see which State Govt MPs, Director Generals of associated deptartments etc turn up as paid lobbyists within days of leaving their previous roles.
3) Even more enlightening to look at the various shelf companies associated with financing some of the 'projects', and look at who the directors were for periods of say 1yr, or 2yrs or 3 years for example. Whether they were directors of more than one shelf company but say not the project they awarded to 'group X' but on an unrelated project that 'group X' got. Say on a Desal plant not a power station sale for example. 4 board meetings a year, meeting goes for 18 minutes & directors' fees are say $25,000 pa to say $65,000/year PER shelf company per director. Very lucrative - just not for consumers.

 

[Melburnian1]

Re: Army coup Turkey

As long as it is not a trigger for another group to have a go.

JessicaTam, you will achieve 'most esteemed status' when your postings count reaches 10000 so keep those keystrokes going...