[LINK] South Australia uses 100% solar and wind power for full week

[David]

On 2022-01-31 13:34, Roger Clarke wrote:
> Great as all of these developments are, it's best not to lapse into marketing-spruik.
> 
> It *might* be zero-marginal-cost.
> 
> But I'd be surprised if there aren't a few variable costs in there.
> 
> And of course original investment in infrastructure has to be 'paid off' [...]

To which I'd add the National Electricity Market (NEM) rules probably need critical review in the light of greenhouse warming and current "green" technology, together with all relevant State & Federal legislation and especially the tax rules.

At the moment it's probably not worth installing PV panels on an ordinary domestic rooftop unless one has a full-electric or plug-in hybrid car or in other special cases, and I don't think I'd connect it to the grid either since the feed-in tariff is negligible and the distributors want control..  (Are we going to find out the hard way about providing energy for Australia's growing fleet of electric vehicles, both private and light commercial?)  Even domestic hot water is probably cheaper using a conventional off-peak supply, and I've noticed my own is sometimes switched on during the day presumably to balance supply & demand.

IMO the "Snowy 2.0" scheme may prove to be an expensive, risky, and rather inefficient way of reducing our greenhouse load as pumped hydro can probably be done more effectively on a distributed basis using seawater where that's possible.

Melbourne Energy Institute at the University of Melbourne & Arup-MEI Research published a study of pumped-hydro generation which I forwarded to the appropriate SA Minister when the Government of the time appeared to be receiving the full blast of a misinformation campaign about the supposed "unreliability" of sun & wind when the "wind doesn't blow and the sun doesn't shine".  And this with pictures of transmission towers bent double after a gale!

It's a 99-page document, which includes cost modelling.  It also includes a map of possible small scale pumped hydro installations using sea water around the Eyre & Yorke Peninsulas, following inspection of such an installation in Japan.  I see the original has been archived, but I should be able to find my copy if anyone's interested.

All the best to Linkers for 2022!
David Lochrin

(PS: I apologise for my previous post, sent in error.  Link Moderator, would you please delete it?)