Inconvenient truth about renewables and batteries is they aren’t cheap
Cheap renewables chilling out fossil fuels. Cole Latimer, The Sydney Morning Herald, March 30:
The rapidly falling cost of renewable energy and batteries is “chilling” for the future of the fossil fuels sector …
Yes, cheap. Greenpeace ReachTel poll question, August 6:
Do you agree or disagree … (that) “the best way for the government to ensure low-cost reliable electricity supply is to invest in renewables, along with dispatchable storage solutions like batteries?”
■ Strongly agree/agree — 66.7 per cent
■ Strongly disagree/disagree — 28.2 per cent
■ Don’t know/unsure — 5.2 per cent
Not-so-cheap wind put on ice. Joshua Rhodes, Forbes, August 1:
The biggest (2000MW) wind farm in the US (has been cancelled) … (the subsidised cost) was estimated to be below $19/MWh. That is very, very low … (but not as low as the marginal cost of power from) a natural gas plant burning cheap gas … gas prices below $5/MMBTU … (are forecast) all the way to 2050 … (and could go as low as) $3 … (This) would keep electricity prices between $25 (and) $40/MWh … the full cost of wind power would have been $36/MWh … a tough sell to anyone in this market.
Cheap battery? James Temple, MIT Technology Review, July 2:
(California may build) the world’s largest lithium-ion battery … (three times the size of) Tesla’s 100-megawatt battery array in South Australia … But there’s a problem … These batteries are far too expensive and don’t last nearly long enough … experts say … (California has a 50 per cent clean energy target) by 2020, and … (may raise it to) 100 per cent by 2045 … (requiring) 36.3 million (megawatt-hours of energy storage, driving) up costs … from $49 per megawatt-hour … at 50 per cent to $1612 at 100 per cent … says Steve Brick, a senior advisor for the Clean Air Task Force … “Is there any way the public would stand for that?” … And that’s assuming lithium-ion batteries will cost roughly a third what they do now … Meeting 80 per cent of US electricity demand with wind and solar would require … (a battery costing) more than $2.5 trillion.
Chilling case of cold killing cold-case killer who came in from the cold. Associated Press, August 6:
A man who jumped out of a freezer … with a knife … and then died was a suspected cold-case killer …
Two laws for two countries! Amos Aikman, The Australian, August 4:
Galarrwuy Yunupingu … (wants) governments to hand Australia back … (He said a council of Yolngu elders) had agreed to “tell the government what Captain Cook did was wrong. It was a wrong law, it was a wrong takeover, and it must be given back to the landowners” … (Nigel) Scullion described his meeting … as a conference between two governments … Djunga Djunga Yunupingu … said (we want) two laws, two peoples, two countries.
Three laws for two countries. Josh Robertson, abc.net.au, August 3:
Traditional owners fighting Adani’s proposed Carmichael mine … have urged the United Nations to urgently intervene … mine opponents accuse Australia of “serious violations” of a UN convention …
Bring back sorcery? Australian Law Reform Commission, June 12, 1986:
Aboriginal traditional punishments … (include): death … directly inflicted or by “sorcery” … spearing … burning the hair from the wrongdoer’s body … “duelling” with spears, boomerangs or fighting sticks … shaming or public ridicule … compensation … through adoption or marriage.