It would have been smart to subsidise the use of solar on the edge of grid, Laverton, Kambalda ect thus reducing the I squared R losses in the extended grid on hot summer days when Aircon is at peak, but the wise ???? guru's decided to subsidise the city folk in the lower loss areas.

One really does wonder about the ability of the "thinkers" setting public policy.

ten or fifteen years ago in perth there was a drama since the doubling of the population had outstripped the storage of water.
everyone reduced their consumption of water as requested.
then there was a revenue shortfall in the water supply quango.
the water rates went up.

my son has been eyeing solar panels for some time waiting for the 80% drop in price to filter through. In Perth as far as we can see it hasn't changed.

the explanation for some suburbs showing huge uptake of the technology is that they are all being built from new. if you have a loan for an incomprehensibly large amount (typically half a million) to buy the home then adding the cost of solar still leaves the amount as incomprehensible. so they are doing it.

there was talk during the rebate scheme that some percentage of installations would actually never generate enough electricity to make up for the manufacturing costs. I wonder if that is still the case?
I'm not prejudiced against photo voltaics, I just wish the numbers were free of all the bulls**t and could be trusted.

the power generation qangos arent that financially viable. I wonder how much photovoltaics will cost us in increased support to the quangos?

Well, the solar lunacy has been around for long enuf to see. In Australia's case having a mining boom has hidden the sheer financial stupidity of solar and wind power. Hows it going overseas...

Spain caught the global warming stupidity in a big way. Massive investments in 'green' energy. The debt is climbing and they caint afford to pay for the solar subsidies, courts wont let 'em stop, so what do they do... TAX SUNLIGHT..:hmm:

Taxing Sunlight... No, I’m not kidding. Truly, idiocy has no bounds. In Spain, they appear to have actually done this, with fines up to 30 million Euros for non compliance.

Proving that idiocy truly has no bounds, Spain issued a "royal decree" taxing sunlight gatherers. The state threatens fines as much as 30 million euros for those who illegally gather sunlight without paying a tax.

The tax is just enough to make sure that homeowners cannot gather and store solar energy cheaper than state-sponsored providers...
continues...
Climate Craziness of the Week ? taxing sunlight | Watts Up With That?









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Benny Peiser: Europe Pulls The Plug On Its Green Future
Date: 09/08/13

Benny Peiser, The Australian

give us a sec, bludy phone will not let me do this in one hit

talking to the daughter today about her solar system.
the sunlight tax is already in place in west oz.
if you hook a solar system into the grid you automatically pay for power you use from the grid at a higher base rate to compensate.

she knows of people who have overcome this by building a battery storage room in the back yard and taking themselves totally off grid.
her friend who did this spent $50,000 on the installation.

makes me wonder what the actual economics of all that work to go off grid actually are over the lifetime of the installation.

Heres the link i think OZBUSDRIVER were trying to give...

Benny Peiser: Europe Pulls The Plug On Its Green Future | The Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF)

And Joanne Nova with some comments...

The price of moral-vanity: A catalogue of Green economic disaster unfolds across Europe « JoNova






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.........I cannot believe I am going to say this...........

Thank you, Binghi. That is exactly the link.

Something sticks in my mind from my school days. I put it down to conspiracy tripe. The story went that the US was intent in draining the oil out of the middle east to neutralize the threat of unstable states...they underestimated the size of the oil reserve. But now, seeing how that North America has supplied 40% of non-OPEC resources and shielded the world from oil price shocks from the unstable African states...makes you wonder on the truth.

Shale gas is a game changer for the US economy. I just wish that the idiots that think they run this country see the reality of losing sovereign control of our fuel stocks over the last three decades. Synfuels and coal seam gas need to be incorporated into our domestic needs rather than export for minuscule value adding. Power stations built with modern energy efficient processes would be a starter. Less emissions and extension of reserves are two ready pay offs from such a course of action.

Fashion Accessories
 

All the fashion accessories a guy like me needs



Climate Skeptic Products

my cap and cup are on the way

In true capitalist tradition, things that cost 50c to make in China being sold for $25 and $15 respectively! You've got to love it! :}

...oh I don't know 'bloggsy' I'm a bit 'skeptical' about that:E

Humans need to have a healthy amount of skepticism in order to keep the bastards honest here, Pollies being the biggest!

Man has been 'crapping' in his own nest since he crawled out of the swamp so it was inevitable that from the swamp all the way thru the industrial revolution to now the 21 century that we would come to this, an environment that has changed since day one & will most likely continue to change long after the human race has snuffed itself out!!!
The world turns & is still evolving & we the animal kingdom have such a small input to that it's infinitesimal in the scheme of things so arguing over who has or owns the most flees on a dogs back is insignificant!


Wmk2

touche
 

touche Capn Bloggs


this is why our society is in such deep trouble

Off the grid
 

We have been off the grid for about 10 years. I worked it out that it costs us around $800 per year, that covers petrol for backup gen on cloudy days, replacement of equipment over 30 years (batteries 15yrs, inverter 20yrs and panels 30yrs). We use on average 5.5 kw/h per day, so going on current prices we are about $140 per year better off, but we saved $30,000 in the beginning, as it would have cost $63,000 to get the power on and our solar system (1.9kw of panels) with gov. Rebate cost 32,000. Benefits are no power outages, no poles through paddock, negatives are maintaining batteries and gen and if something does fail then it could take a few days to get new parts.
I reckon if the power is nearby, go on the grid but if you are out in the country, with today's technology, remote power systems can be almost maint. Free and cost effective.

Of course the rest of us are paying for that $30k.:hmm:

30k upfront as opposed to the ongoing cost of maintaining the lines, burden on the grid of transmission loss etc.

Where is the 30k? I think Dexta is saying thats what he saved to be completely off grid, there is no maintanence for lines etc as he doesnt have any. No one is paying for it he is and with some common sense I am guessing he is on a rural property a few kms from the nearest power lines.....and his ongoing power bill has averaged $800 a year. Which means off the grid options are not financially feasible now for residential properties but the gap will close...

Great example of edge of grid PV this is as good as it gets, and the subsidy for these edge of grid people is well worth the Government input which in my view is light on !!!!!!!!!!!!! lets lower the I square R losses in the grid.

Loss into the air is straight out of our pockets, the edge of grid PV is money in our pockets long term.

By using power from our panels during the day, we are in fact paying for power at the feed in tariff rate, in our case, $0.50Kw/hr.

I would much rather feed all the solar power we produce into the grid during the day at $0.50kw/h and buy power at night at off-peak rates to charge a battery bank that I could use during the day.

AoA is correct, quote to get a SWER line to edge of property, plus poles, plus transformer, plus cable to house, plus other charges was $63,000. We are at the end of the line on a property about 50k out of Adelaide. Our area is well known for blackouts and brownouts due to poor state of the infrastructure around here, so off grid solar has been cheaper (at no one else's expense) and more reliable. What peeves me off now is that you can get a grid connect system with twice the panels for less than a third of what it cost us.

http://www.thegwpf.org/content/uploa...ssil-fuels.pdf

good article!

Hmmm... an Australian investment fund may have been involved with a death threats incident..:ooh:

Wonder how it panned out...

(2012) Dutch pension fund PGGM is the under fire in Mexico because of its plans for a wind farm in the south of the country. Furious local farmers and fishermen are demanding that the project be abandoned...

...The atmosphere in the town has deteriorated steadily. Angry locals have sabotaged the construction of an access road, occupied the town hall and forced the mayor to flee. The protestors say they’ve had death threats from community leaders who are determined to see the project go ahead at all costs.

PGGM and the two other investors, the Mitsubishi Corporation and the Australian investment fund Macquarie admit that the conflict has intensified recently but are confident construction will continue.

Dutch wind farm in trouble in Mexico | Radio Netherlands Worldwide






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