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So.why can these countries use renewables to produce their power? If wind and solar are so ****, why is it doing so well in Europe?
I realise some of these use geothermal production that we couldn't here
12 Countries Leading the Way in Renewable Energy
They have better leaders who make rational decisions based on science, not ideology.
Didn’t realise you lot where that keen on Trump
Ha! As if...
Maybe if the maintenance had been kept up on the coal plants, the turbines wouldn't have been off-line?Quote:
Originally Posted by DiscoMick
The simple fact is that the renewable energy inputs into the grid are not currently sufficient to meet the demands. I believe the article states that around 40% of the states power is being met by renewables. They still need the coal-powered stations.
Failing to maintain these simply because they are unpopular, is typical of the wooly headed thinking that pervades all levels of government these days.
I Agree[thumbsupbig]Quote:
Originally Posted by donh54
I have NO problem whatsoever with ALL of our power needs coming from renewables But until we have enough renewable power and it is 100% reliable it is insanity to shut down/not maintain our coal and gas power plants.
The coal power stations were found to be so clapped out the owners themselves, such as AGL, don't think it's worth upgrading them, which would only be temporary anyway.
Gas is replacing coal and renewables plus batteries is going up rapidly. The horse has bolted.
Correct, that's why Hazelwood was closed down. But I'm interested to know who it was that let maintenance slip ....Quote:
Originally Posted by DiscoMick
Hazelwood was already decades beyond it’s designed life. First PLE (Plant life extension) was done in 1988 - when I was a first year Apprentice there. The next PLE would have basically been a total rebuild, which was due around 2020 I believe had it continued to operate. It was actually capable of more than it’s designed 1,600MW when it was shut down, previous upgrades had increased its capacity by nearly 10% over the years (mainly better cooling of the main alternators).Quote:
Originally Posted by Arapiles
I wasn’t against it being shut down, it was a rotten, bygone relic IMO but the problem was a lack of forethought about what should replace the 1,600MW hole in capacity when it was turned off - a hole we now know is still quite large...
While I agree coal is old news and we shouldn’t be building any more - with renewable capacity in Vic at such low levels, we are still looking at decades to fill the gap that would (and is) there if all the coal stations were shut down. They still make up 90% of the Eastern Seaboards power capacity - what you going to replace them with? Just in Vic alone, there is still around 4,000MW of coal stations. Turning 1,600 off has ****ed us, where would turning off more than twice that again put us?Quote:
Originally Posted by DiscoMick
Ideals are great, so is renewable energy and we need WAY more investment in this area, by orders of magnitude, but ideals won’t keep the lights on.
If we weren’t sitting in our hands waiting for someone else to make the decision, we could have had a nice shiny new Nuclear plant up and running by now to replace most of the coal in Vic which would have kept things ticking over while we caught up with renewables.
Now we’re stuck with coal for the foreseeable future...