Author. Journalist. Notable troll magnet. President of the Extreme Centre Party.
Sydney
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My new book, The Race to the Top of the World, is out this October. It’s the epic true story of George Mallory and Edmund Hillary and the quest to be the first to summit Everest. You can pre-order your copy here: geni.us/RaceToTheTopOfTheWor…
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Look up Hinckley or Hinkley nuclear power station in the UK, and tell us how that is working out for them. Can you report back?
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Yes, precisely. Going to nuclear now, from a standing start, simply ludicrous. Even Dutton backed well away from it, before last election it was such a clear electoral turn-off.
We're about 20 years to late for nuclear. If they did decide to go nuclear what's going to cover the gap once our coal power stations go off-line? Plus energy companies want a product that's quick to build and cheaper to maintain to maximise profits.
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Great, M8. If that theory holds, why did China last year have 83% of their new energy systems at renewables. They run their own whole show.
Do you accept this blows your entire argument out of the water?
Christo is right.
Solar and wind are driven by incentives created by governments. Governments created those incentives with political favour because it served them politically.
Self interest groups and producers are benefactors of the political favour. That incentivises them to continue arguing and lobbying for more favour.
Consumers participate in the electricity market, but their choices are constrained because Gov policy changes the relative prices, risks and availability of competing forms of generation.
Remove the distortions and see what a more free market chooses.
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Spell it out Jason. What he told me is entirely consistent with what you see endlessly reported here. People put in solar, and batteries, and power their electric vehicles with no further cost for power bills. In his case he drives the Uber for six hours a day, 5 days a week.
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Sure, Christo. And the hundreds of millions of people all over the world who are doing this, have got it wrong. And you have got it right.
Does that actually sound likely to you?
Except its not free, its the cost of the hardware and installation amortised over time until it needs to be replaced. I am not sure people are pricing in whole of cycle including disposing of panels at the end of their useful life when they work out the economics
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Why would be bother lying to me? I can only tell you what he said. Had a new Tesla, which be bought for $79K. Put in solar and batteries for $17K. Told me he drives for free, and sells back to the grid.
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look it up. About five times more expensive. Takes forever to build. Enormous cost blowouts. Shocking problem with what to do with spent fuel. Very heavy water use. Needs extraordinary expertise, on site, all the time.
Aren't all these things obvious to you?
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M8.
THink about it. Why would both major parties deliberately hobble coal?
Does that dinkum sound likely?
And if the Libs were in on this conspiracy, why would they now be doing everything possible to extend coal?
You get how LUDICROUS this is?
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Interesting. I booked a flight to Auckland, return, yesterday for the Bledisloe. Burned 120,000 odd points on Qantas, topped up $278.
Flying from Christchurch. The flight prices double what they normally would be because of Wahs mania thinking they could be in the GF. Hotel prices also more this year and the NRL have put the GF tickets up also for semi decent family tickets.
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Seriously? $6K to go to Grand Final? Are you flying from a long way away?
I would love to read that column but I too cheap to pay. I am pissed though paying 6k for the GF experience with my 2 teenage daughters who mainly care about the entertainment and now they are messing it up for us.
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It is seriously weird.
There are many matters worthy of debate.
The idea that renewable energy is far cheaper than fossil fuel system is not one of them.
And the idea that nuclear, which still turns on boiling water - no, seriously - is the answer, is just absurd.
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Does it sound likely to you that the Liberal Party - in power for 21 of the last 30 years - would be a party to that deliberate hobbling of coal?
The situation with coal fired power plants was wholly created by government, intentionally.
Gov decided it wanted solar and wind so Gov hobbled the cheapest, most reliable technology.
Without gov, we would still be enjoying electricity among the worlds cheapest.
#auspol #ausecon @LibertariansAus #ausgov @AustralianLabor @LiberalAus @OneNationAus
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Deano, dinkum. You can say science is not settled, but the economics certainly are.
If you can accept that globally, new energy systems installed are about 90 % renewables, what else is there to say?
"Coal is actually cheaper, but subsidies tilt it to renewables."?
SERIOUSLY??
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Deano, u've got to get yr head round this. Our whole infrastructure of coal fired power stations is falling apart. Maintenance costs are going up. They have to be replaced. That, & privatisation, has caused bills to rise.
To replace them, renewables FAR cheaper.
No way round it.
But for most Aussies, their energy bills have risen, this impacts businesses (and ultimately consumers) and the poorest households who can’t afford it
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Yesterday, my Uber driver was telling me how he had installed solar on his own roof, with batteries, and now fills his tank with sunshine every day for free, just as his entire house gets free power. Couldn't be happier. The revolution is well underway.
Our battery supplies us with electricity all night FREE. Solar & battery, water tanks & heatpump hot water. We are saving $3000 + per year.
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