By Ray Evans and Tom Quirk

The story of how a combination of green missionaries and vested interests have distorted and crippled the Australian electricity industry.

Evans and Quirk conclude:

“By 2020 annual electricity consumption in eastern Australia is estimated from NEMMCO data to be 347 Twh. If renewables are to provide 20 per cent, and no new hydro is to be permitted, electricity production from wind farms (or other renewable sources) must provide 53 TWh. Ignoring for the moment the insuperable problem of unpredictability, and assuming a Load Factor of 25 per cent, this will require a total of 27,000 MW of windmill capacity. Every bit of coastline, every mountain ridge, and much else that can be secured for windmills will have to be pressed into service to meet this target.

“The capital cost of wind power is considered to be $2000 per kW, and so an extra 26,000 MW will cost $52 billion. And back-up will be required. So in addition to new coal plant required to provide an additional 60 TWh, back-up generation of at least 23,400 MW will be required. All of this will have to be paid for by the electricity consumer. These numbers could not appear in any Commonwealth budget; no government could justify that sort of expenditure.

“On top of all this we have system stability problems created by widely dispersed power sources, spread over tens of thousands of square kilometres; whose output can vary dramatically as the wind gusts and dies down; that are connected to the main grid by long, weak transmission lines—a system operator’s nightmare. Such a transmission network, weak and unreliable as it will be, will cost at least $30 billion.”

For the full article see:

http://www.quadrant.org.au/magazine/issue/2009/3/the-high-price-of-PC-power

The Carbon Sense Coalition has called for an end to all subsidies, mandated markets and sweetheart pricing for solar and wind energy.

The Chairman of “Carbon Sense”, Mr Viv Forbes, said that current energy policies were harming the existing power industry and robbing taxpayers and electricity consumers.

Forbes continued: “It’s time to end the mollycoddling of wind and solar energy toys before this stupidity does irreversible damage to Australia’s electricity supply and costs.

“The mindless green dream of producing serious base load power from whimsical breezes and intermittent sunbeams has caused a halt to new low-cost coal power, a boom in expensive gas power, a national debate about nuclear power and has had no effect at all on global climate.”

More:

• The Critical Problem for Wind & Solar – Low Energy Density
• U.K. Carbon reduction scheme explained
• What Happened at Cancun?
• Carbon Tax is Back
• Feedback from a Reader

Read here: http://carbon-sense.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/green-power-generates-red-ink.pdf [PDF, 86 KB]

From The Viscount Monckton of Brenchley, Cancun, Mexico, Dec 9th, 2010

I usually add some gentle humor to these reports. Not today. Read this and weep. Notwithstanding the carefully-orchestrated propaganda to the effect that nothing much will be decided at the UN climate conference here in Cancun, the decisions to be made here this week signal nothing less than the abdication of the West. The governing class in what was once proudly known as the Free World is silently, casually letting go of liberty, prosperity, and even democracy itself. No one in the mainstream media will tell you this, not so much because they do not see as because they do not bl**dy care.

Complete article: http://carbon-sense.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/monckton-cancun.pdf [PDF, 53 KB]

The Carbon Sense Coalition today said that Australia must not renew its Kyoto Agreement. The Chairman of “Carbon Sense”, Mr Viv Forbes, said that the current failing agreement was signed without due diligence by Kevin Rudd and should be referred to as “Rudd’s Folly”.

Forbes continued:

“Appropriately, the death notice for the Kyoto mis-adventure was posted by Japan, the birthplace of Kyoto, when their representative at Cancun Resort announced:

“Japan will not inscribe its target under the Kyoto protocol on any conditions or under any circumstances.”

“Thus the four biggest economies in our region (USA, China, Japan and India) will not sign; nor will Australia’s big competitors in Brazil (iron and beef), Indonesia (coal), Chile (copper) or Canada (wheat).

“If Australia is foolish enough to renew its Kyoto liabilities it will find itself isolated in the Pacific with only gullible Kiwis and faraway Europeans for company.

More, and these other topics:

• Wind Power Lessons from Germany
• No Warming for 15 years
• How Much More Global Warming?

are here: http://carbon-sense.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/no-rerun-kyoto-folly.pdf [PDF, 58 KB]

Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin has told German businessmen that they may have to rely on Russian firewood for heating if they do not want to construct new nuclear power plants or bring in Russian gas supplies. At a business conference organized in Berlin by the German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung, Putin recognised that “the German public does not like the nuclear power industry for some reason.” He continued: “But I cannot understand what fuel you will take for heating. You do not want gas, you do not develop the nuclear power industry, so you will heat with firewood?” Putin then noted, “You will have to go to Siberia to buy the firewood there,” as Europeans “do not even have firewood.”

World Nuclear News
1 Dec 2010

www.world-nuclear-news.org/newsarticle.aspx?id=28907

“The madness of the Government’s new carbon tax is that New Zealanders will be the only people in the world paying it. It will drive up the costs of living and undermine the competitiveness of New Zealand business for negligible environmental gain.”

– Nick Smith, Opposition Leader NZ, Parliament November 25, 2005.

Exactly four years later, on November 25, 2009,that the same Nick Smith, now a government minister, made this ‘madness’ law in New Zealand.

The Independent, 20 March 2000:

Snow is starting to disappear from our lives. According to Dr David Viner, a senior research scientist at the climatic research unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia, within a few years winter snowfall will become “a very rare and exciting event”. “Children just aren’t going to know what snow is,” he said.

Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/snowfalls-are-now-just-a-thing-of-the-past-724017.html

The Daily Telegraph, 29 November 2010:

Britain is shivering in record-breaking cold weather for November despite data from the Met Office that we could be in for an unusually dry and mild winter.

The Carbon Sense Coalition today called on Global Warming Minister Combet to conserve carbon fuel by not attending the “Last Fling of the Thermophobics at Cancun”.

The Chairman of “Carbon Sense”, Mr Viv Forbes, said that to waste any more tax dollars or tonnes of carbon on this stupidity was an obscene extravagance.

“For 20 years now the thermophobics of the IPCC have been trying to shock us with dire threats of global warming.

“But if they are so scared of warmth why do they go to places like Cancun for their annual
office party?

“Cancun is a lovely tropical beach resort – warm weather, azure seas, white sugary beaches, great reefs and fish, amazing lagoons, a whole strip of massive resorts and cocktails by the pool. Definitely not a hardship location – perhaps they realize their party is coming to an end and want to have some fun before they are pushed off the gravy train?

“If they really want to cure their thermophobia they should have their next conclave in Archangel or Murmansk. And it should be supplied only with wind and solar power. Let them see and feel the deathly grip of darkness and ice.

“Maybe they would learn that life has nothing to fear from warmth or moist air richly laden with the gas of life, carbon dioxide.

“What we all need to fear is a frigid, dry and carbon deficient atmosphere and the remorseless advance of silent, sterile, life-extinguishing ice.”

More: http://carbon-sense.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/last-fling-thermophobics.pdf [PDF, 218 KB]

“The fact that an opinion is widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widespread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible.”

Bertrand Russell

My car operates on ethanol made from corn. My car produces CO2 but it is
“ethanol CO2” so that’s OK. The ethanol production is subsidised by the
government.

I have a cow. I feed it corn. But now I will have to pay tax on the
CO2/methane the cow produces from the corn.

Why are cows discriminated against?

Read more: http://carbon-sense.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/cows-cars-and-ethanol.pdf [PDF, 142 KB]