Victoria is the most densely populated state in Australia and, therefore, produces the nuttiest ideas. Most of them undoubtedly come out of Melbourne, a city of 4.9 million people that represents most of the Victoria citizenry.
That’s the way things work, it seems to me. The closer people live to each other, the more they think alike, and the more susceptible they are to the demonstrably false idea government knows best. That’s why I’ve always liked Robert Frost’s “good fences make good neighbors” line; it captures the necessity of thinking for yourself, which apparently doesn’t happen in Victoria where green political correctness is the rule of the day.
Here’s an example of what I mean:
Yes, according to Sky News Australia, the government of Victoria in far Southeast Australia, announced just last July that it will:
…phase out gas in new households from 2024. From January 2024, planning permits for new homes and residential subdivisions will only be granted for all-electric developments. Public buildings including schools and hospitals that have not yet reached the design stage, will immediately be required to connect to the electric network. The state government argues this will reduce emissions and energy bills.
This was pure idiocy, of course, but the Victoria government is as PC as it gets, as this Victoria government propaganda — the same plan Joe Biden is trying to impose on the U.S. — illustrates:
Due to global emissions, the impact of climate change will affect all of us. Global greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise when they need to be rapidly falling. And with the energy sector one of the biggest contributors to global emissions, the transition to clean, zero-emissions renewable sources is necessary.
The main source of Victoria’s emissions is burning fossil fuels – like coal, oil, and gas – for energy and transport.
In 2019, the energy sector accounted for 70% of Victoria’s emissions, while transport accounted for 25%.
Today, we still rely on coal for 60% of our electricity generation.
We recognise the urgency – a timely transition is crucial to limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees.
Our plan for change
We have nation-leading renewable energy and storage targets.
Victorian Renewable Energy Targets
25% by 2020 (achieved)
65% by 2030
95% by 2035.
Storage
at least 2.6 GW of energy storage capacity by 2030
at least 6.3 GW by 2035 - that's enough renewable energy to power around half of Victoria's current homes at their peak energy use.
How we are transitioning
The transition is happening all around us. We are seeing:
large-scale solar and wind farms and storage solutions, such as utility-scale batteries
the retirement of increasingly expensive and unreliable coal-fired power stations as we move away from fossil fuels
the pioneering of innovative energy sources, such as renewable hydrogen and offshore wind
a wave of electrification is seeing us move away from gas in our homes to take advantage of lower prices and deliver more climate-friendly energy efficient homes
new technologies that let people take control of their energy, such as rooftop solar, neighbourhood and household batteries and electric vehicles
the delivery of new and upgraded energy infrastructure around the state ensures our clean energy is available to all.
Acting now also presents a golden opportunity for all Victorians. It means:
jobs – both now and for future generations
economic development through new sectors
decentralisation of power – giving people more control over their energy and saving them money on their power bills simultaneously.
Along this journey, we will meaningfully engage with communities to bring the best ideas to the table – as we know that change must happen in a fair, safe and sustainable way.
And in the face of this period of rapid technological change in the energy sector, we’ll ensure our policy settings evolve to meet our objective of delivering a cleaner, cheaper and stronger energy system for all.
That line of BS was just updated last month and today Victoria’s natural gas reserves are dangerously due to the fact the wind isn’t blowing. Check out this video:
The discussion dances around the reason for the natural gas reserves being so low, but it’s there:
There's no doubt that it is a fragile and difficult supply environment due to a whole range of factors that have been in place in the Australian market for a couple of months now we're impacted by Russia's invasion of the Ukraine and that, in turn, has impacted uh global gas prices and availability and we're impacted domestically both by the fact that we've got a really cold winter snap happening at the moment and we've got some unexpected coal plant outages that are ongoing and that puts additional pressure on gas demand during a time when we're just not seeing a lot of renewable generation…
We think it'll be probably be pretty tight in the market through the rest of winter. We are in better shape than we were a few weeks ago and that's largely because a few coal units that were offline have now come back online but, really, during winter we tend not to see solar and wind help us out as much as we'd like them to. So, it's not going to be until the weather gets warmer and wind and solar pick up, that we'll see better stabilization. So, through till the end of September, we think it'll be reasonably tight…
And, here is the data showing how little solar and wind have contributed to meeting Victoria’s energy needs and much it has forced natural gas (and, especially, brown coal) to pick up the slack:
Notice that, on June 17-18, wind met only 1% of energy needs and solar only 4%, with storage accounting for almost nothing. Brown coal had to carry the day, but if Victoria had put the same effort into developing natural gas infrastructure and resources it could have reliably balanced the demand on brown coal without spending hugely and wastefully on wind and solar that only introduce unreliability into the system.
That unreliability is overwhelmingly evident in the data for three weeks earlier when wind supplied 49% of Victoria energy and solar 1%. Such a system is incredibly vulnerable and will always lead to blackouts and shortages at the worst possible time. That's obvious to anyone with half a brain and, of course, the infrastructure redundancy required can only lead to price escalations. Yet, this is exactly what the Obamabots controlling the Biden hologram are trying to impose on America. They don't care, though, what's happening in Victoria (or Texas for that matter) because they're on a mission on behalf of grifters and power-seekers everywhere.
#Victoria #Australia #EnergyTransition #NaturalGas #BrownCoal #Biden
Another example of clean energy thinking that shows proof of concept and scalability are formidable barriers to theoretical clean energy deployment.