The whole world is looking at ways to meet their Paris Agreement Pledge and being emission neutral by 2050.
For a small state with no onshore or offshore opportunities for wind farms and very little area for solar arrays the answer is to invest in such facilities in other countries and import the resulting energy, either in the form of Electric power, or as Green Hydrogen.
Here is an example of the first:
Yes, we did have a thread about this earlier, but since that is old and would have been closed if I tried to revive it I started this new one with a wider scope for comments and discussion.
The big thing about hydro, and Norway is blessed, if you develop wind and solar it keeps the water in the dam and that is the best dammed battery there is. A long, long time ago whilst training In demolitions and sabotage we fitted a large hydro dam in the middle of the night for instructions on destroying the turbines using the minimum of explosive charges. This was before computers and it was fascinating to see how the operators responded to a changing load. The All Blacks rugby team were playing England in England and back then you listened to the game on the radio in the middle of the night. At half time the listening audience rose as one and switched on the kettle to brew a cup of tea. As the load came on the duty operator tweaked the controls on the gates keeping the frequency steady.
Near the Krafla geothermal-energy plant in Iceland, scientists drilled down to magma, creating the most powerful geothermal well in the world.Photograph by Claire-Lise Havet / Hans Lucas / Redux
Pretty much all geo-thermal projects so far in Australia have failed. Thankfully they waste far less than other stupid boondoggles such as pumped hydro, solar and wind.
I smile at the hypocrisy and stupidity of the Australian Federal government currently driving their Net Zero agenda.
The aim is to decommission all 18 coal fired power stations providing 22Gw of base load and replace this capacity with 100% renewable energy comprising mostly of wind and solar. If you were replacing with wind alone it would require approximately 9000 units. Our emissions amount to 0.98% of the global total. In the meantime it is perfectly acceptable for this pontificating and woke government to continue exporting 330 million tonnes of coal and in excess of 80 million tonnes of LNG whilst shutting down our existing base-load without any consideration towards nuclear power generation. We do not have the capacity for hydro like Norway. One of our customers for our coal is China who currently consume 4.3 billion tonnes of coal pa via, in excess of 1900 coal fired power stations, creating 34% of global emissions.
Idealistic stupidity at it’s finest.
Are the “pumped hydro” you are referring to the Snowy Mt. Hydro?:
This project was built 1950 - 72, to a large extent by foreign labourer and with foreign equipment and expertise:
Lots of Norwegians and Finnish workers spent weeks and months up in the Snowy Mountains, followed by a short break in Sydney (mostly spent in and around Kings Cross):
More details and facts for those who are interested in such things:
I think that most of the workers in the Snowy Mountain Project were Italian. Lots came here to build the 800mW Manapouri Power project. If you ever get a chance to see it it’s impressive. The generator hall is carved out of granite 600 metres underground.
Bugge,
These quoted figures are absolute bullshit and irrelevant.
Population figures….
Australia……27m…..
USA…………350m….
China………..1.5b…
India…………1.5b…
Now multiply your figures by my figures and tell me what the ACTUAL M.T/yr emissions are. This is what we need to discuss.
And for the record, existing hydro in this country supplies 6% of our current needs. We are currently attempting to construct Snowy Mountains 2 pumped hydro in NSW and it has been a disaster. Cost blowouts and significant delays have put it back 4 years.
A churlish response. Grow up and behave like an adult. BTW….it is 27m.
SM2 will provide 10% of the thermal base load that we are about to decommission. The Australian continent is 25 times the area covered by Norway and we are very dry. Hydro is a very isolated solution for us.
I also note that the Norwegian Government have not adopted a formal Net Zero policy yet have targets. They are smarter than the Australian Government because they know where their primary income is derived…..oil and gas. Technically a net zero policy should involve the consumption and export of fossil fuels. Australia is one of the largest exporters of gas and coal, yet this terminally stupid Government have declared a Net Zero policy. Do you understand the hypocrisy?
Explained? With no mention of costs? I wonder why? Starry eyed proponents guessed it would cost $2 billion. Now guesses are $30 billion. Who knows? For that money we could have built a dozen coal or gas fired units and not a single transmission line would be needed. All of them could generate new power at minuscule comparative cost. This from Wiki.
The Snowy 2.0 project, initially estimated to cost $2 billion, has faced significant cost overruns, with the latest estimates suggesting it could reach around $30 billion when all components are included. As of now, the project is expected to cost at least $12 billion and is scheduled for completion in December 2028.
Also not mentioned is the fact that this scheme doesn’t generate new electricity. It just wastes it to pump water uphill.
Simply remove the anti-CO2 mania, and there’s no justification whatsoever for this.
The world needs more atmospheric CO2, not less. Green is good, isn’t it? Could we spend $30 billion more productively?
