Renewable energy hits record 102.5% of entire grid demand in Australia

[@electricviking]

The best solar company in Australia just installed my new solar system. Check them out here: www.resinc.com.au/electricviking

[@robertn2951]

As a Canadian, I am a big fan of Australia becoming a world leader, maybe THE world leader on renewable energy. Sam, please give us more information about this.

[@thyristo]

You obviously don't know Norway nor China.

[@robertn2951]

@@thyristo Australia being a very sunny country, unlike Norway, could be a model for every African, Asian, Latin American country, and the very populous American States in the south, which Norway cannot. As per China, I don't believe any information coming out of that country, since it is led by a lying dictatorship.

[@seanlander9321]

@@thyristo China is a very long way behind, its growth of solar hasn’t reduced its emissions at all as it’s still building a coal fired power plant, each month. As for Norway, yeah good, but it’s a piddling example of a small country when Australia is a continent, and the only continent that will have majority renewable energy anytime soon.

[@bobwallace9753]

@@seanlander9321 China is installing a lot of renewable energy. They were building coal plants, but the plants they were building are supercritical coal plants which emit far less pollution per MWh produced. And that allowed them to close many thousands of inefficient coal plants.

[@SanePerson1]

@@seanlander9321 True, but the population of Australia is still only 27.4 million, somewhere between the populations of Florida and Texas.

[@markeh1971]

The best place for solar is on your own roof, no matter where you live. You own it, you use it, you stop paying big bills. Stop paying big bills! Get a battery or an EV if you want one and maximise your power use. Take care M.

[@ernest5171]

In Florida good luck getting insurance if you have solar panels on your roof

[@mervstash3692]

Or do what this weirdo did. Call a scam company that's based in another city, who just outsource it to an installer company in your town, charge you 5-10k more that what the local installer charges & pocket the difference.

[@laurensdehaan2202]

Kudos to them if they can insert the power into the grid into a stable and robust manner. Setting the example, Aussies 🙂; thanks for the encouragment!

[@SparkySho]

Battery

[@johndoe5061]

It's Elon who did it, not us Aussies... he fixed up South Australia's energy problems by offering a big battery for free if it didn't work... then when it worked, other battery installations were installed in Victoria. So thank Elon.

[@John-he9dj]

We already knew Australia has the most roof top solar of any country in the world , that’s why they are fitting SMART METERS on homes as they can turn your solar off like they do when the grid is under heavy demand at peak times , from 4 pm until 8 pm week days , 5:46

[@SanePerson1]

The amount of negative EV-renewable energy propaganda social media is remarkable. I saw a FB meme a couple of days ago with a guy having big poster on the tailgate of his pick-up: "I'm pro-pipeline; this truck doesn't run on fairy dust and unicorn farts." I was heartened when my comment got the most likes: "My vehicles literally run on sunshine." (I think the word 'sunshine' made it work, I was leaning into a hippie-dippie vibe.)

[@bobwallace9753]

You can be hippie without being dippie. Hippies were the ones who pushed racial, sexual, and gender equality. Concern for the planet. And peace. Hardly bad things.

[@bobwallace9753]

@myhome772 Electricity from someone else's solar farm is cheaper than gasoline from someone else's oil well.

[@philwelling7172]

The AI algorithms on social media are geared to show both highly supportive and highly against posts to you. If you keep engaging with the highly against posts you will see more of them.

[@dwainphillis6272]

DONT YOU GET IT HOW MANY MINERALS ARE USED IN A BETTERY AND YOUR SOLAR BS PANELS YOUR KILLING THE PLANET FOOL

[@evfactsnotliesplease]

As a dual national American Aussie I am saddened by the ingrained tribal ignorance that half of the US show towards renewable energy and EV's. It has become a tribal thing. Donald Trump, oil, and guns are good, Democrats, Windmills and EV's bad. They repeat the most insane and inane factually incorrect anti EV statements.

[@snappingclam8801]

The electricity generation figures for Australia as of 19:40 according to NEM Watch: total = 28,050 MW; black coal =12,103; brown coal = 4,373; gas = 4,228; liquid fuel = 52; other = 131; hydro = 4,145; wind = 2,049; large solar = 17; small solar = 384; and battery storage = 301. Not exactly a renewables triumph.

[@VH-gw3qi]

He’s a dreamer … and great at finding stats that suit his narrative

[@aussie405]

If you can afford it, private home batteries really help this work. They hold the excess solar output until later in the day. I am currently starting my ev charging at 3am in order to empty the house battery ready for the sun rise. Before 7.30am there is enough power from my panels to be both charging the car and beginning to recharge the house battery. I have not bought petrol or electricity for ages.

[@markeh1971]

Having a water spray system was what I was thinking for the house when I lived in Oz. Keep the trees and shrubs down and have a big water tank or pool to pump water to stop it burning. The family would go and I would stay. Diesel or petrol pump, power will go out! Take care M

[@aussie405]

I am in suburban Perth. A fire would need to get through a lot of homes before it got to me. In my situation there is no point in a PHEV. Almost all of my driving is local and twice per year a 250km trip to the country, easily accommodated by the over 400km range of the EV.

[@greghumphris174]

That was an inspirational video message. We are in NSW and have a 6.6kW of solar panels a 5kW inverter an EV, 13.5kwh of house battery and we still have energy to waste and a negative power bill from Amber Electric each month. I know someone who soon after installing solar, heard about the negative FiT that Austgrid was going to impose so he has turned off his solar.

[@philwelling7172]

Sam, don’t forget the contribution of Wind. A very compatible source of energy for Solar, as for when the sun doesn’t shine the wind will blow.

[@tonybloomfield5635]

The wind blows more in the daytime than the night. Check the facts.

[@dwainphillis6272]

STICK YOUR WIND

[@markeh1971]

For most people home power generation is best using solar. It’s passive and just works. For industrial, wind captures lots of energy going free. Combine it with big batteries and it will be a winner for power companies. It all plays a part. M.

[@TerryHickey-xt4mf]

Just did a trip to the UK in June, Blown (!) away with the amount of wind power there, even if you had to use binoculars to see a lot of it (offshore). Plus heaps of onshore stuff too. Quite spooky to be cruising along on one of their wonderful motorways, and suddenly see these gigantic blades suddenly appear above the trees ahead of you! sort of a 'war of the worlds' effect until you get used to it.

[@ryanchappell5962]

Grid stability is the main issue. Wind and solar cannot create that inertia effect. Batteries do an amazing job at this however as long as there are enough of them.

[@ThisHatterIsMad]

Publications like this are inspiring? YOU'RE inspiring, Sam. Keep the great work up, mate! 9:41

[@electricviking]

Thanks a ton!

[@juttley72]

cheers sam. here is some positive news. The last coal power plant is being closed down in the UK at the end of the month. Ratcliffe on sour power plant which is close to Nottingham is closing on the 30th September. This is 30 miles from me and I am happy that it is going. they plan to turn the site into a green renewable hub and make use of the existing connections into the grid. cheers John. ps, very jealous of your 26KW solar setup. My network operator has refused my applications to put in more than 8kw which is very frustrating. I have 210KW of batteries, with 3 EVs (2 Teslas and one Nissan leaf), plus a Tesla power wall so I can soak up all that energy, but the network says no. Now looking at setting up an off grid EV charger connected to solar panels as a way to get around the restriction.

[@seanlander9321]

The UK imports coal, gas, renewable and nuclear generated power from Europe, unlike Australia it hasn’t any energy independence.

[@MrEd2291]

Thanks! Will repost on New Progressive Alliance.

[@electricviking]

Enjoy!

[@hardi.howdy.983]

But, but... Australia exports the largest share of coal of any nation, at 54% of the total. Australia is the world's leading exporter of coking coal.

[@petterbirgersson4489]

Time to diversify and retrain.

[@thystaljaard7607]

Yes, getting rid of their problem.

[@stephenbrickwood1602]

They want to create an Australian uranium yellowcake export industry to replace coal exports.

[@jxmai7687]

Because China is closing all the dirtier coal mine and using Austrlia cleaner coal.

[@seanlander9321]

But, but, Australia absorbs more carbon and methane than it emits due to its vast land area and oceans.

[@peped6158]

Great work, so good to see a more positive and accurate narrative of how the energy market in Australia has changed. With around 33% of Oz households already having solar, and this only set to grow at least another 20%, curtailing energy may always be necessary. Although, with the 2 major pumped hydro projects and large scale batteries in construction, along with the uptake of household batteries installations growing, this is only going to help manage the peak imbalance. Before nay sayers start saying the sun doesn’t always shine, remember it’s always windy somewhere in Oz and the east coast peak evening is still the afternoon in WA. There is no reason why we wouldn’t be able to manage 100% renewable energy cheaply and even export excess to other countries. With the transition to EVs, less dependence on oil imports for ICE vehicles ie Australias energy security should be a national priority.

[@jimspc07]

Its strange to see solar in at 33% yet the coalition wants to rip it all out ( a dutton proclamation) for coal while they think about their nuclear plants in 15-20 years. Strange that these 33% must be voting for the Coalition and so will lose their pocket money or savings. Maybe they should not just think about there free energy from solar they should think about the cost of nuclear and associate that with why there are so few new plants being built. Hint! Something to do with cost. Also 33%, if attributed to political parties would mean that if all 33% voted following their own logic in installing solar would mean that the coalition would at the next election get 2-3% of the national vote. So all you solar panel people should really think about what the coalition is doing for you if elected and also the countries economy. You can only conclude it is nothing positive. Only more cost and corporate welfare for their mates with coalition approved (donating) businesses. But there again maybe Albo needs a kick up the rear as well for continuing his coalition LITE thinking and actions on what the ALP should be doing and what they were elected for. Damn, that leave Greens who shoot themselves in the foot on every platform they have.

[@davideyers9405]

The LNP never said they were scraping renewables. Nuclear is to boost base load back up. By the way my electricity bill has doubled in the last 4 years, so I don't see it getting cheaper anytime soon.

[@EVCurveFuturist]

Indeed good plan! Let's keep giving it to them~!

[@markapplejohn4376]

To preface I am Canadian so I have "no dog in the fight" so to speak about what is going on in Australia. Fantastic about how quickly Aus is going to renewable energy. However, it is disturbing about the switch to nuclear in 10 years and the curtailment of solar/wind. Sounds like Australians are being set up to be beholden to Big Energy Companies which is a shame instead of energy independence and cheaper energy. Hope this changes.

[@zoransarin5411]

Australia is very unlikely to switch to nuclear. But the opposition party is using the nuclear policy lever to scare off the renewable industry and curtail their growth. If you look at the graph at 4:18, you will see Australia joins Taiwan, Poland and South Africa as one of the few countries to have installed less solar so far this year than the same time last year. The nuclear ploy is working

[@pixelmasque]

Amen❤

[@alberthartl8885]

Australia needs to start installing long duration batteries. Tesla batteries are great for grid stability but iron air (Form Energy) or nickel hydrogen (EnerVenue) batteries need to be part of the mix. You also need to upgrade your transmission system. TS Conductor has already sold out the factory they opened 14 months ago. But not to worry, they have already raised $60M US to build a second facility. Recabling with carbon fiber core is much cheaper than an entirely new transmission line.

[@bobwallace9753]

Maybe there are better batteries. But LFP cells should give 10k cycles before dropping to 80% capacity. Grid storage batteries will not get fully cycled every day, only peak demand periods will take storage really low. So assume an average of 50% withdrawal per day which means 20,000 cycles. 20,000 cycles / 365 days = 54.8 years. If you spread storage around the grid you lower then need for additional transmission. Transmission is designed for peak demand. That means there are lots of times when transmission is under used. Use that spare transmission to charge "neighborhood" storage and let that storage that is close to the consumer cover the peak.

[@autotech226]

Electricity prices are going up, way up everyday, faster than anyone expected. People won't be able to afford any power sources, soon. We need multiple energy sources, not just Electricity, but Gas, and Diesel are also needed. We shouldn't put all our Eggs in one basket.

[@TricoliciSerghei]

Such a bad comment.. You commenting on a different video? Did you watch it?

[@pixelmasque]

How do unit dwellers get solar?

[@memrjohnno]

Wonderful.

[@electricviking]

Thank you! Cheers!

[@robertveen2078]

Great to see a long form video. Not a fan of the short videos. Love your work and hope you and your family are doing well, especially your wife.

[@TheRealMrGordons]

I've got a decent solar system at home but only 15kwh storage because the battery prices were obscene. If I could get a 100kwh system I'd consider putting the house on batteries overnight to be more self sufficient in sunnier times. The biggest problem we have right now is energy storage. Solar panels keep getting better hopefully with hybrid cells coming soon for more efficiency. We just really need the definitive grid storage battery to emerge as a clear winner so we can really start making use of renewable energy

[@philwelling7172]

True, though batteries are now following the path of Solar in terms of price. I’m thinking of going off-grid some time in the 2030’s when you can buy 30kWh for around ~$2k

[@vernepavreal7296]

I’m in the same situation but I suspect the logical answer is to find someone who can Repurpose and EV battery for our home use they are mostly between 60 and 100 kWh batteries Cheers

[@bobwallace9753]

@@philwelling7172 Do some math. You may find that you'll be better off installing at a higher price, sooner. Start with how much you're likely to pay to the grid over the next ten years or so. Use what you paid over the last 12 months and figure in inflation. It's a simple spreadsheet project.

[@aaronsinspirationdaily4896]

@@bobwallace9753agreed and exactly what I did recently. Savings are higher than I projected. I had 4kW solar for 10 years, expanded to 10kW and added 12.8kWh solar. So, like you suggest, I’m using the gains from 10 years ago to accelerate the gains on the new battery and solar system expansion. Our CO2 per person in our house is now 25-30% below the average Australian (and us before install).

[@lindsayfox7206]

I don't think that the "definitive" battery storage exists. We need different types of battery for different uses. Ones like the current batteries being built such as hornsdale etc will be more expensive but required for grid stabilisation. They need millisecond response time and can output large amounts of power onto the grid if needed. Alternative solutions that have less energy density and/or slower response or constant output such as flow batteries will also be required. Pumped hydro for long term storage and large storage. Maybe compressed air or gravity batteries if the economics can be made to work.

[@roadblock2792]

Once implemented the next faze of longetivity and recycling of old equipment will start and create a whole new industry

[@AnthonyPenningsPhD]

Great ending! I agree. Just get the word out there. Fire has been invented again. Ignore at your own cost.

[@tomarmstrong1281]

And now the storage challenge has to be met and conquered.

[@ryanchappell5962]

EVs with LFP batteries adding synthetic inertia seems like a cool solution. The software side of that would be a challenge. Tesla could figure it out but their cars don’t support VTG and many of them aren’t LFP either.

[@nickk5009]

Why haven’t our power bills gone down then Mr Viking? Seems like it’s only benefitting people that have a house with a big enough roof to put solar panels on

[@zoransarin5411]

Could it be privatisation and the way the system has been cooked to ensure high spot prices which are gobbled up by gas during peak times? If government hadn't sold off the electricity generation and kept it as a public service, then the cost benefits of solar would flow to the consumer. This way a bigger profit flows to the producer. But the outcome is still the same. The more solar and less coal burned, the better it is for the planet

[@MightyCats2011]

Renewables is good. However your 102% is optimistic/misleading. I'm sure at 10AM-3PM renewables can be ~100%. But you can check the NEM at 7pm and throughout the night. Heaps of coal/gas still being burnt as only wind/hydro works at night. All the rooftop solar at 7pm= 0W

[@jondonnelly3]

Make hay when sun shines.

[@MightyCats2011]

@@jondonnelly3 Sure can get electricity when its sunny. However need lots of batteries otherwise excess electricity is discarded.

[@frankcoffey]

This is fantastic. Prove to the rest of the world what is possible. Show us how it’s done.

[@BillJohnston-y7o]

Their people pay 4+ times as much for energy as many of the least corrupt states in America. Do you actually think that will change?

[@freeheeler09]

Onion, Australia has made tremendous progress with green energy in the past ten years. And, it is cheaper to build out and then run new solar, wind and battery systems than it is to just run filthy coal. At this rate, you will soon be leaving the rest of your filthy coal in the ground.

[@freeheeler09]

Just looked it up. In Australia, coal dropped from 86% of electricity generation to 46% today. Still way too much. It is perfectly feasible for Australia to stop burning coal by 2034.

[@BrentonSmythesfieldsaye]

@@orionbetelgeuse1937 LOL! What were/are you expecting? That a magic switch exists that we can press and shazam we are in renewable energy utopia. It's called a systemic energy transition for a reason! Do you not understand what that actually means? Tell everyone what the energy mix trend has been over the last 20 years? In particular tell everyone what the rate of acceleration towards renewable energy adoption has been over the last 10 years. When you make statements of the bleeding obvious for a given point in time, it explains absolutely nothing useful about the situation!

[@bobwallace9753]

@@orionbetelgeuse1937 You don't go from 100% fossil fuel to 0% fossil fuel overnight. It's a process. Coal is down about 50% from its peak. Renewables are now producing 100% of demand at times. Australia is well on its way to being run by clean energy.

[@brendanquinn6894]

But Andrew Bolt and Rowan Dean on Sky News said this wasn't possible ? Well I never !

[@Leo555ZZZ]

They said we cannot power the economy year round using wind and solar ,,,and they are correct.

[@ommanipadmehung3014]

The coalition/ lnp nuclear plan is going to be super expensive and the only one who wants it are there mates in the mining industry who pay massive donations to them

[@powerplants6567]

Sam how many kw is your solar panels? And does your house have batteries

[@peterwundersitz3715]

While we have yet to see the detail in the oppositions plan and hopefully it is engineer generated, the first utterings were a modest amount of base load provided by nuclear. There was never any talk of getting rid of renewables. I wish we could have some honesty in this debate, especially by people that work in the industry. I try to keep on top of this, but there is so many people not listening to the other side. Just as an aside, my system went down a week ago, I have a car to charge and I just have to wait for someone to come and rely on the grid in the mean time.

[@chopperking007]

This is all B.S. when my power bill in $1000 fk wt

[@galahadthreepwood]

Exactly - and it's all to solve a non-existent problem #climatehoax

[@galahadthreepwood]

And isn't your cheap energy - coal - being exported to China? Wow - it's almost as if your leaders are a bunch of WEF psychopaths

[@BrentonSmythesfieldsaye]

Since you don't define any period for said bill, then yes, your post is all BS.

[@Alex.The.Lionnnnn]

The whole point is that it takes so long that they can throw some spanners in the works, overrun after overrun, then eventually say "yeah nah this isn't working" after 20 years, keeping the coal lobby happy.

[@AndrewThomson888]

The NSW government is offering battery rebates as of November 1. That’s a solid start.

[@adammiles3095]

But we r pay 4 them if you cant c that 102% is bs 100% how 102% all bs

[@petterbirgersson4489]

You should export electricity to Indonesia!

[@stevejeffries6945]

Just think if we hit over 200% of what we need. We can the turn the energy into desalination plants. Free water and electricity?

[@bobwallace9753]

Correct. Few people understand that we already overbuild generation capacity so that we have sufficient generation to supply peak demand periods. In the US our coal and natural gas plants produce about 50% as much power annually as they could were they operating 24/365. We'll need to install wind and solar to cover peak periods which means there will be lots of times where we have extremely cheap electricity that we can use for other purposes. Desal is only one.

[@brucebennett5354]

The key challenge is overcoming the intermittent nature of solar and wind. Batteries only store energy. We need a solution to ensure sufficient dispatchable power for cloudy days when the wind doesn’t blow.

[@bobwallace9753]

@@brucebennett5354 "Batteries store energy." You understand. We need to store enough energy in batteries to give us the electricity we need when wind and solar are not supplying our needs. That is our "sufficient dispatchable power for cloudy days when the wind doesn’t blow".

[@tonybloomfield5635]

From the tooth fairy and Santa Claus

[@stevejeffries6945]

@@tonybloomfield5635 from the oil and gas gnome.

[@SparkySho]

Shout out to The Electric Viking for props ta SMR ONE OF MY FAVORITES 👍👍👍my g-OG GANSTER 3 first name tootin. Bad hair cut is so mf cool

[@SparkySho]

Real TALK !!!

[@fjalics]

Stop worrying about "wasting" solar. Once you get a lot of solar, it starts competing with storage, because if you have a cloudy day where you only get half of what you get on a sunny day, if you have twice as much solar, it's still enough.

[@robertfonovic3551]

Wrong. 🎉🎉

[@bobwallace9753]

@@robertfonovic3551 No, right. The issue will be balancing the amount of solar, wind, and storage we need to create a reliable 24/365 renewable energy grid. If solar is cheap and storage expensive, install more solar. If the price of storage drops significantly, then use more storage and less solar.

[@fjalics]

@@robertfonovic3551 Wrong is not an argument. Why don't you elaborate. BTW, Tony Seba says in his video, that he expects 2-3 times as much wind and solar generation, as usage, and 1-5 days of storage, so that's where I got it. I don't actually care what you believe, but if you have a good compelling reason to believe it, then I'm very much interested.

[@freeheeler09]

Robert, you are wrong and FJ is correct. If you have enough solar, wind and batteries, you wind up with significant overlap. And, if you are connected to a national grid, it is always windy somewhere. And, there’s hydro, nuclear, an increasing amount of geothermal, etc. And, battery storage is still new and increasing. And coal and gas still supply a very significant though declining share of electricity production, many countries over half.. The good news is an increasing number of countries have been able to reduce their use of expensive and filthy fossil fuels. And going into the future, filthy coal an SC gas will provide less and less of our energy mix.

[@brettrix9824]

Reading some of the Renew Economy material I learnt that the concept of baseload electricity generation is quickly becoming redundant (i.e. coal, nuclear). They are dinosaurs that don't have the agility to switch off in response to supply / demand imbalance. So a grid with sufficient overcapacity of nimble sources (solar, wind and batteries) will outperform both financially and operationally. The LNP policy of building nuclear as a baseload supplement looks like it would be redundant even before the first sod is turned. No need to get hot under the collar with political or "nuclear" debates - economics will make those debates redundant, so we can all focus on achieving the good things to come from a grid that is abundant and cheap. Just need technology to keep delivering!

[@DeBijk1]

Please don’t say exponential growth in a limited demand for electrical power. In stead speak of an S-curve. Exponential growth is only possible when there are no limits ie infinity.

[@Gregorio-27]

The Australian economy continues to rely on coal as a source of affordable, reliable electricity. Coal supplied 62.6 per cent of electricity to the National Electricity Market in 2022-23, while gas supplied 4.5 per cent, hydro 8.3 per cent and other renewable energy (wind, grid solar and batteries), 24.1 per cent.

[@jondonnelly3]

Can't thet just use excess energy to pump seawater up into a big tank for hydro. Or compress air for turbine. Or turn salt into lava and do steam. Yes there will be losses but it's free.

[@patrickleahy590]

The best place to put wind turbines is just offshore where the wind comes from both land and sea

[@13thbiosphere]

If there is a surplus of solar energy Break water into hydrogen oxygen and then feed that into a fossil fuel station it would enhance the efficiency of coal this is just a way of reducing waste

[@evgrid2628]

Here you go,in plain English. Lithium batteries are regulated as a hazardous material under the U.S. Department of Transportation's ( DOT ) Hazardous Materials Regulations (HMR; 49 C.F.R., Parts 171-180). Exposure to Lithium Batteries can cause loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal pain. -- Lithium can cause headache, muscle weakness, twitching, blurred vision, loss of coordination, tremors, confusion, seizures and coma. This isn't for me or my family.

[@Joegreen-r1i]

Do you have any idea how common lithium is in the air The water and the food you eat. I think you need some help. Maybe you should take some lithium I understand it's good for the condition you have

[@wawrzynieckoodziej6664]

You know, They are not meant to be eaten...

[@paulchovancek2135]

Drop those cables in the sea now and make some money powering Souteast Asia.

[@darrenfechner5613]

So when will it get cheaper

[@robertfonovic3551]

The only way is UP !!!

[@chopperking007]

Never

[@RfromG-bd4fb]

Putting solar panels on roofs is a good idea for producing electricity and better than building massive solar farms. I live in Brisbane which is very spread out with a large suburban area. If just 8 panels were put on every house they would supply enough electricity for the whole city. We should tread very carefully when building large solar farms. We hardly know enough about what the ramifications will be by buildings these monsters. Scientist are showing concern on how the solar panels are changing the molecules in the air above the panels, which heat the air, and causes the hot air to rise. When hot air reaches cold air in the atmosphere it rises above the cold air and can cause unusually heavy rain. It seems the more and larger solar panel farms we build the heavier rains we are experiencing. Nearly every country in the world this year have experience record flood rains. The two recent ones to have record floods rains are England and Japan. (24-09-2024). The flood rains could be caused by large solar panels farms thousands of miles from the country affected. We really don’t know and the Columbia University Researchers at the Center for Life Cycle Analysis and the PV Environmental Research Center are studying the potential for a heat island effect in large solar farms. They are using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations to model air velocity, turbulence, and energy flow fields induced by large solar PV farms. Also, The University of Maryland and the University of Arizona, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the Nevada Center of Excellence are doing research on heat islands effect caused by large solar panel farms. Scientist warn Massive solar farms, especially those in deserts, could potentially alter local climates and weather patterns. This could have unintended consequences on a global scale.

[@JohnMc-q8s]

Why then is the cost to customers triple what it was three years ago. My electric bill is three times what it was and i live in the midst of windmills the first big Tesla battery and have rooftop solar. Why why why are we paying the highest electric bills in our history???

[@mikeklein4949]

Yes Sam, pissing matches simply make everyone disgustingly wet.

[@stephenbrickwood1602]

Some nuclear electricity facts. Economics only works with 24/7 cashflow. Physical constraints demand 24/7 operation. Limited to the nation's $TRILLIONS grid. More grid capacity more $TRILLIONS and TRILLIONS. Fossils 100% CO2 is a renewables only economic problem. Nuclear is irrelevant. Max capital upfront nuclear must have cashflow for 10 decades. This is BS situation and cannot last as it will need Government legislation and government taxpayers money Rooftop dirt cheap PV electricity kills cashflow. BV's OVERSIZED battery parked 23hrs every day UTILIZATION kills nuclear grid UTILIZATION. Rooftop is grid free.

[@JacquesMartini]

Hey Mr, give us some numbers of battery capacity vs. Power demand. This shows the sheer size required for a FULLY renewable electricity grid! And how much this will cost! You think nucear power is expensive? Pay for those giga batteries!

[@christianvanderstap6257]

You go first.

[@BrentonSmythesfieldsaye]

You can do the leg work your yourself. The 2023-24 GenCost Report is available online to the general public. It doesn't reconcile with your narrative. In fact quite the opposite. Now I will wait for the inevitable, when you will come back, attempting to discredit the authors/researchers. LOL. Edit: spelling

[@bobwallace9753]

Do you not realize that nuclear needs storage in order to match output to demand? Do you not know how much pump-up hydro storage has been built in order to deal with inflexible nuclear? Do you not realize that we need additional generation to back up nuclear plants? Nuclear can and does go offline when something breaks. It takes days and even months to bring plants back online. Something has to be sitting around, waiting to fill in when a nuclear plant fails. We never consider that cost.

[@tonybloomfield5635]

This channel does not let facts get in the way of his narrative.

[@BrentonSmythesfieldsaye]

@@tonybloomfield5635 Why would this channel let YOUR "facts" get in the way?

[@andrisromanovskis9363]

"Crucial system services", to quote Sam, must include dispatchable sources of energy of the same or larger wattage as the whole of installed renewables. So, diesel generators, coal and nuclear power will still be around until humanity builds linked solar around the globe, so that Ausssies could use energy from Afrique and Americas, when the sun is not up in Australia.

[@jemezname2259]

This simply isn’t true.

[@andrisromanovskis9363]

@@jemezname2259kindly asking you to talk to any retired knowledgeable power networks engineer, or your physics teacher if he's still around.

[@bobwallace9753]

No. We are in a transition process where we still need some dispatchable generation as fill-in but that need fades as we add more solar, wind, and storage. I don't think you are adequately considering the role of storage. Let's say we've reached a point where wind, solar, and hydro are supplying all the power we need except for a few days each year. It's not like they won't supply any power, just not enough. What we need during these times is enough fossil fuel generation to supplement the shortfall. Not supply 100% of the demand. If we are going to be, for example, 24 MWh short between 3pm and 4pm on a given day we don't need to crank up a 24 MW generator. We can crank up a 1 MW generator and run it for 24 hours, letting most of its power recharge storage and use the stored power to cover the peak shortfall.

[@AlGreenLightThroughGlass]

Solar is awesome at night

[@neildolan7177]

What you need to comprehend is that the climate is changing. China has installed hydroelectric that it cannot use because of water shortages. We need a backup that can be turned on. We are going to rely on gas in the shorter.

[@neildolan7177]

Household solar needs to be backed up by batteries. State governments are going to charge you for feeding in during peak times.

[@Kevin07-w9l]

No mention of the coal power plant up the road from Sam’s getting extended for 10 years when it was supposed be be closed years ago. ??

[@RoverIAC]

Government has already passed the "Sun Tax" in which the energy companies can charge you to take the excess energy and eventually they will. You will be charged to producing the electricity during the day that you buy back at night. A house battery will cost you $15000 and last 10 years.

[@michaeld9178]

@@orionbetelgeuse1937how does these losses manifest themselves?

[@markvalery8632]

@@orionbetelgeuse1937 Old numbers. Around 90% RTE at first with 70% after 10 years being the industry standard. Improvements with LiFePO4 technology will improve these numbers.

[@robertfonovic3551]

For 30 minutes 😮

[@patrickleahy590]

Look at electricity prices now and solar only in summer and still ripped of by the power companies selling power and using our solar power in to the power we only get 5-8 cents per kilowatt

[@ernest5171]

In Murrikkka we still act like it's 1950

[@thyristo]

Australia will save between $7 billion and $9 billion per year by transitioning fully to wind, solar, and battery storage. This estimate includes fuel cost savings, reductions in health costs due to lower air pollution, and avoided climate change-related damages. Adding battery electric vehicles (BEVs) to this transition increases the savings: Energy system savings (from wind, solar, and batteries): $7-$9 billion. Savings from battery electric vehicles: BEVs have lower operating costs since they don’t rely on fossil fuels and have fewer moving parts than internal combustion engine vehicles, leading to lower maintenance costs. Additionally, charging BEVs from a renewable grid further reduces emissions. This could add an estimated $4 billion to $6 billion in savings annually from reduced fuel consumption and vehicle maintenance. Total potential savings: $11 billion to $15 billion per year, considering: 1. Reduced fuel costs. 2. Lower maintenance expenses. 3. Health benefits from reduced pollution. 4. Fewer greenhouse gas emissions and their associated costs.

[@robertfonovic3551]

So, spend a trillion to save 8 billion per yr?

[@bkparque]

When energy is free efficiency isnt so much of a thing

[@robertfonovic3551]

@@bkparque BS

[@bkparque]

@robertfonovic3551 let me clarify.... wheather its liion 95% efficient or concrete or water its not so important when energy is free

[@Leo555ZZZ]

Too bad about the $1.2 trillion that has to be spent first.

[@stefkraus6807]

Love driving EV but just batteries wind and solar won’t cut it. Need nuclear, got solar and home battery myself which is great but not enough for weeks of cloudy and calm days…

[@frankszanto]

Isn't this bad news? If you owned a bunch of solar farms, why would you build any more if there are already enough to provide 100% of needs? You get more money for your energy when there is not enough, not when there is too much. The answer of course is that you have to build storage ahead of installing more solar, but that costs more.

[@aureliancozma251]

Australia should be number one

[@montyaherin2606]

one cannot debate lunacy, lunacy must be denounced

[@robertfonovic3551]

Also, stupid people do not realise that they are stupid. 😅😅

[@Leo555ZZZ]

Thinking we can power Australia using nothing but wind and solar generation is indeed ,,,lunacy.

[@chrishaberbosch1029]

I denounce this loony post. 😂

[@VH-gw3qi]

@myhome772haha😂 you’re funny

[@moyrawilliams7568]

I don't understand why the power companies don't do bitcoin mining instead of wasting the energy

[@robertfonovic3551]

Heehaw Heehaw

[@twu905]

Viking, what do you think what this guy, MGUY, is saying in his videos?

[@Bluetop-ez8ic]

I watch MGUY. I think he does a lot of research before he puts up his video on KZbin, like showing the actual newspapers where he gets his information and photographs from.

[@neildolan7177]

Key statistics from the Clean Energy Australia 2024 Report:Renewables account for 39.4 per cent of Australia’s total electricity supply.

[@Bio33-lg2bh]

This is great news. Hopefully as Australia builds more cheaper solar, wind and battery storage, they can close their remaining dirty coal, natural gas and expensive nuclear plants that produce dangerous nuclear waste.

[@freeheeler09]

Sam, great news! Energy production is just one side of this. It snows in winter and gets over 40 C in summer where we live. We heat and cool with heat pumps, and cook with an induction stove. We also have a backup wood stove. We have very well insulating, honeycomb blinds and also insulating curtains on our windows. I’ve conditioned (insulating/managing moisture) the crawlspace of the house. The metal roof is coated with reflective paint, and now covered with solar panels. We have a smart electrical panel and smart device controllers throughout the house that allow us to limit most house heating and cooling and water heating, the well pump, car charging, clothes and dish washers, etc. to prime solar hours. Electrical generation is just part of the solution. There are many other cost effective steps we can take to reduce or time electrical demand. The big need, as ever, is affordable home storage batteries. To really go green, the average home will need 30 to 50 kWh of storage. Car batteries are now below $100/ kWh of storage. The renewable energy disruptions will really begin to occur when installed home battery storage hits a similarly low price.

[@keithrobert1413]

I dont really wish to be further bombarded by just anyones opinions.

[@chopperking007]

Stored energy is a time bomb that one bullet can ignite

[@passdasalt]

Keep away from petrol stations mate.

[@anomamos9095]

As someone who actually has a clue I must ask exactly how much of that so called renewable energy was:- A, actually renewable? B, actually useful? C, actually used and not wasted? D, how much traditional energy was wasted by having to be online in case the wind stopped and clouds rolled in? The answer would be, after the few batteries were fully charged ALL OF IT! The improper deployment of so called renewables is actually responsible for a fifty percent increase in carbon emissions over and above what would have been released had absolutely nothing been done. And had intelligent utilisation of appropriate technology in suitable circumstances emissions would have been reduced by a minimum of thirty percent.

[@steve_787]

A 50% increase in emissions because renewables where being used? That makes zero sense and maybe you need to reword what you mean. Onn you point "D" do you not think that energy companies monitor weather forecasts? They plan ahead to counteract drops in sun or wind. Not like they suddenly look out the window or think "crap, the wind turbines aren't spinning! What do we do now? Quick, start shovelling some coal into the furnace!!!!" Be reasonable, they know what they are doing far more than any of us. My energy supplier in the UK has a 5 day forecast for "greener days" in my app so that alone tells me they know when peaks in renewable production is coming. In addition to that, if there is forecast to be an excess in renewable production, they do a day ahead alert for a free hour or so of electricity usage to help soak up the excess rather than curtail it.

[@restfulplace3273]

Solid question. Ppl get carried away by the hype. We need a better standard of debate. The debate to date has amplified the emissions during power generation while ignoring the lifecycle emissions.

[@frankcoffey]

The financial sector needs to stop lending for legacy power plants, it’s too risky and takes too long to reach revenue generating status. If you can finish a nuke plant in a year on or under budget fine, but that’s just not going to happen.

[@BillJohnston-y7o]

The new smaller ones are much safer. Can be built in much less time. They can use old spent uranium, so we can get rid of the old stuff and have less waste. It works when solar doesn't. It works in the Northern states where solar is crap. Solar and batteries can be great but we need small nuke plants in area's that it isn't great.

[@bobwallace9753]

@@BillJohnston-y7o Let's wait until someone actually builds a "new smaller one" and see what the cost is. We have decades of the nuclear industry lying to us about how their next idea will work and give us affordable electricity. They haven't. There are studies that find the cost of small nuclear plants may be more expensive than large plants.

[@BillJohnston-y7o]

@@bobwallace9753 I think China already has 18 in the making at this very moment. We have one that just broke ground in june in Wyoming. Will be done in 2030. They are coming, bank on it.

[@bobwallace9753]

@@BillJohnston-y7o Oh, I suspect we're going to see a small reactor or two. I'm just skeptical that the cost of electricity generated can be brought down 80% in order to make it acceptable. What China decides to do does not tell us what makes financial sense.

[@galactica1980]

Great! Can I now please have my $275 electricity bill reduction now Albo?

[@MjMurphy777]

Hopefully the rapid battery development will get ahead of the Neanderthal government you’ll be strapped with. 😏

[@Kevin07-w9l]

Gotta stop the growth percents. hey sam you information is incredible deceptive and misleading

[@jimgraham6722]

In the 1990s Australia used to manufacture its own solar cells and panels in sydney. Sadly the plañt closed and was shipped to China around 2000. I still have some of the Australian made panels. For the time they were quite good rated at 80 Watts. Those that still work now put out about 60 Watts. To fully transition to GHG free energy Australia will need anout 60GW of on line generation capacity backed by 3,000GWhrs of storage. To achieve that we need all the power we can get. Nuclear generation capacity of around 18GW 24/7 using plants designed to last up to ninety years, would put a big dent in that requirement and make it much easier to achieve the objective of a fully decarbonised economy by 2050.

[@BrentonSmythesfieldsaye]

Solar panels are still desgined and made in Australia. Tindo in South Australia for example.

[@lindsayfox7206]

They would also put a great big dent in the available finances. I am not opposed to nuclear, but looking at levelised cost of energy, it is a very expensive form of generation. Zero plants have ever been built without direct government subsidies and guaranteed minimum prices. Unless the economics change for nuclear, the only way I see it being built is if the government is making a political decision that they want it.

[@zoransarin5411]

@@lindsayfox7206 I agree. The Coalition’s nuclear push was critiqued in a separate analysis released on Friday by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, a thinktank. It estimated power bills for average households could increase by $665 a year under the opposition proposal. This accords with most of the available literature which clearly states that on a levelised basis, the cost of nuclear is significantly higher than wind and solar.

[@elephantintheroom5678]

@@zoransarin5411 Wow! This sort of analyses needs to be more widely disseminated ! The number of Australians falling for the "we need nuclear" narrative is growing, up 30% over the last couple of years.

[@jimgraham6722]

@@lindsayfox7206 It's not about cost of generation but capital cost. To fully power the country with renewables you need 3,000 GWhrs of storage (about ten Snowy Hydro2 ($10bn each) or 3,000 'big batteries' ($1bn each). Ten Snowy Hydro2 would be $100bn. 350 'big batteries' are needed to match Snowy Hydro2, so let's be modest and say 3,000 will cost around $3tr. Nuclear power stations like the Canadian Darlington CANDU plant produce 4 GW 24/7 and cost about $24bn a pop. If mixed with renewables their continuous generation greatly offsets the need for renewables generation but more particularly storage. A four station program using Darlington as the model would generate 16 of the 64GW Australia needs. More importantly it would offset about 1200GWhrs of storage, saving anywhere up to $1tr. This would mean less reliance on battery storage ($1bn/GW) and more reliance on pumped storage ($35m/GW). Pumped storage is thirty times or so cheaper than batteries. This important because Australia has relatively few high quality pumped storage sites that can be relied on. In my view the optimum mix is 16-20GW nuclear, 40-44GW renewables and 1,800GWhrs of storage, at least two thirds of which would be pumped storage. Whichever way you look at it, it will cost a lot. I favour the Canadian nuclear system because it minimises waste, burns mixed fuels, uses cheap unenriched fuels including thorium, has no refuelling downtime and is designed for ninety year plant life. What more could you want?

[@samwilson2300]

👍🏿

[@homewall744]

So they burn no oil, coal or nuclear for the electric grid? I mean, they already supply more than demand, so prices must be coming down if this is real. " Coal is one of the primary sources of electricity generation in the country." "

[@christianvanderstap6257]

Not as long as nat gas is setting the price. Also, utilities will never let you win.

[@bobwallace9753]

@@christianvanderstap6257 You can win by installing your own solar and reducing the amount of electricity you have to purchase from the grid.

[@billhill4479]

100% agree . All we have to do these days is present facts. No longer do we have to talk about " one day ". Evs have become affordable. Home solar is now big enough to power an ev and a house . The first ' Tesla big battery ' at the Hornsdale windfarm was just 7 years ago. That was the first grid sized battery of its kind on the planet ! l can't emphasize how fast they have grown. Now we are building batteries 10-20 times that capacity size in just 7 years ! The lithium industry has caught up . Batteries are demonstrating that they have very long lives and they are almost 100% recyclable at the end of life anyway. lmagine where the battery industry will be in the next 7 years ? The next time some denier sprouts a false claim, just roll out the facts .No need for arguing . Just let the facts do the talking . lt's that easy.

[@Leo555ZZZ]

102.5% for how long ? At 8pm , wind and solar generation is just 16% of generation. Thankfully we still have coal ,gas and hydro to keep the electricity flowing when we actually need it. Using only wind ,solar and batteries and having affordable electricity 24/7/365 is a green fantasy that will never happen.

[@johnsmedley8843]

Great news, but a bit boring. Australia could power itself in two or three years if the politicial will was there, there is no physical reason why not. And why are you still burning coal? The old country has stopped.

[@trevorevans7101]

Yes I agree - go solar.

[@davidb1630]

Yeah for how long...5-10 minutes, wow what a success, not.

[@tbonemc2118]

Someone needs to follow you around with a mop. Australia neither produces solar panels or wind turbines and a big percentage of what's being installed is foreign owned. Consequently we have some of the highest costs to consumers in the world and they're still rising. I'm glad you're happy with where Australians are going with this because most Australians aren't It's only mandates and subsidies driving this on a country which is a major exporter of gas and has the largest known reserves of uranium on the planet.

[@chrishaberbosch1029]

And the subsidies for the fossil fuel industry over the last hundred years are….

[@tbonemc2118]

The fossil fuel subsidies have been for consumers like the mining and agriculture sectors and not for the fuel companies. Get your story right instead of just parroting what you've heard.

[@matthewjamessmith7047]

how long did the 102% last for , you have a massive bias towards green , i don't believe you .

[@Leo555ZZZ]

Probably for about five minutes.

[@craigarmstrong2266]

Pumped hydro projects, Snowy 2, and Borumba dam in Queensland online by 2030

[@achangyw]

Congratulations to Australia for renewable efforts. Well done.

[@electricviking]

Thank you!

[@slavcpanigaz846]

And when sun not shining and wind not blowing? Candles?

[@bobwallace9753]

Storage. I'm off the grid. Have been for over 30 years. Solar and storage. A handful of times per year I need to crank up my generator for a few hours. More storage would eliminate my need for a generator. Or if I installed a wind turbine I'd never need a generator. The only time my solar doesn't carry me through is when a major storm hits the area and brings a heavy cloud cover.

[@BrentonSmythesfieldsaye]

You have left out the vast majority of what constitutes a complete renewable energy system, by mentioning just two components. Plus what is even funnier is that you have inadvertently in effect admitted that even fossil fuel generated electricity goes out as well, because back in the last half of the 20th century, our parents and grandparents always had candles in a draw in case the power went out and it did. LOL. The old "when the sun not shining and wind not blowing" line continues to be hilariously stupid, as if the clever people that design and implement renewable energy systems have never ever considered such a thing. LOL.

[@Leo555ZZZ]

@@BrentonSmythesfieldsaye The cost of back up generation , storage , transmission and initial generation are unaffordable , which is why no advanced country in the world has done it.

[@wombatsticki23]

The author highlighted the new Queensland batteries at 270 and 540 Mega Watt Hours (MWH). This is a total of 810 MWH. He claimed that the record download was 200 MW, so these batteries will supply 200 MW for 4 Hours. Queensland's night time power demand is about 5400 MW. This means that the batteries supply about 4% of Queensland's grid requirement for 4 hours. To put it another way, the batteries have a total of 810 MWH. For the 13 hours that Qld does not have solar power it uses approximately 72,000 MWH of power. So the batteries can supply 1.1% of this. Lets hope they have a plan B for when its night and there is not much wind. Just Saying.

[@dikkybee4003]

It isn't free so where is Labor's costing on all of these installations and how much land is being taken from people to put all the wind, solar and batteries? How long will we have high priced electricity to pay for all the infrastructure?

[@Guvament_bs]

These figures are not true, like many things promoted on this channel.

[@peterjohn5834]

Unfortunately all we have had is lies and mistrust from our former neoliberal government. Do yourself a favour and do some research on the matter. Do not rely on what the right wing media are telling you. It’s all politics not truth.

[@wombatsticki23]

I am confused by his claims. What he showed in his embedded graph was the rooftop solar power production and the coal fired power production at 12.30 pm on Wed 18th Sep 2024. So there was 13207 MW of solar power being produced and 7527 KW of coal fired power being produced. Total Grid demand at that point was 25487 MW. This meant that solar made up 51.8% of demand. I am not sure where he gets the 102.5% figure. At 12.30 pm on Wed 18th May South Australia had 530 MW of energy for export from renewable fuel. At the exact same moment, Qld, NSW and Victoria were using 3566, 1750 and 2255 MW of coal fired electricity. So South Australia was the only state who's total renewable production at that moment exceeded total demand. In all other states coal was necessary to keep the grid active. So no, renewable production DID NOT exceed power consumption. All figures taken off the NEM Australian site which is available to the public. Also his support for batteries is misplaced. For example, South Australia has invested in batteries. Currently they will keep the grid running for about 15 minutes. South Australia's grid is by far the smallest in Australia. On current technology, batteries are not suitable for grid sized backup. If there is something I am not aware of which changes my conclusions, please inform me.

[@stephenbrickwood1602]

I did the maths, the government would have to pay for a massive new grid that is way more expensive than the central generation plant. Way bigger. The customers pay $millions. The nuclear plant costs $billions. The bigger grid costs $trillions. If no fossil fueled energy is used. If customers use rooftop pv electricity when the sunshines the grid economics is destroyed as the customers do not pay but only when the sunshines and the battery is full at sunset.