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The future of energy generation and storage

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I don't know how to write a snort.
 
It just makes the issue more precarious, the Tassie link getting cut back, now hydro storage getting cut back, hopefully it all ends well.
 
Indonesia talking about nuclear firming for renewables, so Australia should at least get to see the pros and cons close hand.



On a slightly different subject, but mentioned in the article, it sounds like Indonesia is certainly getting its manufacturing in order.
Indonesia have since lifted the ban on Apple.

11 January 2025:

'Pent up' demand as Indonesia ban on iPhone 16 sales continues

Hardball tactics resulted in Apple pledging to invest $US1 billion in Indonesia, after the sales of iPhone 16 smartphones were banned for not having enough locally manufactured components.
www.abc.net.au

Authorities in Indonesia say a $US1 billion ($1.6 billion) pledge by US tech giant Apple to build an AirTag factory in the country is not enough for them to lift a ban on sales of the company's latest smartphone.

Indonesia requires that smartphones sold domestically contain at least 40 per cent locally manufactured components — a measure intended to support local jobs and industry.
 
sptrawler said:

'Lucky no-one was hurt': Constuction workers down tools on Snowy Hydro 2.0 after dangerous incidents

amp.9news.com.au
Click to expand...
I'm not against safety, things ought be done properly, but such projects used to be somewhat more precarious historically.

Photo showing construction of the Clark Dam (aka Butlers Gorge dam), Tasmania. No date on it but would be approximately 1947. Photo source = HEC archives and is in the public domain.

Truck moved through the air because there'd have been no other way to get across the river at that time. Road comes in from one side only.

 
I think the fact homeowners will want to use their battery storage to feed their own demand, rather than export it to the grid, was brought up in this thread when posters were talking about EV batteries supporting the grid.
Reality catching up, yet again.

Consumer attitudes and earlier coal closures: AEMO mulls scenario tweaks ahead of new grid blueprint

AEMO flags potential forecast tweaks for consumer energy resources, the gas market, coal closures and EV uptake as it prepares input for its next grid blueprint.
reneweconomy.com.au

The three big movers appear to be the way that AEMO is looking at consumer energy resources (CER), the development of the gas market, and the uptake of EVs.

Some of the changes have been imposed on it by the new rule
changes that require it to better integrate consumer sentiment, gas and demand-side factors in the ISP.

CER – which mostly reflects household resources such as rooftop solar, battery storage and EVs – is considered important because, according to prior ISPs, they will likely account for more than half of total generation in years to come as Australian moves from a largely centralised to a distributed grid.

Harnessing that CER is considered crucial, but the latest publication raises questions about how easy and feasible that will be, given that many consumers may be reluctant to hand over control of their own assets to another party.


“Consumers are tentative to share control and coordinate the operation of their consumer energy devices through a third party such as their electricity retailer,” the document says.

Investment in CER, particularly in rooftop solar and batteries, reflects that households place high value on the benefits provided by these systems, and typically install relatively large household systems to improve their self-supply.

The issue is also being addressed by the NEM market review being led by energy economist Tim Nelson, who told the Energy Insiders podcast this week that household batteries – including his – are geared to optimise individual usage rather than providing grid-wide services that could help reduce costs for everyone.
 
A thought crossed my mind. Whatever happened to the plan for Australia's oil strategic reserve to be stored in the US?

I always thought it was a stupid idea because of the risk in transporting the oil to Australia during a conflict, or the US deciding they couldn't/wouldn't release it.

Now with Trump going rogue, the idea seems more stupid than ever.
 
Apparently we aren't going to need it soon anyway.
 
Interesting development in the Northern territory, I wonder if it has any flow on ramifications for the Sun Cable mega solar farm that was going to happen.

MSN

www.msn.com

The Northern Territory government is planning to extend the life of an almost-four-decade-old gas-fired power station, as it seemingly retreats from its 2030 renewable energy target.

Minister for Essential Services Steve Edgington has confirmed government-owned producer Territory Generation will prolong the use of three gas generators at Darwin's Channel Island Power Station.

Built in 1987, the power station's heavy industrial generators had been scheduled for retirement from 2027.

Mr Edgington said extending the life span of the generators would help maintain "sufficient reliable capacity" in the NT's largest energy grid — the Darwin to Katherine grid — which powers the homes of about 150,000 people.

"Comprehensive planning for Channel Island Power Station includes undertaking life extensions for three of the four heavy industrial gas turbine machines, extending one machine to 2031 and the two other machines to 2035," a spokesperson for Mr Edgington said.

Territory Generation has undertaken plans to turn the fourth gas generator into a synchronous condenser — a large spinning machine that stabilises the grid when renewable energy fluctuates.

Overall, Channel Island's gas generators represent 35 per cent of the energy generation capacity in the Darwin to Katherine grid.

Andrew Forrest said Singapore didn’t want SunCable electricity. Now, the Asian nation has given Mike Cannon-Brookes’ project an early green light.

The venture intends constructing a large solar plant in Australia’s north before shipping power to Singapore using an undersea cable.
www.afr.com
 
Also on the subject of renewables, W.A's state of play.

MSN

www.msn.com

Officials have warned the Western Australian Labor government that work to build wind and solar farms for the state’s main electricity grid has stalled under its leadership, a leaked document shows.

A confidential state government document reveals state bureaucrats advised the government that the “decarbonisation work program” in Perth’s electricity grid had “stalled to date”. It said there were “few new wind developments” advanced enough to be added to the grid before the promised closure of a coal power station in 2027

The advice, seen by Guardian Australia, was written late last year, before a state election campaign that will be decided on Saturday.

It reinforces independent data suggesting the amount of electricity from large-scale wind and solar developments has effectively flatlined at about 18% of total generation in the grid, known as the South West Interconnected System, or Swis, since 2021.

WA organisation Sustainable Energy Now found no major wind or solar developments were added to the grid in the first three years of the last term of parliament, between 2021 and 2023.

One wind project, the 76 megawatt Flat Rocks farm at Kojonup, was connected last year and a solar farm, the 128MW Cunderdin plant, came online in January. The organisation said only two further windfarms had been confirmed by 2028.

Part of the delay in connecting new large-scale renewable energy has been blamed on a lack of new transmission links to join them to the grid.


The confidential document shows officials backed a government proposal to release $500m funding to develop the Clean Energy Link north of Perth, which they say will need to be finished by December 2027. It shows the estimated cost of that link had increased by more than 50% from $655m to $1bn.

The document stated the state-owned energy generator Synergy was operating in a “challenging financial position” and required new subsidies. The government has committed $3.7bn for new state-owned windfarms and battery storage but 89% – about $3.25bn – had been allocated and there more than 900 megawatts of wind and storage capacity was yet to be funded.

In a statement, the Labor energy, environment and climate action minister, Reece Whitby, said the Cook government was “already delivering on its clean energy plan”, with the total share of renewable energy increasing from 14% to 38% since 2017.


He said there were “scores of major wind projects under development”, listing four: the second stage of the Warradarge windfarm, Synergy’s King Rocks farm, the Atmos Renewables Parron farm and Neoen’s Narrogin Farm.

The chair of Sustainable Energy Now, Fraser Maywood, said there were several major proposals “in the pipeline” but investors were not making financial decisions as it was difficult and expensive to get connected to the grid.

Maywood said 1.2 gigawatts of large renewables had been added to the grid over 20 years and government forecasts suggested another 50GW would be needed in the next two decades to replace retiring plants and meet rising electricity demand.

He said if the lack of construction was not addressed, it would lead to a greater reliance on gas, which currently provides about 30% of electricity, and higher greenhouse gas emissions.
Thomas said he expected Labor would announce it would extend the life of generators, including the Collie power station that is scheduled to shut in 2027, if it won re-election. He said all parties agreed it was inevitable the state would get out of coal but the Liberals believed it would be needed until about 2036.
 
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