Wait, why didn’t you discuss cost at all? That’s a huge part of whether renewable are actually feasible. If building tons of solar and wind and batteries which have to be replaced every 10-15 years makes electricity cost 10x more then have you really created a viable solution? And we see that on most days you still need gas generators to produce up to 83% of energy needs. In what world is this an actual solution?
Rosie, This is more than a little optimistic - yes it’s true that on some days renewables supply a large proportion of SA’s power, however continuous and reliable power requires interconnection to coal fired power from the Eastern States, supported by gas fired power maintained at 25-30% of the demand so as to be available should the wind / solar suddenly fail. Gas pipelines and gas power stations have increasing difficulty in generating sufficient revenue to stay in business, while excess renewable generation is either shed, or the producer pays others to absorb the excess (rather than earning revenue). A couple of years ago the combined solar and wind was forecast to provide much of the load, but mid morning the wind stopped and the interconnection tripped. Gas, battery and diesel were activated to prevent blackouts. The “big” battery discharged in 1 hour (earning $14700/MW) - while an infrequent event, such situations do occur, and support from conventional generation is required, and the public must ensure these earn suffieient revenue to be instantly available.
Hi Rosie, thanks for the effort you put into your videos. I would however temper your commentary on the push to 100% renewables on our grids in the absence of flexible baseload generation. The suggestion that South Australia can operate without the support of flexible open cycle gas turbines isn’t supported by the SA generation profile - in any given week there’s always at least one period where renewables contribute circa 5% or less. As engineers we have a duty to encourage the transition, but in a way that is financially responsible and realistic. These concerns being increasing raised within the electricity industry and are ignored at our peril. Cheers.
Baseload power is redundant, has been for a long time now. Dispatchable power is what is needed. But you would know all this if you had kept yourself up to date and informed.
@@nkelly.9give it a rest mate. You're playing a political game rather than a facts based discussion. You would know that baseload power is critical to a high functioning system. Just look at examples around the world. Don't be blinded by the Bowen.
South Australia has 200% over capacity in renewables and still only gets to 70% some of the time, no wonder they have the highest retail prices in the national grid. why do you not class murray link as an interconnector, it connects to NSW.
SA has gone from some of the most expensive power to some of the cheapest by using renewables. Fact. The anti renewables zealots are out in force here.
@@warwick.schaffer Sorry sonny. QLD is an outlier, it didn't have coalition governments wreck its energy sector and sell it off to overseas corporations like the rest of the country suffered. It is still burning massive amounts of coal. Tell us about the costs of burning all that coal on the planet and then get back to me on prices, or do we just shuffle those costs off the books to make them conveniently look better?
Great video, Rosie. Like reading a short version of an engineering report. Just a minor correction/update: Denmark now also has a 700 MW interconnector to The Netherlands, and the Viking Link interconnector to the UK is coming online at the end of 2023.
@@adon8672 well, what I heard was ”there are three interconnections in operation” and the correct info is four interconnections! Additional info would be ”and a fifth will come on line soon between Denmark and Great Britain” 🙂
For me living in SA during the 2016 blackout was a turning point to prepare for off-grid living in suburbia. Recently came the Covid hard lock downs and I was more prepared than I would have been!
We were recently able to install a large solar/battery system on the south coast of SA. I wasn't sure how good it would be, but now I find we use next to no grid energy, while exporting about 80% of the power the panels generate. All this and no risk of a blackout. 😊
@@Cant_prove_god On one hand I would love an EV, but on the other hand they are still difficult to get in Australia, and we don't drive much. If I buy an EV now, there would be one less for people who do a lot of driving. Hope they will be more common soon.
@@Ian-qe5ch 32 Trina Vertex S 415w for a total of 13.25 kW, a Fronius Primo 10.0 GEN 24 inverter, and a BYD Battery Box HVM 22.08Kw. Organised through Solar Quotes. Hope this helps.
Rosie, you are an engineer, why do you only give one side of the story and ignore the other. No mention of the current price of electricity where SA consumer prices are 45c/kWh which is the highest in Australia and one of the highest in the world. No mention of the staggering cost to build the interconnectors needed to export surplus electricity. No mention of the staggering cost to provide adequate storage. I estimate the cost batteries to supply 24 hours of average supply at $36 billion dollars. No mention of the report last year from the SA productivity commission that said surplus electricity from wind and solar is posing a serious problem. No mention of the multitude of subsidies wind and solar receive. These being direct subsidy for every MWh produced….about $50, 100% backup paid for by consumers, FCAS costs ($80 million in last 12 months), priority grid access, PPAs, storage costs, extra transmission and distribution costs.
Just looked at the AEMO live data. SA is using about 30% gas, 30% wind, 20% solar and pulling 20% from Victoria which is using about 60% brown coal. Without the interconnector to Vic SA will black out. A quiet night last week showed SA using 80% gas, 10% wind, and the rest from Vic which was using 80% brown coal. Renewables alone will not work.
@@db5351 And nobody anywhere has said renewables alone is what Australia will use. Tell us how 7% of our electricity needs supplied by eye wateringly expensive and toxic for thousands of years nuclear in Australia will address anything. You nongs are a dime a dozen.
Rosie is a qualified engineer. She agrees that renewable energy is the way to go. On the other hand, you are a keyboard warrior dufus zealot. I will take her advice and information over yours, and other misinformed zealots like you, seven days a week.
You'd think she has an agenda rather than giving an accurate scientific analysis. Sad. No wonder we're developing such a distrust of the scientific community.
@@jeffreyherba8435 I do not keep records to prove it but my electricity Bill was £40 a month when I first moved into my latest house 15 years ago.If electricity bills did not rise why did the government give a winter fuel allowance?
A first time viewer from the US. With a relatively new rooftop solar here in New Jersey, a EE degree, and an interest in EVs your channels sounds like fun.
Agree with Alan Hat, this channel is very straight up, fact-based and great content with a creator who knows her subject matter well. Won’t disappoint!
I lived through the Black-outs in Outback South Australia. We now have the most robust energy delivery system thanks in part to the Hornsdale Battery and Sheep loads of wind. Awesome video.
Very interesting overview. It would be great to see recent LCOE cost numbers in Australia for these technologies. I waited to install solar + batteries at our house until the installation cost plummeted and the price of grid power shot up, and the ROI was clear. When batteries get cheap enough and time-of-use pricing gets savvy enough, no one will be willing to pay more for technology that pollutes more.
I was the same. When the cost of a 6.6kW solar install got down to about $6500 it made sense. The payback period was around 4-5 years. I priced a battery solution and it was north of $20k and not worth it at that time. It would have taken me close to 20 years to recoup the money, by which time the batteries would probably be knackered.
@@adam872 which battery technologies did you look at? I expect all the vendors are pushing LiFePO₄ but lead-acid, flow & NiFe are also readily available. Lead-acid is cheap but 20 years is an unusually: long lifespan, they'll need automatic watering & discharge switched off really early to last that long. The next oldest is NiFe, they have a totally safe electrolyte (potash), they're rugged, reliable, almost indestructible (there's 90 year old packs around) & repairable if you can find a technician, but they're as big as lead-acid & they don't absorb all the supplied energy. Flow batteries are getting cheaper & they seem to be repairable so might last forever. You may have found others?
I did similar. Installed a 6.5kw solar array but the battery price was not worth it. Instead I just installed a timer, for $200, so the hot water tank could only heat between 11am and 3 pm. Interestingly a Tesla power wall has a wholesale price of $12,900 but it only has $2000 of batteries in it, even with the high price of lithium. Prices for home batteries can come down a long, long way. As manufacturing scales up, more mines come on line and refining becomes more efficient battery prices will plummet.
@@markumbers5362I also think we need developments in battery technology. I'm not convinced that lithium ion is the long term answer in terms of energy density or cost.
Rosie great video. It is very interesting what is happening in South Australia. A couple of points: South Australia's average demand is 1500 MW. Installed and working solar and wind capacity is already double this. This week, from Sun 15th to Mon 16th Oct, renewables did not supply enough energy to SA for 16 hours. During this time renewables supplied about 40% of power requirements. So I have a couple of comments: 1) Already there is a huge amount of redundancy and over-capitalisation in the system and it gets worse as the level of renewable supply goes up. As of today, a fossil fuel system that can supply almost 100% of SA needs to be maintained to ensure supply. The higher the level of renewable energy supply, the less times fossil or battery back up is needed, yet these systems need to be maintained to ensure supply. Hence the rising cost of electricity to consumers. 2) The hypocrisy of the supporters of renewable energy in failing to address the environmental and social issues caused by renewable energy is breath-taking. Turbines and Solar have about half the life of fossil fuel generating machinery. The disposal of turbines and solar panels is extremely problematical. In all the stories about the wonders of renewable energy, this is seldom referred to. Neither of course are the land clearing, erosion, bird and bat kills, extensive use of herbicides under solar panels, inadequate compensation and totalitarian land grabs by governments. The single-minded pursuit of introducing renewable energy is ignoring many other issues that have long term negative effects. These are seldom covered in any media. I know I will be pilloried for these comments, but some balance is needed. Love your work by the way. queries
Clearly we are in transition. The costs for renewables are continuing to drop massively, coal cannot compete when windy and sunny (a lot of the time in SA and Vic). Not sure if you have hung out near a coal fired power station lately or seen how long an open coal pit will burn in Vic should a bushfire pass over but the long term consequences are pretty clear.
Wombat, so convenient you ignore the CO2 emissions of fossils, plus the damage to health and the scars coal mining leaves on the landscape. Oh not to mention the 1000s of tonnes of coal ash dumped every day.
@@dzcav3 No need to entertain nonsense. wombatsticki23's post deserves crickets. The post has all the classic silly contrarians narratives. Just for example, the contrived, hilarious and shallow concern expressed for "bird and bat kills". The highest bird mortality, for example, is caused by buildings. Renewable energy system installations languish near the bottom of the list, relatively hardly registering. But I don't hear our very concerned (cough cough) wombatsticki23 complaining about buildings killing birds. I am just so over the level of wilful ignorance and dumb that is willingly on display in such posts.
Wind and solar get government grants, direct generation subsidies, free backup, free FCAS, free transmission line extensions and upgrades, priority grid access, PPAs and payment for curtailment. Without these no wind or solar generator would be viable.
Fossil fuels don't pay externalities. Imagine the cost of raising the seawalls all around Sydney harbour? And the gas exporters don't pay any tax, so....
@ average global tidal gauge rise per annum is 1.8mm/year. Sea level has risen about 130 metres since the last ice age peaked 20,000 years ago. 120,000 years ago in the last interglacial, sea levels were 5-7 metres higher than today and temperatures were 3-5c hotter.
@@Volthrax Fossil Fuels have been getting Subsidies from Day One. Most of the Infrastructure was built by Taxpayers and was cheaper under Public ownership. Blame Price hikes on Private Greed Companies. If the world's Oceans raised up by 1 Metre you do realise the actual ocean would then be 100 metres further inland.
@ fossil fuel companies have never been subsidised. When they were government owned, their build cost was paid for by the government and it was repaid to the government over time. During the last interglacial, sea levels were 5-7 metres higher than today and co2 was not responsible. During the last ice age, sea levels were was 130 metres lower than today and the Great Barrier Reef was dry land and you could walk from Africa to Timor.
@@Volthrax Sorry to hear your so Delusional. have you heard of the Diesel Fuel Subsidy?Tell me when did Fossil Fuels pay for the Electricity Grid? When did they pay for the Telephone copper Wire Connection layout that taxpayers owned or the NBN again paid for by taxpayers? Most pipelines, exploration etc is either fully or partially subsidised by Taxpayers.They pay a Token amount to use these networks and when they bought power stations they got them cheaply and either let them run down then beg the Governments to subsidise new ones. Oh and lets not forget the Wars and Constant patrols by our Forces to keep the Oil Flowing. I know Renewables are subsidised as that is what Governments are for. To lay out the basics of Modern Civilised Life for as many people as possible. Railways, Roads, Defence Force, Medicare all by and for taxpayers. If Private enterprise and Fossil Fuels built it we would have the Obscene Private Health of America, One highway/railway between Sydney and Melbourne and only cities with phone/Internet connection. And our Defence Force would only be used to Defend Private Assets. I see you believe Climate changes. CO2 isn't always responsible but Volcanoes, Comets etc can be also. The extinction event that killed off 90% of all Life and gave rise to the Dinosaurs was an accumulation of Greenhouse gases Methane/Carbon Dioxide from major volcanic action. But it took Nature 5,000 years before they were at dangerous levels. And it took nature 200,000 years to get it back to where life could thrive again. We are over halfway to that level in less than 500 years and we don't have 200,000 years to clean it up. So when your Grandchildren see CO2 at 800 p.p.m then they will know the Extinction is already happening. Hottest Planet in our Solar System? Mercury closest to the sun? No Venus because it has 97% CO2 which traps the Heat of the Sun. Mercury has no Atmosphere.
Hi Rosie just wondering while your pointing out SA has highest % of renewable. SA also has the HIGHEST priced 😱$$ electricity in Australia. Renewables and net O is economy Killer
Please correct me if I am wrong but I thought Tasmania (another renewables powerhouse) had the highest cost of electricity followed by SA. I do wonder why Australia is going down this selfish path. Australia as a country does not emit any CO2 over a year, in fact is is a massive absorber. These renewables should be left for the big emitters like Asia, Europe, Usa (not Canada they are good also) and the likes of the pacific islands, Naru is the worst on the planet by far.
@@jeffreyherba8435 You are not wrong, waratah is wrong and waratah should get their backside kicked for parroting right wing media lies on a public forum like this. The whole world can see them make fools out of themselves here.
@@jeffreyherba8435south Australia has the most expensive electricity prices. Don't get confused between the cost of energy production and the cost to the consumer. We're talking about consumer cost where SA is one of the highest on the planet.
Denmark has a really variable grid, sometimes exporting 2 GW (windy at night), sometimes importing 2 GW (no wind). Storage at scale would be really useful and an alternative to using Norway as a hydro-battery 🙂
Great video Rosie. Western Australia is even more isolated than SA and has a larger grid. Any chance of a rundown on its progress? An yes, please do a video on grid forming vs. grid following inverters!
Thanks Rosie for this very positive video showing how SA is leading the way to the net zero future we need. I was surprised and heartened at just how quickly the transformation has occurred.
Hello from Canada Rosie! One way South Australia might be able to get rid of those gas plants a little bit faster is with the more modern Geothermal. I know you said that traditional geothermal is a no go, but this new process changes that dramatically. There is a company in the US called Fervo Energy, who use this new method of geothermal. I think even one of their plants would really help stabilize the SA grid. Otherwise this is a great video and it's really nice to see just what is possible in so short a time.
I am a West Australian, and unfortunately there is not geothermal pretty much anywhere in Australia. Our Volcanos died out a long time ago. Geothermal is basically a no go here. But what has slowed Australia down is Conservative Govts and Conservative people denying Climate Change and actually attacking renewables. As Rosie said, when SA was hit by a massive storm and destroyed the transmission lines, al, the Federal Govt Conservative politicians actually blamed the renewables for the power blackouts. Same as the Republicans blamed renewables for the power issues in Texas a couple of years ago. In Australia we tend to have more right wing govts over the years n Federal and State and they always fight against renewables and push fossil fuels. We had a Conservative Federal Govt for 9 years until 2022, and nothing was done on Climate Change. Nothing at all. Cheers
@@BatMan-oe2gh keep an eye on the technology, there's a new rock vapourizing laser that might well drill deep enough for traditional deep-well liquid-vapourizing geothermal but there's definitely shallow-well solar-heated geothermal like they use for heat pumps. Everything's changing so fast at the moment you can't rule _anything_ out for long.
@@alanhat5252 I don't rule out much, but it has been looked at here. According to the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), there are three main challenges that make geothermal power not financially viable in Australia. 1: Finding it: Identifying suitable geothermal resources. 2. Flowing it: Producing hot fluid from the geothermal reservoirs at a high rate. 3. Financing it: Overcoming the significant up-front capital costs associated with enhanced geothermal system technologies and the cost of transmitting electricity from remote locations. Exploratory geothermal wells have been drilled to test for the presence of high temperature geothermal reservoir rocks, but all these projects have since been abandoned. A small geothermal plant in Queensland experienced problems during commissioning and as of May 2022, remains idle. Geodynamics Cooper Basin Demonstration Plant in South Australia was built by Geodynamics to assess the potential of hot-rock geothermal energy for zero-emission, base-load power. The 1 MWe Habanero pilot plant operated for 160 days in 2013 and prior to closure of the trial, the plant was operating at 19kg/s and 215 degrees Celsius production well head temperature. However, the project was abandoned after being assessed as uneconomic due to a combination of the cost of commercialising generation and the remoteness of the site. Cheers.
Electrician here in the power industry: While possibly viable, Fervo Energy has an unproven technology with unknown long term costs. And being a thermo electric power system, something they fail to mention is that geothermal power still requires a lot of fresh water to operate, and for injecting into the boreholes to extract the heat. Getting adequate supplies of water that is cold enough to operate at full power is a major issue for coal, gas, and nuclear fired thermo-electric power plants, and geothermal will be competing for those same sources of water. Most people do not know that thermo-electric power production is one of the largest consumers of fresh water in the US. One of the major advantages of wind and solar is that they do not consume water.
@@GoCoyote Fervo use a close loop system. This means that unlike those others you mentioned they don't lose much/any water to evaporation. The hot water comes up in a closed pipe and warms another liquid that then runs their generator. It's an innovative way of dealing with some of the problems of traditional geothermal. That said it still uses water, but then again, what doesn't?
Really cool, South Australia is doing great! Interesting here in Sweden and Europe where we're basically phasing out fossil fuel electricity and nuclear is declincing since old reactors are torn down faster than new are being built, while we are increasing power demand for a sustainable transition in industry and transport.. Some regions have resources for hydro, wind, offshore wind, solar.. And a pretty good interconnected grid. May i ask for a renewable europe episode? :)
I'd ask for one for Canada too but there are a few provinces who won't hear anything of the sort. One actually has a moratorium on clean projects citing resident concerns. It should be noted this was never done for oil and gas projects, the moratorium that is.
I am probably going to be in Europe at Easter next year, so will definitely plan to do some Euro content while I'm there. I was thinking to do individual country videos (e.g. Germany's energy transition) but do you think an all-Europe one would be better?
Agreed! Despite our relative wealth, we’re not doing well enough in adopting renewables. I realize it’s tough going to 100% renewables in northern areas with little sunshine during the winter and a very hostile climate, but wind turbines are definitely capable of surviving in these areas, albeit probably a shortened lifespan. Another part of the issue is a lot of wasted energy, not using modern construction and building technologies to minimize heat loss in homes and inefficient machinery etc. I’m always on the fence about govt subsidies for improving efficiency since that’s really just coming out of our own pockets anyways, but probably it’s worthwhile since the cost of borrowing by the govt is lower than for individuals, so overall it nets out to be a lower cost that way, other than perhaps the cost of paying the bureaucracy to manage the program. Mea culpa, I’m guilty of being a part of the problem in my 110 year old house which definitely needs new insulation, improved windows etc and I’m planning on starting the upgrades next spring. Toronto has a pretty cool tech they’ve been using for several years now at least, which is storing compressed air in a bladder underwater in Lake Ontario. It gets filled overnight when electricity costs are low and discharges during the day and evening when electricity rates and demand are high. It’s not powered by renewable energy sources necessarily, but it’s a very interesting storage method that could potentially work in any deep enough lake (Lake Winnipeg perhaps?). Not sure how it’d survive in the saltwater of the Pacific or Atlantic oceans but it’d be good for the local governments there to investigate.
What are you talking about? Canada is tremendously successful with renewable energy. BC, Manitoba, and Quebec are at more than 90 percent renewable, and even Ontario gets more electricity from renewables than from fossil fuels. And if you compare electricity bills in Montreal, Winnipeg, or Vancouver to those in Adelaide, it definitely seems that Canada uses a better renewable.
@@dennisenright9347 I’d love for this to be true, but I’m pretty sure it’s not. If you care to discuss further, provide facts with links that support your claims.
@@sjsomething4936HE leaves out the part of running out of pristine river valleys to flood. Also includes the dreaded (by idiots) nuclear power that is the backbone of Ontario. Advocate for Nuclear or shut the hell up. Also leaves out. How do you do wind or solar in mostly cloudy dark mountainous British Columbia... well you cannot. BC buys back up hydro from ding ding ding COAL FIRED Montana utilities. Hydro project SITE C is very controversial and most likely will be the last mega dam. Storage costs as much as Nuclear, generates nothing. So build the nuclear.
@@sjsomething4936agreed. Canada is a terrible place to rely on wind and solar. Hydro is great, yes, but has transmission limits. These of course have their place! Solar is a great way to shave afternoon air conditioning peak loads, if the panels face West.
You seriously understated the role of gas and imports. Timing was ideal for your narrative. The fact is that SA’s stability relies on Victoria’s brown coal and gas. A small population as well. Did I also mention that retailers don’t want to supply business customers due to a lack of reliability.
What is the cost of your electricity compared to other areas? How much overcapacity of intermittent sources do you have to build to provide reliable power on nights with low wind?
It's the most expensive electricity in the country. You are only getting the “Rosie” side of the debate. It has amplified and reinforced social inequality and is forcing businesses to either close or charge exorbitant prices
@@LTVoyager You can find plenty of info online. It's also interesting to note that the Northern Territory uses 70% + gas for electricity generation but prices are still cheaper than in SA.
@@joshs470 As far as I recall, it was only a week or so where it genuinely was most expensive in the world, I debated it a number of times on the ex-social media platform, and other than that there was an 18 month period where it was often the most expensive domestically. Murdoch SkyAfterDark and a large following went with "most expensive in the world" tag for years afterward. At the time when we mostly used gas, the shareholding of energy companies supplying SA was majority owned by entities in other countries, particularly Hong Kong. Although I could never manage to persuade Simon Holmes a Court of it, I still believe some of our disruptions other than the big 2016 one were because it harmed shareholder interests to keep SA's power on. [off-topic, personally I wish we could abandon the whole shareholder/company model as a now obsolete relic of the Middle Ages. However I have no suggestion what to replace it with. Everything at the bottom of Malsow's hierarchy should be supplied free via taxpayers.]
@@oakfat5178 I didn't say it was the most expensive in the world. It is, however, the most expensive electricity in Australia. electricity generation in the NT is 70+ % gas and it is still cheaper there.
@@joshs470 When #SkyAfterDark was making the claim, I checked and it was briefly the most expensive in the world. Please do a search for "AEMO Quarterly Energy Dynamics Q1 2023" and also check Q2,which should be in your search results. For each of those reports, see Figure 10 on page 12, comparing wholesale electricity prices. The reason SA had such high prices was tat we only had gas, and not enough renewable. The gas suppliers charged us extremely high prices. The more renewables SA has acquired, the more the price has dropped. If you want to defend your claim, please supply a source for it.
Cost of electricity? Open NEM shows average wholesale cost at $9.53/MWh in 2007, and in 2022 (latest full year) $184.72, so ignoring value of money, ~1940% increase and using 3% inflation ~ 1240% increase, Cherry picking 2020 at $51.52 and 3% gives a 368% real increase in cost. All hurting businesses and consumers.
Great video! I am a proud South Australian who got roof top solar waaaay back in 2008. It cost a bloody fortune but I haven't had an electricity bill since! Since then I've ripped out my gas hot water and installed a solar evacuated tube hot water system. Then I dumped my gas furnace and replaced that with a ducted reverse cycle air conditioning unit. I still have a tiny gas bill as we have yet to replace our gas stove and oven. I can't wait to get a Tesla power wall and Model 3 one day! It can be done!
Gas is slowly converting to biogas which does dump CO₂ into the air but it's recycled CO₂ not new CO₂ To my mind domestic cooking with biogas isn't a major issue.
ROI counts and that's why it makes sense. Anyone who can afford the initial outlay would have to be brain dead not to get solar panels at a minimum. As for the solar hot water and heat pump, it will take a few years to pay off, but I am willing to push for the greater good. I have to say, I really don't mind the lack of power bills in the meantime. I think we all should do what we can, even if it's only recycling your cans and bottles. @@dzcav3
I'm from Denmark - the home of modern wind mills. I'm puzzled that when discussing the use of renewable wind technology there seems to be a lot of opposition coming from especially Americans claiming that modern windmills are not economically sustainable, kills birds, and spreads wing micro plastics, etc. In Denmark we have a long history of putting up windmills and in recent years, mostly big sea windmills, and as far as I know modern windmills have a lifespan of 20+ years but pays itself in about 6-12 months so it is a good investment. Rosie, it would be great with a video on windmill sustainability addressing these points.
The easy explanation is that roughly half of Americans are crazy. A slightly better explanation is that America has a large fossil fuel industry, and vested interests have engaged in a relentless public relations and propaganda campaign against renewable energy. In favor of renewable energy in America is the fact that it's attractive from the point of view of cost, and most Americans want it.
The problem is, a video here is preaching to the choir. American resistance to wind is coming from two quarters… an alliance of right wing media and fossil industry propaganda, and a 20th century environmentalism model grounded in opposing EVERYTHING. The propaganda side skillfully dresses itself in the language of the environmentalists - “OMG wind turbines kill birds!”, “What about child slave labor mining cobalt for the batteries?”, etc. They’re also adept at formenting local NIMBY resistance using shell groups that work for the fossil industry, which provide money, organization, and misinformation to conservative-leaning locals. It doesn’t take a lot of angry activists to flood a zoning meeting or whatever. I try to be positive about it. The economics of renewables are so powerful that fossil fuel is fighting just to survive, and every day more people understand the importance of getting off fossil fuel - and more angry reactionaries die of old age.
There are so many naysayers here in the UK claiming that a near 100% renewable grid is, if not impossibly, then extremely expensive. I've saved the video so I can put this uplifting example infront of the denier types when the opportunity arises. Thanks!
She’s a puppet for the green profiteers. You only heard the ‘rosie’ side of the argument. SA has the most expensive electricity in the country which is amplifying and reinforcing social inequality and forcing businesses to either close or charge exorbitant prices
Good video. What about the cost of the electricity. A video on the cost relative to a fossil fuel would be nice. Apologies if one has already been made.
SA has the advantage of reliable sun every day. So you only need storage for the night. Seasonal storage is usually not your challenge. Northern Europe is has a long winter period with little sun, and sometimes also a week of little wind. Also solvable, but a bit more complex. Still: wonderful how motivating it is when SA can be an example .. even if you probably need to acknowledge it is the 'lowest fruit".
Soul crushingly high here, for a long time in the late 2010s we had the most expensive electricity in the world and I think that'd still be the case if it wasn't for the energy crisis in Europe atm.
Hey Rosie, I would be very interested in the cost-benefit of connecting WA with the rest of the national grid, especially due to spreading the “duck curve” and associated solar challenges over a longer time frame! Would love to see this in a video some time
@@tobyheislers8924 I read that China was installing at least one HVDC line to carry solar power from the sunny inland to the populated coast. I'm just not sure that there will ever be the cost recovery to justify building an HVDC line from Adelaide to Kalgoorlie or where ever the closest point of the WA grid might be. Still, investments like that are where Governments are supposed to step in.
Very excited for SA and all of Australia in your energy transition journey. Had read of the large batteries Tesla installed a few years ago. Visiting (from US) 3 families in QLD May-June 2024 for 3 weeks + 2 weeks elsewhere. Looking forward to hearing their experience w/ roof solar panel systems & other developments. Don’t believe they have home batteries so far. One owns a building automation business.
Hi 👋 Rosie I stumbled on your channel last night and watched a couple of videos, very informative and explain things that people can understand in I simple way Keep up the good work and way to go South Australia
Great job, and very interesting thanks. I’m APPALLED at the Dutton plan for nuclear. This is absolute madness for all sorts of reasons, not the least of which is economics. Cheers from Qld.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, ideas and videos. Interesting that you mentioned synchronous condensers as a means of load control. Having over 30+ years experience in power systems operations I know of situations where people thought and operated as if they provided load support thru inertia but later found out that they were extremely lucky that the load support was never actually needed because it wasn’t actually there. Synchronous condensers are good for voltage support but not much more. The load support you get thru voltage control is minimal at best. There is no substitute for prime mover thru governor action. I’ve pondered the problem for many a night shift and the best we seem to have as an alternative is battery backup which is extremely expensive for now. My idea was to require solar to put in battery storage with the capacity to hold a percentage of their max production and to tune the inverters to be sensitive to frequency and either charge or discharge into the grid on a sliding scale. Pump storage is good and there are some varieties that could be used in Australia using very deep mines for lower reservoirs in place of high mountains but those are also extremely expensive unless there are unused abandoned mines at the needed elevations available for use. I know at one time it was proposed to put pump storage in the New York City area using the ocean as the upper and purpose dug chambers in the bedrock over 1000 feet below for the lower reservoir. Always interesting to hear about solutions and problems from other areas in the transmission/power industry, thanks again for sharing.
hi how do you feel about running dams with more than one turbine hall ? I know about the standing issues raised by those in the industry of backpressure not being stable leading to turbine surging but i have overcome these and can fit two banks of turbines in the system with no affect to the current systems do you have any thoughts?
@@simonbowman6206 I’m not sure of what situation you would want more than one turbine hall. I know of plants that have the turbine hall in the middle of a mountain and they have a large pressurized surge chamber between the penstock and the conduit from the upper reservoir intakes. Surge chamber was the same size or larger than the turbine hall. I also know of a plant that had one conduit feeding a manifold to several penstocks to individual units. In that situation it was a pump storage and the only limitation was all units had to be operated in the same mode due to concerns of unpredictable conditions in the manifold. If your talking about turbines in series at multiple elevations I would think that probably would not be recommended for multiple reasons. Sorry I wasn’t able to be of more help.
Check out Hydrostor compressed air storage, they installed a pilot system in Toronto a few years ago. Not sure if their system is suitable for NYC, especially in the ocean but it’d be worth city officials looking into I’d think.
Very good presentation. How lucky South Australians are to be just 2 million in such a large space. Living in the cramped South East of England I am seriously jealous!
Hahahah, Australia is 7,682,300 km2 in size with 26 million people. The United Kingdom is 242,495 km2 with 67 million people. I can understand why you feel so cramped.
Great video and a demonstration that your country is going 100% renewable despite being a very large exporter of fossil fuels. While Europe and other countries use pollution (that's killing us) and foreign energy dependence to motivate our transition. You demonstrate that cost reduction in its self motivates (finances) the transition.
If projects like the "Sun Cable" went ahead, we could even be exporting our abundant renewable resources to SE Asian neighbours. This is my hope for an export transition.
South Australia has the highest average electricity cost in Australia by a considerable margin, like 25% higher. Sure solar and wind do produce cheap electricity but only when running at 100% of their potential. Solar farms are 0% efficient at midnight. Wind farms in South Australia run at something like 20% or less efficiency over the year. But that is not the problem. The problem is storage. SA spent $150 million on a batteries that can power the state for a few minutes. How much investment is required to get through a night? Batteries bring another problem. There has to be enough renewable energy to power the state AND recharge the batteries on a day when the weather conditions are the least favourable to wind and solar. So additional wind and solar farms have to be installed to cover that eventuality that will be mostly not needed.That cost will feed into energy bills. The alternative is learning to live with regular blackouts like North Korea. Those people who invested in EVs, which consume a huge amount of energy, might find themselves sleeping in their cars waiting for a change in the weather as they will be the first victims of load shedding.
Hi Rosie, how did South Australia organise that the grid can handle so much variance. I am from the Netherlands where we are not doing bad on renewables either, but we run into the bottle neck of an overloaded grid. New solar parks can no longer be connected untill extra grid capacity is build.
We have the capacity to curtail solar generation at the inverter level; all new inverters are connected via the internet so they can be turned off or set in to a self curtailment whereby they don't export excess to the grid but keep the property running on 100% solar. I believe older systems are also forced to shutting down by playing with grid frequencies. This isnt regularly done, but its an option for when solar generation surpasses requirements.
Thanks for that uplifting video! Here in California, the renewable transition seems to be stalling because of nimbiism, politics, and misinformation from the hydrocarbon lobby. For one, our own democratic governor sided with utilities to gut net metering. Small rooftop solar companies are struggling.
There is only one thing stoping.... cost and economic viability... second is circumstances... not so much wind in califronia and very diffrent population size
Plus, they're trying to make renewables do something they cannot do without a good storage method. Until there's an economical, efficient battery, much as I love renewables and am very much looking forward to their large scale implementation, renewables will continue to languish. We really needed to spend all the money Obama pissed away on solar panel's, on battery research. But he very cynically wanted to get his name on something and the silver bullet battery probably wouldn't have been found during his administration so he did what was best for him, not the environment and dumped all that money into solar panels. F him.
same here in germany... it seems to be a struggle of cultures... for the new or keeping old. Seems to be going so hostile like in USA, here it is the green party against nearly all others... the greens have only 2 more years, before election could change everything... again. The people must see, that "green" is a good thing and that you can save a lot of money, so smart metering for my opinion is the key for low pricing when it's windy or sunny. For me that is the main thing, that really can change minds...
@@detlefk.5126 Germany? Highest prices of electricty in the world? And over blown wind farms without transmision lines and sitting in the middle of european interconnectors and closing nuclear palnts... You are primal example where it went bad, very bad. Now when you can not buy natural gas from russia you restore coal plants and coal mines... As i said everything is matter of economoics.... if you skip that step you will end like in Germany, richest country in Europe when hundred thousands of people can't afford electricity bill...
@@AK-vx4dy A lot of this is propaganda. Coal usages is on a decline in Germany despite turning off nuclear, despite energy crisis, despite having abundant coal resources within their own territory. You just keep hearing comparisons to France which already switched to Nuclear in the 70 and 80s long before climate change was a major concern simply because they had no coal or any other fossil fuels . The only true thing is that Germanys power is very expensive but they also emit only half of CO2 per capita than places like Australia, Canada, USA, New Zealand,... while being the economic center of Europe. They are much further ahead in their energy transition than most developed countries outside Europe.
While South Australia is clearly on a good path, I’m curious how well its model can be replicated in other parts of the world. Adelaide has a very mild climate and only moderate solar drop off in the winter months. It’s a lot tougher to manage a variable grid in places that regularly experience freezing temperatures with overcast skies for many days in a row such as much of the Northern US.
Denmark also connects at 1400 MegaWatt to England in early 2024. South Australia can't connect to Western Australia or Queensland any time soon, they are too far. That makes SA's efforts more impressive.
Congrats to SA. Thanks for the video, makes me really optimistic. What's the difference, btw, between synchronous condensers and what I know as flywheel generators?
Flywheel generators consist of two distinct parts; the rotating flywheel (prime mover) and a separately coupled motor-generator. The biggest difference is that a synchronous condenser is not a generator. It is actually a net consumer of power from the grid because it doesn’t have a prime mover once up and running. Synchronous condensers are essentially self-contained synchronous machines (they can run as a generator or a motor) because they have a DC-excited magnetic field that rotates with the rotor, inducing [leading or lagging] current onto the grid-connected stator. This allows them to support grid stability by managing reactive power needs and providing rotating inertia. They are not really injecting real power.
@@rklauco Yeah, it’s not an easy concept to wrap one’s head around so I hope she does make a video about it. The loss of inertia is a big problem as we put more inverter based generation on the grid while retiring rotating synchronous generators. In fact, I believe Hawaiian Electric is requiring future rooftop solar interconnections to include a battery and grid forming inverter so they can maintain grid stability during fault conditions. Anyway, great question!
Hi rosie, i was an electrician for two years, iv designed the idea of, sewerage hydro, a hydro engine put into the lower sewerage out let of tallish city buildings!!! Mi
in 2023 so far - GAS is 24.7% of our generation at an average price of $199 per MWh. So even though renewable bringing wholesale price down, Gas is still making a killing. Additonaly being a smaller population I would say a higher % of costs would go towards infrastructure, driving up the costs.
Denmark here; Norway's water are our battery ;-) We have several connections to Norway (2), Sweden (3) and Germany (3). For some years also a connection to Holland (1) and come January the connection to England will be ready for use.
Looking forward to your V2G video. I have just bought a 2nd EV a BYD Seal with 82kWh LFP and V2L which I will feed into the ac input of one of my inverters. I currently have 36kWh LFP of home batteries. Would love to be paid to support the grid here in Thailand but change is slow.
Thanks for the update. My province have banned new solar installations for 6 months while they try to figure out how to keep the gas peaker plants viable.
It's probably them trying to figure out how to manage the grid with the surge of electricity from rooftop solar. Keeping gas viable is easy, you just up the KW rates.
Another awesome video, showcasing just how doable this is and how the spin-doctors, lobbyists and vested interests are just in the bloody way…. Sigh! It’s been really great to hear how Aus has been making such great progress despite those mentioned above.. Been enjoying your videos for a few years now and wish you all the best for the coming year 👍
Great video (I'm a biased south aussie). Would be interested to see some details on how the Hornsby battery made lots of $$ selling power on the peak short term energy market.
There is a very important point here not oftern covered or understood. First we need to understand the flow of money. Sure the battery makes money when renewable power is low, the corollary of that is someone is paying a high price to keep the lights on. And sure, sunlight and wind is free so the fuel costs to the operators is low; Capital and distribution costs are high, as will be still incalculable and unknown disposal costs. In contrast to the low fuel cost, the reliability cost is very high for two reasons.1) South Australia currently has 2 to 3 times the renewable energy generation capacity compared to what the grid requires and still only supplies 70%. So there is the cost of large amounts of the equipment only being used some of the time. The batteries make lots of money for a short period, they quickly run out, but the companies of the not-producing equipment are accumulating large costs with no income. I am not sure what the supply contracts say, but I suspect in our eagerness to go renewable the consumer is covering all the cost of renewable operations, ensuring no multinational who installed the renewable equipment is losing money. 2) At this stage a non-renewable system capable of meeting all of SA's energy requirements needs to be maintained, so there is a complete system capable of powering the state operating at all times as the wind can drop in seconds and the machines must already be running to fill the gap. So in effect, South Australia has the 3 or more times the generating capacity that it requires. If your power bill is going up this would be part fo the reason
It's because they're importing Gas and electricity from other states to pick up the short fall. SA old network under coal was full of constant black outs and they were forced to make a drastic change. I think it's off set by the fact everyone gets $1k to live in SA, who would live there otherwise, right ?
Within a few years SA will have over 10GW of wind and solar capacity but the average electricity consumption averages about 1.5GW. so on a sunny windy day when there is 10GW being generated where is the excess of 8.5GW going to go? At present there is only 0.8GW of interconnector capacity available and i think the new interconnector being built to NSW is about 1GW making 1.8GW export capability. To build the extra 7GW required would cost at least $20 billion and SA doesn’t have money to build the interconnectors. However, the assumption that all export can be exported is flawed. SA, VIC, NSW and TAS usually have similiar wind and solar conditions so all these states will have high generation rates of wind and solar at the same time and want to export. So there will be a massive oversupply requiring significant curtailment of wind and solar. Another problem is that most of rooftop solar cannot be switched off remotely and will only trip on high voltage which is dangerous and third world stuff.
Thanks for your informative content Rosie. What is the significance of using grid forming inverters, and how do they differ from grid following inverters? Is there a requirement to replace existing grid following inverters with grid forming inverters? If SA intends to grow its renewable energy infrastructure in order to supply excess to other States through new and existing interconnects, how will households and businesses be able to rely on this power being consistently available with variable generation? Is it intended that these other States would build big batteries in their States in order to take advantage of this SA renewable energy? I believe these big batteries are very good at moderating frequency fluctuations in the grid, but can't power the grid for very long. Where does any excess renewable generation that isn't demanded, or stored in batteries go? How many of these big batteries would be required to power SA grid demand through its periods of low renewable generation? Can you make a video showing the size of Australia-wide wind/solar farms and battery installations? A video about the total costs related to them (including subsidies) and the additional transmission lines required, compared to the cost of alternatives? A video about availability and cost of recycling of wind turbines, solar panels and batteries and their expected lifecycles? Cheers
Thanks for your video. We always have a heap of videos about the rest of the world, its great to have one done on Australia. I'm in NSW and had no idea how much better SA has done with the clean energy transition. We are cretins by comparison
Old power plants are not needed for grid stability, energy storage does that. Some people just still haven't figured out that the grid has been depending on flywheels since the start. Sure, many are double use to lower costs and we call them turbines, but it should be blatantly obvious that it is not the fire or water that creates power but the spinny thingy that keeps spinning even after you take those away.
You are incorrect. The fire and water ARE the things that create power. The spinny thingy just doesn't like to change speed very quickly. All it does is help dampen fluctuations.
@@dzcav3 Nope. Power exists, the flywheel is how we transfer it to the generator at stable RPM. We can spin the wheel using any power source, therefore claim that we need coal/gas/nuclear power to prevent those fluctuations is false. A solar panel could power your stuff directly just like a fire can warm you, but to connect them to the grid both need ways to transform the energy to electricity and balance the output. If I tried to sell an EV with ads that say "ICE cars need wheels", implying that EVs don't, wouldn't you point out the obvious lie?
This all great but it doesnt work in the dark with no wind,, a 10min 100mwh battery is useless or even a bigger one. .. a synchro spinner is just a frequency forming motor and has no energy output. Back to the statment its dark and windless. Anything more that 60 to 70% renewables is just asking for trouble with no baseload generation to cover the down time... but south Australia cant build enough interconnetors fast enough after the last power lines blew down and sent them into the dark ages.
Great video. Having grown up in Adelaide, but living in Canada i have to nitpick Rosie calling Adelaide a 'small city'. 1.3 million makes it bigger or similar size as many Canadian cities and US cities. But heh, fantastic stuff the quick transition to over 70% and higher renewable electricity. The province where i live, Manitoba, is largely powered by hydro.
Hi Rosie, for me, there were two missing elements to this video: 1) *Tidal* - All too often overlooked, tidal has the potential to meet all of our energy needs, and do so consistently. Challenges such as corrosion and increased maintenance costs aside, tidal energy could be a huge contributor to safe, clean, reliable, renewable generation capacity. 2) *Advanced Reconductoring* - Adding generation capacity does no good until power can be transmitted from where it's generated to where it's consumed. This requires both expansion of existing facilities and installation of new capacity. Horribly slow permitting, combined with opposition from land owners, etc., constitutes a huge risk to achieving electrification/decarbonization goals. Advanced reconductoring is a solution with no permitting requirements that costs half as much as erecting new transmission lines. Using composite/carbon cores and trapezoidally arranged aluminum conducts can double the capacity of existing transmission facilities. Hundreds of thousands of miles/kilometers of aging transmission lines are also in need of replacement. With better high temperature characteristics, higher strength and less sag, reconductoring has an added benefit of reducing power line-related wildfires, as well.
1) yes the *_potential_* of tidal is obvious for all to see & has been for millennia but nobody has figured out how to harness it till the last few decades so it's still essentially unproven technology & doesn't attract investors. La Rance (spelling?) is the only installation that's been running long enough for investors to use as a guide & it's a totally niche setup that's difficult to compare with other things that are looking for funding. The bean counters will figure it out eventually but until then tidal is stalled. 2) I have no idea what "advanced reconductoring" is but the need for additional transmission lines was noted in the video & every single metre of new or replacement line is to the highest proven standard, it's too expensive to be otherwise. All the transmission companies & manufacturers have research labs & they evaluate every likely idea as well as inventing their own, they will have been evaluating whatever it is you're suggesting pretty much since it was invented, if it's any good they'll be installing it.
@@unicornadrian1358That's interesting, if true. I wonder why it would be? Imagine five years from now. The input to keep it going is wind and sun. No truckloads of coal or big tanks of gas needed. Surely by then, the cost will be quite low.
@@orionbetelgeuse1937 Batteries for grid storage should last 20 years, and depending on the chemistry, possibly much longer. The price of batteries will continue to drop for at least ten more years. Even where it's at now, the cost of batteries is WAY cheaper than the cost of dealing with climate change after the fact.
Hi Rosie. Very well produced video; well sourced, factual and up to date ongoing feats currently in progress. I was concerned about the title, i.e. '100%', but at least we are getting bigger results from steps taken thus far. Grid powered EV charging, ponding, the fact that the southern districts hit maximum from roof top injection and moved to encourage home Storage are some of the growing problems or 'teething' issues associated could be a deeper dive. but I haven't watched all of your content as yet. Fixing that now! Dom
Great to see that South Australia is counting domestic solar in its total renewable generation. We generate most of our electricity from solar and batteries, but our only impact on the grid numbers is in reduced bills. Yet it would be a real positive motivator if people could see how much they are collectively contributing to generation.
South Australia now has Australia’s most expensive retail electricity price. It is a massive 45c/kWh and it’s nearly the highest in the industrialised world. It is 50% higher than Victoria whose electricity is 30c/kWh and mainly generated by brown coal. Germany and Denmark have the highest electricity prices in Europe and the highest percentage of wind and solar. Chinese electricity cost is about 12c/kWh and is mostly generated by black coal and they commission a new coal generator every 2 weeks.
Danish retail electricity price is correctly the highest in Europe, but that is due to taxation, which is a political choice. The wholesale price is average for Europe. Furthermore the Danish grid has one of the highest availabilities in the world which also is worth something.
@@jensageholm8774 From the internet The average price of electricity in Denmark, in June of 2023, has been 0.3811€ per kilowatt hour. Electricity price has decreased € 0.206 kWh, 35.09% since the previous semester. Meanwhile, the average price of electricity without taxes in Denmark in that period was € 0.2976 per kilowatt hour, So Danish electricity cost before tax is 0.2975 euros which is 50c Australian which proves my point.
And climate change is fiction (if you don't live on the seafront), china is a famous tourist destination for folks to come and marvel at the air quality, the earth is flat.... got anything else to share sherbet?
@@Volthrax I paid €0.1 per kWh in June for the raw electricity on a variable rate plan (€0.16 when including transmission tarifs). What is your source? - maybe some fixed rate plans are included or something.
Looking at NEM live dashboard at 9.30 am 2/7 you are running on less than 20% renew surviving on gas and your connection to the majority coal generated national grid. Certainly not a model to cite. We need a Nuclear baseload constant and view / use renew as the variable. But our corrupt Gov and renewable PPP with Super funds have killed any chance to price both fairly.
The solar and wind destroy the economics of nuclear,coal gas power plants. No one is going to invest billions in a real power plant when they will only run a small percentage of the time. Wind and solar are not cheap. They are a disaster and destroy the electricity grid. Unless the wind and solar are removed electricity will remain expensive
Yes, you did omit some things from your video -- THE TWO MOST IMPORTANT THINGS, COST AND RELIABILITY. 1. How do you electric rates compare now versus 2007? 2. How does electrical reliability compare now versus 2007? How could you NOT cover the two most important factors of electrical supply?
Very interesting. Since you have a closer experience, maybe you can comment on the two most serious worries I've heard about going fully variable-renewables: - sometimes your production is too high and you have to spend that somehow. - somethimes your production is too low for too long (so batteries can't fix it without becoming a very expensive burden) so there's a floor to how low you can bring your use of non-renewables. Thanks
Overproduction isn't really a problem, all forms of renewable energy can be turned off as required. However it can be an embarrassment because you generally need to pay the operators to not generate energy which is not popular with the public. With any system of power production there will always be the '20 year' or '50 year' event that exhausts your stored energy supply. That was even true for coal and gas, the UK has had to ration electricity in the past due to things like miner's strikes, very cold winters and wars. It's generally done by asking (and paying) sections of industry to shut down during periods of peak demand. With renewable energy it's a trade-off between the cost of storage and the risk of running out of energy. Each country will make its own decision about how much storage it needs.
@@petehiggins33 Thanks a lot. I still have some doubts on both sides, though. I have solar panels and I can turn them off, but can this be done on a 50 MW plant? I know in the Netherlands instead of doing that they pay greenhouses to turn the lights on. And they have a low share of renewables, no idea what's wrong there. As for energy storage, the issue is how much of that do you have to build up in order to get today's level of reliability (not aiming for perfection here) with a very high share of renewables. And what happens then both for the total cost of going green (how much it goes up) and, at the same time, the profitability of solar and wind plants (if you're selling when everyone is selling, with current pricing schemes, you'd go bust, fast, while the storage guys are the ones getting rich).
Hi Rosie! Can you please do a video on how synchronous condensers and grid forming inverters work?
A breakdown of grid-forming vs. grid-following might also be useful.
Yes. As we transition to a new, modern grid, this will be very important to understand. @@ARepublicIfYouCanKeepIt
Yes, let me second this. Digging into the technology so that more people are familiar with it will help them accept it as practical.
@@BillMSmith Very true!
I have no idea what this is, so yes it would be an informing video!
Wait, why didn’t you discuss cost at all? That’s a huge part of whether renewable are actually feasible. If building tons of solar and wind and batteries which have to be replaced every 10-15 years makes electricity cost 10x more then have you really created a viable solution? And we see that on most days you still need gas generators to produce up to 83% of energy needs. In what world is this an actual solution?
When they don't talk about cost, there is a reason -- it's TOO HIGH.
@@dzcav3 Don't mention nuclear then.
Rosie, This is more than a little optimistic - yes it’s true that on some days renewables supply a large proportion of SA’s power, however continuous and reliable power requires interconnection to coal fired power from the Eastern States, supported by gas fired power maintained at 25-30% of the demand so as to be available should the wind / solar suddenly fail. Gas pipelines and gas power stations have increasing difficulty in generating sufficient revenue to stay in business, while excess renewable generation is either shed, or the producer pays others to absorb the excess (rather than earning revenue). A couple of years ago the combined solar and wind was forecast to provide much of the load, but mid morning the wind stopped and the interconnection tripped. Gas, battery and diesel were activated to prevent blackouts. The “big” battery discharged in 1 hour (earning $14700/MW) - while an infrequent event, such situations do occur, and support from conventional generation is required, and the public must ensure these earn suffieient revenue to be instantly available.
Hi Rosie, thanks for the effort you put into your videos. I would however temper your commentary on the push to 100% renewables on our grids in the absence of flexible baseload generation. The suggestion that South Australia can operate without the support of flexible open cycle gas turbines isn’t supported by the SA generation profile - in any given week there’s always at least one period where renewables contribute circa 5% or less. As engineers we have a duty to encourage the transition, but in a way that is financially responsible and realistic. These concerns being increasing raised within the electricity industry and are ignored at our peril. Cheers.
Baseload power is redundant, has been for a long time now.
Dispatchable power is what is needed.
But you would know all this if you had kept yourself up to date and informed.
@@nkelly.9give it a rest mate. You're playing a political game rather than a facts based discussion.
You would know that baseload power is critical to a high functioning system. Just look at examples around the world. Don't be blinded by the Bowen.
South Australia has 200% over capacity in renewables and still only gets to 70% some of the time, no wonder they have the highest retail prices in the national grid.
why do you not class murray link as an interconnector, it connects to NSW.
what are the prices compared to other regions? And how does this work for big companies needing to buy on the spot market?
Let’s hear about your electricity rates. Must be almost free with all that free energy, right?
SA has gone from some of the most expensive power to some of the cheapest by using renewables.
Fact.
The anti renewables zealots are out in force here.
@@nkelly.9 can we have some actual numbers here? for example, what is South Australia compared to Queensland? The kw hour rates for peak off peak.
@@warwick.schaffer Sorry sonny.
QLD is an outlier, it didn't have coalition governments wreck its energy sector and sell it off to overseas corporations like the rest of the country suffered.
It is still burning massive amounts of coal.
Tell us about the costs of burning all that coal on the planet and then get back to me on prices,
or do we just shuffle those costs off the books to make them conveniently look better?
Great video, Rosie. Like reading a short version of an engineering report.
Just a minor correction/update: Denmark now also has a 700 MW interconnector to The Netherlands, and the Viking Link interconnector to the UK is coming online at the end of 2023.
One small correction. Denmark is interconnected with Germany, Sweden, Norway as said in the video AND the Netherlands!
Thanks for the info. This is more of an addition than a correction though.
there's new interconnectors every time you look around Europe.
And the UK. Technicality its normal operation from the end of this year but testing has already completed.
@@alanhat5252 this one is not really new, started operations 2019 🙂
@@adon8672 well, what I heard was ”there are three interconnections in operation” and the correct info is four interconnections! Additional info would be ”and a fifth will come on line soon between Denmark and Great Britain” 🙂
For me living in SA during the 2016 blackout was a turning point to prepare for off-grid living in suburbia. Recently came the Covid hard lock downs and I was more prepared than I would have been!
We were recently able to install a large solar/battery system on the south coast of SA.
I wasn't sure how good it would be, but now I find we use next to no grid energy, while exporting about 80% of the power the panels generate.
All this and no risk of a blackout. 😊
Now you need to buy an EV….free fuel!
How large is large? Also, what brand did you go with? Ta
@@Cant_prove_god On one hand I would love an EV, but on the other hand they are still difficult to get in Australia, and we don't drive much. If I buy an EV now, there would be one less for people who do a lot of driving.
Hope they will be more common soon.
@@Ian-qe5ch 32 Trina Vertex S 415w for a total of 13.25 kW, a Fronius Primo 10.0 GEN 24 inverter, and a BYD Battery Box HVM 22.08Kw.
Organised through Solar Quotes. Hope this helps.
@@martythemartian99 Indeed it does, thanks Marty
Rosie, you are an engineer, why do you only give one side of the story and ignore the other.
No mention of the current price of electricity where SA consumer prices are 45c/kWh which is the highest in Australia and one of the highest in the world.
No mention of the staggering cost to build the interconnectors needed to export surplus electricity.
No mention of the staggering cost to provide adequate storage. I estimate the cost batteries to supply 24 hours of average supply at $36 billion dollars.
No mention of the report last year from the SA productivity commission that said surplus electricity from wind and solar is posing a serious problem.
No mention of the multitude of subsidies wind and solar receive. These being direct subsidy for every MWh produced….about $50, 100% backup paid for by consumers, FCAS costs ($80 million in last 12 months), priority grid access, PPAs, storage costs, extra transmission and distribution costs.
Just looked at the AEMO live data. SA is using about 30% gas, 30% wind, 20% solar and pulling 20% from Victoria which is using about 60% brown coal. Without the interconnector to Vic SA will black out.
A quiet night last week showed SA using 80% gas, 10% wind, and the rest from Vic which was using 80% brown coal.
Renewables alone will not work.
@@db5351 And nobody anywhere has said renewables alone is what Australia will use.
Tell us how 7% of our electricity needs supplied by eye wateringly expensive and toxic for thousands of years nuclear in Australia will address anything.
You nongs are a dime a dozen.
Rosie is a qualified engineer.
She agrees that renewable energy is the way to go.
On the other hand, you are a keyboard warrior dufus zealot.
I will take her advice and information over yours, and other misinformed zealots like you, seven days a week.
You'd think she has an agenda rather than giving an accurate scientific analysis.
Sad. No wonder we're developing such a distrust of the scientific community.
If going green is so good why has energy bills doubles in 10 years if we are getting free energy from wind and sun?
Can you show actual numbers? I don't have an energy bill from 10 years ago so I don't know if you made that up???????
@@jeffreyherba8435 I do not keep records to prove it but my electricity Bill was £40 a month when I first moved into my latest house 15 years ago.If electricity bills did not rise why did the government give a winter fuel allowance?
@@jeffreyherba8435 google electricity prices over the last 10 years, and the graph spiked with the introduction of green energy.
What country are you in?
@@jeffreyherba8435 UK
Such a good channel, thanks for the great work and interesting insights Rosie
A first time viewer from the US. With a relatively new rooftop solar here in New Jersey, a EE degree, and an interest in EVs your channels sounds like fun.
they definitely are fun, reliable information too.
Agree with Alan Hat, this channel is very straight up, fact-based and great content with a creator who knows her subject matter well. Won’t disappoint!
Thanks for the update from Adelaide. Wow, South Australia is leading the way!
Yes, leading the way in the most expensive electricity in the country, wrecking businesses and pushing families into poverty.
You rippa! What an awesome, detailed technical video with no BS. Well done!
No BS ? Well I suppose if you don't claim renewables deliver cheaper electricity, then I guess you can say there was no BS.
Very funny.
Propaganda driven tripe.
Very cool indeed. It's great to see that it's progressed so far somewhere.
I lived through the Black-outs in Outback South Australia. We now have the most robust energy delivery system thanks in part to the Hornsdale Battery and Sheep loads of wind.
Awesome video.
How do your electricity rates compare to 2007, before widespread wind and solar?
And the most expensive power in Australia which is amplifying and reinforcing social inequality
I do Agree. We pay more /Kw than almost anywhere in the world.@@joshs470
@@dzcav3
Unaffordable now.
Very interesting overview. It would be great to see recent LCOE cost numbers in Australia for these technologies. I waited to install solar + batteries at our house until the installation cost plummeted and the price of grid power shot up, and the ROI was clear. When batteries get cheap enough and time-of-use pricing gets savvy enough, no one will be willing to pay more for technology that pollutes more.
I was the same. When the cost of a 6.6kW solar install got down to about $6500 it made sense. The payback period was around 4-5 years. I priced a battery solution and it was north of $20k and not worth it at that time. It would have taken me close to 20 years to recoup the money, by which time the batteries would probably be knackered.
@@adam872 which battery technologies did you look at? I expect all the vendors are pushing LiFePO₄ but lead-acid, flow & NiFe are also readily available. Lead-acid is cheap but 20 years is an unusually: long lifespan, they'll need automatic watering & discharge switched off really early to last that long.
The next oldest is NiFe, they have a totally safe electrolyte (potash), they're rugged, reliable, almost indestructible (there's 90 year old packs around) & repairable if you can find a technician, but they're as big as lead-acid & they don't absorb all the supplied energy.
Flow batteries are getting cheaper & they seem to be repairable so might last forever.
You may have found others?
I did similar. Installed a 6.5kw solar array but the battery price was not worth it. Instead I just installed a timer, for $200, so the hot water tank could only heat between 11am and 3 pm. Interestingly a Tesla power wall has a wholesale price of $12,900 but it only has $2000 of batteries in it, even with the high price of lithium. Prices for home batteries can come down a long, long way. As manufacturing scales up, more mines come on line and refining becomes more efficient battery prices will plummet.
@@markumbers5362I also think we need developments in battery technology. I'm not convinced that lithium ion is the long term answer in terms of energy density or cost.
@@adam872 big advances going on everywhere
Rosie great video. It is very interesting what is happening in South Australia. A couple of points: South Australia's average demand is 1500 MW. Installed and working solar and wind capacity is already double this. This week, from Sun 15th to Mon 16th Oct, renewables did not supply enough energy to SA for 16 hours. During this time renewables supplied about 40% of power requirements. So I have a couple of comments: 1) Already there is a huge amount of redundancy and over-capitalisation in the system and it gets worse as the level of renewable supply goes up. As of today, a fossil fuel system that can supply almost 100% of SA needs to be maintained to ensure supply. The higher the level of renewable energy supply, the less times fossil or battery back up is needed, yet these systems need to be maintained to ensure supply. Hence the rising cost of electricity to consumers. 2) The hypocrisy of the supporters of renewable energy in failing to address the environmental and social issues caused by renewable energy is breath-taking. Turbines and Solar have about half the life of fossil fuel generating machinery. The disposal of turbines and solar panels is extremely problematical. In all the stories about the wonders of renewable energy, this is seldom referred to. Neither of course are the land clearing, erosion, bird and bat kills, extensive use of herbicides under solar panels, inadequate compensation and totalitarian land grabs by governments. The single-minded pursuit of introducing renewable energy is ignoring many other issues that have long term negative effects. These are seldom covered in any media. I know I will be pilloried for these comments, but some balance is needed. Love your work by the way. queries
Clearly we are in transition. The costs for renewables are continuing to drop massively, coal cannot compete when windy and sunny (a lot of the time in SA and Vic). Not sure if you have hung out near a coal fired power station lately or seen how long an open coal pit will burn in Vic should a bushfire pass over but the long term consequences are pretty clear.
Finally someone asking the right questions. And we get crickets for answers.
Wombat, so convenient you ignore the CO2 emissions of fossils, plus the damage to health and the scars coal mining leaves on the landscape. Oh not to mention the 1000s of tonnes of coal ash dumped every day.
@@dzcav3 No need to entertain nonsense. wombatsticki23's post deserves crickets. The post has all the classic silly contrarians narratives. Just for example, the contrived, hilarious and shallow concern expressed for "bird and bat kills". The highest bird mortality, for example, is caused by buildings. Renewable energy system installations languish near the bottom of the list, relatively hardly registering. But I don't hear our very concerned (cough cough) wombatsticki23 complaining about buildings killing birds.
I am just so over the level of wilful ignorance and dumb that is willingly on display in such posts.
And you on your side glossed over all the environmental cost of sending hundred of billions of CO2 in the atmosphere. For centuries…
Thank you, Rosie. It is good to hear good news. Sheila Mink in New Mexico, USA
Wind and solar get government grants, direct generation subsidies, free backup, free FCAS, free transmission line extensions and upgrades, priority grid access, PPAs and payment for curtailment.
Without these no wind or solar generator would be viable.
Fossil fuels don't pay externalities.
Imagine the cost of raising the seawalls all around Sydney harbour?
And the gas exporters don't pay any tax, so....
@ average global tidal gauge rise per annum is 1.8mm/year. Sea level has risen about 130 metres since the last ice age peaked 20,000 years ago. 120,000 years ago in the last interglacial, sea levels were 5-7 metres higher than today and temperatures were 3-5c hotter.
@@Volthrax Fossil Fuels have been getting Subsidies from Day One. Most of the Infrastructure was built by Taxpayers and was cheaper under Public ownership. Blame Price hikes on Private Greed Companies. If the world's Oceans raised up by 1 Metre you do realise the actual ocean would then be 100 metres further inland.
@ fossil fuel companies have never been subsidised. When they were government owned, their build cost was paid for by the government and it was repaid to the government over time. During the last interglacial, sea levels were 5-7 metres higher than today and co2 was not responsible. During the last ice age, sea levels were was 130 metres lower than today and the Great Barrier Reef was dry land and you could walk from Africa to Timor.
@@Volthrax Sorry to hear your so Delusional. have you heard of the Diesel Fuel Subsidy?Tell me when did Fossil Fuels pay for the Electricity Grid? When did they pay for the Telephone copper Wire Connection layout that taxpayers owned or the NBN again paid for by taxpayers? Most pipelines, exploration etc is either fully or partially subsidised by Taxpayers.They pay a Token amount to use these networks and when they bought power stations they got them cheaply and either let them run down then beg the Governments to subsidise new ones. Oh and lets not forget the Wars and Constant patrols by our Forces to keep the Oil Flowing. I know Renewables are subsidised as that is what Governments are for. To lay out the basics of Modern Civilised Life for as many people as possible. Railways, Roads, Defence Force, Medicare all by and for taxpayers. If Private enterprise and Fossil Fuels built it we would have the Obscene Private Health of America, One highway/railway between Sydney and Melbourne and only cities with phone/Internet connection. And our Defence Force would only be used to Defend Private Assets. I see you believe Climate changes. CO2 isn't always responsible but Volcanoes, Comets etc can be also. The extinction event that killed off 90% of all Life and gave rise to the Dinosaurs was an accumulation of Greenhouse gases Methane/Carbon Dioxide from major volcanic action. But it took Nature 5,000 years before they were at dangerous levels. And it took nature 200,000 years to get it back to where life could thrive again. We are over halfway to that level in less than 500 years and we don't have 200,000 years to clean it up. So when your Grandchildren see CO2 at 800 p.p.m then they will know the Extinction is already happening. Hottest Planet in our Solar System? Mercury closest to the sun? No Venus because it has 97% CO2 which traps the Heat of the Sun. Mercury has no Atmosphere.
All very well, but South Australia the most expensive electricity in Australia.
Really?
@@jeffreyherba8435 No it isn't.
These dopey zealots think that spewing up the rubbish they hear on right wing media is argument.
@@jeffreyherba8435absolutely factual.
SA power cost is 35 to 45 cents per kWh. I pay 23 cents in Victoria.
Hi Rosie just wondering while your pointing out SA has highest % of renewable.
SA also has the HIGHEST priced 😱$$ electricity in Australia.
Renewables and
net O is economy Killer
Please correct me if I am wrong but I thought Tasmania (another renewables powerhouse) had the highest cost of electricity followed by SA. I do wonder why Australia is going down this selfish path. Australia as a country does not emit any CO2 over a year, in fact is is a massive absorber. These renewables should be left for the big emitters like Asia, Europe, Usa (not Canada they are good also) and the likes of the pacific islands, Naru is the worst on the planet by far.
I might be wrong but a quick look at prices in Australia and I think your wrong SA not most expensive Can you please Give actual numbers
@@jeffreyherba8435 You are not wrong, waratah is wrong and waratah should get their backside kicked for parroting right wing media lies on a public forum like this.
The whole world can see them make fools out of themselves here.
@@jeffreyherba8435south Australia has the most expensive electricity prices. Don't get confused between the cost of energy production and the cost to the consumer.
We're talking about consumer cost where SA is one of the highest on the planet.
Thanks
Thank you!
But what are the economics of all of this? Sounds really expensive and likely heavily subsidized by the govt.
Like nuclear?
Hi Rosie, There is soon to be installed in SA a 200MW solar thermal plant that runs at about 70% efficiency, and has 2 days thermal storage. Andrew.
Denmark has a really variable grid, sometimes exporting 2 GW (windy at night), sometimes importing 2 GW (no wind). Storage at scale would be really useful and an alternative to using Norway as a hydro-battery 🙂
This is not true
@@ValMartinIreland Ok, sometimes they import 3 GW.
Thank you for giving us the history of renewables in South Australia! I'll be using this in class.
Great video Rosie. Western Australia is even more isolated than SA and has a larger grid. Any chance of a rundown on its progress? An yes, please do a video on grid forming vs. grid following inverters!
Thanks Rosie for this very positive video showing how SA is leading the way to the net zero future we need. I was surprised and heartened at just how quickly the transformation has occurred.
Also leading the way on the most expensive electricity in Australia. Pat on the back - cause the wind and the sun are free, Ya know!
Hello from Canada Rosie!
One way South Australia might be able to get rid of those gas plants a little bit faster is with the more modern Geothermal.
I know you said that traditional geothermal is a no go, but this new process changes that dramatically.
There is a company in the US called Fervo Energy, who use this new method of geothermal.
I think even one of their plants would really help stabilize the SA grid.
Otherwise this is a great video and it's really nice to see just what is possible in so short a time.
I am a West Australian, and unfortunately there is not geothermal pretty much anywhere in Australia. Our Volcanos died out a long time ago. Geothermal is basically a no go here. But what has slowed Australia down is Conservative Govts and Conservative people denying Climate Change and actually attacking renewables.
As Rosie said, when SA was hit by a massive storm and destroyed the transmission lines, al, the Federal Govt Conservative politicians actually blamed the renewables for the power blackouts. Same as the Republicans blamed renewables for the power issues in Texas a couple of years ago.
In Australia we tend to have more right wing govts over the years n Federal and State and they always fight against renewables and push fossil fuels. We had a Conservative Federal Govt for 9 years until 2022, and nothing was done on Climate Change. Nothing at all. Cheers
@@BatMan-oe2gh keep an eye on the technology, there's a new rock vapourizing laser that might well drill deep enough for traditional deep-well liquid-vapourizing geothermal but there's definitely shallow-well solar-heated geothermal like they use for heat pumps.
Everything's changing so fast at the moment you can't rule _anything_ out for long.
@@alanhat5252 I don't rule out much, but it has been looked at here.
According to the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), there are three main challenges that make geothermal power not financially viable in Australia.
1: Finding it: Identifying suitable geothermal resources.
2. Flowing it: Producing hot fluid from the geothermal reservoirs at a high rate.
3. Financing it: Overcoming the significant up-front capital costs associated with enhanced geothermal system technologies and the cost of transmitting electricity from remote locations.
Exploratory geothermal wells have been drilled to test for the presence of high temperature geothermal reservoir rocks, but all these projects have since been abandoned. A small geothermal plant in Queensland experienced problems during commissioning and as of May 2022, remains idle.
Geodynamics Cooper Basin Demonstration Plant in South Australia was built by Geodynamics to assess the potential of hot-rock geothermal energy for zero-emission, base-load power. The 1 MWe Habanero pilot plant operated for 160 days in 2013 and prior to closure of the trial, the plant was operating at 19kg/s and 215 degrees Celsius production well head temperature. However, the project was abandoned after being assessed as uneconomic due to a combination of the cost of commercialising generation and the remoteness of the site. Cheers.
Electrician here in the power industry: While possibly viable, Fervo Energy has an unproven technology with unknown long term costs. And being a thermo electric power system, something they fail to mention is that geothermal power still requires a lot of fresh water to operate, and for injecting into the boreholes to extract the heat. Getting adequate supplies of water that is cold enough to operate at full power is a major issue for coal, gas, and nuclear fired thermo-electric power plants, and geothermal will be competing for those same sources of water. Most people do not know that thermo-electric power production is one of the largest consumers of fresh water in the US. One of the major advantages of wind and solar is that they do not consume water.
@@GoCoyote
Fervo use a close loop system. This means that unlike those others you mentioned they don't lose much/any water to evaporation.
The hot water comes up in a closed pipe and warms another liquid that then runs their generator.
It's an innovative way of dealing with some of the problems of traditional geothermal.
That said it still uses water, but then again, what doesn't?
Really cool, South Australia is doing great!
Interesting here in Sweden and Europe where we're basically phasing out fossil fuel electricity and nuclear is declincing since old reactors are torn down faster than new are being built, while we are increasing power demand for a sustainable transition in industry and transport..
Some regions have resources for hydro, wind, offshore wind, solar.. And a pretty good interconnected grid.
May i ask for a renewable europe episode? :)
I'd ask for one for Canada too but there are a few provinces who won't hear anything of the sort. One actually has a moratorium on clean projects citing resident concerns. It should be noted this was never done for oil and gas projects, the moratorium that is.
South Australia has the most expensive electricity in Australia
I am probably going to be in Europe at Easter next year, so will definitely plan to do some Euro content while I'm there. I was thinking to do individual country videos (e.g. Germany's energy transition) but do you think an all-Europe one would be better?
Thank you for this Rosie. Canada needs to be paying attention to Engineering with Rosie.
Agreed! Despite our relative wealth, we’re not doing well enough in adopting renewables. I realize it’s tough going to 100% renewables in northern areas with little sunshine during the winter and a very hostile climate, but wind turbines are definitely capable of surviving in these areas, albeit probably a shortened lifespan. Another part of the issue is a lot of wasted energy, not using modern construction and building technologies to minimize heat loss in homes and inefficient machinery etc. I’m always on the fence about govt subsidies for improving efficiency since that’s really just coming out of our own pockets anyways, but probably it’s worthwhile since the cost of borrowing by the govt is lower than for individuals, so overall it nets out to be a lower cost that way, other than perhaps the cost of paying the bureaucracy to manage the program.
Mea culpa, I’m guilty of being a part of the problem in my 110 year old house which definitely needs new insulation, improved windows etc and I’m planning on starting the upgrades next spring.
Toronto has a pretty cool tech they’ve been using for several years now at least, which is storing compressed air in a bladder underwater in Lake Ontario. It gets filled overnight when electricity costs are low and discharges during the day and evening when electricity rates and demand are high. It’s not powered by renewable energy sources necessarily, but it’s a very interesting storage method that could potentially work in any deep enough lake (Lake Winnipeg perhaps?). Not sure how it’d survive in the saltwater of the Pacific or Atlantic oceans but it’d be good for the local governments there to investigate.
What are you talking about? Canada is tremendously successful with renewable energy.
BC, Manitoba, and Quebec are at more than 90 percent renewable, and even Ontario gets more electricity from renewables than from fossil fuels. And if you compare electricity bills in Montreal, Winnipeg, or Vancouver to those in Adelaide, it definitely seems that Canada uses a better renewable.
@@dennisenright9347 I’d love for this to be true, but I’m pretty sure it’s not. If you care to discuss further, provide facts with links that support your claims.
@@sjsomething4936HE leaves out the part of running out of pristine river valleys to flood.
Also includes the dreaded (by idiots) nuclear power that is the backbone of Ontario.
Advocate for Nuclear or shut the hell up.
Also leaves out. How do you do wind or solar in mostly cloudy dark mountainous British Columbia... well you cannot. BC buys back up hydro from ding ding ding COAL FIRED Montana utilities. Hydro project SITE C is very controversial and most likely will be the last mega dam.
Storage costs as much as Nuclear, generates nothing.
So build the nuclear.
@@sjsomething4936agreed. Canada is a terrible place to rely on wind and solar. Hydro is great, yes, but has transmission limits.
These of course have their place! Solar is a great way to shave afternoon air conditioning peak loads, if the panels face West.
You seriously understated the role of gas and imports. Timing was ideal for your narrative. The fact is that SA’s stability relies on Victoria’s brown coal and gas. A small population as well. Did I also mention that retailers don’t want to supply business customers due to a lack of reliability.
What is the cost of your electricity compared to other areas? How much overcapacity of intermittent sources do you have to build to provide reliable power on nights with low wind?
It's the most expensive electricity in the country. You are only getting the “Rosie” side of the debate. It has amplified and reinforced social inequality and is forcing businesses to either close or charge exorbitant prices
@@joshs470 That was my suspicion, but I like to see the data, not just the sales pitch.
@@LTVoyager
You can find plenty of info online. It's also interesting to note that the Northern Territory uses 70% + gas for electricity generation but prices are still cheaper than in SA.
Hi from SA - thanks for a great presentation - clear, concise and informative.
Most expensive electricity in Australia. Who actually benefits from these mega projects?
@@joshs470 As far as I recall, it was only a week or so where it genuinely was most expensive in the world,
I debated it a number of times on the ex-social media platform, and other than that there was an 18 month period where it was often the most expensive domestically.
Murdoch SkyAfterDark and a large following went with "most expensive in the world" tag for years afterward.
At the time when we mostly used gas, the shareholding of energy companies supplying SA was majority owned by entities in other countries, particularly Hong Kong.
Although I could never manage to persuade Simon Holmes a Court of it, I still believe some of our disruptions other than the big 2016 one were because it harmed shareholder interests to keep SA's power on.
[off-topic, personally I wish we could abandon the whole shareholder/company model as a now obsolete relic of the Middle Ages. However I have no suggestion what to replace it with.
Everything at the bottom of Malsow's hierarchy should be supplied free via taxpayers.]
@@oakfat5178
I didn't say it was the most expensive in the world. It is, however, the most expensive electricity in Australia. electricity generation in the NT is 70+ % gas and it is still cheaper there.
@@joshs470 When #SkyAfterDark was making the claim, I checked and it was briefly the most expensive in the world.
Please do a search for "AEMO Quarterly Energy Dynamics Q1 2023" and also check Q2,which should be in your search results.
For each of those reports, see Figure 10 on page 12, comparing wholesale electricity prices.
The reason SA had such high prices was tat we only had gas, and not enough renewable. The gas suppliers charged us extremely high prices.
The more renewables SA has acquired, the more the price has dropped.
If you want to defend your claim, please supply a source for it.
@@oakfat5178
If you want to blame gas for the high prices look at the NT. 70% gas generation and electricity is significantly cheaper there.
Cost of electricity? Open NEM shows average wholesale cost at $9.53/MWh in 2007, and in 2022 (latest full year) $184.72, so ignoring value of money, ~1940% increase and using 3% inflation ~ 1240% increase, Cherry picking 2020 at $51.52 and 3% gives a 368% real increase in cost. All hurting businesses and consumers.
Great video! I am a proud South Australian who got roof top solar waaaay back in 2008. It cost a bloody fortune but I haven't had an electricity bill since!
Since then I've ripped out my gas hot water and installed a solar evacuated tube hot water system. Then I dumped my gas furnace and replaced that with a ducted reverse cycle air conditioning unit.
I still have a tiny gas bill as we have yet to replace our gas stove and oven.
I can't wait to get a Tesla power wall and Model 3 one day!
It can be done!
Stop it, Stop using oil and gas. I am not there yet, but I have the same plan as you.
Kudos to u bro
Gas is slowly converting to biogas which does dump CO₂ into the air but it's recycled CO₂ not new CO₂ To my mind domestic cooking with biogas isn't a major issue.
As long as cost and economics don't matter, almost anything is possible. Most people care more about those two items.
ROI counts and that's why it makes sense. Anyone who can afford the initial outlay would have to be brain dead not to get solar panels at a minimum. As for the solar hot water and heat pump, it will take a few years to pay off, but I am willing to push for the greater good. I have to say, I really don't mind the lack of power bills in the meantime.
I think we all should do what we can, even if it's only recycling your cans and bottles. @@dzcav3
I'm from Denmark - the home of modern wind mills. I'm puzzled that when discussing the use of renewable wind technology there seems to be a lot of opposition coming from especially Americans claiming that modern windmills are not economically sustainable, kills birds, and spreads wing micro plastics, etc. In Denmark we have a long history of putting up windmills and in recent years, mostly big sea windmills, and as far as I know modern windmills have a lifespan of 20+ years but pays itself in about 6-12 months so it is a good investment. Rosie, it would be great with a video on windmill sustainability addressing these points.
Yes that would be interesting.
The easy explanation is that roughly half of Americans are crazy. A slightly better explanation is that America has a large fossil fuel industry, and vested interests have engaged in a relentless public relations and propaganda campaign against renewable energy.
In favor of renewable energy in America is the fact that it's attractive from the point of view of cost, and most Americans want it.
wind turbines
The problem is, a video here is preaching to the choir. American resistance to wind is coming from two quarters… an alliance of right wing media and fossil industry propaganda, and a 20th century environmentalism model grounded in opposing EVERYTHING. The propaganda side skillfully dresses itself in the language of the environmentalists - “OMG wind turbines kill birds!”, “What about child slave labor mining cobalt for the batteries?”, etc. They’re also adept at formenting local NIMBY resistance using shell groups that work for the fossil industry, which provide money, organization, and misinformation to conservative-leaning locals. It doesn’t take a lot of angry activists to flood a zoning meeting or whatever.
I try to be positive about it. The economics of renewables are so powerful that fossil fuel is fighting just to survive, and every day more people understand the importance of getting off fossil fuel - and more angry reactionaries die of old age.
The problem is 46.8% of Americans have shit for brains.
There are so many naysayers here in the UK claiming that a near 100% renewable grid is, if not impossibly, then extremely expensive. I've saved the video so I can put this uplifting example infront of the denier types when the opportunity arises. Thanks!
Notice she didn't mention how much a kWh of electricity costs in South Australia.
@@TheUweRoss Do you know how much?
She’s a puppet for the green profiteers. You only heard the ‘rosie’ side of the argument. SA has the most expensive electricity in the country which is amplifying and reinforcing social inequality and forcing businesses to either close or charge exorbitant prices
Good video. What about the cost of the electricity. A video on the cost relative to a fossil fuel would be nice. Apologies if one has already been made.
SA has the advantage of reliable sun every day. So you only need storage for the night. Seasonal storage is usually not your challenge. Northern Europe is has a long winter period with little sun, and sometimes also a week of little wind. Also solvable, but a bit more complex.
Still: wonderful how motivating it is when SA can be an example .. even if you probably need to acknowledge it is the 'lowest fruit".
Very interesting power grid! How high are the electricity costs for customers in comparison 2005-2022?
Soul crushingly high here, for a long time in the late 2010s we had the most expensive electricity in the world and I think that'd still be the case if it wasn't for the energy crisis in Europe atm.
Highest in the nation !
What a great video Rosie love the content would like to see you visit some of these new interconnectors!!
I will try!
Hey Rosie just stumbled across your channel. Great content go SA!!
Great video, glad to have the opportunity to hear you talk.
Hey Rosie, I would be very interested in the cost-benefit of connecting WA with the rest of the national grid, especially due to spreading the “duck curve” and associated solar challenges over a longer time frame! Would love to see this in a video some time
How would you connect with low transmission losses over that huge distance? Most of the power would be lost in the wires.
@@theharper1 exactly the type of question I’d like to hear the answer to! My mind goes to HVDC but I have almost zero knowledge on this topic.
@@tobyheislers8924 I read that China was installing at least one HVDC line to carry solar power from the sunny inland to the populated coast. I'm just not sure that there will ever be the cost recovery to justify building an HVDC line from Adelaide to Kalgoorlie or where ever the closest point of the WA grid might be. Still, investments like that are where Governments are supposed to step in.
So steal WA sun for the benefit of the east coast.
@@Robert-cu9bm I think it's called selling resources. Like all the gas that goes to Japan.
Very excited for SA and all of Australia in your energy transition journey. Had read of the large batteries Tesla installed a few years ago.
Visiting (from US) 3 families in QLD May-June 2024 for 3 weeks + 2 weeks elsewhere. Looking forward to hearing their experience w/ roof solar panel systems & other developments. Don’t believe they have home batteries so far. One owns a building automation business.
Hi 👋 Rosie
I stumbled on your channel last night and watched a couple of videos, very informative and explain things that people can understand in I simple way
Keep up the good work and way to go South Australia
Great job, and very interesting thanks.
I’m APPALLED at the Dutton plan for nuclear. This is absolute madness for all sorts of reasons, not the least of which is economics. Cheers from Qld.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, ideas and videos. Interesting that you mentioned synchronous condensers as a means of load control. Having over 30+ years experience in power systems operations I know of situations where people thought and operated as if they provided load support thru inertia but later found out that they were extremely lucky that the load support was never actually needed because it wasn’t actually there. Synchronous condensers are good for voltage support but not much more. The load support you get thru voltage control is minimal at best. There is no substitute for prime mover thru governor action. I’ve pondered the problem for many a night shift and the best we seem to have as an alternative is battery backup which is extremely expensive for now. My idea was to require solar to put in battery storage with the capacity to hold a percentage of their max production and to tune the inverters to be sensitive to frequency and either charge or discharge into the grid on a sliding scale. Pump storage is good and there are some varieties that could be used in Australia using very deep mines for lower reservoirs in place of high mountains but those are also extremely expensive unless there are unused abandoned mines at the needed elevations available for use. I know at one time it was proposed to put pump storage in the New York City area using the ocean as the upper and purpose dug chambers in the bedrock over 1000 feet below for the lower reservoir. Always interesting to hear about solutions and problems from other areas in the transmission/power industry, thanks again for sharing.
hi how do you feel about running dams with more than one turbine hall ? I know about the standing issues raised by those in the industry of backpressure not being stable leading to turbine surging but i have overcome these and can fit two banks of turbines in the system with no affect to the current systems do you have any thoughts?
Good comment.
Real world experience keeps the dreamers moving in the right direction.
We need to have future ideas but guided by reality so to speak.
@@simonbowman6206 I’m not sure of what situation you would want more than one turbine hall. I know of plants that have the turbine hall in the middle of a mountain and they have a large pressurized surge chamber between the penstock and the conduit from the upper reservoir intakes. Surge chamber was the same size or larger than the turbine hall. I also know of a plant that had one conduit feeding a manifold to several penstocks to individual units. In that situation it was a pump storage and the only limitation was all units had to be operated in the same mode due to concerns of unpredictable conditions in the manifold. If your talking about turbines in series at multiple elevations I would think that probably would not be recommended for multiple reasons. Sorry I wasn’t able to be of more help.
Check out Hydrostor compressed air storage, they installed a pilot system in Toronto a few years ago. Not sure if their system is suitable for NYC, especially in the ocean but it’d be worth city officials looking into I’d think.
@@sjsomething4936 thanks for sharing, I’ve heard of those type of plants, didn’t realize that they built one in Ontario. Cool.
Awesome video. Really important that the world has a working example to understand the challenges and to adapt to suit local conditions.
Very good presentation. How lucky South Australians are to be just 2 million in such a large space. Living in the cramped South East of England I am seriously jealous!
And when they have too much electricity in South Australia and the price goes negative they desalinate seawater with it at Lonsdale.
Hahahah, Australia is 7,682,300 km2 in size with 26 million people. The United Kingdom is 242,495 km2 with 67 million people. I can understand why you feel so cramped.
@@BatMan-oe2gh it still beats 363km² to hold 2.2 million people though (soon to be half the area though with a few 100,000 dead).
@@BatMan-oe2gh
The majority of Australia isn't usable.
@@Robert-cu9bm Lots of people live in the outback and the land is usable. Just have to know how to use it.
Great video and a demonstration that your country is going 100% renewable despite being a very large exporter of fossil fuels. While Europe and other countries use pollution (that's killing us) and foreign energy dependence to motivate our transition. You demonstrate that cost reduction in its self motivates (finances) the transition.
If projects like the "Sun Cable" went ahead, we could even be exporting our abundant renewable resources to SE Asian neighbours. This is my hope for an export transition.
South Australia has the highest average electricity cost in Australia by a considerable margin, like 25% higher. Sure solar and wind do produce cheap electricity but only when running at 100% of their potential. Solar farms are 0% efficient at midnight. Wind farms in South Australia run at something like 20% or less efficiency over the year. But that is not the problem. The problem is storage. SA spent $150 million on a batteries that can power the state for a few minutes. How much investment is required to get through a night? Batteries bring another problem. There has to be enough renewable energy to power the state AND recharge the batteries on a day when the weather conditions are the least favourable to wind and solar. So additional wind and solar farms have to be installed to cover that eventuality that will be mostly not needed.That cost will feed into energy bills. The alternative is learning to live with regular blackouts like North Korea. Those people who invested in EVs, which consume a huge amount of energy, might find themselves sleeping in their cars waiting for a change in the weather as they will be the first victims of load shedding.
Hi Rosie, how did South Australia organise that the grid can handle so much variance. I am from the Netherlands where we are not doing bad on renewables either, but we run into the bottle neck of an overloaded grid. New solar parks can no longer be connected untill extra grid capacity is build.
We have the capacity to curtail solar generation at the inverter level; all new inverters are connected via the internet so they can be turned off or set in to a self curtailment whereby they don't export excess to the grid but keep the property running on 100% solar. I believe older systems are also forced to shutting down by playing with grid frequencies. This isnt regularly done, but its an option for when solar generation surpasses requirements.
Thanks for that uplifting video! Here in California, the renewable transition seems to be stalling because of nimbiism, politics, and misinformation from the hydrocarbon lobby. For one, our own democratic governor sided with utilities to gut net metering. Small rooftop solar companies are struggling.
There is only one thing stoping.... cost and economic viability... second is circumstances... not so much wind in califronia and very diffrent population size
Plus, they're trying to make renewables do something they cannot do without a good storage method. Until there's an economical, efficient battery, much as I love renewables and am very much looking forward to their large scale implementation, renewables will continue to languish. We really needed to spend all the money Obama pissed away on solar panel's, on battery research. But he very cynically wanted to get his name on something and the silver bullet battery probably wouldn't have been found during his administration so he did what was best for him, not the environment and dumped all that money into solar panels. F him.
same here in germany... it seems to be a struggle of cultures... for the new or keeping old. Seems to be going so hostile like in USA, here it is the green party against nearly all others... the greens have only 2 more years, before election could change everything... again. The people must see, that "green" is a good thing and that you can save a lot of money, so smart metering for my opinion is the key for low pricing when it's windy or sunny. For me that is the main thing, that really can change minds...
@@detlefk.5126 Germany? Highest prices of electricty in the world? And over blown wind farms without transmision lines and sitting in the middle of european interconnectors and closing nuclear palnts...
You are primal example where it went bad, very bad.
Now when you can not buy natural gas from russia you restore coal plants and coal mines...
As i said everything is matter of economoics.... if you skip that step you will end like in Germany, richest country in Europe when hundred thousands of people can't afford electricity bill...
@@AK-vx4dy A lot of this is propaganda. Coal usages is on a decline in Germany despite turning off nuclear, despite energy crisis, despite having abundant coal resources within their own territory. You just keep hearing comparisons to France which already switched to Nuclear in the 70 and 80s long before climate change was a major concern simply because they had no coal or any other fossil fuels . The only true thing is that Germanys power is very expensive but they also emit only half of CO2 per capita than places like Australia, Canada, USA, New Zealand,... while being the economic center of Europe. They are much further ahead in their energy transition than most developed countries outside Europe.
Excellent summary of how it can be done by South Australia. An example that all countries look at
While South Australia is clearly on a good path, I’m curious how well its model can be replicated in other parts of the world.
Adelaide has a very mild climate and only moderate solar drop off in the winter months. It’s a lot tougher to manage a variable grid in places that regularly experience freezing temperatures with overcast skies for many days in a row such as much of the Northern US.
Wind, hydro, interconnects
@@JohnSerjeantson Yes, but easier said than done
@@StreetcarHammock As are most of humanity's challenges.
Hi Rosie That was a fascinating & informative overview of the energy transition in South Australia - especially for me as a Brit. Thank you. 👏👏
Denmark also connects at 1400 MegaWatt to England in early 2024. South Australia can't connect to Western Australia or Queensland any time soon, they are too far.
That makes SA's efforts more impressive.
Viking link should be v late 23 its finished testing and installation now
Love your positive upbeat attitude and of course the pertenant information.
Congrats to SA. Thanks for the video, makes me really optimistic.
What's the difference, btw, between synchronous condensers and what I know as flywheel generators?
Flywheel generators consist of two distinct parts; the rotating flywheel (prime mover) and a separately coupled motor-generator. The biggest difference is that a synchronous condenser is not a generator. It is actually a net consumer of power from the grid because it doesn’t have a prime mover once up and running. Synchronous condensers are essentially self-contained synchronous machines (they can run as a generator or a motor) because they have a DC-excited magnetic field that rotates with the rotor, inducing [leading or lagging] current onto the grid-connected stator. This allows them to support grid stability by managing reactive power needs and providing rotating inertia. They are not really injecting real power.
@@disorderling Thanks. Still not 100% sure I get the difference - might be worth an explainer video :)
@@rklauco Yeah, it’s not an easy concept to wrap one’s head around so I hope she does make a video about it. The loss of inertia is a big problem as we put more inverter based generation on the grid while retiring rotating synchronous generators. In fact, I believe Hawaiian Electric is requiring future rooftop solar interconnections to include a battery and grid forming inverter so they can maintain grid stability during fault conditions. Anyway, great question!
Cool! I'm super excited too. Great link to send to sceptics. Thanks a lot!
Can't wait for upcoming vehicle to grid video, so much potential to contribute to the solution!
Cam we just get rid of cars in urban areas?
Hi rosie, i was an electrician for two years, iv designed the idea of, sewerage hydro, a hydro engine put into the lower sewerage out let of tallish city buildings!!! Mi
Michael
I wish the US would better approach renewables like South Australia has. Good video!
Thank-you Rosie. You're a great teacher!
How is the price of electricity calculated in SA as their prices to the consumer seem on the high side for the amount of renewable energy
in 2023 so far - GAS is 24.7% of our generation at an average price of $199 per MWh. So even though renewable bringing wholesale price down, Gas is still making a killing. Additonaly being a smaller population I would say a higher % of costs would go towards infrastructure, driving up the costs.
@@sqam0 Thanks.
Denmark here; Norway's water are our battery ;-) We have several connections to Norway (2), Sweden (3) and Germany (3). For some years also a connection to Holland (1) and come January the connection to England will be ready for use.
Looking forward to your V2G video. I have just bought a 2nd EV a BYD Seal with 82kWh LFP and V2L which I will feed into the ac input of one of my inverters. I currently have 36kWh LFP of home batteries. Would love to be paid to support the grid here in Thailand but change is slow.
what's V2L?
found it - Vehicle to Load
Great video, and always nice to see a positive story in the green energy arena. Greetings from Iowa, where we also have a huge amount of wind power.
great work Rosie , I wish south Europe would be a little more courageous,thanks for inspiring us😊
Look at the details.
Thanks for the update. My province have banned new solar installations for 6 months while they try to figure out how to keep the gas peaker plants viable.
It's probably them trying to figure out how to manage the grid with the surge of electricity from rooftop solar.
Keeping gas viable is easy, you just up the KW rates.
@@Robert-cu9bm Solar shows up on the grid as reduced demand. Reduced demand lowers prices.
An informative and engaging report. Thanks
Another awesome video, showcasing just how doable this is and how the spin-doctors, lobbyists and vested interests are just in the bloody way…. Sigh!
It’s been really great to hear how Aus has been making such great progress despite those mentioned above..
Been enjoying your videos for a few years now and wish you all the best for the coming year 👍
Great video (I'm a biased south aussie). Would be interested to see some details on how the Hornsby battery made lots of $$ selling power on the peak short term energy market.
There is a very important point here not oftern covered or understood. First we need to understand the flow of money. Sure the battery makes money when renewable power is low, the corollary of that is someone is paying a high price to keep the lights on. And sure, sunlight and wind is free so the fuel costs to the operators is low; Capital and distribution costs are high, as will be still incalculable and unknown disposal costs. In contrast to the low fuel cost, the reliability cost is very high for two reasons.1) South Australia currently has 2 to 3 times the renewable energy generation capacity compared to what the grid requires and still only supplies 70%. So there is the cost of large amounts of the equipment only being used some of the time. The batteries make lots of money for a short period, they quickly run out, but the companies of the not-producing equipment are accumulating large costs with no income. I am not sure what the supply contracts say, but I suspect in our eagerness to go renewable the consumer is covering all the cost of renewable operations, ensuring no multinational who installed the renewable equipment is losing money. 2) At this stage a non-renewable system capable of meeting all of SA's energy requirements needs to be maintained, so there is a complete system capable of powering the state operating at all times as the wind can drop in seconds and the machines must already be running to fill the gap. So in effect, South Australia has the 3 or more times the generating capacity that it requires. If your power bill is going up this would be part fo the reason
Very good Rosie. Please explain why energy costs in South Australia are so high.
Renewables is good and all that, but how much does a South Australian pay per kw?
I had no idea how quickly and well SA has done this. It's pretty cool.
The renewables are going so well that South Australia has the most expensive power prices in the country, you conveniently left that part out.
It's because they're importing Gas and electricity from other states to pick up the short fall. SA old network under coal was full of constant black outs and they were forced to make a drastic change. I think it's off set by the fact everyone gets $1k to live in SA, who would live there otherwise, right ?
Super clear, straightforward facts. Exactly what is in short supply among policy makers responsible for government energy choices around the world.
Within a few years SA will have over 10GW of wind and solar capacity but the average electricity consumption averages about 1.5GW. so on a sunny windy day when there is 10GW being generated where is the excess of 8.5GW going to go?
At present there is only 0.8GW of interconnector capacity available and i think the new interconnector being built to NSW is about 1GW making 1.8GW export capability.
To build the extra 7GW required would cost at least $20 billion and SA doesn’t have money to build the interconnectors.
However, the assumption that all export can be exported is flawed. SA, VIC, NSW and TAS usually have similiar wind and solar conditions so all these states will have high generation rates of wind and solar at the same time and want to export.
So there will be a massive oversupply requiring significant curtailment of wind and solar.
Another problem is that most of rooftop solar cannot be switched off remotely and will only trip on high voltage which is dangerous and third world stuff.
There you go injecting reality into the land of rainbows and unicorns.
Thanks for your informative content Rosie.
What is the significance of using grid forming inverters, and how do they differ from grid following inverters? Is there a requirement to replace existing grid following inverters with grid forming inverters?
If SA intends to grow its renewable energy infrastructure in order to supply excess to other States through new and existing interconnects, how will households and businesses be able to rely on this power being consistently available with variable generation? Is it intended that these other States would build big batteries in their States in order to take advantage of this SA renewable energy?
I believe these big batteries are very good at moderating frequency fluctuations in the grid, but can't power the grid for very long. Where does any excess renewable generation that isn't demanded, or stored in batteries go? How many of these big batteries would be required to power SA grid demand through its periods of low renewable generation?
Can you make a video showing the size of Australia-wide wind/solar farms and battery installations? A video about the total costs related to them (including subsidies) and the additional transmission lines required, compared to the cost of alternatives? A video about availability and cost of recycling of wind turbines, solar panels and batteries and their expected lifecycles?
Cheers
Thanks for your video. We always have a heap of videos about the rest of the world, its great to have one done on Australia. I'm in NSW and had no idea how much better SA has done with the clean energy transition. We are cretins by comparison
Old power plants are not needed for grid stability, energy storage does that. Some people just still haven't figured out that the grid has been depending on flywheels since the start.
Sure, many are double use to lower costs and we call them turbines, but it should be blatantly obvious that it is not the fire or water that creates power but the spinny thingy that keeps spinning even after you take those away.
You are incorrect. The fire and water ARE the things that create power. The spinny thingy just doesn't like to change speed very quickly. All it does is help dampen fluctuations.
@@dzcav3 Nope. Power exists, the flywheel is how we transfer it to the generator at stable RPM. We can spin the wheel using any power source, therefore claim that we need coal/gas/nuclear power to prevent those fluctuations is false. A solar panel could power your stuff directly just like a fire can warm you, but to connect them to the grid both need ways to transform the energy to electricity and balance the output.
If I tried to sell an EV with ads that say "ICE cars need wheels", implying that EVs don't, wouldn't you point out the obvious lie?
This all great but it doesnt work in the dark with no wind,, a 10min 100mwh battery is useless or even a bigger one. .. a synchro spinner is just a frequency forming motor and has no energy output. Back to the statment its dark and windless. Anything more that 60 to 70% renewables is just asking for trouble with no baseload generation to cover the down time... but south Australia cant build enough interconnetors fast enough after the last power lines blew down and sent them into the dark ages.
Is that a dinosaur eye icon you have.... are you a dinosaur.? have you burnt all your dinosaur fuel yet?
@annpeerkat2020 no that's my eye ball.. we're all in the dark ages, but snake oil is everywhere...
Great video. Having grown up in Adelaide, but living in Canada i have to nitpick Rosie calling Adelaide a 'small city'. 1.3 million makes it bigger or similar size as many Canadian cities and US cities. But heh, fantastic stuff the quick transition to over 70% and higher renewable electricity. The province where i live, Manitoba, is largely powered by hydro.
What do consumers pay per Kilowatt hour?
Hi Rosie, for me, there were two missing elements to this video:
1) *Tidal* - All too often overlooked, tidal has the potential to meet all of our energy needs, and do so consistently. Challenges such as corrosion and increased maintenance costs aside, tidal energy could be a huge contributor to safe, clean, reliable, renewable generation capacity.
2) *Advanced Reconductoring* - Adding generation capacity does no good until power can be transmitted from where it's generated to where it's consumed. This requires both expansion of existing facilities and installation of new capacity. Horribly slow permitting, combined with opposition from land owners, etc., constitutes a huge risk to achieving electrification/decarbonization goals.
Advanced reconductoring is a solution with no permitting requirements that costs half as much as erecting new transmission lines. Using composite/carbon cores and trapezoidally arranged aluminum conducts can double the capacity of existing transmission facilities.
Hundreds of thousands of miles/kilometers of aging transmission lines are also in need of replacement. With better high temperature characteristics, higher strength and less sag, reconductoring has an added benefit of reducing power line-related wildfires, as well.
1) yes the *_potential_* of tidal is
obvious for all to see & has been for millennia but nobody has figured out how to harness it till the last few decades so it's still essentially unproven technology & doesn't attract investors. La Rance (spelling?) is the only installation that's been running long enough for investors to use as a guide & it's a totally niche setup that's difficult to compare with other things that are looking for funding. The bean counters will figure it out eventually but until then tidal is stalled.
2) I have no idea what "advanced reconductoring" is but the need for additional transmission lines was noted in the video & every single metre of new or replacement line is to the highest proven standard, it's too expensive to be otherwise. All the transmission companies & manufacturers have research labs & they evaluate every likely idea as well as inventing their own, they will have been evaluating whatever it is you're suggesting pretty much since it was invented, if it's any good they'll be installing it.
As long as economics are not taken into account, and infinite money is free, this approach works great.
This is HUGE. South Australia is breaking MYTHs about RE and becoming a BENCHMARK to the world!
It’s the most expensive retail electricity in Australia.
@@unicornadrian1358That's interesting, if true. I wonder why it would be?
Imagine five years from now. The input to keep it going is wind and sun. No truckloads of coal or big tanks of gas needed. Surely by then, the cost will be quite low.
@@orionbetelgeuse1937 Batteries for grid storage should last 20 years, and depending on the chemistry, possibly much longer.
The price of batteries will continue to drop for at least ten more years.
Even where it's at now, the cost of batteries is WAY cheaper than the cost of dealing with climate change after the fact.
@@davidmenasco5743
Half of the wind farms will need replacing in another 5 years
Hi Rosie. Very well produced video; well sourced, factual and up to date ongoing feats currently in progress. I was concerned about the title, i.e. '100%', but at least we are getting bigger results from steps taken thus far.
Grid powered EV charging, ponding, the fact that the southern districts hit maximum from roof top injection and moved to encourage home Storage are some of the growing problems or 'teething' issues associated could be a deeper dive. but I haven't watched all of your content as yet. Fixing that now! Dom
Great to see that South Australia is counting domestic solar in its total renewable generation. We generate most of our electricity from solar and batteries, but our only impact on the grid numbers is in reduced bills. Yet it would be a real positive motivator if people could see how much they are collectively contributing to generation.
Batteries don't generate electricity.
awesome content, put me in a happy mood for the day even!
South Australia now has Australia’s most expensive retail electricity price. It is a massive 45c/kWh and it’s nearly the highest in the industrialised world. It is 50% higher than Victoria whose electricity is 30c/kWh and mainly generated by brown coal.
Germany and Denmark have the highest electricity prices in Europe and the highest percentage of wind and solar.
Chinese electricity cost is about 12c/kWh and is mostly generated by black coal and they commission a new coal generator every 2 weeks.
Danish retail electricity price is correctly the highest in Europe, but that is due to taxation, which is a political choice. The wholesale price is average for Europe. Furthermore the Danish grid has one of the highest availabilities in the world which also is worth something.
Thanks for injecting reality into this fantasy world.
@@jensageholm8774
From the internet
The average price of electricity in Denmark, in June of 2023, has been 0.3811€ per kilowatt hour. Electricity price has decreased € 0.206 kWh, 35.09% since the previous semester. Meanwhile, the average price of electricity without taxes in Denmark in that period was € 0.2976 per kilowatt hour,
So Danish electricity cost before tax is 0.2975 euros which is 50c Australian which proves my point.
And climate change is fiction (if you don't live on the seafront), china is a famous tourist destination for folks to come and marvel at the air quality, the earth is flat.... got anything else to share sherbet?
@@Volthrax I paid €0.1 per kWh in June for the raw electricity on a variable rate plan (€0.16 when including transmission tarifs). What is your source? - maybe some fixed rate plans are included or something.
It is a year later and looking at the NEM graph, gas is providing 78 to 80% of power. a bit of wind and a bit of battery.
Um, no it hasn't. Renewables were 72% of SA's generation in the past 12 months. Were you looking at a single data point?
Looking at NEM live dashboard at 9.30 am 2/7 you are running on less than 20% renew surviving on gas and your connection to the majority coal generated national grid. Certainly not a model to cite. We need a Nuclear baseload constant and view / use renew as the variable. But our corrupt Gov and renewable PPP with Super funds have killed any chance to price both fairly.
The solar and wind destroy the economics of nuclear,coal gas power plants. No one is going to invest billions in a real power plant when they will only run a small percentage of the time. Wind and solar are not cheap. They are a disaster and destroy the electricity grid. Unless the wind and solar are removed electricity will remain expensive
Thank you, Rosie.
Yes, you did omit some things from your video -- THE TWO MOST IMPORTANT THINGS, COST AND RELIABILITY.
1. How do you electric rates compare now versus 2007?
2. How does electrical reliability compare now versus 2007?
How could you NOT cover the two most important factors of electrical supply?
Come on, man! Low-carbon virtue-signalling is far more important that cost and reliability!
Very interesting. Since you have a closer experience, maybe you can comment on the two most serious worries I've heard about going fully variable-renewables:
- sometimes your production is too high and you have to spend that somehow.
- somethimes your production is too low for too long (so batteries can't fix it without becoming a very expensive burden) so there's a floor to how low you can bring your use of non-renewables.
Thanks
I reckon Green hydrogen as a battery .. just like Europe is betting on .
Overproduction isn't really a problem, all forms of renewable energy can be turned off as required. However it can be an embarrassment because you generally need to pay the operators to not generate energy which is not popular with the public.
With any system of power production there will always be the '20 year' or '50 year' event that exhausts your stored energy supply. That was even true for coal and gas, the UK has had to ration electricity in the past due to things like miner's strikes, very cold winters and wars. It's generally done by asking (and paying) sections of industry to shut down during periods of peak demand. With renewable energy it's a trade-off between the cost of storage and the risk of running out of energy. Each country will make its own decision about how much storage it needs.
@@petehiggins33 Thanks a lot. I still have some doubts on both sides, though.
I have solar panels and I can turn them off, but can this be done on a 50 MW plant? I know in the Netherlands instead of doing that they pay greenhouses to turn the lights on. And they have a low share of renewables, no idea what's wrong there.
As for energy storage, the issue is how much of that do you have to build up in order to get today's level of reliability (not aiming for perfection here) with a very high share of renewables. And what happens then both for the total cost of going green (how much it goes up) and, at the same time, the profitability of solar and wind plants (if you're selling when everyone is selling, with current pricing schemes, you'd go bust, fast, while the storage guys are the ones getting rich).