Climate Change

[stylofone]

The Electric Viking on renewables and battery storage in Australia, reckons by 2035 Australia could be entirely renewable powered, if the coalition doesn't get in and cancel a lot of them in preference for Dutton's catastrophic nuclear fever dream!

My annual electricity bill is $250, and I am disappointed by that because my target was $0. I noticed a news report yesterday where a punter was complaining they were being slugged for $1500 a quarter. The expansion of renewables should make bills like that look more like mine.

I wonder if there is some sort of public register where all the deniers can enter their names, so we can mock them when they are proved so hopelessly wrong. It won't be long now before the fossil fuel industries will begin to collapse, because the technology and the economics of renewables are simply more effective. The best case scenario is that it will happen soon enough to do some serious political damage to the likes of Dutton and Trump.

[stevebrooks]

My annual electricity bill is $250, and I am disappointed by that because my target was $0. I noticed a news report yesterday where a punter was complaining they were being slugged for $1500 a quarter. The expansion of renewables should make bills like that look more like mine.

Yeah that's normal here, we are off the main power grid, all power is supplied by diesel generator. Remote towns in WA are ideal targets for solar power with battery storage and diesel for emergency backup, doesn't even need to supply the entire town, just essential services like hospital and police/ambulance. There should be huge rebates here for rooftop solar and home battery storage so each house is essentially capable of supporting itself for an extended period.

It will happen eventually, sooner or later providing solar will become cheaper than shipping diesel thousands of kilometers, if it isn't already.

[stevebrooks]

One of the world largest oil producers is working furiously to replace it's entire energy grid with renewables, it's almost as if they know something the rest of the world doesn't. I was thinking though does it make sense economically, I mean they have access to all the cheap oil they want. Then you have to think, it's costing them $110b US dollars to do so, that's not a huge amount of money really! Yes it is a big number, but consider that the US spends $600b annually on its military, so no it's not actually that big a number compared to other big numbers.

The other thing is, yes they have cheap oil, and they could use it, but would it be cheaper than renewables like solar and wind, arguably not, but even if it was the same cost for energy, it would make more sense to sell that, for them, cheap oil for a lot more money and invest some of that money in renewables. I don't have the figures of course, but it's possible that if they sell that oil and invest that money in renewables they will actually come out ahead economically, maybe someone did some sums, talked to the higher ups and the conclusion was obvious.

But whatever the reason, they are second only to China in increasing power generation and storage from renewables and could be entirely renewable powered by 2035 while the US, and probably Australia, will still be spending money on fossil fuels;

[The Saint]

The cheapest electric cars in China can be bought for about $6,000 Australian dollars.

https://benteng.faw.cn/calculator?seriesId=47

Don't know if they'd pass an Australian crash test though.

But if they were allowed into the country, electric car sales might very well skyrocket.

[stylofone]

The cheapest electric cars in China can be bought for about $6,000 Australian dollars.

https://benteng.faw.cn/calculator?seriesId=47

Don't know if they'd pass an Australian crash test though.

But if they were allowed into the country, electric car sales might very well skyrocket.

Those microcars are a different category of city vehicle, unlike any cars currently on sale in Australia. Some of them are even categorised as "quadricycles", e.g. the Citroen Ami.

I don't think there's going to be a magical $10,000 car. Maybe we'll see a sub-compact EV, something the size of a Kia Picanto or Suzuki Ignis, close to the $20K mark. We can probably expect a BYD Seagull (or Dolphin Mini) to be released in Australia for about $AU25000 this year. Less would be good!

EVs just have to be cheaper than an ICE car, with the same features, range and quality. The way things are going, that should happen within 3 years. THEN EV sales will skyrocket. ICE won't be able to compete.

[pipbarber]

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... nz-insurer

I wouldn't say there was anything that readers here weren't already aware of, yes insurance is the canary in the coalmine of capitalism, and the poor creature is terribly ill. However, it is laid out quite starkly here.

Here's Günther Thallinger, an Allianze board member:

At 3C of global heating, climate damage cannot be insured against, covered by governments, or adapted to, Thallinger said: “That means no more mortgages, no new real estate development, no long-term investment, no financial stability. The financial sector as we know it ceases to function. And with it, capitalism as we know it ceases to be viable.”

[stylofone]

Strap yourselves in for a fun few decades!

(paywall bypass link: https://archive.is/bitvk)

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/23/opin ... world.html

[stylofone]

Every now and then I feel like a bit of a Henny Penny. Then I'll have a look at the data and have a think about it, and I'm like, "yeah nah, we're in big trouble". If the trajectory of this graph continues, we can expect 2 degrees of warming in the early 2030s. If there is a downturn, as we have seen in previous decades, 2 degrees should still be here by 2040. But the news from today is that the downturn is not here right now. So it's 2 degrees, coming in fast.

Assessing the current state of climate inaction, 3 degrees could be in my lifetime. In 2019 they were warning of 3 degrees by the end of the century. The timetable has contracted. It used to be 80 years away, now it's maybe 30 years.

Carbon Brief.png (79.28 KiB) Viewed 586 times

https://www.carbonbrief.org/state-of-th ... to-a-year/

[stylofone]

Here's another good read. Even before Trump's vandalism has had a chance to take effect, we find ourselves close to the precipice. It looks like resilience.org represents the branch of climate science and academia which I would call "realist", but detractors call "doomist". For a while now I've thought the time will come when the advocates of the IPCC, net zero, the energy transition, the market-based solution, will have to wave the white flag and admit that it won't work. They'll all come over to the dark side. (We have cookies, as the old meme goes). I see dear old Tim Flannery in the Guardian today, he's joined one of Twiggy Forrest's projects, he's still claiming all the solar panels and EVs made in China are going to save us. He's stuck in the rut of Big Solutions.

https://www.resilience.org/stories/2025 ... solutions/

[stevebrooks]

Interesting video here in the power situation in the US, one section in particular regarding nuclear power plants. Only 3 new nuclear power plants have come online since 1998, and currently there are no nuclear power plants under construction in the entire US. Doesn't bode well for Dutton and his nuclear ambitions.