Furnaces went cold at 9:40am in Port Augusta's coal-fired power station in South Australia as operators admit the plant cannot compete with (albeit government subsidised) renewable energy producers.
Which shows a total lack of consideration towards right-wing conservative claims that irrational pursuit of renewable energy sources will cause widespread blackouts, economic catastrophe, health impacts, jobs losses, and soaring costs... free market forces, and, and... konomi... and...
A wind turbine is at speed within 5 minutes give or take 2 minutes. A coal powerplant takes hours or days to get up to rated power. But it is good to see someone took the first step!
hehe or nothing is renewable as the universe expands and cools till every sun runs out and all that left is black holes and cold matter and light traveling away forever red shifting :) Sounds fun.
True. Electricity in SA is already exorbitantly expensive (I have a friend there) so it's only set to rise.
It's entirely ridiculous when you consider the extensive exposure to strong sunlight the state experiences, as well as the expanses of available land for building solar infrastructure. Not to mention the trade winds which once drew tall ships to the coast. Conservative thinking only sees submarines and Olympic Dam.
SA could've been a net exporter of electricity, which would be a boon in these times when the state is seeing industries such as those at Whyalla, Holden SA, etc et al, closing their doors permanently. There's an excess of engineers in Queensland ready to fill the roles in such infrastructure projects.
Controlled folly, or just plain short-sightedness in backing the wrong horse? A pity former PM John Howard turned the CSIRO into a government owned for-profit R&D facility for hire by private interest.