Future of the Australian Electricity Market

[Bushmiller]

This article highlights the leaders in the various forms of Electricity generation:

Low-carbon electricity: which countries are leading the world? | Spectra (mhi.com)

Needless to say the article doesn't feel necessary to highlight the leaders in fossil fuels, which to be fair are not exactly low carbon.

However it does not highlight what proportion of the countries' power is renewable. Consequently, the likes of Norway does not feature. I was also disappointed that good old Oz didn't feature anywhere either. I guess we are a small fish in a big pond. which has been a fallacious argument by some as to why we should do nothing.

Regards
Paul

[FenceFurniture]

Japan is 377,973 km² (1.36x Victoria)
It has about 2000 hours of sunshine per year.
Call it 756 million km²hours of sunshine per year (377,976 * 2000)
They produced 83GW of solar power in 2022.

Australia is 7,688,000 km² (20.34x Japan)
It has 2,200 hours (Melbourne) to 3,200 hours (Perth) sunshine per year
Call it 20,757 million km²hours of sunshine per year (7,688,000 * 2,700) which is 27½ times Japan's potential.
We currently produce about 34GW of solar energy per year (40% of Japanese production 2 years ago)

So we produce 40% with 27½ times the potential production. That means Japan is running at 68.6x of us

¿QUE?

[Bushmiller]

FF

Thanks for those stats. Interesting. We may fare a little better if the figures were adjusted for per capita and/or we reduced the available land mass to habitated Kms² . I don't know how the hell we do that unless we said that there has to be a minimum of, say, two people per Km² to be classified as inhabited. Effectively that would probably rule out 80% - 90% of Oz. The remote areas suffer the problem of transmission coupled with the expense and who pays. A larger population (Japan is nudging 123million compared to our 26million; 5:1 ratio approximately) should have more energy and indeed demands more energy.

Having said that you make good points and Australia is guilty of self-congratulation and complacency. For years we did nothing and now we approach 100% renewables through the day. Actually, that is at least two to three years away and maybe longer if storage does not keep pace, so the statement is on the generous side. As I have said so many times before, we really need to address the issue of nighttime power and exactly where that will come from.

Regards
Paul

[BobL]

Some other considerations that make us look even worse
Japan has
- a much greater proportion of its land surface as mountains where it's not commercially viable to locate panels.
- to import virtually all its fossil fuels (quiet a bit from us) so has a much greater incentive to use renewables
- lower car ownership with an much smaller engine capacities and fewer km/y - means they wont need as much energy to electrify their motor vehicle fleet
On our plus side we have a much larger physical distribution footprint so poles and wires cost more

[Bushmiller]

- lower car ownership with an much smaller engine capacities and fewer km/y - means they wont need as much energy to electrify their motor vehicle fleet

Yes, the "Kei" category. I am not sure, but they may be the only country officially with this classification. However, there may not be much room for batteries, but they may not need much room.

Regards
Paul

[GraemeCook]

Yes, the "Kei" category. I am not sure, but they may be the only country officially with this classification. However, there may not be much room for batteries, but they may not need much room.

Regards
Paul

I first went to Japan in 1968 and K's were certainly dominant, especially as commercial vehicles, as Japan then had relatively low private vehicle ownership.

We were last in Japan in 2019, not long before lockdown, and the proportion of K's was much lower, especially as commercial vehicles and those nimble 3-wheel mini-trucks seemed to have disappeared.

[BobL]

Yes, the "Kei" category. I am not sure, but they may be the only country officially with this classification. However, there may not be much room for batteries, but they may not need much room.

There are a number of Key EVs available. The best perfroming ones typically uses a 20kWh battery for a range of 180km - that which is about 110 Wh/km without making much of an effort at improving aerodynamics (ie retaining their ICE boxy shapes) so if they did something about that that should be able to get <100 Wh/km.

Can't imagine them being that safe in a bingle with a larger vehicle.

[Bushmiller]

The issue of rental housing and apartment blocks being unable to access solar panels has long been a negative aspect of solar energy. This article attempts to address this with ways around the issue.

‘Money and energy to be saved’: how to get Australia’s body corporates to go green (msn.com)

It also mentions the other aspect of reducing emissions: Use less.

It is unlikely to be a solution in itself, but does provide matter to tackle ways around the subject. Also, just because a house is a rental does not automatically mean it can't have solar panels. The addition of panels by the landlord can be as much of a plus for a tenant as having a garage or a super-duper kitchen or a pool etc.etc..

Regards
Paul

[Bushmiller]

At last:

‘Come on and tell us your policy’: Chris Bowen issues nuclear challenge to Coalition (msn.com)

Is nuclear a fantasy? Maybe now we will iron it out one way or another.

Regards
Paul

[Bushmiller]

Could this be the electrical grail of generation?

Limitless clean energy? Nuclear fusion reactor breaks record (msn.com)

It could be only twenty years away as it has been for about the last sixty years.



I still can't get my head around the astronomical temperatures involved and how we could contain such temperatures.

Regards
Paul

[mic-d]

Just came across this podcast on heat pumps in Australia. 403 Forbidden (this link looks weird but works for me)

From units that have a back up heating element, to uncertainty about controls over end of life capture of high potency green house gas refrigerants.

Our old immersion unit recently died and we had a look at going to a heat pump, but decided to stay with the old fashioned one again and moved it to a central location in the house rather than way at the opposite end from the main hot water usage rooms. We also had it connected to the tariff 11 supply rather than off peak tariff 33 and installed a timer and a contact so it only draws from 9am-3pm, the peak solar times. The unit also has only a small element that only draws 1.8kW, so on a sunny day (and even with some overcast) will be completely supplied by solar. The unit has been in a couple of weeks now and we see it heat from 9-10 only, which corresponds to us using about 35l of raw (not tempered) hot water a day.

So the win win for us is 1) we have a more efficient location for the unit, 2)we heat mostly on solar now, not fossil fuel electricity, 3)we eliminated tariff 33 and the ongoing fees for having that service and 4) we don't have to worry about the destiny of the refrigerant at end of life.

[FenceFurniture]

So the win win for us is 1) we have a more efficient location for the unit, 2)we heat mostly on solar now, not fossil fuel electricity, 3)we eliminated tariff 33 and the ongoing fees for having that service and 4) we don't have to worry about the destiny of the refrigerant at end of life.

Good job mic. My calculations on eliminating the CL1 circuit from here:
Cost for electrician to remove the circuit and tag (or whatever they have to do for officialdom) $300
Cost per day to keep the circuit is about $0.10 depending on the supplier
Days to break even on $300 cost: 300/0.10 = 3000 or 8.2 years.

The circuit will stay, and not be used...

[mic-d]

Good job mic. My calculations on eliminating the CL1 circuit from here:
Cost for electrician to remove the circuit and tag (or whatever they have to do for officialdom) $300
Cost per day to keep the circuit is about $0.10 depending on the supplier
Days to break even on $300 cost: 300/0.10 = 3000 or 8.2 years.

The circuit will stay, and not be used...

Yes I did wonder about the wisdom of removing the circuit once I found out Energex would charge me $180 to collect the meter. I don’t know that there was much in it for the sparky, it didn’t take long in top of the installation work. If I was in the situation again I wouldn’t have it disconnected I guess. Good thing to flag.


the other thing I forgot to suggest was go and have a look at the manufacture date on your HWS. If it’s more than 10 years old start thinking of a new one and if it’s more than 14 years old really consider doing a preemptive swap. They can make quite a mess when they go and the inconvenience of not hot water for a couple of days can be avoided. Better to do it on your terms than have to call an emergency plumber.

[Bushmiller]

the other thing I forgot to suggest was go and have a look at the manufacture date on your HWS. If it’s more than 10 years old start thinking of a new one and if it’s more than 14 years old really consider doing a preemptive swap. They can make quite a mess when they go and the inconvenience of not hot water for a couple of days can be avoided. Better to do it on your terms than have to call an emergency plumber.

Mic

I think one of the reasons they can fail (but not the only reason) is that the sacrificial anode does not get changed out and the water, particularly in hard water areas, begins to attack the element or other parts instead. When changing out an anode that is almost worn away, it is worth syphoning out or otherwise draining some water off the heater (about 600ml) or the new anode, which now has significantly more volume to it, will overflow the heater (Archimedes Principle?) and soak the insulation as it is inserted.

They are not difficult to change out once the water is turned off: Just a suitable spanner. Fitting the new anode will require some thread tape and maybe sealant too..

Regards
Paul

[mic-d]

Mic

I think one of the reasons they can fail (but not the only reason) is that the sacrificial anode does not get changed out and the water, particularly in hard water areas, begins to attack the element or other parts instead. When changing out an anode that is almost worn away, it is worth syphoning out or otherwise draining some water off the heater (about 600ml) or the new anode, which now has significantly more volume to it, will overflow the heater (Archimedes Principle?) and soak the insulation as it is inserted.

They are not difficult to change out once the water is turned off: Just a suitable spanner. Fitting the new anode will require some thread tape and maybe sealant too..

Regards
Paul

In my case the vessel sprung a leak, likely corroded through, lucky it was in the garage. The stop cock was frozen and could not be turned off. So I turned the water off and called my plumber mate, lucky he could be here in a short time to isolate the HWS so we could at least have water. I prefer to leave plumbing and electrical to a licensed tradie.