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17/20
  • obisteve
    obisteve
    1 month
    Quoting paulybronco on 26 May 2025 10:02 AM

    There is no hearing...this is their ruling, its done! The did listen, didn't give a fuck and raised it by 10%......oh sorry to be fair did acknowledge that they recognise that "people are doing it tough at the moment" but suck shit here's your new bill.

    Quoting obisteve on 27 May 2025 11:46 AM

    Know of any other industry where a federal government body examines the retail price of the product, sets a default price for the industry after consultation with the retailers about their cost margins, and insists they don't raise that for 12 months?

    See that ever happening for the oil and gas industry?
     

    Quoting paulybronco on 27 May 2025 11:49 AM

    You dont see it for any industry that i can recall.

    That's one of the jobs the Australian Energy Regulator does, and what it's just done, set a maximum price the retailers can charge for the default plan, the one that's simple and understandable, for the next 12 months. Of course the retailers don't have to lift their prices to that, but you can bet they will. The retailers include both private enterprise ones, and at least in Qld a state govt. owned corporation.
    The ruling only applies to SE Qld, NSW, and SA.
    And I should have said the oil industry, not oil and gas, because the Aust Energy Regulator sets a max retail price for piped gas supplies too for domestic users and small business.
    Hilly, I can remember walking to the servo as a teenager, 1968 maybe, with a 1 gallon fuel can to get some petrol for the mower, cost under 50 cents. And at the same time, TV ads were hammering home the price of cheap smokes, 44 cents a pack.
  • obisteve
    obisteve
    1 month
    Quoting evo94 on 26 May 2025 08:11 PM

    personal view - awesome.....hopefully follow suit with the rumblings of such an abomination in Cooloola

    Serios question here, not taking the piss, why don't people like wind farms?
    Talked to a few people about it but so far only heard that they think they're ugly and I can't understand it. To me they're beautifully elegant engineering, as sleek as a racing sail planes wings, as beautifully fit for purpose as a set of Carillo con rods.
  • paulybronco
    paulybronco
    1 month
    Quoting obisteve on 27 May 2025 11:46 AM

    Know of any other industry where a federal government body examines the retail price of the product, sets a default price for the industry after consultation with the retailers about their cost margins, and insists they don't raise that for 12 months?

    See that ever happening for the oil and gas industry?
     

    Quoting paulybronco on 27 May 2025 11:49 AM

    You dont see it for any industry that i can recall.

    Quoting obisteve on 28 May 2025 11:02 AM

    That's one of the jobs the Australian Energy Regulator does, and what it's just done, set a maximum price the retailers can charge for the default plan, the one that's simple and understandable, for the next 12 months. Of course the retailers don't have to lift their prices to that, but you can bet they will. The retailers include both private enterprise ones, and at least in Qld a state govt. owned corporation.

    The ruling only applies to SE Qld, NSW, and SA.
    And I should have said the oil industry, not oil and gas, because the Aust Energy Regulator sets a max retail price for piped gas supplies too for domestic users and small business.
    Hilly, I can remember walking to the servo as a teenager, 1968 maybe, with a 1 gallon fuel can to get some petrol for the mower, cost under 50 cents. And at the same time, TV ads were hammering home the price of cheap smokes, 44 cents a pack.

    Faark how goods your memory!. I do remember as a kid being the night manager of the drive thru grog shop when a ctn of beer was $19.99 and no one heard of Coronas, Heineken or boutique beers. 
  • B0nes
    B0nes
    1 month
    Quoting evo94 on 26 May 2025 08:11 PM

    personal view - awesome.....hopefully follow suit with the rumblings of such an abomination in Cooloola

    Quoting obisteve on 28 May 2025 11:09 AMedited: 28 May 2025 11:22 AM

    Serios question here, not taking the piss, why don't people like wind farms?

    Talked to a few people about it but so far only heard that they think they're ugly and I can't understand it. To me they're beautifully elegant engineering, as sleek as a racing sail planes wings, as beautifully fit for purpose as a set of Carillo con rods.

    Haven't you heard from the US president who claims to be an expert. They kill thousands of birds and the ones popping up along the coast lines are killing all the whales.
  • B0nes
    B0nes
    1 month
    Quoting dicko on 29 May 2025 03:05 AM

    https://www.mackinac.org/blog/2023/clean-energy-isnt-clean

    I did read that the blades have no value once they hit EOL,  so just get cut up and put into landfill. Not to sure, but isn't that also another thing that "we" are trying to do. Reduce landfill.
  • Hilly
    Hilly
    1 month
    I'll read that article properly later Dicko, always open to learning something, if it's horseshit I'm gunna point it out though 
  • obisteve
    obisteve
    1 month
    Quoting evo94 on 26 May 2025 08:11 PM

    personal view - awesome.....hopefully follow suit with the rumblings of such an abomination in Cooloola

    Quoting obisteve on 28 May 2025 11:09 AMedited: 28 May 2025 11:22 AM

    Serios question here, not taking the piss, why don't people like wind farms?

    Talked to a few people about it but so far only heard that they think they're ugly and I can't understand it. To me they're beautifully elegant engineering, as sleek as a racing sail planes wings, as beautifully fit for purpose as a set of Carillo con rods.

    Quoting B0nes on 28 May 2025 10:11 PM

    Haven't you heard from the US president who claims to be an expert. They kill thousands of birds and the ones popping up along the coast lines are killing all the whales.

    Well I'd treat that with much the same regard that I would most of what the orange shit gibbon says. Turbine blades do kill birds, but painting 1 blade of the 3 black appears to drop the kill rate by 3/4s according to 2023 research.
  • obisteve
    obisteve
    1 month
    I took the tablet Hilly, honest I did.
    Interesting article Dicko, gonna take a bit to check it over point by point, but a couple of things jump straight out.
    First, it conveniently ignores the fly ash production of a coal fired generator, estimated to be 100 million tons annually for the USA. Depending on the coal mine that supplies it, this is likely to be more or less radioactive.
    Another thing that jumped out, they assume that land used for wind farms was otherwise wasted. Most of the ones I've visited are on productive grazing land, giving a substantial second income to the cow cocky.
    And another minor point that jumped straight out was them saying saying that renewables were threatening the world's supply of Dysprosium. This is used as an alloy in high strength magnets for permanent magnet electric motors. A nuclear power boom would also suck it up, it's used in reactor control rods.
    One essential basic thing to also do, will be to fact check the organisation's mentioned, the Mackinac Centre and the Manhattan Institute. Pretty sure I know what I'll find though, US conservative think tank and propaganda outlet of medium reliability.
    To be continued, but if a lot of members of the forum want us to wind it down, I'll happily take another of Hilly's pills.
    And one last thing for now, I don't know how people manage to use the Oz average of 10,000 kWhrs of leccy annually. Attached is our usage, 2 people, leaky draughty old house, with half the walls single skin weatherboard, on a block that's gets frosts down to minus 4° for a month of winter, all the usual electrical shit. This shows why  our electricity account is now in credit.


    Screenshot_20250528_094327_DuckDuckGo.jpg
  • evo94
    evo94
    1 month
    Quoting evo94 on 26 May 2025 08:11 PM

    personal view - awesome.....hopefully follow suit with the rumblings of such an abomination in Cooloola

    Quoting obisteve on 28 May 2025 11:09 AMedited: 28 May 2025 11:22 AM

    Serios question here, not taking the piss, why don't people like wind farms?

    Talked to a few people about it but so far only heard that they think they're ugly and I can't understand it. To me they're beautifully elegant engineering, as sleek as a racing sail planes wings, as beautifully fit for purpose as a set of Carillo con rods.

    yeah naah mate - think exact opposite of your detailed description of them.....we were riding past the solar farm towards Kilkivan coupla days ago & felt like we were amongst a squillion rooftops in the middle of Brissy.....just my thoughts is all, dont stress - it is what it is :)
  • obisteve
    obisteve
    1 month
    With solar panels I completely agree with you evo, pus ugly, put them all out in a desert somewhere with good grid connection.
    Still, I think a lot of things are pus ugly and they still keep building them. Mobile phone towers, feed lots when they're down to big paddocks of shit covered bare dirt with thousands of cattle grazing them, that squillion rooftops in Brissy.
    That the one between Woolooga and Widgee?
    And never gonna stress when someone has a different opinion on what looks good than me.
  • paulybronco
    paulybronco
    1 month
    Quoting obisteve on 29 May 2025 11:27 AMedited: 29 May 2025 11:34 AM

    I took the tablet Hilly, honest I did.

    Interesting article Dicko, gonna take a bit to check it over point by point, but a couple of things jump straight out.
    First, it conveniently ignores the fly ash production of a coal fired generator, estimated to be 100 million tons annually for the USA. Depending on the coal mine that supplies it, this is likely to be more or less radioactive.
    Another thing that jumped out, they assume that land used for wind farms was otherwise wasted. Most of the ones I've visited are on productive grazing land, giving a substantial second income to the cow cocky.
    And another minor point that jumped straight out was them saying saying that renewables were threatening the world's supply of Dysprosium. This is used as an alloy in high strength magnets for permanent magnet electric motors. A nuclear power boom would also suck it up, it's used in reactor control rods.
    One essential basic thing to also do, will be to fact check the organisation's mentioned, the Mackinac Centre and the Manhattan Institute. Pretty sure I know what I'll find though, US conservative think tank and propaganda outlet of medium reliability.
    To be continued, but if a lot of members of the forum want us to wind it down, I'll happily take another of Hilly's pills.
    And one last thing for now, I don't know how people manage to use the Oz average of 10,000 kWhrs of leccy annually. Attached is our usage, 2 people, leaky draughty old house, with half the walls single skin weatherboard, on a block that's gets frosts down to minus 4° for a month of winter, all the usual electrical shit. This shows why  our electricity account is now in credit.


    Screenshot_20250528_094327_DuckDuckGo.jpg
    Fooked if i know how this works.....same two people in the house, new improved pool pump and we went from 18.91 kwh to 25.87kwh per day somehow....we sold back 434kwk @ .10c and a further 183.088kwh giving me a credit of $57.55 and we still got a bill for $198.02 and that INCLUDES the discount of $75 qld gov rebate for the March/April....its a rort. 
  • paulybronco
    paulybronco
    1 month
    Quoting evo94 on 26 May 2025 08:11 PM

    personal view - awesome.....hopefully follow suit with the rumblings of such an abomination in Cooloola

    Quoting obisteve on 28 May 2025 11:09 AMedited: 28 May 2025 11:22 AM

    Serios question here, not taking the piss, why don't people like wind farms?

    Talked to a few people about it but so far only heard that they think they're ugly and I can't understand it. To me they're beautifully elegant engineering, as sleek as a racing sail planes wings, as beautifully fit for purpose as a set of Carillo con rods.

    Quoting evo94 on 29 May 2025 10:58 PM

    yeah naah mate - think exact opposite of your detailed description of them.....we were riding past the solar farm towards Kilkivan coupla days ago & felt like we were amongst a squillion rooftops in the middle of Brissy.....just my thoughts is all, dont stress - it is what it is :)

    With you evo ...the destruction going on around building wind farms is criminal for you and i but somehow nothing mentioned by the government or local councils. The way we are going with this energy debate/squabbling/lies were all going to sitting in the dark. 
  • Hilly
    Hilly
    1 month
    🫣
    PXL_20250526_025654009.MP~2_2.jpg
    Beauty and......
    Screenshot_20250530-104621_2.png
    The Beast
  • paulybronco
    paulybronco
    1 month
    Quoting Hilly on 31 May 2025 08:29 AM

    🫣

    PXL_20250526_025654009.MP~2_2.jpg
    Beauty and......
    Screenshot_20250530-104621_2.png
    The Beast
    Theres only one beast....not 1000s of windmills...easy to hide one beast. 
  • Hilly
    Hilly
    1 month
    Gotta be the worst argument you ever presented me with PB, that Loy Yang station though is a fucking disgrace, the amount of harm it causes to a lot of people's health in the valley is unacceptable and the fact that AGL defends it as they do says a lot about the integrity of that company. 
    I read dickos article, I could shoot so many holes in it that it would sink faster than a lead balloon, Jesus even Greenpeace debunks some of it! I think I'd be wasting my time and energy to be honest so I'll give it a miss.
    I'm interested in the science, I like to read about advancements in technology and it's practical application but this feels like it has turned political or some other bent shit.
    I'm not fanatical about shutting down coal, I worked in coal mines for a long time, I'm not fanatical about wind or solar either, but if you are going to burn coal do it without corporate profits overriding public health.

  • dicko
    dicko
    1 month
    quote : (First, it conveniently ignores the fly ash production of a coal fired generator, estimated to be 100 million tons annually for the USA. )

    Fly ash, a byproduct of coal combustion, is used in road construction to stabilize subgrades and base layers of pavements. It can also be used in plant-mixed foamed bitumen materials as a secondary stabilizing agent and as an asphalt filler. Fly ash enhances the durability of roads and offers cost savings, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, and improved durability. 
    Powerhouse cooling towers are essential for cooling water used in power plants before it's returned to its source, like a river or ocean. They help to efficiently and environmentally remove heat from the cooling water. While often associated with nuclear power plants, they are used in various non-nuclear power plants as well. 


    Screenshot_20250530-104621_2.png
  • obisteve
    obisteve
    1 month
    Probably one of the most important things to remember in this conversation is that the more wind and solar farms and transmission grid development that's objected to and doesn't proceed, the closer the lights are to going out.
    Companies are queueing up to build wind and solar farms because they make money in operation.
    No commercial entity is even suggesting building new coal fired generators, hell, they haven't even spent enough to maintain them well enough to keep them reliably operating. Even the most recent build ones, the Bjelke Petersen era Qld ones, have been having catastrophic failures.
    No finance supplier will lend the capital to fund the building of new coal fired generation for fear of it becoming a stranded asset.
    Our population keeps increasing, electricity usage keeps growing (server farms for data storage and Bitcoin mining now estimated to consume 8% of Oz generated electricity and growing) and the clock is ticking on the ever decreasing number of coal fired generators.
    Don't see much destruction going on in the attached pic PB, although you can't see the Sporties oil seepage from that angle.
    And when they're build on cleared grazing land like at Coopers Gap in the pic, we tend to ignore the destruction that already happened to make the cleared grazing land.
    It was necessary at the time for tucker production though, so is doing something now to increase our electricity supply.
    20231201_150829.jpg
  • paulybronco
    paulybronco
    1 month
    I, like millions of Australians just want to be able to switch on the lights, run the heater and get a fair go on my bill. Not be told that solar will get you a credit or wind farms will decrease your bills to see all this tax payers money going to overseas companies, my bills increasing and now the new magic tonic is a battery or several, again heavily subsidised by tax payers. Our energy policy in Australia is a utter mess with competing factors pushing agendas, and promises that aren't ever going to happen.    
  • Humbug
    Humbug
    1 month
    Anyone up to speed on thorium? Just heard of it.
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17/20