A sign of the times.

[HansE]

Solar farm near Wellington NSW. I wonder if I can find out how many panels are installed?

[Ozzie_Traveller]

G'day Hans

In this instance ..... dunno > maybe get a drone and a finger-activated clicker like they use for pedestrians crossing roads??

More seriously - a decade ago I read an electrical engineering document where "they" had worked out that a 50km x 50km area of panels in central Oz would create enough electricity to power all of Oz. They acknowledged that this was unworkable as to get that power out to the ends of the country was too hard, so they suggested a compromise of a couple of hundred paddocks from 1km square to 5km square, each connected to the local power lines could do the job

They acknowledged also that storage of some sort was needed, along with better "consumption efficiencies" ie- home insulation, shops and factory roofs need better designs .... and so on

They also accepted that 'as Oz has (supposedly) 500+ years of gas under the north-west shelf, that gas could be used as a short-time-daily use to boost power levels only if solar and wind were unable to carry the load'

It was a most interesting read
Phil

[HansE]

It would be great to think that we would be able to conserve our gas supply but I think our economic model driven by corporate and private profit and greed will not allow such rationalism. Look what happens when you have more money than what you could spend. You need to protect it from your kids and your greedy workforce so you can make more

[Isac]

TRIVIA:
The facility started with 440,000 solar panels and 50 inverter stations, producing enough electricity to power 46,000 homes and avoiding 305,000 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per year. Because Australia is very stupid and can't build this type of stuff, we had to get a Mumbai based company to come down under and build it for us. On the gas side of things, Australia is the second largest LNG exporter in the world (biggest is Qatar), and we're on track to become the world's largest exporter as additional LNG plant capacity comes on stream. China is a major buyer of our gas. Maybe we should let China know that if they don't stop this pathetic and childish game of the stifling of Australian goods with extreme tarrifs, we'll turn off the gas!

[HansE]

There will be some fat cats that will grease a few palms to stop that happening! Helps keep the local prices higher as well.

[Isac]

When I was with Kleanheat Gas (Wesfarmers) gas was exported for less than 2 cents and the domestic cost for consumers was more than 10 times that. Just me bitchin'

[HansE]

And they make money on that. Charge what you can get away with.