Ok so you didn't attend any humour. All good m8.

Blaming the energy market for the failure of renewables in SA is a crappy rationalisation. All she says is "its the energy markets fault, but its way too complex to explain"

Hurr durr

That's not what she said. She mentions it's a complicated market and for that reason she doesn't go into every single detail, it's an article that covers a number of issues. Fortunately, some of the reasons why Pelican Point wasn't turned on are mentioned in the other article.

The only credible argument is that renewables at present cannot contribute to 'base load' like coal/gas/geothermal.  

Not my fault you can't pick it up lol.

-PB

So whats the solution?

Nuclear sounds to be the pick of the lot.

-PB

I actually agree with BETHFC. If these structures are so critical and the whole State relies upon those structures for all their electricity supply which includes factories and businesses, then it's probably prudent to construct them in a fashion that gives them the best chances of surviving an extreme weather event and even an earthquake perhaps.

the loss in money and revenue across the entire state, not to mention critical services and individuals that rely on a stable energy source for health reasons is just far too great not to spend a few extra bucks making the structures more able to withstand extreme events. 

I never said anything about "stupid lefties" or made any such characterizations about them. I do however admire Corey Bernardi because I see a fighter in him and someone willing to stand up for his beliefs and as someone who tries to make a principled approach on issues that just aren't in vogue making him a very brave a forthright man, and I can respect him for it which is my right. 

For instance, opening up some of the sources you presented, and reading the comments, how many will I find that will label politicians like Corey as a "right Wing Crackpot" a "racist" or a "Homophobic" or even compare him with ultra right persona's and even Hitler of all people? lot's that's how many.

Our diversity is to be celebrated and just because someone disagrees with your outlook in life isn't a reason to ridicule them. This is what Democracy is about. I scoff at all the people just going nuts over trump. He got elected democratically by the American people and now has the right to implement his political agenda as long as they don't contravene the Constitution or other laws. 

probably nuclear but just sit back and watch the fallout (pun intended) from the Greenies as soon as Nuclear is mentioned. 

Gas also great and pretty clean too but not 100% clean. neither is nuclear for that matter (another pun).

Nuclear here would be good. Millions of square Km to dispose of waste and a relatively stable continent.

Construction costs are exceptionally high unfortunately. 

There was a comprehensive royal commission here in SA on the nuclear industry and it found that the costs involved in it would not make it viable
http://nuclearrc.sa.gov.au/app/uploads/2016/02/NFCRC-Summary-Nuclear-power-plant-viability-reports.pdf

Of course that hasn't stopped the local Libs here grandstanding with it
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-02-09/sa-power-cuts-could-be-solved-by-nuclear-energy-say-liberals/8256814

The solution is to invest in energy storage solutions and gas. 
Gas plants are still polluting but not as badly as coal and they can be turned up and down with demand.

We should also have something like pumped hydro to fill in the gaps. Battery tech is coming on in leaps and bounds and we'll probably in the near future (i.e. quicker than it takes to build a nuclear plant) some sort of supply grade battery storage solution.

One final thing, there needs to be work done to cater better for local generation. Lots of solar panels on houses these days and battery units are becoming affordable for households. With smart meters and the IoT revolution, we could be harnessing these assets in a much smarter way.

I'm going to ignore your rant at the end as it's completely irrelevant.

As for the infrastructure, can't blame the current government for it as it was all sold off in 1999. We've been paying shitloads for years to have everything "gold plated" and it's still shit house. I guess profits are more important than the stability of the service.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/commentisfree/2017/feb/12/government-shows-contempt-for-millennials-no-wonder-theyre-not-optimistic-greg-jericho

SA has good gas fields? Or are they off shore?

I would wonder what a gigantic storage facility would be like, must just be containers and containers of Li-On batteries?

Doens't that make them some form of an explosive risk?

-PB

Yes in the north of the state there are significant gas fields. It also has a lot of shale oil and tight gas. The only way to get to that is fracking and we know what people who know nothing about drilling think of that.

A lot of fracking dramas have been with poisoning water supplies and ruining good farming land.

Is this stuff anywhere areas like that? Being the north of SA I wouldn't think so?

-PB

Most of it is in the desert I think. Way up north near the Queensland and NT borders. 

Unless there are new finds I'm not aware of. 

Not in this country. The videos of people lighting rivers on fire and what not do amuse me. I You can light the Brisbane River on fire because the alluvium (mud at the bottom) traps a lot of methane. We did a geophysics study for Caltex and found methane everywhere. A lot of the arguments against fracking defy soil mechanics. Namely if you can frack a well (requiring the insertion of propellant liquids under pressure), leaching would be minimal as you can maintain pressure meaning that the rocks surrounding the gas are impermeable/low permeability and the gas cannot escape. If the rocks are permeable or fractured, you cannot maintain pressure and it's likely you wouldn't have to frack anyway and could simply drill and cap. Doesn't make sense. What could happen is that they start fracking and cannot achieve adequate pressure and lose the propellants into the well and water body around it. They drill pilot holes to avoid this as losing propellants would result in a substantial financial loss. However, you're extracting hydrocarbons from below the groundwater table. The water at this depth is already contaminated as fuck but naturally. The second one is depth. You're fracking at a depth of 1km +. Leaching of contaminated substances into the water we drink is pretty unlikely. You would have to fracture a vertical kilometre of rock. My guess is the issues around fracking come from negligent treatment and disposal of the material returned to the surface when drilling to get to the gas. Brine ponds must be either trucked away or reinjected if memory serves me correctly. Whether or not this happens is anyones guess.

And what's to say that negligence won't happen elsewhere with new fracking projects?

I think it also comes down to the Government being gutless and not harsh enough when it comes to environmental breaches and fines.

Palmer and his Nickel refinery here in Townsville are a classic example, he let his tailings damns overflow straight into the ocean on numerous occasions and the worst he got was a couple of 5 digit fines.

Literally fuck all (and would even be budgeted for no doubt).

-PB

Nothing but that's due to enforcement, I.E the government not enforcing its own regulations. If the government stood up to the cowboys not taking these environmental issues seriously, there would be accountability and people may trust these sorts of businesses a little more. I don't blame them for not trusting them but there is a lot of cooked up misinformation about, the documentary frackman is an example. Half the sites they went to were conventional wells :laugh:

In 5 years there have been a lot of changes in how they treat gas projects. If you look at the websites of the big players (Origin, Santos etc.) they all publicly display their water quality test results.

Yeah, wouldn't surprise me that the Government doesn't go hard on them too due to investors and future projects etc (jobs and growth!)

-PB

It's hard to enforce. These jobs are often remote.

It's also a lot of fear mongering amongst anti-drilling organizations. It's surprising how many of them will try and talk to you when you're just trying to inspect a pad for the drilling rig to sit on.

I watched QandA the other night and holy shit, what a special person Yassmin Abdel-Mageid is.

Apparently Islam is the most feminist religion. A religion where two adults cannot date without permission, where women cannot drive nor can they sit on a panel on national TV and abuse the government for not prioritising the needs of a minority religion.

It is upsetting to see a public figure like Yassmin playing the victim card so often.

As for Lambie, she might be rough around the edges but she speaks her mind. Must be one of the only politicians capable of it.

yeh i agree with this.

She lives in her own little cocoon in Brisbane and then calls Islam feminist. Well that's her interpretation, but it doesn't look even close to feminist. 

Lambie isn't the only politician who speaks her mind. but you made it clear you don't like the other guy. But he speaks his mind alright. 

Listening to Ludlam talk in chambers the other day, phwoar waddalad.

One of the few Greens I really like, shame he has to be stuck with that mob.

-PB

Wonder if these leaks about Adani's previous dealings and issues in other countries will get any traction here.

-PB

Lol at ATO workers rejecting working 9 minutes extra a day. Like fuck me dead, 9 minutes, they probably do 10x that worth of shit talking at the water cooler.


Entitled as fuck, drags government employees further into the mud of usefulness and inefficiency.

Sounds like the bigger issue is that there has been no increase in their salaries since 2011 and that there is loggerheads over a new enterprise agreement between the government and union / workers.

They've also had 4000 job cuts in that time.

Arguing over 9 minutes per day seems to be a giant waste of time. Don't the union in charge have better things to worry about?

Caltex is the only other company I've seen that operates this way. They leave at an obscure time like 3:38pm and they have to leave on time or it's some huge insurance and risk situation.

As I said it doesn't sound like the 9 minutes is the sticking point (apparently it has been dropped from the last few agreements put forward) ... but still no agreement has been reached.

A mate works for QLD Government transport compliance, their union argues similar stupid shit. They had to have 40 minutes off one day because their superiors discovered the worked overtime amounting to that 40 minutes over several weeks following a new agreement. Such a joke.

I want a government job :laugh: