Australian electricity prices have surged since the surge in renewables.
- CAGR 17 year, 2006 -- 2023 = 7.2%
- CAGR 3 year to 2023 = 25.9%
- CAGR 2 year to 2023 = 55.6%
Figures show the accelerating cost increase. 7.2% over the last 17 years, jumping to 56% most recently.
Over the most recent three years the cost of electricity in Australia has almost tripled. Hong Kong, where I live, the cost of electricity is third of Australia’s and the price is steady: we have nuclear and gas. And we pump just a third of Australia’s CO2:
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| From here |
Of course one could say: this is transition. When all the renewables are n place and the transition complete, prices will come down. But can they possibly come down by two thirds? Can they be divide by three? I doubt it.
Especially since the non-partisan government-supported Net Zero Australia in their report “How to make net zero hapen” predict $1.5 Trillion to 2030 and up to $A 9 Trillion will have to be spent by 2060. This amounts to around 16% of GNP each and every year. Moreover an amount of land equivalent to half of Victoria will have to be covered in solar panels of wind turbines to make it happen. Not to mention basically unreachable battery storage goals. All this because they won’t consider nuclear, since Australia has “an abundance of land, sun and wind”. Hmmm. More thoughts here, at The Net Zero Nuclear option.
The reason for the cost increases is that when they say “renewables are cheap” they don’t factor in the intermittency (average only 25% effectiveness) and the need for a whole new Transmission infrastructure, with massive costs, not just in money but in lost land, flora and fauna.
My conclusion: Net Zero won’t happen. And the sooner they recognise this the better. And the sooner nuclear power becomes part of the mix the better. And the sooner they recognise that Gas still has a place the better. And the sooner they recognise that EV are not a solution the better. (They might be, but only over the long term).
