Exciting sustainable developments

Sadly l think they're getting worse in that department lizzie God almighty ya should see the mess they've made round here , Vic Sth West, and if it's not 30mtr high huge ugly silver poles it's gas pipes and drilling all over the damn place.

Sorry l haven't brought any actual new developments to your thread . but l'd love to,,,, bringem on.

l do have one idea on how to save the wombats though , that's exiting right , next post.

 

I do too, lock up that SA Police "Man" that stoned one to death the other day while his mate filmed it.

Whenever I get excited about the future when you see great advances in tech and renewables etc a story like that appears, or the one last week where the P plater deliberately ran down and killed 20 Kangaroos and I think what's the point, let the world burn. Modern Humans are 200,000 years old and we still can't stop killing each other or our fellow animals.

 

There's a few heading down that path @Lizzie I cant find the article I was reading other day, putting rural communities on decentralized grids. One example was something like a 1900k ole and wire set up feeding just 35 homes or something (sorry, cant recall the actual stats), the energy company was looking to provide the panels and the batteries for the community and would still work out heap cheaper than maintaining the poles and wires to it.

 

Found it.... (it's the same story as yours anyway ;-) )

Horizon first utility to pull down power lines and replace with renewable micro-grids | RenewEconomy

 

It makes logical sense - but it's also what they are starting to do in countries like India and Bangledesh to get people onto electricity - although the government is pushing back as they want people to use the "government owned" system.

The community grids share the charging, storage and use amongst a couple of dozen households. This means that not everyone needs a battery - not everyone needs panels/windmills - and those that produce more can share it with industry that uses more - and I'm sure they have some sort of metering and charging between the households/businesses, but it makes so much more sense than building expensive and unwieldy national grid systems

This startup lets villagers create mini power grids for their neighbors

 

Yeah , sadly l know , that's why l try not to get involved anymore in this stuff anymore . Just seems a losing battle and brings ya down in the end.

 

The power thing is nothing really that ones an easy solve. People have been using alternative power all over the world for years. All kinds or turbines or solar, unbelievable the power they can put out built two myself.
Matter of fact , l'd say our idiot gov's could put every house in the country on solar for less than the cost of building all they crap they've been doing or chip in 50%rebate or something , the power mobs do that rest.
But as solar and even wind , get's more and more refined all that'll be even easier .
One windmill can run a small town , just think how many 1000s of small towns there are that that they build all this bs to cater for over 1000s and 1000s of k. But they don't even need a windmill anyway 90% of them could just run solar off their roof, probably 95%.
Wish they'd just stop building all their crap right now and filling the country side up with all the ugly crap they're doing , just stop for a second and bloody "think".
l still think big industry is the only real challenge but they have massive roof areas anyway so there's a huge head start right there.
Electric trains a biggie too l guess , stuff like that.
But then just fathom how much power would be left over from all their crap , if houses didn't need it.

 

Wow - the first prototype for an "anti-solar-panel" - a rooftop panel that produces electricity at night. The next 5 years are going to be so exciting

The Anti-Solar Panel - A Device That Generates Electricity From Darkness

 

Not a new innovation, but the start of a massive shift....

BHP cancels coal contracts, goes 100 per cent renewables at huge Chile copper mines | RenewEconomy

 

Saw that yesterday ... ... obviously it must make good business sense for them, otherwise they wouldn't do it

 

Yes @Lizzie and what's even more amazing about it is the fact it's cheaper for them to do INCLUDING paying out A$1.13 billion dollars to get out of their existing contracts for coal powered electricity supply. Times are changing, the next 5 years could be very exciting at the rate things are moving.

Our 10kw of resi solar gets installed tomorrow, can't wait.

 

I know! ... and add in the fact that Newcastle Council now operates on 100% renewable - and that I recently renewed my electricity contract and it was no more expensive to go 100% renewable

Just need the government to have a plan for the grid as, apparently, it's already at renewable saturation and they're having to offload at peak production times. It's be really nice to have a party in government that sat down to prepare a 50-100 year plan for water and power instead of the ad hoc method

 

Just like the good old days where costs of infrastructure were amortised over the life of the project (before accountants got involved and made the developer pay all costs upfront and then pass those costs onto homebuyers etc). If the service providers weren't so concerned about delivering a dividend as opposed to delivering a service.

 

Indeed. Our installer had to get permission from United to allow us to export. Apparently in our area now it's luck of the draw as to whether you'll get the nod to allow export. Some get a flat no, others get a cap. Luckily we've been granted a full 10kw export (spread over 3 phases). As our house is empty all day, it was only cost effective for us to go with rooftop PV if we went 10kw and could export the bulk of it. By my calcs we should still have a pay back of around 3 years then pretty much zero bills, if not slight credit, after that.

 

Maybe, just maybe, the energy providers used this to over invest in the poles and wires without regard to the where of future needs were likely to arise but I'm no economist.

ACCC Retail Electricity Pricing Inquiry: Preliminary Report

 

Battery with range of 1,500miles

 

- wow - that's why I'm reluctant to buy a new car just yet. Technology is changing so rapidly and this is coming out only next year (probably a year later to make it to Australia)

 

The dawn of the battery age....

AGL signs huge battery storage deal, hails "dawn of battery age" | RenewEconomy

 

Even the federal government is starting to see the light, with the announcement of a $1.5bil renewables infrastructure plan. To be spent only on grid upgrade and storage.

I know. $1.5 won't go far, but it's a start and hopefully investors will then get on board.

 

I don't think this government has seen the light. It's merely following what businesses (BHP, BP, Roche, AGL, etc) already know. Those and other companies are operated by people who aren't stupid, are educated, have ready access to economists and scientific advice and want to stay in business. They fully understand their approaches need to alter in order to mitigate any damage their activites cause.