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https://reneweconomy.com.au/dan-tehan-fails-to-grasp-difference-between-baseload-and-firming-as-he-sprouts-nonsense-on-nuclear/>
"The Australian Energy Market Operator, along with the owners of the country’s
biggest fleets of coal generators have painted a pretty clear picture of the
energy future: Forget baseload, it’s time has come and is going and almost gone
– the future is about renewables and firming power.
It shouldn’t be too hard a concept to grasp. Low cost wind and solar will
provide the bulk of the electricity supply, including and particularly from the
rooftops of homes and businesses, and excess power will be stored in batteries
at home and on the grid, and flexible “firming” assets will fill the gaps.
The focus on flexibility is the key. Firming assets might not be needed often,
or even for long, but they will need to be switched on and off relatively
quickly. Flexible demand side management will also play a key role, as will a
focus on efficiency.
Australia’s operational paradigm is no longer ‘baseload-and-peaking’, but
increasingly it’s a paradigm of ‘renewables-and-firming’,” AEMO boss Daniel
Westerman said last year.
It’s a crucial point to understand. “Baseload” is not so much a technical
virtue as a business model – the people who invest in coal generators, and
nuclear in particular, count on those machines operating at or near full
capacity most of the time.
Without it, they haven’t a hope of repaying the money that it took to build
their facilities. They can flex a little, but the last thing they want or can
do is dial down and up again on a daily or even hourly basis. Other machines
are better equipped at doing that, and at much lower cost.
As the ANU’s Centre for Energy Systems wrote this year, the energy industry is
aware that baseload is not just endangered, it is already functionally extinct.
And they explain why in more detail.
Enter the Coalition’s new energy spokesman Dan Tehan, who quite clearly has not
got the memo, and clearly hasn’t the foggiest idea what he is talking about."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
