{"id":337586,"date":"2024-07-26T07:34:32","date_gmt":"2024-07-26T05:34:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=337586"},"modified":"2024-07-26T07:34:33","modified_gmt":"2024-07-26T05:34:33","slug":"the-more-renewables-australia-added-the-more-expensive-electricity-got","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=337586","title":{"rendered":"The more renewables Australia added the more expensive electricity got"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From JoNova <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Jo Nova<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If Australia gets any more free cheap energy we\u2019ll go broke<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The Australian Energy Regulator has the data on electricity pricing and possibly a budget $20 million a year<\/a> but hasn\u2019t yet updated with the last quarter,<\/a> so I thought I\u2019d help them out. Because surely this is a graph that all Australians need to see?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is every state in the National Energy Market, and even though some have more renewables than others, the long term trends are the same. Unreliable generators in one state can vandalize the whole market:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Back in the dinosaur days when Australia had virtually no wind and solar power, the price for wholesale electricity was $30 a megawatt hour year after year. Then Kevin Rudd was elected in 2007, and we started to add the intermittent, unreliable generators which have free fuel, but need thousands of kilometers of wires<\/a>, batteries<\/a>, subsidies<\/a>,  schemes<\/a>, farmland<\/a>, FCAS markets<\/a>, and an entire duplicated back up<\/a> grid that sits around not-earning money for hours, days or five years at a time<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And we wondered why electricity got more expensive:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And again with labels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The market never did recover from the closure of the Hazelwood coal plant. Costs rose by 85%<\/a> and it took a pandemic to bring them down again, but only temporarily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So Australia is close to 30% total wind and solar generation, and aiming with gossamer fairy wings for 82% in five years time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Luckily, it appears there\u2019s no chance we\u2019ll get there. The solar daytime glut, negative prices and community hatred of high voltage lines is spoiling the market for developers. And not a day too soon\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

REFERENCES<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Latest quarterly results from the AEMO Quarterly report.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

AER data<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

OWID<\/a>: Australian solar and wind penetration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Australian Energy Regulator has the data on electricity pricing and possibly a budget $20 million a year but hasn\u2019t yet updated with the last quarter, so I thought I\u2019d help them out. Because surely this is a graph that all Australians need to see?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":337592,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691818216,691822721,691819094],"class_list":{"0":"post-337586","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-electricity-pricing","10":"tag-renewable-green-energy","12":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/2file-20230102-22-ce3hqt.webp?fit=1356%2C668&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1pOW","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":380236,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=380236","url_meta":{"origin":337586,"position":0},"title":"Renewable Push Sends Aussie Electricity Prices Skyrocketing","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"27\/05\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Energy and Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen blames householders for not shopping around for the cheapest deal.","rel":"","context":"In \"Australia\"","block_context":{"text":"Australia","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=australia"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/0ChatGPT-Image-27.-Mai-2025-08_53_40.png?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/0ChatGPT-Image-27.-Mai-2025-08_53_40.png?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/0ChatGPT-Image-27.-Mai-2025-08_53_40.png?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/0ChatGPT-Image-27.-Mai-2025-08_53_40.png?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":248168,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=248168","url_meta":{"origin":337586,"position":1},"title":"Mystery: Australians invest billions in free wind and solar, but prices rise another 20-30%","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"17\/03\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"For 40 years electricity prices went down, but something changed in the last ten years. 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