{"id":381100,"date":"2025-06-01T12:20:33","date_gmt":"2025-06-01T10:20:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=381100"},"modified":"2025-06-01T12:20:35","modified_gmt":"2025-06-01T10:20:35","slug":"billions-of-dollars-spent-on-wind-solar-and-batteries-and-australian-electricity-emissions-went-up-last-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=381100","title":{"rendered":"Billions of dollars spent on wind, solar and batteries and Australian electricity emissions went up last year"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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ChatGPT<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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

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

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

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Image by\u00a0Manuel Angel Egea<\/a>\u00a0from\u00a0Pixabay<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Welcome to Futility Island<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Anthony Albanese was elected in May 2022 and set God-like new emissions targets in to legislation. Ponder the scale of the national achievements of the last three years. All that money, all the wind factories, the solar panels, the batteries, the holes bored in the Snowy Mountains, and this is all we have to show for it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the graph from the latest Quarterly figures shown on the DCCEEW website (with added notation from me):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Poignantly, Mr Bowen, the Minister for Weather Changing and Energy said \u2014  \u201cWe\u2019re turning around a decade of denial<\/strong> and delay, by setting serious climate targets in law and delivering the policy certainty to industry to bring down emissions\u201d.<\/em> Indeed. (Do tell us when you start Chris?)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bump last year was because the clouds didn\u2019t rain on the Tassie Hydro Scheme as much as we needed. And the wind didn\u2019t blow anywhere much in Australia in Quarter 2 last year<\/a>. Who can forget the calm days of April-May-June last year when the wind turbines on the continent stood still<\/a>? At one point, $20 billion dollars worth of wind power  could only make as much power as two diesel generators<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For some reason none of our expert Climate Models saw any of that coming far enough in advance for us to plan ahead. So we just had to burn a bit more gas and coal. You\u2019d think at this point, the failure of extra wind and solar would be so obvious, the Greens would be begging the Labor Party to build some nuclear plants. But they don\u2019t care about CO2 either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beyond that, ponder that even despite weather anomalies, the Labor Government and all the extra \u201crenewables\u201d have not seemingly achieved much in the last three years (or not much in the way of emissions). With all the money spent, wasn\u2019t the line supposed to dip below the trend, not plateau?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The thing is, more than a million people have immigrated to Australia since 2022, and they like emitting carbon dioxide too, and need houses and cars, but no one talks about that. Does the Labor Government care about our national emissions, or is it all just a performance art to justify trips to Davos and Brazil, and enrich their friends and donors?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carbon emissions go up, hydro power down, data shows<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

By Greg Brown and Perry Williams, The Australian<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anthony Albanese\u2019s 2030 target to reduce emissions is on life support after new data showed Australia\u2019s carbon footprint rose slightly last year driven by a 2.2 per cent increase in the electricity sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Figures released by the Climate Change Department show carbon dioxide emissions rose by 0.05 per cent in 2024 to 446.4 million tonnes, equivalent to 27 per cent lower than in 2005.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite Labor going all in on renewables as part of its climate change agenda, emissions in the electricity sector increased in 2024 with coal and gas needing to step up due to a lack of water \u00adlimiting hydro generation in \u00adTasmania.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Australia has currently reduced its emissions by 27% in total since 2005 (mostly due to land use changes, not electricity, but that\u2019s another story). Supposedly, if something supernatural happens, like aliens visit, or a meteor hits Sydney, we\u2019re going to get to a 43% reduction by 2030.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Otherwise to have even the faintest ethereal chance we\u2019d need to increase \u201crenewable-unreliables\u201d from the current 40%<\/a> up to 82% and 2030 is only five years away? Everyone knows it\u2019s impossible, and yet the crazy bus keeps going?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even the believers like Bruce Mountain are saying he did not think there was a chance\u2026 yet Mr Bowen is still emphatic that \u201cwe\u2019re on track\u201d.  (Like we live in a different decade of denial now?)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re so \u201con track\u201d, that 75% of the projects the Minister is expecting are not taking off:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only a quarter of the large-scale renewable energy generation required<\/strong> to hit Labor\u2019s 2030 target in the first three months of 2025 progressed to a firm capital commitment, new data showed this week, sparking a warning that the pace of investment must quickly accelerate to hit the end of decade goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this point in our breakneck transition, wind-factories and solar panels should be going in all over the country. But we just heard that the price of high voltage transmission towers was going to cost up to 55% more than expected, and the AEMO was throwing their previous plans to the wind<\/a>. Now, we\u2019re all supposed to subsidize each other to buy home batteries, EVs, and solar panels. What do we call that \u2014 a pyramid scheme?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Anthony Albanese was elected in May 2022 and set God-like new emissions targets in to legislation. Ponder the scale of the national achievements of the last three years. All that money, all the wind factories, the solar panels, the batteries, the holes bored in the Snowy Mountains, and this is all we have to show for it?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":381106,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_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":[691825206,691818216,691818564,691829997,691818153,691834366,691818728],"class_list":["post-381100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-anthony-albanese","tag-australia","tag-batteries","tag-carbon-dioxide-co","tag-climate-models","tag-hydro-power","tag-wind-and-solar","fallback-thumbnail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1B8M","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":391932,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=391932","url_meta":{"origin":381100,"position":0},"title":"Blackout Australia Doubles Down on Net Zero","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"07\/31\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Aussie Government plans an ambitious 30 minutes of battery capacity to stabilise the grid.","rel":"","context":"In \"AI (artificial intelligence)\"","block_context":{"text":"AI (artificial intelligence)","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=ai-artificial-intelligence-2"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/OIG-5.jpeg?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/OIG-5.jpeg?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/OIG-5.jpeg?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/OIG-5.jpeg?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":263343,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=263343","url_meta":{"origin":381100,"position":1},"title":"Australia getting \u2018ripped off\u2019 by Albanese’s renewable energy push","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"06\/22\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Former Deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce says Australia is getting \u201cripped off\u201d by the Albanese government\u2019s renewable projects with solar panels and wind turbines being imported from overseas.","rel":"","context":"In \"Albanese government\"","block_context":{"text":"Albanese government","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=albanese-government"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/00Screenshot-2023-06-22-135149.png?fit=982%2C567&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/00Screenshot-2023-06-22-135149.png?fit=982%2C567&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/00Screenshot-2023-06-22-135149.png?fit=982%2C567&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/00Screenshot-2023-06-22-135149.png?fit=982%2C567&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":348753,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=348753","url_meta":{"origin":381100,"position":2},"title":"Why They Lie About Nuclear\u00a0Power","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"10\/25\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"ANSTO \u2013 the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation \u2013 recently celebrated 70 years since Australia\u2019s nuclear age began in Sydney. ANSTO is the home of Australia\u2019s most significant landmark and national infrastructure for research. Thousands of scientists from industry and academia benefit from gaining access to state-of-the-art instruments every\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"ANSTO - Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation\"","block_context":{"text":"ANSTO - Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=ansto-australian-nuclear-science-and-technology-organisation"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/0-Nuclear-Power.jpeg?fit=1200%2C683&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/0-Nuclear-Power.jpeg?fit=1200%2C683&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/0-Nuclear-Power.jpeg?fit=1200%2C683&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/0-Nuclear-Power.jpeg?fit=1200%2C683&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/0-Nuclear-Power.jpeg?fit=1200%2C683&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":338031,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=338031","url_meta":{"origin":381100,"position":3},"title":"Why Nuclear is Cheaper than Wind and Solar","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"07\/30\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Wind and solar supporters have a nasty habit of pretending that their preferred energy sources are the \u201ccheapest forms of energy.\u201d The problem, of course, is that they use unrealistic Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) estimates\u2014see Cooking the Books for wind and solar\u2014and they conveniently forget to mention the large\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"electric grid\"","block_context":{"text":"electric grid","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=electric-grid"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/0energy-4030427_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C796&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/0energy-4030427_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C796&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/0energy-4030427_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C796&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/0energy-4030427_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C796&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/0energy-4030427_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C796&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":326559,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=326559","url_meta":{"origin":381100,"position":4},"title":"Occasional Wind & Solar Generation Guarantee Staggering Backup\u00a0Costs","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"05\/06\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Sunset kills solar output the same way calm weather renders wind turbines utterly useless. 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