Not trying to be smart, genuine question here.
What’s stopping plans like the solar pumped hydro they want to build in NQ going ahead now?
We have a private company wanting to use otherwise useless sloping ground (ie; no good for residential, farming or mining) and using solar to pump water up hill and using gravity to run turbines downhill on demand.
It’s got to be as close to perpetual energy as we can get, isn’t it?
Nothing wrong with that one, it's an ideal site for pumped hydro which is why it looks like it will go ahead, but it's pretty unique.
I agree we don’t have the steep ranges with constant running rivers or easy access to natural thermal like some others, but as a country we have no problems digging massive holes in the ground, we have plenty of sunshine and always manage to find plenty of water for industry when it suits.
Surely it’s only political agendas stopping us from making our own solar powered pumped hydro sites in remote areas all over the country.
I don't think political agendas have that much to do with it, to the main issue is cost, keep in mind it's the Libs (with Tony's agreement) that have instigated Snowy 2.0. The Kidston project stacks up because the bulk of the earthworks have already been completed, if you have to do that from scratch then the cost is a whole lot higher. the other issue with pumped hydro is that the sites that would be ideal are also often area's of significant scenic value, you think people whinge about wind turbines being ugly, I think that it would be nothing compared to placing rammed earth turkey nest dams on the top of scenic mountain ranges. The other issue is proximity to the grid, there would possibly be remote sites that are suitable, but the cost of transmission then becomes the limiting factor.
And I’m sorry, but I can’t agree that Tony “science is crap” Abbott has any other agenda then the one he makes very clear every time he speaks on the energy subject.
Shouting from the backbench about how ugly wind farms are and how the government should build their own coal fired power plants hardly says open minded to a proper mix of generation to me.
I think that with Tony it's a partly a money thing, he hates that renewables have been subsidised to the extent they have, especially when he, at a minimum, thinks the potential effects have been significantly overblown by the proponents of renewable energy, I think he is also doing a good job of playing to his base but I also think that there is a big part of it that is that the people on the other side of the debate are the people who his naturally political enemy's, and he has always liked a good stoush.
