It is proof of how Australia is lagging behind in the rest of the world when it is considering selling and privatising our poles and wires or electricity grid. Poles and wires is old hat technology that is doomed in the not too far future. If you read about the subject it doesn’t take long to learn that enormous leaps are being made in alternative energy generation. A growing number of people are now relying on own energy generation and cutting supply from the grid. You can imagine not having to pay electricity bills anymore.
Solar panels are dropping in price and getting better. Battery technology is rapidly making advances and so are conversion methods, but above all storage of surplus solar energy in columns of salt in the form of heat. This heat gets transformed into electricity during times when there is no sun or during the night.
“Currently, solar panels in Australia produce energy at a cost of A10c per kilowatt hour or less, and it is likely that by 2020 this will fall to A6-7c per kilowatt hour or less. This puts solar power into a very competitive spot within the next five years. Read more from Asian Scientist Magazine at: http://www.asianscientist.com/2015/02/features/sunny-future-rooftop-solar-power/
Of course this Government, if that’s what one could call this coterie of uninspiring limpid cowardly foreign queen genuflecting lovers, bending down (or backwards) grovelling bicycle seat sniffers, it is in it’s dismal lack of wisdom, now actually discouraging uptake of alternative energy generation. If ever there was proof this Government is against economic common sense, surely their stance on alternative energy is in this sloppy pudding.
People that have been savvy enough to have solar panels installed are now deliberately being punished by getting a much lower rate being paid from feeding solar generated electricity back into the grid ( export) than what they use from the same grid (import). To put is simply, electricity used from the grid might get charged at $0.30c a kilowatt, yet solar energy fed into the grid might just get $0.10 a Kilowatt. This is a deliberate attempt to discourage people from going solar in order to protect the big boys of the Billion dollar Energy Companies. (Poles and wires)
Of course, this might well work in reverse. As solar panels become cheaper and the science in storage gallops ahead, many will simply cut off from the grid and be free from poles and wires. This is already happening in many countries and of course in Australia many farmers and rural communities have done without coal generated electricity for decades, relying on generators, batteries and recently solar energy. The more the price of coal generated (power and poles) electricity goes up, the more attractive and cheaper will be the option for people and communities to free themselves form the tyranny of the Energy companies.
I can’t imagine that if the decision to sell the ‘power and poles’ by this NSW Government, it will be met with much enthusiasm from the public or the large Super Funds. It might be a hard sell.
I hope so.
Window Dresser's Arms, Pig & Whistle 
It’s sort of related. It’s a utility. Recently I’ve decided now tenants pay generallyall their water usage and their water is getting up around a thousand dollars a year at least (yes, that’s right folks), I want tenants to have management of their water bills ie in a direct relationship with (in this instance) SA Water instead of the bill coming from the real estate agency and the tenant pays the agency and the agency pays SA Water.
I can think of good reasons the bill ought to go direct to the tenant as do electricity bills. Primarily I want my dignity back and god only knows the dents in mine renting property for a number of years have been various, however there are other reasons like getting the bill. It’s seems so reassuring to get a bill from a provider and peruse it at one’s leisure. 🙂
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I don’t understand why more isn’t done to encourage solar panelling on all roofs or why new power stations couldn’t be solar. Same with wind farms. Yet when you have great thinkers like windbag joe reckon they’re a blight on the landscape what chance do you have.
The only thing stopping us from getting lithium batteries to complement our solar panels is the cost.
Still lets see how this plays out in a few weeks. could cost them a seat or too.Maybe just enough to tip Baird into a minority government.
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It is when alternative energy become competitive, which it will, that grids of poles and wires will become obsolete.
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All true Gerard. Yet the deniers keep saying it is all unproven, won’t work when sun doesn’t shine and on and on. It can be stored. As to the lease/sale of poles and wires – great for the buyer that they have just all been gold plated at the consumers expense.
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In the event of someone producing more solar/wind energy/electricty than they can use, the Electricity Companies are not paying you for the surpluss energy. They only give you an un-bankable ‘credit’. Of course if one keeps exporting more than importing but never see the money. What is the point?
This just shows you what a dreadful anti-clean energy place we have become under Abbott. They are pro-active and punishing in discouraging alternative energy.
All this makes for a disconnect from the grid more of an incentive.
It will happen.
It needs a change in legislation
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One can use that excess energy during the day to make heat or cool, to be used later. Whodathunkit?
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Yes, let’s hope they’ll be sunk like they did in Queensland. Am already stocking up on chips, gherkins and herrings for the big count on the night of the election with Jonathan Green leading us along with all the seats swinging over to labour.
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