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Australia does not have a national electricity grid. We have this: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d4/NationalElectricityTransmissionLinesMap

Australia does not have a national electricity grid. We have this: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d4/NationalElectricityTransmissionLinesMapAustralia.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d4/National... Also, we have plenty of natural gas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_in_Australia#Natural_gas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_in_Australia#Natural_ga...

toomuchtodo 7y ago
I’m familiar. Note the lack of East<->West transmission capability between coasts (important for solar generation to follow the sun), and the lack of almost anything to the Northern Territory (who doesn’t even expose their real time generation data on the internet!). Also, there are natural gas reserves, it just doesn’t appear it’s used extensively for electrical generation based on historical ElectricityMap.org data.
- caf 7y ago
  The Northern Territory has a total population of only 250,000, of which 180,000 live in the Darwin area. There is no way that spending the enormous amount required to connect it to the east coast grid would be an efficient use of resources.
  - toomuchtodo 7y ago
    Really depends on the path an East-West line takes, cost per mile (edit: kilometer), existing generation fuel costs, possible future generation locations, etc. It’s not just about existing load centers (the population you mention), but possible future generators (big solar plants in the middle of the desert).
    - caf 7y ago
      There is no shortage of suitable locations available for big solar plants that are thousands of kilometres closer to the big load centres than the Northern Territory is.
    - dwd 7y ago
      There are also plans to go the other way and connect WA to Indonesia with the potential to tap into the electricity market of a population 10x larger than Australia's. https://www.pv-magazine-australia.com/2017/11/30/australias-mega-hybrid-plant-to-export-power-to-indonesia/ https://www.pv-magazine-australia.com/2017/11/30/australias-...
- EdwardDiego 7y ago
  > Also, there are natural gas reserves, it just doesn’t appear it’s used extensively for electrical generation based on historical ElectricityMap.org data. Probably because it's all shipped offshore. > https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2018/12/aussie-paying-gas-japan/ https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2018/12/aussie-paying-gas-j...

toomuchtodo 7y ago

I’m familiar. Note the lack of East<->West transmission capability between coasts (important for solar generation to follow the sun), and the lack of almost anything to the Northern Territory (who doesn’t even expose their real time generation data on the internet!). Also, there are natural gas reserves, it just doesn’t appear it’s used extensively for electrical generation based on historical ElectricityMap.org data.

caf 7y ago
The Northern Territory has a total population of only 250,000, of which 180,000 live in the Darwin area. There is no way that spending the enormous amount required to connect it to the east coast grid would be an efficient use of resources.
- toomuchtodo 7y ago
  Really depends on the path an East-West line takes, cost per mile (edit: kilometer), existing generation fuel costs, possible future generation locations, etc. It’s not just about existing load centers (the population you mention), but possible future generators (big solar plants in the middle of the desert).
  - caf 7y ago
    There is no shortage of suitable locations available for big solar plants that are thousands of kilometres closer to the big load centres than the Northern Territory is.
  - dwd 7y ago
    There are also plans to go the other way and connect WA to Indonesia with the potential to tap into the electricity market of a population 10x larger than Australia's. https://www.pv-magazine-australia.com/2017/11/30/australias-mega-hybrid-plant-to-export-power-to-indonesia/ https://www.pv-magazine-australia.com/2017/11/30/australias-...
EdwardDiego 7y ago
> Also, there are natural gas reserves, it just doesn’t appear it’s used extensively for electrical generation based on historical ElectricityMap.org data. Probably because it's all shipped offshore. > https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2018/12/aussie-paying-gas-japan/ https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2018/12/aussie-paying-gas-j...