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If there's anywhere in the world that solar makes sense, it's Australia. Vast stretches of land, more sunshine than you can throw a stick at. Good to see it's s
by marcus_holmes 5y ago
If there's anywhere in the world that solar makes sense, it's Australia. Vast stretches of land, more sunshine than you can throw a stick at. Good to see it's starting to happen.
- thejosh 5y agoIt's been huge for a while, see http://www.cleanenergyregulator.gov.au/RET/Forms-and-resources/Postcode-data-for-small-scale-installations http://www.cleanenergyregulator.gov.au/RET/Forms-and-resourc... for a run down on the installations. It's big here as it can save you a lot of money.
- stefan_ 5y agoCan't export solar very well from Australia
- SideburnsOfDoom 5y agoJust a thought, what if Australia had ways to use excess power and export the result. e.g. refining ores and exporting metals instead of exporting ores. You don't need to literally "export electricity" in order to leverage a surplus of energy, for export.
- chii 5y agoexport aluminium - often called solidified electricity.
- ginko 5y agoSeems obvious considering Australia is the world's largest producer of bauxite.
- jeeeb 5y agoYup. Australia is one of the world’s largest Aluminium exporters currently, although I doubt that has much to do with using excess solar energy.
- ginko 5y agoThey aren't though. They're only number 6, despite producing the most bauxite by far. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_primary_aluminium_production https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_primary_a...
- jeeeb 5y agoAustralia is the 6th largest producer and 5th largest exporter of aluminium. To me that fits well within the statement “one of the world’s largest” Of course Australia also sells a lot of bauxite to China.
- htneak 5y agocrypto-mining comes to mind
- SideburnsOfDoom 5y agoTrue. In the same way that car-crashes and other pointless disasters come to mind.
- marcus_holmes 5y agoI've had this discussion around why we export iron ore and coal rather than steel. Which seems ridiculous to me. Why are we building huge port facilities for vast shipments of coal and iron ore, and not smelters with much smaller port facilities for shipping steel? The answer I got was that smelters are hugely expensive and last longer than the mines, and so it makes sense to build the smelter near the factories, and ship the raw materials to the smelter from wherever they are being mined currently, rather than building the smelter near the mines and then having to ship raw materials there anyway once the mines run out. I've always thought this was a bit dubious (why is commercially viable to build smelters in Korea but not Aus?), but it does kinda make sense. So the problem isn't "not enough excess power" but "insufficient infrastructure" coupled with "insufficient government willpower to build a decent manufacturing base here".
- nelox 5y agoSun Cable is trying https://suncable.sg/ https://suncable.sg/
- robbiep 5y agoA good mate of mine runs 5B, the company that may end up deploying all the panels if it goes ahead. He’s a legend and if it happens throughly deserves the success. Would totally change australia!
- philipri 5y agoHydrogen is a possibility. Some serious investigation are underway. https://www.aemc.gov.au/hydrogen-new-australian-manufacturing-export-industry-and-implications-national-electricity-market https://www.aemc.gov.au/hydrogen-new-australian-manufacturin...
- hutzlibu 5y agoIt would be a good start, if australia would not burn so much coal anymore. Apart from that ... build energy intensive industry, anything with metal. And then if you still have a surpluss (very possible) export hydrogen or biofuel. Or build high voltage direct current power lines to asia.
- legulere 5y agoYou could use the electricity to make hydrogen, ammonia or aluminium and export that.
- jl6 5y agohttps://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-06-09/future-of-world-energy-lies-in-uhvdc-transmission-lines https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-06-09/future-of... Ultra high voltage DC ultra long distance submarine cables.
- belorn 5y agoAustralia biggest export is iron ore, followed by coal. If you have a lot of energy and iron, a great way to combine the two is steel. Sweden is currently experimenting with the idea of green steel, using hydrogen as an replacement for coal.
- throwawaysea 5y agoIt’s like any other exchange of electricity between grids, which already takes place within larger countries. You just need to run a cable to create an export grid. Offshore wind farms have to run high voltage marine cables to the shore, for example. It is laid using the same techniques as underwater communication cables - with specialized ships.
- grecy 5y agoIf the government would get out of the way, yes. Unfortunately we have a government that has so clearly been bought and paid for by the existing money. Our Prime Minister brought coal into Parliament and extolled it's virtues, going on and on about how it's the future. Right now they're building a $600M gas power plant[1], and Victoria is the only jurisdiction in the world where you are actively fined for driving an EV. [2] [1] https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/aug/23/solar-power-in-australia-outstrips-coal-fired-electricity-for-first-time https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/aug/23/solar... [2] https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-22/victoria-electric-vehicle-levy-road-users-opposed-by-industry/100086872 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-22/victoria-electric-veh...
- stirlo 5y ago> where you are actively fined for driving an EV. Hyperbolic statements like this are unhelpful; The government has implemented a distance based tax on EVs (road pricing) to offset losses from the existing fuel excise taxes. It's certainly not progressive but it is not and never has been a "fine"
- grecy 5y agoTaxes on undesirable behaviour are for all intents and purposes the same as fines. i.e. carbon taxes.
- rswail 5y agoYes, that is one form of taxation. But taxes for road use are to pay for the roads, ie consider them a "network usage" fee. Having it be distance based is because there is currently a petrol tax that is also distance based, because it is per litre of fuel. What should happen is that all vehicles should have the same distance based fee applied, with the additional cost of the CO2 output as a multiple. Make EVs the base fee.
- reitzensteinm 5y agoExactly. Or EVs could be taxed for road use, but a subsidy put in place to not discourage adoption during the transition. Oh, wait, that's exactly what Victoria has done: https://www.solar.vic.gov.au/zero-emissions-vehicle-subsidy https://www.solar.vic.gov.au/zero-emissions-vehicle-subsidy Personally, I'd keep the EV tax as is, remove the subsidy, and significantly increase the ICE tax. Cars are awful, and their negative externalities don't stop at CO2 emissions.
- foobar33333 5y agoYou might be interested in this solar project in Australia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sundrop_Farms https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sundrop_Farms This farm grows a huge amount of tomatoes in the desert. It has its own water desalination plant powered by solar. Unlike most of the stuff you see, this isn't PV solar generating electricity, but just a bunch of mirrors pointed at a single point to collect a huge amount of heat to generate fresh water. Just look at the land in the photo on wikipedia and imagine how much food could be produced in this space.
- marcus_holmes 5y agoI've always thought that the vast aquifer in the centre of Aus, plus abundant sunlight, should make for easy desalination and irrigation. Glad to see someone's working on it :) But they can chuck the leftover salt back into the ocean. That's harder to do away from the coast.
- nielsbot 5y agoCan't they just pile it up in a huge salt mountain?
- foobar33333 5y agoThe salt would leach in to the ground, killing any plant life in the area for a very very long time.