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This. What sux is that we have so much space and decent tech and engineering education, we should be a renewables leader, but instead we have 1950s American su

This. What sux is that we have so much space and decent tech and engineering education, we should be a renewables leader, but instead we have 1950s American suburban dystopia 2.0. I really think we could restructure industrial outcomes with Industry 4.0 style thinking along renewable lines, so that we can harness low cost energy in the periods where it makes sense. Aluminium smelting is a prime example. We have all these stupid sites like former open cut mines that are just begging for industrial uses, or space programs, or something else of forward-thinking potential. Not to mention oodles of flat land nobody wants to live on anyway. Unfortunately our federal government is AWOL on comm's, and the state and local government is even worse. Entrenched corruption and not my department is the order of the day. So many people see a degradation in social character, the new norm is 'me first' and 'who cares'. Our political system worked to defer change when post-WWII it didn't matter. Now reality is moving ahead and we're left with the rotting carcass of a social democracy where flesh-eating maggots (and I'm referring here to native politicians and business people especially, not well-meaning immigrants from less educated backgrounds who may not actually know another way) have already hatched and our public wealth is being carried out the door. It is a shame they tortured Assange so much, I had high hopes for his transparency applied to government. It's so sorely needed.

defrost 2y ago
A massive tender for wind and solar projects is to be launched next week to help repower Australia’s biggest aluminium smelter Tomago, near Newcastle, with its majority owner saying nuclear is out of the question because it is too slow and too expensive. The tender will be a landmark event for the Australian renewable energy transition, because the Tomalgo smelter – with annual demand of more than 8 terawatt hours, is the biggest single energy consumer in the country. ~ (Mar 13, 2024) https://reneweconomy.com.au/australias-biggest-smelter-to-launch-massive-wind-and-solar-tender-says-nuclear-too-costly/ https://reneweconomy.com.au/australias-biggest-smelter-to-la... Majority owner Rio Tinto this year has already announced two record-breaking contracts for wind and solar farms in Australia to provide power for its Boyne Island smelter in Gladstone, Queensland, and its two alumina refineries in the same port city. Those contracts included one for the first gigawatt scale solar project in Australia, the 1.1 GW Upper Calliope solar project in central Queensland, and the 1.4 GW Bungapan wind project to be developed by iron ore billionaire Andrew Forrest’s majority owned Windlab. > Unfortunately our federal government is AWOL on comm's, and the state and local government is even worse. They don't seem to be involved and it's not clear why they should be.

defrost 2y ago

A massive tender for wind and solar projects is to be launched next week to help repower Australia’s biggest aluminium smelter Tomago, near Newcastle, with its majority owner saying nuclear is out of the question because it is too slow and too expensive. The tender will be a landmark event for the Australian renewable energy transition, because the Tomalgo smelter – with annual demand of more than 8 terawatt hours, is the biggest single energy consumer in the country. ~ (Mar 13, 2024) https://reneweconomy.com.au/australias-biggest-smelter-to-launch-massive-wind-and-solar-tender-says-nuclear-too-costly/ https://reneweconomy.com.au/australias-biggest-smelter-to-la... Majority owner Rio Tinto this year has already announced two record-breaking contracts for wind and solar farms in Australia to provide power for its Boyne Island smelter in Gladstone, Queensland, and its two alumina refineries in the same port city. Those contracts included one for the first gigawatt scale solar project in Australia, the 1.1 GW Upper Calliope solar project in central Queensland, and the 1.4 GW Bungapan wind project to be developed by iron ore billionaire Andrew Forrest’s majority owned Windlab. > Unfortunately our federal government is AWOL on comm's, and the state and local government is even worse. They don't seem to be involved and it's not clear why they should be.