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Australia has the most expensive energy bills

macrobusiness.com.au

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Re: Australia has the most expensive energy bills

#151

Post by falsedan »

empressplay wrote: post #98
JonRB wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Australians in general are hesitant to use their AC or electric heaters Anecdotal, but I don't think I know a single person here who is hesitant to use heating/AC - could just be down to the people I know, but I get funny looks when I tell people just to wrap up. Something that did surprise me here is the near-complete lack of double glazing. Everywhere I've lived has been thin single-glazed windows which just let…

We only turn on the AC when it's above 35C and only turn on the heat when it gets below 12C (inside!)

You bloody legend

Re: Australia has the most expensive energy bills

#152

Post by belorn »

pjc50 wrote: post #146
bobabooey02 wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Masculinity is a spectrum, with extreme womanizers on one side and gender-fluid effeminate men on the other side. Where is toxic masculinity defined? Do you feel there should be checks on extreme feminism? If no, why not? Also, if your goal is diversity, that requires me to consider one's cultural background before discriminating against them. Why wouldn't you do the same for masculine guys?

I appreciate that this hill is one that HN is unwilling to climb, but: it's not an extremity , it's those behaviours which cause harm to others and in many cases men themselves (such as the set of behaviours whose consequences can lead to higher suicide rates among men). Specifically in the context of coal mining, while I appreciate that communities get built around it that doesn't mean it should be extended beyond w…

Higher suicide rates and higher risk seeking is tied to how people treat men as much (or more) than how men themselves behaves. Studies have tested medical professional have a default assumption that all men are strong and healthy and thus men are less likely to get treated for psychological health problems compared to women.

Similar, in dating statistics it is very clear that women will preferential choose well earning men over low earning men. This pushes men in general to take high risk high reward professions.

Unless you redefine masculinity to include how people perceive and treat men you can't define it to be the causes for higher suicide rates and higher risk seeking.

Re: Australia has the most expensive energy bills

#153

Post by falsedan »

GlennS wrote: post #138
zizee wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Australia is one of the top adopters of PV solar in the world. Granted, we are not yet at the level of Germany (500MW per million head), but we're doing ok at 250 MW per million head of population. Half the number of Germany might sound pretty poor, but it is twice that of the USA (125), Spain (118) and a a lot more than the UK (178). Last year saw overall production increase by 13% and there are a lot of big project…

Australia damn well ought to have more solar PV installed than the UK given that the UK is about 30 degrees further from the equator.

*20 (unless you're comparing Cairns to Wick)

Re: Australia has the most expensive energy bills

#154

Post by pjc50 »

bobabooey02 wrote: post #149
pjc50 wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I appreciate that this hill is one that HN is unwilling to climb, but: it's not an extremity , it's those behaviours which cause harm to others and in many cases men themselves (such as the set of behaviours whose consequences can lead to higher suicide rates among men). Specifically in the context of coal mining, while I appreciate that communities get built around it that doesn't mean it should be extended beyond w…

Macho status has nothing to do with it. It sounds like you've never lived in one of these small towns that revolve around a single industry. When that industry does poorly or goes away, entire families are damaged. Often times there aren't any other jobs in the area, and many cannot afford the changes required to move to a big city. Because of globalization and the loss of antitrust laws, this loss of economic stabil…

I haven't, but I know well what you mean and I'm sympathetic to how much a disaster it is when the company of a company town goes away. To the idea of not closing mines before their time. Opening mines or power stations in 2017 though? It's just a solution that creates more problems.

Re: Australia has the most expensive energy bills

#155

Post by pjc50 »

belorn wrote: post #152
pjc50 wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I appreciate that this hill is one that HN is unwilling to climb, but: it's not an extremity , it's those behaviours which cause harm to others and in many cases men themselves (such as the set of behaviours whose consequences can lead to higher suicide rates among men). Specifically in the context of coal mining, while I appreciate that communities get built around it that doesn't mean it should be extended beyond w…

Higher suicide rates and higher risk seeking is tied to how people treat men as much (or more) than how men themselves behaves. Studies have tested medical professional have a default assumption that all men are strong and healthy and thus men are less likely to get treated for psychological health problems compared to women. Similar, in dating statistics it is very clear that women will preferential choose well earn…

See the subject of "patriarchy hurts men too". (Not the phrase itself, but the whole discussion that is an index to)

Re: Australia has the most expensive energy bills

#156

Post by scardine »

On the other side, Paraguay is said to have one of the least expensive energy bills. According to a friend that moved a few bitcoin mining machines over the fence, Paraguay got free energy in exchange for letting Brazil build the Itaipu Dam on the Brazil/Paraguay border. This dam produces the same amount of energy as burning 434,000 galons of oil every day and supplies Paraguay with approximately 78% of its energy needs (Paraguay even sells some energy surplus back to Brazil).

Re: Australia has the most expensive energy bills

#157

Post by Jedd »

If you'd like a good insight into the mismanagement or corruption (interpretation is left to how gracious you're feeling on the day) have a read of The Monthly's article from a couple of years ago headlined "How network companies lined their pockets and drove electricity prices through the roof"

https://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2014/july/1404136800/jes...

For a country that generates so much wealth from digging stuff out of the ground and burning it (or selling it to other people to burn), the regrettable state of the nation could appear to the casual observer to be quite mysterious.

Re: Australia has the most expensive energy bills

#158

Post by [deleted] »

ptaipale wrote: post #99
gravelld wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What you describe is the rule in most Western countries. The only countries I know that have their shit together on this are Germany, Sweden and Ireland. The truth is that fixing these problems is going to be expensive. Governments are just kicking the can down the road because they don't want to be the ones that raise taxes to pay for it (fixing existing houses I mean). But it will have to be done. Maybe the biggest…

Requiring better insulation for new buildings is not really that much a thing where you need to raise taxes, because the cost of proper insulation is passed on to builders - and the end users pay that, but in turn they have lower heating/cooling costs. (FWIW, Sweden's neighbours like Norway, Finland and Denmark also have houses where it's warm inside in the winter without horrific leaks. And yes, Iceland, even if it…

[deleted]

Re: Australia has the most expensive energy bills

#159

Post by mikeash »

lazyjones wrote: post #127
ldp01 wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It does seem quite bizarre. The Finkel Report[1] sums up pretty well why coal isn't competitive. It can't keep up with the rapid changes in demand caused by existing intermittent generation. > "Rapid changes in power output from VRE generation need to be balanced with generation technology that has the ability to increase (ramp up) or decrease (ramp down) power output at the same time. Gas-fired generators have the a…

> The Finkel Report[1] sums up pretty well why coal isn't competitive. Apparently it does cool the atmosphere though, so it's good against global warming. https://wattsupwiththat.com/2015/05/26/the-role-of-sulfur-di... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_cooling

This is sarcasm, right?

In case it's not: particulates do indeed cool the Earth. This mitigates the warming effect of CO2 emissions to an extent. The problem is that particulates don't last very long in the atmosphere, whereas CO2 lasts centuries.

To maintain a constant level of cooling, you have to keep burning more coal, which steadily increases the atmospheric concentration of CO2, which steadily increases warming. Before long you'll have overcome the cooling effect entirely and will be on a steady path to increased warmth.

Re: Australia has the most expensive energy bills

#160

Post by vkou »

andy_ppp wrote: post #147
dagw wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does building a giga factory in your country lead to energy independence?

By having a means of producing batteries you'll be able to rely on renewables won't you? I thought that was the whole idea?

Unless you have very limited supply of lithium, you will not be energy-independent.

The real reason for it though is that, unlike what HN thinks, Tesla is also not the only company in the world capable of building a battery.

That, and batteries are a terrible solution to long and medium-term energy storage.

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