Poles and Wires

Wollondilly river at Rivendell

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.

Tags: Asian scientist, Australia, NSW Governmentt, Solar energy