A Fool and Our Money Are Soon Parted

Recall Solyndra, eagerly pushed by President Obama at the time? One of many subsidised green schemes which bit the dust, this one taking US$570 million of taxpayers’ money with it. I couldn’t help thinking of it when Chris Bowen was announcing his new “Solar SunShot” program, which, reportedly, will oversee production subsidies and grants to increase Australia’s role in the global solar manufacturing supply chain. Gotta get in on that global supply chain.

Bowen’s aim is to boost the manufacture of solar panels in Australia. And he’s gifted his endeavour $1 billion of our money to get the ball rolling. In any event, it won’t be enough because China can produce panels much more cheaply than ever they can be produced here. Just to make sure that is the case Bowen will want our panels to be made using “the cheapest form of energy” which, unfortunately, turns out to be the dearest form of energy; namely, renewable energy. To boot, his ministerial colleague Tony Burke, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, is reducing flexibility in the labour market at the behest of his union mates. Not a happy prospect for any kind of manufacturing in Australia, never mind one that has no natural advantages.

Bowen’s announcement, with the Prime Minister and Damien Nicks, CEO of AGL, in tow, was made in the Hunter Valley. Coal country NSW where, to quote from Renew Economy, “AGL Energy has teamed up with local solar innovator SunDrive to explore the joint development of…solar manufacturing…” Apparently, this is just part of the activities AGL envisages on the sites where Liddell coal-fired power station once stood, churning out affordable and reliable power, and where Bayswater still stands, though scheduled for closure in the early 2030s.

Since the announcement of closure dates for Liddell and Bayswater, AGL has also been working with relevant business, government and educational institutions to identify new investment prospects … Extensive planning and consultation is progressing for redevelopment of the Liddell and Bayswater site into the Hunter Energy Hub … Construction is underway for a 500 MW/2GWh grid scale battery on the Liddell site, and a number of MOUs have been signed with potential project partners.

Said Mr Nicks: “Our vision for the Hunter Energy Hub is to create a low carbon integrated energy hub – designed with circular economy principles – that brings together industries that can make a positive contribution to the energy transition,”

I studied economics but am not sure what “circular economic principles” are. Must have missed that lecture. Do know that at full capacity Liddell generated 2 gigawatts of power each and every hour. It didn’t just store such power for a mere hour, a la backup big batteries, before panting for a refill. So what do we have so far in the Energy Hub? A subsidised solar-panel pipedream sitting aside a subsidised lithium-ion bauble.

And why is all of this and so, so much more insanity happening? Well, that is no great mystery. That’s what happens inside an asylum and that’s where we are. Best to watch again Greta berating world leaders, if you have any residual doubts that reason has long since departed the world stage.

It’s best also, if you belong to the remnant rump of the rational, to keep in mind that this all stems from a tenuous theory for which there is no convincing evidence that man-made CO2 is bringing the earth to imminent ruin. I’ve just watched Climate – The Movie. It’s worth a watch. The debunkers will be out in force, like RMIT-ABC fact checkers on steroids.

Take just one assertion in the movie. CO2 concentrations have been far higher than now in the distant past. A figure of up to 7000 parts per million was mentioned compared with about 420 ppm now. Is that right or nearly right or even half right? If it is, why didn’t global boiling stop evolution in its tracks; make the earth a fiery ball? Will the debunkers address that conundrum? Doubt it.

One non-scientific thing that comes out of the movie is that the game is lost. The sheer volume of reputations and dollars staked on global boiling means that no reversal of course is remotely possible. The big men (and women) are all in. Woe betide you if you don’t take the fall. If you let pride [or reason] mess with your mind, as Pulp Fiction‘s Marsellus Wallace tells Butch, in a different kind of movie altogether.