[pasttense]

"The chances of the West Australian electricity grid becoming the first to fall victim to the so-called “death spiral” for utilities appears to have increased after it was revealed this week that the gap between the cost to generate, transmit and sell electricity and the charge to consumer has widened....
If the WA government was to lift the consumer price to reflect the actual cost of generation and delivery, this would put the retail price at close to 40c/kWh. That compares to around 15c/kWh for rooftop solar PV. The difference provides an awful lot of room for alternatives such as storage, and even micro-grids to fill the gap."
http://reneweconomy.com.au/2014/wa-grid ... iral-41428

[AndyA]

Have fun living in WA without an electric grid.
People seem to be cheering this like it is a good thing. Makes me laugh so hard. I've lived in Perth, and electricity is pretty important, if you want a coffee in the morning, or a shower at night, maybe some street lights, a train to take you to watch a game at subiaco oval, or maybe just a late night feed of mushy pea and ham soup. Lets do all that with battery power.

Still laughing.

[Timo]

Even in Oz, nothing is too big to fail. Small is beautiful. Even if the grid is used as an intermitent backup, testify! The BAU folks seem to demand that any discussion of alternatives is an all-or-nothing approach. This is total BS. Make coal the "alternative" energy source! We'll all be better off for it, even if we lose a few of our on-demand electric luxuries.

[AndyA]

Even in Oz, nothing is too big to fail. Small is beautiful. Even if the grid is used as an intermitent backup, testify! The BAU folks seem to demand that any discussion of alternatives is an all-or-nothing approach. This is total BS. Make coal the "alternative" energy source! We'll all be better off for it, even if we lose a few of our on-demand electric luxuries.

Good luck convincing people that they will be better off even if they lose those luxuries. The hype surrounding this issue reminds me of the peak oil hype 10 years ago. Every bad thing that happens is blamed on 'peak oil/PV' and touted as proof of an ideology. Though the reality as far as WA is concerned seems to be more about poor management. 40c/kwh is pretty expensive regardless of the price of PV. What was strange to me about the article is the use of a 'panel' as a unit of measure. That is just absurd, an attempt to get the biggest number possible without any scale or relative comparison. Just cheerleading to get the team thinking they are winning. It's pretty common though, generally the standard measure is 'capacity' which is also nonsense because it is not actual power production (usually 20% of capacity).

Meanwhile in the real world, frenzied accumulation continues apace, be it PV panels or TV's. CO2 pollution rates are up every year as near term thinking propels us closer to disaster.

[rollin]

So what is the cost per ton of coal from Aussie mines? Are they hit with high fuel costs or just not operating efficiently, giving them a high cost per kilowatt despite subsidies?
Another thing that was not mentioned was the relative percentage of utility power to solar powered electric. I always get suspicious of biased articles with little information.

[americandream]

Meanwhile in the real world, frenzied accumulation continues apace, be it PV panels or TV's. CO2 pollution rates are up every year as near term thinking propels us closer to disaster.