We were well treated to an excellent analysis of the most intertwined renewable energy market by Carl Daley, with his talk “Current status of renewable energies- the risks and issues”.
The scope of the risks and issues, from availability of both solar home and commercial, wind farms, together with the interplay of declining coal fired power, gas, and the politically fraught nuclear, were expertly analysed by Carl.
 President Mark Howlett, Peter Harries & Carl Daley |
We were absorbed by the interplay of the five-minute cycles of costing, from negative $1000 per MWH to $16,000 MWH, depending on the time of day…and that the cheapest time (ie negative), was mid-afternoon on a bright sunny, windy day. How anyone could make logical predictions of costing for future projects was demonstrated to be torturous…so much so, as Carl pointed out, that the funding for large new projects was becoming increasingly questionable. He said that one should expect zero funds from home solar installation contributions to the grid in the future.The issues of main power lines, of political interference, of NIMBY, of batteries and a myriad of other factors was leaving the audience aware of a very complex set of parameters. I am pleased that I am not in an earlier position of mine where I was responsible for brick plants highly exposed to the pricing of huge amounts of power!
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Thank you, Carl, we will leave such a complex and absorbing situation to you experts!!
Peter Harries