Part 58 - Let the sun shine in.

 The war in the Ukraine and Rusian sanctions is creating power shortages and rising prices throughout the world for oil, gas and coal, not to mention food.

Here in Australia, at least on the east coast, gas prices are soaring and the fossil fuel power grid is on the verge of shutdown. Not that there is a shortage of power generation but the coal price for export is so high that they lose money by running the generators. 

Old technology is causing increasing breakdowns and many coal fired stations are bring forward their shutdown dates. 

Years of neglect of the screamingly obvious need to move to renewables by the previous federal government has left most of Australia in this position. Except for Western Australia.

The government here is running trials of community batteries to "smooth" the grid and we have the highest uptakes of solar and wind power in Australia. So much so that the state government has just announced the closing dates for the last two coal power stations.

Now, with the new federal government we have a commitment to reach climate change targets for real, not just by fudging the figures. They are also looking at a full renewables program, hopefully subsidising elecrtric vehicles as well.

So what's the point here? Well, it shows that sticking your head in the sand and hoping that technology won't change is a fools game. 

The biggest problem with having your head in the sand is that when things come back to bite you on the bum, you don't see them coming.