The allegory of Flinder’s Island
In 2008 US dollars, the Apollo program cost $98 billion, encompassed 17 missions and included six lunar landings. Nobody believes that successfully landing a man on the moon proved that colonising the moon was in any way socially, economic or technically viable. It...
read moreStorage, markets and blockchain
I recently attended a presentation of the proposed Cultana Pumped Hydro Project in the Spencer Gulf South Australia, using sea water. Specifications are 225 MW power, 1,770 MWh storage capacity. It is conceptually similar to the Japanese Okinawa project. The...
read moreThe future of mobility
Last year, I posted on the penetration of electric vehicles in Australia. After reading Benedict Evans excellent piece on Cars and Second Order Consequences, I thought an update was timely. Benedict explores the higher order consequences of a shift to EV’s and full...
read morePrice gouging in Victoria’s electricity retail market
The release of the Victorian Independent Review into the Electricity and Gas Markets is damning of retail margins in the electricity market. Most of the focus of the report is on price gouging but I think the bigger issue is the effect of economic reforms on the...
read morePathways to the Post-Carbon Economy
In June 2017, Nafeez Ahmed published an article 3 ways Clean Energy will make Big Oil extinct in 12 to 32 Years — without subsidies which illicited debate in the sustainability community. In response, Nafeez suggested a symposium titled Pathways to the Post-Carbon...
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