Stuffthatcounts

"Blackouts" seem to be the new black. SBS On Demand is running a couple of mini-series on them at the moment. There's a 2020 Belgian 10 episode piece simply called "Blackout" (which I haven't seen), and a 2021 German 6 episode creation, "Blackout: Tommorow is too late" (which I have), and then there's the current furore about the risks of the real thing in various Australian states; with our energy regulator recently briefly suspending normal market processes to direct genera

Once upon a time, a fat red-faced businessman called Bill Watts built a power station. It cost him a billion dollars and was soon generating electricity twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. Bill sold his electricity to the grid and was soon paying off his loan. Life was good, Bill's belly grew bigger and his face grew redder as he dined on the finest Wagyu beef. And then life changed. He started noticing strange shining structures on local roofs. First, it was just a

The Economist recently interviewed the German Europe and climate Minister, Anna Luhrmann, about Germany's will and capacity to wean itself off Russian energy. The interview occurred near where the now cancelled Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline hit German shores. This gas pipeline would have doubled the gas Germany could import from Russia. Nord Stream 1 already delivers 55 billion cubic metres of natural gas to Germany, Nord Stream 2 would have delivered another 55 billion cubic m

Claims that we can move to 100 percent renewable electricity are based on mathematical models; as is climate science. But you can test climate models. For example, you can run them backwards and see if they can produce past climates; they can. But what about models of electricity grids? How do you test those? What exactly is a grid model? Do you need to be a geek to understand them? Happily, you can get an intuitive understanding just by thinking about everyday problems. Pl