Rising cost of power
In an article which I read recently there was a statement blaming Scott Morrison for the rising cost of power. The State Governments built and owned the power stations in the first place and then they sold them off. Some politicians are short sighted and can only see the immediate monetary gain of sale of the taxpayers assets. For instance, when the power stations were built, it was for a much smaller population, allowing for expansion.
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Some people and politicians both globally and in Australia are focused on climate change. They believe that the reduction of coal fired power stations will help delay global warming. The State Governments are trying to put into place reusable power such as wind and solar, which are a lot more expensive to build and maintain.
The State governments spend our taxes (not always wisely) and they do not seem to allocate enough money for alternative power sources on a large scale to alleviate this problem of not enough power for our growing population.
In Australia there are millions of solar panels on roofs and solar banks. I have searched the internet and found out that they have a life span of 20 years and some components only 10 years. After this time where do they get dumped? And who pays for the next batch of solar panels?
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The federal opposition and some of our State Governments are investigating the option of supplying large batteries at approximately $10,0000 per battery. They intend to recoup that cost from each house hold over 10 years. At the end of the 10 years will the people have paid more for power in dollars and environment?
Questions need to be asked such as: How long is the life of the battery? Where will they dispose of the batteries? How long will the batteries hold power? Will the Government put out tenders to build these batteries (This is of concern to me because of the fiasco caused by the Rudd government home insulation scheme where inexperienced and unauthorised installers caused death and destruction).
The Governments [also] seem to forget that there would be a power station needed for infrastructure for water pumps, sewerage plants, factories, train and tram services etc. Power stations need on-going capital for maintenance and upgrading. The Victorian Labour State government built a desalination water treatment plant in Wonthaggi at an initial cost of approximately $5.7 billion. It was opened in December 2012 at $1.8 million a day of on going maintenance costs. Not one litre of water has come out of it. But we still pay for the upkeep of something we do not use and if we do not use it we do not need it. The building of this plant was a kneejerk reaction by the Victorian Labour government at the time without thinking it through. The government should have spent a fraction of what they wasted on the desalination plant to build more water storages or stopping water evaporation.
The Federal Government has been given the task of trying to control the price of power in Australia, as most of the State Governments have sold the power stations and lost control of pricing. So how can you blame the Federal Government for the naivety of the states? Mis-leading information comes from the Labour Party. When I contacted them I was asked if I would like to have a copy of their electricity power policy and I am still waiting for it.
William Simmons, Huntly
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