Pumped Hydro Energy Storage across Australia, page-119

The battery quote comes from the CFO in his footnotes, his storage requirement is less than that in the 100% renewable scenario we are discussing but he did include some unquantified thermal capacity for backup which wasn't in this plan. The AGL presentation was quoted often on this forum, particularly the implied cost of new generation slide so I assumed this gave the presentation some credibilty. Also the Finkel report used and adapted the implied cost slide in its final report. True they didn't put the Sydney/Perth point. I think the storage requirement
in both scenarios is too small to get us through Winter.

Realistically we should be looking at all options for the future however we have a problem now so if we are addressing a current crisis only proven technologies should be considered to solve that problem. If the renewable plan and strategy is to prolong the life of old thermal generators then they should say so and if we are saying technologies are not ready but will get better then why not wait and concentrate on making what we have work.

A longer term plan/vision is different to addressing a crisis, combining the two means we will not do anything and history shows reacting to a crisis often wastes valuable time and resources.

Something for summer to consider as an alternative to Storage would be using the Desalination plants to increase and stabilise a higher demand and then reduce their production in peak times or when the wind stops. This would guarantee sufficient baseload is operational and we would save the water. Sure it may be expensive but that is what some of the windmill were built for.

Interesting times though, there are some good things happening, hopefully we can start making some of these technologies in Australia.