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by Retric 2031 days ago
They could use energy storage just fine. However, by on net exporting electricity they reduce the amount of fossil fuels Victoria uses so it’s a net win environmentally.

Nuclear has similar issues where baseload generation is inefficient when trying to cover shifting power demand. Thus small cities next to nuclear will import power even if they are a net exporter. In the end larger electricity grids are simply more efficient.
1 comments
LudwigNagasena 2031 days ago
What does any of this have to do with the fact that the title is incorrect?
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Retric 2031 days ago
The title is correct. They are also using another area as an efficient battery which is both environmentally and economically a net positive.
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LudwigNagasena 2030 days ago
Show me how all these numbers add up to 100%.
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Retric 2030 days ago
Production always exceeds consumption due to transmission losses.

So, simplified you can produce 120% export 15% and import 5%. That’s net export, and covering 100% of demand. That’s also how they can have a “200 per cent renewable target by 2040.”

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LudwigNagasena 2030 days ago
If I open Wikipedia what I see is "100% renewable energy refers to an energy system where all energy use is sourced from renewable energy sources." which is completely what I would expect from the definition of "100% renewable energy." What you are talking about seems like meaningless political wordplay.
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Retric 2030 days ago
Plenty of ways to define things.

Batteries for example aren’t actually renewable energy sources. So when a solar or wind powered off grid home uses batteries to store solar energy for later usage is that 100% renewable energy as long as the power is originally from sunlight?

It seems somewhat silly to say such homes are battery powered. The same terminology is used when homes skip the batteries and send power to the electric grid only to use that amount of power later. Sure, they could spend more resources building batteries, but that’s wasteful.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s easy to disagree with the common definitions. However, as long as the definitions used are common and describe the situation you can’t say they are lying.

PS: Fossil fuels are also from sunlight just like wind, so saying their not renewable is really talking about the ability to use them vastly faster than their created. Which fits the batteries / grid as renewable energy storage definition just fine.

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