Hi Rosie! Can you please do a video on how synchronous condensers and grid forming inverters work?

@ARepublicIfYouCanKeepIt

7 ай бұрын

A breakdown of grid-forming vs. grid-following might also be useful.

@Pottery4Life

7 ай бұрын

Yes. As we transition to a new, modern grid, this will be very important to understand. @@ARepublicIfYouCanKeepIt

@BillMSmith

7 ай бұрын

Yes, let me second this. Digging into the technology so that more people are familiar with it will help them accept it as practical.

@elephantintheroom5678

7 ай бұрын

@@BillMSmith Very true!

@therookienomore88

7 ай бұрын

I have no idea what this is, so yes it would be an informing video!

Great video, Rosie. Like reading a short version of an engineering report. Just a minor correction/update: Denmark now also has a 700 MW interconnector to The Netherlands, and the Viking Link interconnector to the UK is coming online at the end of 2023.

One small correction. Denmark is interconnected with Germany, Sweden, Norway as said in the video AND the Netherlands!

@adon8672

7 ай бұрын

Thanks for the info. This is more of an addition than a correction though.

@alanhat5252

7 ай бұрын

there's new interconnectors every time you look around Europe.

@tcroft2165

7 ай бұрын

And the UK. Technicality its normal operation from the end of this year but testing has already completed.

@hendrikbijloo

7 ай бұрын

@@alanhat5252 this one is not really new, started operations 2019 🙂

@hendrikbijloo

7 ай бұрын

@@adon8672 well, what I heard was ”there are three interconnections in operation” and the correct info is four interconnections! Additional info would be ”and a fifth will come on line soon between Denmark and Great Britain” 🙂

We were recently able to install a large solar/battery system on the south coast of SA. I wasn't sure how good it would be, but now I find we use next to no grid energy, while exporting about 80% of the power the panels generate. All this and no risk of a blackout. 😊

@Cant_prove_god

7 ай бұрын

Now you need to buy an EV….free fuel!

@Ian-qe5ch

7 ай бұрын

How large is large? Also, what brand did you go with? Ta

@martythemartian99

7 ай бұрын

@@Cant_prove_god On one hand I would love an EV, but on the other hand they are still difficult to get in Australia, and we don't drive much. If I buy an EV now, there would be one less for people who do a lot of driving. Hope they will be more common soon.

@martythemartian99

7 ай бұрын

@@Ian-qe5ch 32 Trina Vertex S 415w for a total of 13.25 kW, a Fronius Primo 10.0 GEN 24 inverter, and a BYD Battery Box HVM 22.08Kw. Organised through Solar Quotes. Hope this helps.

@Ian-qe5ch

7 ай бұрын

@@martythemartian99 Indeed it does, thanks Marty

Such a good channel, thanks for the great work and interesting insights Rosie

Rosie great video. It is very interesting what is happening in South Australia. A couple of points: South Australia's average demand is 1500 MW. Installed and working solar and wind capacity is already double this. This week, from Sun 15th to Mon 16th Oct, renewables did not supply enough energy to SA for 16 hours. During this time renewables supplied about 40% of power requirements. So I have a couple of comments: 1) Already there is a huge amount of redundancy and over-capitalisation in the system and it gets worse as the level of renewable supply goes up. As of today, a fossil fuel system that can supply almost 100% of SA needs to be maintained to ensure supply. The higher the level of renewable energy supply, the less times fossil or battery back up is needed, yet these systems need to be maintained to ensure supply. Hence the rising cost of electricity to consumers. 2) The hypocrisy of the supporters of renewable energy in failing to address the environmental and social issues caused by renewable energy is breath-taking. Turbines and Solar have about half the life of fossil fuel generating machinery. The disposal of turbines and solar panels is extremely problematical. In all the stories about the wonders of renewable energy, this is seldom referred to. Neither of course are the land clearing, erosion, bird and bat kills, extensive use of herbicides under solar panels, inadequate compensation and totalitarian land grabs by governments. The single-minded pursuit of introducing renewable energy is ignoring many other issues that have long term negative effects. These are seldom covered in any media. I know I will be pilloried for these comments, but some balance is needed. Love your work by the way. queries

@dougnixon5400

7 ай бұрын

Clearly we are in transition. The costs for renewables are continuing to drop massively, coal cannot compete when windy and sunny (a lot of the time in SA and Vic). Not sure if you have hung out near a coal fired power station lately or seen how long an open coal pit will burn in Vic should a bushfire pass over but the long term consequences are pretty clear.

@dzcav3

7 ай бұрын

Finally someone asking the right questions. And we get crickets for answers.

@johnmeeks7320

7 ай бұрын

Wombat, so convenient you ignore the CO2 emissions of fossils, plus the damage to health and the scars coal mining leaves on the landscape. Oh not to mention the 1000s of tonnes of coal ash dumped every day.

@BrentonSmythesfieldsaye

7 ай бұрын

@@dzcav3 No need to entertain nonsense. wombatsticki23's post deserves crickets. The post has all the classic silly contrarians narratives. Just for example, the contrived, hilarious and shallow concern expressed for "bird and bat kills". The highest bird mortality, for example, is caused by buildings. Renewable energy system installations languish near the bottom of the list, relatively hardly registering. But I don't hear our very concerned (cough cough) wombatsticki23 complaining about buildings killing birds. I am just so over the level of wilful ignorance and dumb that is willingly on display in such posts.

@stephanemandelert4321

7 ай бұрын

And you on your side glossed over all the environmental cost of sending hundred of billions of CO2 in the atmosphere. For centuries…

For me living in SA during the 2016 blackout was a turning point to prepare for off-grid living in suburbia. Recently came the Covid hard lock downs and I was more prepared than I would have been!

I'm from Denmark - the home of modern wind mills. I'm puzzled that when discussing the use of renewable wind technology there seems to be a lot of opposition coming from especially Americans claiming that modern windmills are not economically sustainable, kills birds, and spreads wing micro plastics, etc. In Denmark we have a long history of putting up windmills and in recent years, mostly big sea windmills, and as far as I know modern windmills have a lifespan of 20+ years but pays itself in about 6-12 months so it is a good investment. Rosie, it would be great with a video on windmill sustainability addressing these points.

@stephenbrickwood1602

7 ай бұрын

Yes that would be interesting.

@timtruett5184

7 ай бұрын

The easy explanation is that roughly half of Americans are crazy. A slightly better explanation is that America has a large fossil fuel industry, and vested interests have engaged in a relentless public relations and propaganda campaign against renewable energy. In favor of renewable energy in America is the fact that it's attractive from the point of view of cost, and most Americans want it.

@chired6851

7 ай бұрын

wind turbines

@davestagner

7 ай бұрын

The problem is, a video here is preaching to the choir. American resistance to wind is coming from two quarters… an alliance of right wing media and fossil industry propaganda, and a 20th century environmentalism model grounded in opposing EVERYTHING. The propaganda side skillfully dresses itself in the language of the environmentalists - “OMG wind turbines kill birds!”, “What about child slave labor mining cobalt for the batteries?”, etc. They’re also adept at formenting local NIMBY resistance using shell groups that work for the fossil industry, which provide money, organization, and misinformation to conservative-leaning locals. It doesn’t take a lot of angry activists to flood a zoning meeting or whatever. I try to be positive about it. The economics of renewables are so powerful that fossil fuel is fighting just to survive, and every day more people understand the importance of getting off fossil fuel - and more angry reactionaries die of old age.

@DSAK55

7 ай бұрын

The problem is 46.8% of Americans have shit for brains.

Thanks, Rosie. These have been a great sequence of explainer and documentary videos. I love them.

Very cool indeed. It's great to see that it's progressed so far somewhere.

Great video! I am a proud South Australian who got roof top solar waaaay back in 2008. It cost a bloody fortune but I haven't had an electricity bill since! Since then I've ripped out my gas hot water and installed a solar evacuated tube hot water system. Then I dumped my gas furnace and replaced that with a ducted reverse cycle air conditioning unit. I still have a tiny gas bill as we have yet to replace our gas stove and oven. I can't wait to get a Tesla power wall and Model 3 one day! It can be done!

@Romerso1

7 ай бұрын

Stop it, Stop using oil and gas. I am not there yet, but I have the same plan as you.

@Koro2810

7 ай бұрын

Kudos to u bro

@alanhat5252

7 ай бұрын

Gas is slowly converting to biogas which does dump CO₂ into the air but it's recycled CO₂ not new CO₂ To my mind domestic cooking with biogas isn't a major issue.

@dzcav3

7 ай бұрын

As long as cost and economics don't matter, almost anything is possible. Most people care more about those two items.

@passdasalt

7 ай бұрын

ROI counts and that's why it makes sense. Anyone who can afford the initial outlay would have to be brain dead not to get solar panels at a minimum. As for the solar hot water and heat pump, it will take a few years to pay off, but I am willing to push for the greater good. I have to say, I really don't mind the lack of power bills in the meantime. I think we all should do what we can, even if it's only recycling your cans and bottles. @@dzcav3

I lived through the Black-outs in Outback South Australia. We now have the most robust energy delivery system thanks in part to the Hornsdale Battery and Sheep loads of wind. Awesome video.

@dzcav3

7 ай бұрын

How do your electricity rates compare to 2007, before widespread wind and solar?

@joshs470

7 ай бұрын

And the most expensive power in Australia which is amplifying and reinforcing social inequality

@Drew_TheRoadLessTraveled

7 ай бұрын

I do Agree. We pay more /Kw than almost anywhere in the world.@@joshs470

@Robert-cu9bm

6 ай бұрын

​@@dzcav3 Unaffordable now.

A first time viewer from the US. With a relatively new rooftop solar here in New Jersey, a EE degree, and an interest in EVs your channels sounds like fun.

@alanhat5252

7 ай бұрын

they definitely are fun, reliable information too.

@sjsomething4936

7 ай бұрын

Agree with Alan Hat, this channel is very straight up, fact-based and great content with a creator who knows her subject matter well. Won’t disappoint!

Thank you for this Rosie. Canada needs to be paying attention to Engineering with Rosie.

@sjsomething4936

7 ай бұрын

Agreed! Despite our relative wealth, we’re not doing well enough in adopting renewables. I realize it’s tough going to 100% renewables in northern areas with little sunshine during the winter and a very hostile climate, but wind turbines are definitely capable of surviving in these areas, albeit probably a shortened lifespan. Another part of the issue is a lot of wasted energy, not using modern construction and building technologies to minimize heat loss in homes and inefficient machinery etc. I’m always on the fence about govt subsidies for improving efficiency since that’s really just coming out of our own pockets anyways, but probably it’s worthwhile since the cost of borrowing by the govt is lower than for individuals, so overall it nets out to be a lower cost that way, other than perhaps the cost of paying the bureaucracy to manage the program. Mea culpa, I’m guilty of being a part of the problem in my 110 year old house which definitely needs new insulation, improved windows etc and I’m planning on starting the upgrades next spring. Toronto has a pretty cool tech they’ve been using for several years now at least, which is storing compressed air in a bladder underwater in Lake Ontario. It gets filled overnight when electricity costs are low and discharges during the day and evening when electricity rates and demand are high. It’s not powered by renewable energy sources necessarily, but it’s a very interesting storage method that could potentially work in any deep enough lake (Lake Winnipeg perhaps?). Not sure how it’d survive in the saltwater of the Pacific or Atlantic oceans but it’d be good for the local governments there to investigate.

@dennisenright9347

7 ай бұрын

What are you talking about? Canada is tremendously successful with renewable energy. BC, Manitoba, and Quebec are at more than 90 percent renewable, and even Ontario gets more electricity from renewables than from fossil fuels. And if you compare electricity bills in Montreal, Winnipeg, or Vancouver to those in Adelaide, it definitely seems that Canada uses a better renewable.

@sjsomething4936

7 ай бұрын

@@dennisenright9347 I’d love for this to be true, but I’m pretty sure it’s not. If you care to discuss further, provide facts with links that support your claims.

@bradkubota6968

7 ай бұрын

​@@sjsomething4936HE leaves out the part of running out of pristine river valleys to flood. Also includes the dreaded (by idiots) nuclear power that is the backbone of Ontario. Advocate for Nuclear or shut the hell up. Also leaves out. How do you do wind or solar in mostly cloudy dark mountainous British Columbia... well you cannot. BC buys back up hydro from ding ding ding COAL FIRED Montana utilities. Hydro project SITE C is very controversial and most likely will be the last mega dam. Storage costs as much as Nuclear, generates nothing. So build the nuclear.

Hi 👋 Rosie I stumbled on your channel last night and watched a couple of videos, very informative and explain things that people can understand in I simple way Keep up the good work and way to go South Australia

Great video, glad to have the opportunity to hear you talk.

You rippa! What an awesome, detailed technical video with no BS. Well done!

Thanks for the update from Adelaide. Wow, South Australia is leading the way!

@joshs470

7 ай бұрын

Yes, leading the way in the most expensive electricity in the country, wrecking businesses and pushing families into poverty.

Thank you for giving us the history of renewables in South Australia! I'll be using this in class.

Very interesting overview. It would be great to see recent LCOE cost numbers in Australia for these technologies. I waited to install solar + batteries at our house until the installation cost plummeted and the price of grid power shot up, and the ROI was clear. When batteries get cheap enough and time-of-use pricing gets savvy enough, no one will be willing to pay more for technology that pollutes more.

@adam872

7 ай бұрын

I was the same. When the cost of a 6.6kW solar install got down to about $6500 it made sense. The payback period was around 4-5 years. I priced a battery solution and it was north of $20k and not worth it at that time. It would have taken me close to 20 years to recoup the money, by which time the batteries would probably be knackered.

@alanhat5252

7 ай бұрын

@@adam872 which battery technologies did you look at? I expect all the vendors are pushing LiFePO₄ but lead-acid, flow & NiFe are also readily available. Lead-acid is cheap but 20 years is an unusually: long lifespan, they'll need automatic watering & discharge switched off really early to last that long. The next oldest is NiFe, they have a totally safe electrolyte (potash), they're rugged, reliable, almost indestructible (there's 90 year old packs around) & repairable if you can find a technician, but they're as big as lead-acid & they don't absorb all the supplied energy. Flow batteries are getting cheaper & they seem to be repairable so might last forever. You may have found others?

@markumbers5362

7 ай бұрын

I did similar. Installed a 6.5kw solar array but the battery price was not worth it. Instead I just installed a timer, for $200, so the hot water tank could only heat between 11am and 3 pm. Interestingly a Tesla power wall has a wholesale price of $12,900 but it only has $2000 of batteries in it, even with the high price of lithium. Prices for home batteries can come down a long, long way. As manufacturing scales up, more mines come on line and refining becomes more efficient battery prices will plummet.

@adam872

7 ай бұрын

@@markumbers5362I also think we need developments in battery technology. I'm not convinced that lithium ion is the long term answer in terms of energy density or cost.

@markumbers5362

7 ай бұрын

@@adam872 big advances going on everywhere

Great video Rosie. Western Australia is even more isolated than SA and has a larger grid. Any chance of a rundown on its progress? An yes, please do a video on grid forming vs. grid following inverters!

Cool! I'm super excited too. Great link to send to sceptics. Thanks a lot!

Really cool, South Australia is doing great! Interesting here in Sweden and Europe where we're basically phasing out fossil fuel electricity and nuclear is declincing since old reactors are torn down faster than new are being built, while we are increasing power demand for a sustainable transition in industry and transport.. Some regions have resources for hydro, wind, offshore wind, solar.. And a pretty good interconnected grid. May i ask for a renewable europe episode? :)

@robertchanrussell2010

7 ай бұрын

I'd ask for one for Canada too but there are a few provinces who won't hear anything of the sort. One actually has a moratorium on clean projects citing resident concerns. It should be noted this was never done for oil and gas projects, the moratorium that is.

@joshs470

7 ай бұрын

South Australia has the most expensive electricity in Australia

@EngineeringwithRosie

7 ай бұрын

I am probably going to be in Europe at Easter next year, so will definitely plan to do some Euro content while I'm there. I was thinking to do individual country videos (e.g. Germany's energy transition) but do you think an all-Europe one would be better?

a country 3x the size of Germany and 50x less population and a lot of sun and very little industry should be able to power itself with pv panels and windmills. But that cannot be considered a leading example. Next thing we will hear that some some villages in Africa are leading the green energy transition because they use biomass to cook the food and pv panels to recharge their flashlights and that they decarbonized their transportation by using walking and bikes.

@dzcav3

7 ай бұрын

Somebody always has to spoil the happy talk with reality.

Thank you, Rosie.

Can't wait for upcoming vehicle to grid video, so much potential to contribute to the solution!

Hi Rosie That was a fascinating & informative overview of the energy transition in South Australia - especially for me as a Brit. Thank you. 👏👏

Hi Rosie, There is soon to be installed in SA a 200MW solar thermal plant that runs at about 70% efficiency, and has 2 days thermal storage. Andrew.

Denmark has a really variable grid, sometimes exporting 2 GW (windy at night), sometimes importing 2 GW (no wind). Storage at scale would be really useful and an alternative to using Norway as a hydro-battery 🙂

@ValMartinIreland

6 ай бұрын

This is not true

@zapfanzapfan

6 ай бұрын

@@ValMartinIreland Ok, sometimes they import 3 GW.

Very good Rosie, many thanks!

Awesome video. Really important that the world has a working example to understand the challenges and to adapt to suit local conditions.

Great video Rosie on an interesting RE focussed region South Australia !

An informative and engaging report. Thanks

Hey Rosie just stumbled across your channel. Great content go SA!!

Thanks Rosie for this very positive video showing how SA is leading the way to the net zero future we need. I was surprised and heartened at just how quickly the transformation has occurred.

@joshs470

7 ай бұрын

Also leading the way on the most expensive electricity in Australia. Pat on the back - cause the wind and the sun are free, Ya know!

More of this! Awesome.

Very good presentation.Thanks for the update.

I had no idea how quickly and well SA has done this. It's pretty cool.

Love your positive upbeat attitude and of course the pertenant information.

Great to see. An eye opener!

Rosie, This is more than a little optimistic - yes it’s true that on some days renewables supply a large proportion of SA’s power, however continuous and reliable power requires interconnection to coal fired power from the Eastern States, supported by gas fired power maintained at 25-30% of the demand so as to be available should the wind / solar suddenly fail. Gas pipelines and gas power stations have increasing difficulty in generating sufficient revenue to stay in business, while excess renewable generation is either shed, or the producer pays others to absorb the excess (rather than earning revenue). A couple of years ago the combined solar and wind was forecast to provide much of the load, but mid morning the wind stopped and the interconnection tripped. Gas, battery and diesel were activated to prevent blackouts. The “big” battery discharged in 1 hour (earning $14700/MW) - while an infrequent event, such situations do occur, and support from conventional generation is required, and the public must ensure these earn suffieient revenue to be instantly available.

Excellent video! ❤🎉😊

It is hard to *predict* when conventional generation plants fail. We can largely predict when/how renewable sources produce power.

@tomr6955

6 ай бұрын

Nonsense

Great to see that South Australia is counting domestic solar in its total renewable generation. We generate most of our electricity from solar and batteries, but our only impact on the grid numbers is in reduced bills. Yet it would be a real positive motivator if people could see how much they are collectively contributing to generation.

@Robert-cu9bm

6 ай бұрын

Batteries don't generate electricity.

Thank you, Rosie. It is good to hear good news. Sheila Mink in New Mexico, USA

What a great video Rosie love the content would like to see you visit some of these new interconnectors!!

@EngineeringwithRosie

6 ай бұрын

I will try!

great report ❤

Perfect Summary!

Great video, and always nice to see a positive story in the green energy arena. Greetings from Iowa, where we also have a huge amount of wind power.

Great presentation. I was particularly interested in No 5 on system strength / inertia.

@ValMartinIreland

7 ай бұрын

Great false presentation. It is all false.

Hi from SA - thanks for a great presentation - clear, concise and informative.

@joshs470

7 ай бұрын

Most expensive electricity in Australia. Who actually benefits from these mega projects?

@oakfat5178

7 ай бұрын

@@joshs470 As far as I recall, it was only a week or so where it genuinely was most expensive in the world, I debated it a number of times on the ex-social media platform, and other than that there was an 18 month period where it was often the most expensive domestically. Murdoch SkyAfterDark and a large following went with "most expensive in the world" tag for years afterward. At the time when we mostly used gas, the shareholding of energy companies supplying SA was majority owned by entities in other countries, particularly Hong Kong. Although I could never manage to persuade Simon Holmes a Court of it, I still believe some of our disruptions other than the big 2016 one were because it harmed shareholder interests to keep SA's power on. [off-topic, personally I wish we could abandon the whole shareholder/company model as a now obsolete relic of the Middle Ages. However I have no suggestion what to replace it with. Everything at the bottom of Malsow's hierarchy should be supplied free via taxpayers.]

@joshs470

7 ай бұрын

@@oakfat5178 I didn't say it was the most expensive in the world. It is, however, the most expensive electricity in Australia. electricity generation in the NT is 70+ % gas and it is still cheaper there.

@oakfat5178

7 ай бұрын

@@joshs470 When #SkyAfterDark was making the claim, I checked and it was briefly the most expensive in the world. Please do a search for "AEMO Quarterly Energy Dynamics Q1 2023" and also check Q2,which should be in your search results. For each of those reports, see Figure 10 on page 12, comparing wholesale electricity prices. The reason SA had such high prices was tat we only had gas, and not enough renewable. The gas suppliers charged us extremely high prices. The more renewables SA has acquired, the more the price has dropped. If you want to defend your claim, please supply a source for it.

@joshs470

6 ай бұрын

@@oakfat5178 If you want to blame gas for the high prices look at the NT. 70% gas generation and electricity is significantly cheaper there.

South Australia now has Australia’s most expensive retail electricity price. It is a massive 45c/kWh and it’s nearly the highest in the industrialised world. It is 50% higher than Victoria whose electricity is 30c/kWh and mainly generated by brown coal. Germany and Denmark have the highest electricity prices in Europe and the highest percentage of wind and solar. Chinese electricity cost is about 12c/kWh and is mostly generated by black coal and they commission a new coal generator every 2 weeks.

@jensageholm8774

7 ай бұрын

Danish retail electricity price is correctly the highest in Europe, but that is due to taxation, which is a political choice. The wholesale price is average for Europe. Furthermore the Danish grid has one of the highest availabilities in the world which also is worth something.

@dzcav3

7 ай бұрын

Thanks for injecting reality into this fantasy world.

@Volthrax

7 ай бұрын

@@jensageholm8774 From the internet The average price of electricity in Denmark, in June of 2023, has been 0.3811€ per kilowatt hour. Electricity price has decreased € 0.206 kWh, 35.09% since the previous semester. Meanwhile, the average price of electricity without taxes in Denmark in that period was € 0.2976 per kilowatt hour, So Danish electricity cost before tax is 0.2975 euros which is 50c Australian which proves my point.

@annpeerkat2020

7 ай бұрын

And climate change is fiction (if you don't live on the seafront), china is a famous tourist destination for folks to come and marvel at the air quality, the earth is flat.... got anything else to share sherbet?

@jensageholm8774

7 ай бұрын

@@Volthrax I paid €0.1 per kWh in June for the raw electricity on a variable rate plan (€0.16 when including transmission tarifs). What is your source? - maybe some fixed rate plans are included or something.

This is a fantastic video

I wish the US would better approach renewables like South Australia has. Good video!

I would suggest that you could do an interesting video about the grid inverter technology. That is, what is the hardware like and how do they all stay in synch? Thanks for yet another great video.

Best "batteries", which can help not only in Dunkelflaute but in any time, are Uranium tablets or Thorium salts, few kilograms of which provide GW of power and TWh of energy for more than a year.

Very excited for SA and all of Australia in your energy transition journey. Had read of the large batteries Tesla installed a few years ago. Visiting (from US) 3 families in QLD May-June 2024 for 3 weeks + 2 weeks elsewhere. Looking forward to hearing their experience w/ roof solar panel systems & other developments. Don’t believe they have home batteries so far. One owns a building automation business.

Excellent summary of how it can be done by South Australia. An example that all countries look at

Hi Rosie, thanks for the effort you put into your videos. I would however temper your commentary on the push to 100% renewables on our grids in the absence of flexible baseload generation. The suggestion that South Australia can operate without the support of flexible open cycle gas turbines isn’t supported by the SA generation profile - in any given week there’s always at least one period where renewables contribute circa 5% or less. As engineers we have a duty to encourage the transition, but in a way that is financially responsible and realistic. These concerns being increasing raised within the electricity industry and are ignored at our peril. Cheers.

Great video, very interesting

Great video once again. Roof top solar video in Australia would be great.

Thank-you Rosie. You're a great teacher!

These videos are so great! South Australia is definitely doing amazing things and despite recent federal politics there is a lot going on in Australia

Good video, thanks!

Thanks for the nice video.

SA has the advantage of reliable sun every day. So you only need storage for the night. Seasonal storage is usually not your challenge. Northern Europe is has a long winter period with little sun, and sometimes also a week of little wind. Also solvable, but a bit more complex. Still: wonderful how motivating it is when SA can be an example .. even if you probably need to acknowledge it is the 'lowest fruit".

As a former South Aussie who grew up during that time, your summary makes it sound easy. South Australia has Tmostly supported renewables, with solar incentives being around since at least the 90's from what I remember. The political arguments that occurred were disasterous. From memory, it was the labor governments that pushed the renewables and the liberals just said it was a waste of money as alluded when the state wide blackout of 2016 (that was not fun). The libs changed their tune once the Hornsdale battery started making money amusingly...

The headline says “can you run a grid on wind and solar. South Australia shows us how”. But they haven’t and no industrialised country on the planet ever has. The drive for wind and solar has made South Australian electricity the most expensive in Australia and now us nearly quadruple China’s electricity price which is mainly generated by coal. In addition the grid is becoming extremely unstable because of the inherent instability of wind and solar and so it’s cost around $1 billion for the batteries and syncons required to stabilise it. In addition annual FCAS costs are now $80 million and will climb as more wind and solar added. The afternoon “”duck curve” is causing havoc as huge amounts of solar stop gas generators from operating but when the sun goes down it’s chaos as, if there’s no wind expensive OC gas turbines are fired up. As they become less used, they have to Jack their prices up significantly to stay viable. Last year the SA productivity commission warned that this is creating a serious over supply problem where on a sunny windy day, huge amounts of junk electricity will have to be curtailed. Etc etc

Excellent video thank you

All in all great video

Denmark here; Norway's water are our battery ;-) We have several connections to Norway (2), Sweden (3) and Germany (3). For some years also a connection to Holland (1) and come January the connection to England will be ready for use.

What you missed? How much did this cost? Overturn the silly Nuclear Ban and this would be much easier!

Thanks for your video. We always have a heap of videos about the rest of the world, its great to have one done on Australia. I'm in NSW and had no idea how much better SA has done with the clean energy transition. We are cretins by comparison

i used to sleep really well between the synchronous condensers at the McGill substation in the '60's.

Hi Rosie. Very well produced video; well sourced, factual and up to date ongoing feats currently in progress. I was concerned about the title, i.e. '100%', but at least we are getting bigger results from steps taken thus far. Grid powered EV charging, ponding, the fact that the southern districts hit maximum from roof top injection and moved to encourage home Storage are some of the growing problems or 'teething' issues associated could be a deeper dive. but I haven't watched all of your content as yet. Fixing that now! Dom

great work Rosie , I wish south Europe would be a little more courageous,thanks for inspiring us😊

@Eubonian

7 ай бұрын

Look at the details.

You need more great examples like this.

Proud to live in South Australia now that I watched this

@joshs470

7 ай бұрын

The most expensive electricity in the country, businesses forced to close or put prices up, second highest rate of poverty Australia. What's to be proud of? Other than the quasi-religious symbolism associated with wind and solar.

The power distribution in & around Adelaide are installing pole mounted batteries, neighborhood ground mounted batteries. The idea is build distributed batteries to reduce strain on the grid.

Good video

Denmark also connects at 1400 MegaWatt to England in early 2024. South Australia can't connect to Western Australia or Queensland any time soon, they are too far. That makes SA's efforts more impressive.

@tcroft2165

7 ай бұрын

Viking link should be v late 23 its finished testing and installation now

Big respect Australia! 👋👋👋

Hi Rosie, I really enjoy your videos and reminds me on some of the concepts i have forgotten and others you have enhanced my knowledge. Please do a video og the South Australia's "Job Plan Project", where the governments is usings spilt PV enerery to produce inexpensive hydrogen, then storing it for generation for peak shaving.

Hey Rosie, I would be very interested in the cost-benefit of connecting WA with the rest of the national grid, especially due to spreading the “duck curve” and associated solar challenges over a longer time frame! Would love to see this in a video some time

@theharper1

6 ай бұрын

How would you connect with low transmission losses over that huge distance? Most of the power would be lost in the wires.

@tobyheislers8924

6 ай бұрын

@@theharper1 exactly the type of question I’d like to hear the answer to! My mind goes to HVDC but I have almost zero knowledge on this topic.

@theharper1

6 ай бұрын

@@tobyheislers8924 I read that China was installing at least one HVDC line to carry solar power from the sunny inland to the populated coast. I'm just not sure that there will ever be the cost recovery to justify building an HVDC line from Adelaide to Kalgoorlie or where ever the closest point of the WA grid might be. Still, investments like that are where Governments are supposed to step in.

@Robert-cu9bm

6 ай бұрын

So steal WA sun for the benefit of the east coast.

@theharper1

6 ай бұрын

@@Robert-cu9bm I think it's called selling resources. Like all the gas that goes to Japan.

Amazing

Yes, you did omit some things from your video -- THE TWO MOST IMPORTANT THINGS, COST AND RELIABILITY. 1. How do you electric rates compare now versus 2007? 2. How does electrical reliability compare now versus 2007? How could you NOT cover the two most important factors of electrical supply?

@TheUweRoss

7 ай бұрын

Come on, man! Low-carbon virtue-signalling is far more important that cost and reliability!

Great video thank you for creating it. Could you make a video on how NSW can/should plan their clean energy grid?

@EngineeringwithRosie

7 ай бұрын

Great suggestion!

Super clear, straightforward facts. Exactly what is in short supply among policy makers responsible for government energy choices around the world.

Very good presentation. How lucky South Australians are to be just 2 million in such a large space. Living in the cramped South East of England I am seriously jealous!

@idjles

7 ай бұрын

And when they have too much electricity in South Australia and the price goes negative they desalinate seawater with it at Lonsdale.

@BatMan-oe2gh

7 ай бұрын

Hahahah, Australia is 7,682,300 km2 in size with 26 million people. The United Kingdom is 242,495 km2 with 67 million people. I can understand why you feel so cramped.

@alanhat5252

7 ай бұрын

@@BatMan-oe2gh it still beats 363km² to hold 2.2 million people though (soon to be half the area though with a few 100,000 dead).

@Robert-cu9bm

6 ай бұрын

​@@BatMan-oe2gh The majority of Australia isn't usable.

@BatMan-oe2gh

6 ай бұрын

@@Robert-cu9bm Lots of people live in the outback and the land is usable. Just have to know how to use it.

Hello from Canada Rosie! One way South Australia might be able to get rid of those gas plants a little bit faster is with the more modern Geothermal. I know you said that traditional geothermal is a no go, but this new process changes that dramatically. There is a company in the US called Fervo Energy, who use this new method of geothermal. I think even one of their plants would really help stabilize the SA grid. Otherwise this is a great video and it's really nice to see just what is possible in so short a time.

@BatMan-oe2gh

7 ай бұрын

I am a West Australian, and unfortunately there is not geothermal pretty much anywhere in Australia. Our Volcanos died out a long time ago. Geothermal is basically a no go here. But what has slowed Australia down is Conservative Govts and Conservative people denying Climate Change and actually attacking renewables. As Rosie said, when SA was hit by a massive storm and destroyed the transmission lines, al, the Federal Govt Conservative politicians actually blamed the renewables for the power blackouts. Same as the Republicans blamed renewables for the power issues in Texas a couple of years ago. In Australia we tend to have more right wing govts over the years n Federal and State and they always fight against renewables and push fossil fuels. We had a Conservative Federal Govt for 9 years until 2022, and nothing was done on Climate Change. Nothing at all. Cheers

@alanhat5252

7 ай бұрын

@@BatMan-oe2gh keep an eye on the technology, there's a new rock vapourizing laser that might well drill deep enough for traditional deep-well liquid-vapourizing geothermal but there's definitely shallow-well solar-heated geothermal like they use for heat pumps. Everything's changing so fast at the moment you can't rule _anything_ out for long.

@BatMan-oe2gh

7 ай бұрын

@@alanhat5252 I don't rule out much, but it has been looked at here. According to the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), there are three main challenges that make geothermal power not financially viable in Australia. 1: Finding it: Identifying suitable geothermal resources. 2. Flowing it: Producing hot fluid from the geothermal reservoirs at a high rate. 3. Financing it: Overcoming the significant up-front capital costs associated with enhanced geothermal system technologies and the cost of transmitting electricity from remote locations. Exploratory geothermal wells have been drilled to test for the presence of high temperature geothermal reservoir rocks, but all these projects have since been abandoned. A small geothermal plant in Queensland experienced problems during commissioning and as of May 2022, remains idle. Geodynamics Cooper Basin Demonstration Plant in South Australia was built by Geodynamics to assess the potential of hot-rock geothermal energy for zero-emission, base-load power. The 1 MWe Habanero pilot plant operated for 160 days in 2013 and prior to closure of the trial, the plant was operating at 19kg/s and 215 degrees Celsius production well head temperature. However, the project was abandoned after being assessed as uneconomic due to a combination of the cost of commercialising generation and the remoteness of the site. Cheers.

@GoCoyote

7 ай бұрын

Electrician here in the power industry: While possibly viable, Fervo Energy has an unproven technology with unknown long term costs. And being a thermo electric power system, something they fail to mention is that geothermal power still requires a lot of fresh water to operate, and for injecting into the boreholes to extract the heat. Getting adequate supplies of water that is cold enough to operate at full power is a major issue for coal, gas, and nuclear fired thermo-electric power plants, and geothermal will be competing for those same sources of water. Most people do not know that thermo-electric power production is one of the largest consumers of fresh water in the US. One of the major advantages of wind and solar is that they do not consume water.

@jimthain8777

7 ай бұрын

@@GoCoyote Fervo use a close loop system. This means that unlike those others you mentioned they don't lose much/any water to evaporation. The hot water comes up in a closed pipe and warms another liquid that then runs their generator. It's an innovative way of dealing with some of the problems of traditional geothermal. That said it still uses water, but then again, what doesn't?

South Australia can think about pumped hydro as they can easily have an open loop with sea without any major impact on the environment. Additionally, off-shore wind can be ramped up to reduce the variability of renewables as winds flow more steadily over the oceans than land

Thanks

@EngineeringwithRosie

7 ай бұрын

Thank you!

Great video and a demonstration that your country is going 100% renewable despite being a very large exporter of fossil fuels. While Europe and other countries use pollution (that's killing us) and foreign energy dependence to motivate our transition. You demonstrate that cost reduction in its self motivates (finances) the transition.

@PinataOblongata

7 ай бұрын

If projects like the "Sun Cable" went ahead, we could even be exporting our abundant renewable resources to SE Asian neighbours. This is my hope for an export transition.

There are so many naysayers here in the UK claiming that a near 100% renewable grid is, if not impossibly, then extremely expensive. I've saved the video so I can put this uplifting example infront of the denier types when the opportunity arises. Thanks!

@TheUweRoss

7 ай бұрын

Notice she didn't mention how much a kWh of electricity costs in South Australia.

@petewright4640

7 ай бұрын

@@TheUweRoss Do you know how much?

@joshs470

7 ай бұрын

She’s a puppet for the green profiteers. You only heard the ‘rosie’ side of the argument. SA has the most expensive electricity in the country which is amplifying and reinforcing social inequality and forcing businesses to either close or charge exorbitant prices

Love and greetings from Guyana.

Great video. Having grown up in Adelaide, but living in Canada i have to nitpick Rosie calling Adelaide a 'small city'. 1.3 million makes it bigger or similar size as many Canadian cities and US cities. But heh, fantastic stuff the quick transition to over 70% and higher renewable electricity. The province where i live, Manitoba, is largely powered by hydro.

Great video (I'm a biased south aussie). Would be interested to see some details on how the Hornsby battery made lots of $$ selling power on the peak short term energy market.

@wombatsticki23

7 ай бұрын

There is a very important point here not oftern covered or understood. First we need to understand the flow of money. Sure the battery makes money when renewable power is low, the corollary of that is someone is paying a high price to keep the lights on. And sure, sunlight and wind is free so the fuel costs to the operators is low; Capital and distribution costs are high, as will be still incalculable and unknown disposal costs. In contrast to the low fuel cost, the reliability cost is very high for two reasons.1) South Australia currently has 2 to 3 times the renewable energy generation capacity compared to what the grid requires and still only supplies 70%. So there is the cost of large amounts of the equipment only being used some of the time. The batteries make lots of money for a short period, they quickly run out, but the companies of the not-producing equipment are accumulating large costs with no income. I am not sure what the supply contracts say, but I suspect in our eagerness to go renewable the consumer is covering all the cost of renewable operations, ensuring no multinational who installed the renewable equipment is losing money. 2) At this stage a non-renewable system capable of meeting all of SA's energy requirements needs to be maintained, so there is a complete system capable of powering the state operating at all times as the wind can drop in seconds and the machines must already be running to fill the gap. So in effect, South Australia has the 3 or more times the generating capacity that it requires. If your power bill is going up this would be part fo the reason

Kudos to u bro

70%!? That's inspiring!!!

Most of the capacity of SA batteries are contracted to supply FCAS services, which is grid stabilisation rather than storage. They are incredibly expensive and were never required before the advent of renewables. Batteries should be rated in MWh not MW as described in the video