"It would basically be buying a lot of power when power prices are low"

New Zealand has NO SUCH surplus of low-cost power so Onslow would remain mostly empty.

Marc Daalder 🤡should stop spouting Earl Bardsley's🤡 nonsense.

scottishscientist.wordpress.com/2023/04/12/n...
#NZenergy #NZpol

Onslow is NOT a "real solution to our dry year issue" - +2GW of wind power IS.
Read my report and then you will know.

Dry years problem solved, more wind power, North Island pumped hydro – New Zealand 100% renewables without Onslow
scottishscientist.wordpress.com/2023/04/12/n...
#NZpol #NZenergy

Minister Chris Bishop is poorly advised to fast track such an unworkable project as Onslow.

This may be an attempt to embezzle public funds from the Reserve Bank because the private sector will not invest in the Onslow scam.
scottishscientist.wordpress.com/2023/04/12/n...
#NZpol #NZenergy

Fair enough to expect apologies for cancelling wise windfarm and solar initiatives - but no-one should apologise for correctly cancelling the Lake Onslow battery folly.
scottishscientist.wordpress.com/2023/04/12/n...
#NZpol #NZenergy

How to convert old coal-fired power stations for the transition to renewable energy Options to convert coal-fired power station generating units for renewable energy operation – biomass back-up power hot-salt thermal energy storage and regeneration rotational inertia grid st…

Molten salt energy storage is utilised for big solar thermal power stations with lots of mirrors - not sure if that's what Ezra has in mind - but I would recommend saving molten salt for use as an energy storage upgrade for Huntly.
scottishscientist.wordpress.com/2022/04/27/o...
#NZenergy #NZpol

My plan for #RE100 #NZenergy suggests increasing solar power❌9️⃣ and wind power❌3️⃣, advocating for both - but just cutting red tape for solar & batteries while saving the #NZpol Govt. subsidies for +2,400MW wind & 3GW/30GWh North Island pumped hydro.
scottishscientist.wordpress.com/2023/04/12/n...

The "other renewable options" are so much better than the folly of Lake Onslow.

Dry years problem solved, more wind power, North Island pumped hydro – New Zealand 100% renewables without Onslow
scottishscientist.wordpress.com/2023/04/12/n...
#NZpol #NZenergy

"a private consortium has applied for a fast-track consent to revive the scrapped pumped-hydro project at Lake Onslow"

That dinosaur - Onslowsaurus🦕 - cannot be revived other than as a scam to embezzle the Reserve Bank of NZ.
scottishscientist.wordpress.com/2023/04/12/n...
#NZpol #NZenergy

🤡Bardsley's Onslowsaurus 🦕🆚NZ's real pumped hydro needs.🤓

ISLAND South🦕🆚North✅
ENERGY STORED 5,000GWh🦕🆚<50GWh✅
STORAGE TIME inter-year🦕🆚intra-week✅
POWER 1GW🦕🆚up to 3GW✅
COST $16 billion🦕🆚a few $ billion?✅

#NZpol #NZpolitics #NZenergy

New Zealand’s Battery Project: Onslow pumped hydro is too big, too expensive and too stupid Dry years problem solved, more wind power, North Island pumped hydro – New Zealand 100% renewables without Onslow New Zealand exports hydroelectric power from the South Island to the North Is…

"Pumped Hydro Holdings Limited" screams CONFLICT OF INTEREST for acting Reserve Bank chair Rodger Finlay - SACK HIM!
Private sector won't invest in Onslowsaurus.🦕
Beware underwriting with Reserve Bank cash of doomed scheme.
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Energy Minister Simon Watts said New Zealand needed more reliable backup supply for dry years when hydro and wind could not meet demand. Yet the first thing they did was scrap the Lake Oslo project, which would have stored energy to fill gaps in supply during dry spells. #NZpol #NZenergy

Simeon Brown appointed prominent oil and gas lobbyist to energy savings board against official advice A top government minister personally added a fossil fuel lobbyist to the shortlist of candidates to help govern the country's main energy-saving agency.

Carnegie called EECA doing its job as "state-subsidised demand destruction (of fossil fuels)". That's however the whole point of the agency, to promote cheaper and cleaner renewable energy. Utterly ridiculous.
#nzpol #nzenergy
www.rnz.co.nz/news/environ...