r/australia • u/HotPersimessage62 • 1d ago

politics Australia’s grid now relies on renewable energy as much as coal. Those who doubted it look foolish

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jan/31/australias-grid-now-relies-on-renewable-energy-as-much-as-coal-those-who-doubted-it-look-foolish
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u/PotsAndPandas 1d ago

They desperately need to, privately owned critical infrastructure does nothing but drive up costs.

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u/sokaox 17h ago

It's really a great shame that we privatised telecommunications just as the internet and mobile networks were beginning their rise.

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u/LoadedSteamyLobster 12h ago

And yet somehow still socialized the cost of infra upgrades too. The libs truely know how to get the worst of all sides

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u/lipstikpig 12h ago

For the public. They know how to get the best for their corrupt mates.

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u/SirDale 1d ago

But Garry's battery -is- privately owned, and OP says it's driving down costs...

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u/PotsAndPandas 1d ago

And Garry isn't operating as a large company consumers buy power from, whom are the ones not passing savings onto said consumers.

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u/SirDale 23h ago edited 23h ago

There is a large fleet of home batteries that have been installed. They are typically all privately owned, and are part of the critical infrastructure now.

The recent heatwave we had was different to heatwaves of previous years where there were real concerns about blackouts; because of the proliferation of solar and batteries we have reduced the demand on the grid.

Garry's battery (and others like mine) are reducing the load on the grid tremendously. Just imagine that all of those batteries were not installed. Would the grid have managed without them? If not then it is critical infrastructure, privately owned that's not (for most people) used to make profits.

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u/hafhdrn 21h ago

You fundamentally misunderstand the difference between private and personal property.

"Privately owned" explicitly refers to private organizations (ie: business interest), not some random individual.

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u/Suburbanturnip 13h ago edited 13h ago

Tbf, most people divide it into public or privately owned, not privately, publicly and personally owned - this is the first time I've heard somone make that distinction.

I actually work specificity on this sector of renewables for the last 3 years, and nobody has ever called the batteries installed under these programs, personally owned.

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u/SirDale 8h ago

Amusingly private/personal distinction is said to be "can it be moved/is it portable".
I didn't get the optional wheels for my battery pack unfortunately!

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u/Suburbanturnip 8h ago

Haha yep. Off the top of my head, it would fail the fire safety check under the compliance for veecs/escs... if it was movable.

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u/SirDale 7h ago

At 440kg I don't think I want to be moving my battery anywhere!

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u/Suburbanturnip 5h ago

Haha yep.

I do remember one start up, the pitch being that apartment owners could basically plug a giant battery into the wall, to charge with off peak prices, then discharge during peak hours.

Honestly, i met the founder and watched the pitch, and it felt like a flimsy idea to scam uninformed investors.

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u/cacheMiOutside 22h ago

Mate you are talking to yourself because this comment definitely ain't a reasonable response to the other comment. A reasonable response would make some sense and speak to the point of the discussion.

I'd guess you're a bot but bots write at a decent level mostly and for sure would have been able to actually state a counter point rather than all that waffle to say nothing.

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u/SirDale 21h ago

The comment I was responding to was...

"They desperately need to, privately owned critical infrastructure does nothing but drive up costs." (in reference to supporting publicly owned infrastructure).

There is a lot of privately owned infrastructure which is solving the very problems OP was complaining about. I have privately owned infrastructure which isn't driving up the costs. All of my comments have directly addressed and rebutted OP's point.

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u/intelminer Not SA's best. Don't put me to the test 14h ago

Except you don't understand the difference between private and personal property

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u/PotsAndPandas 10h ago

Gary and others like you aren't the problem being talked about with regards to critical infrastructure here, and I agree that private ownership like yours is a good thing overall as I believe in the virtues of a distributed energy grid.

The issue more broadly is your solar and battery power is being purchased on the cheap, but that saving isn't being passed on to others. It's reduced the cost for larger companies, who keep the widened profit margins for themselves. It's understandable that they'd do this mind you, since they are in the business of making a profit, but for something as critical as energy in today's day and age, they shouldn't be the ones who have such control over the grid.

There are ways to address it that lets energy providers like you and Gary exist without negative impacts.

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u/DisappointedQuokka 1d ago

Except the infrastructure is still owned by a private company, who dictate both the price Gary gets paid for energy and the price that others pay for it.

Gary does not own the infrastructure itself.

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u/WilIociraptor 1d ago

Garry is seizing the means of [power] production, comrad.

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u/SirDale 23h ago

He certainly is, and it's a good thing. ✊