The world’s hottest country with the world’s largest energy reserves can’t power its nearly non existent manufacturing industry – a paltry few paper and steel mills – over the weekend because its populous is addicted to air conditioners.
No, not a headline from The Onion, but reality in PolicyfailureLand, aka Australia.
From news.com.au:
The Australian Energy Market Operator, the national energy regulator, is in talks with more than a dozen power-hungry companies in Victoria and South Australia in a bid to get ahead of weekend blackouts.
The 14 companies, with major factories across the two southern states, may need to shut down operations over the weekend as heightened airconditioner use could lead to major blackouts.
Companies including Australian Paper, Visy and BlueScope Steel have been paid incentives to cut down on operations to avoid the kind of sporadic blackouts South Australia struggled through last summer.
Still no heat on politicians to come up with any big vision policies to solve this epicly stupid situation.
If only there was a way to drag power of that hot sun, and maybe store it for situations like this?
Nah, too hard basket. Back to watching the cricket.