Rafe Champion

Wind energy: the worst peacetime policy blunder?

13 March 2025 1:00 am

Wind droughts would have been the most important discovery in the 20th Century but the discovery came too late to…

Slowing the rise of energy prices won’t save us

17 February 2025 2:35 pm

The price of energy has been killing our industries for years, although the rate of Australia’s deindustrialisation has been scandalously…

The failure of the world wind leaders

6 February 2025 12:40 pm

Look at South Australia, Germany, and Britain. They boldly pioneered the green energy transition and now they are demonstrating that…

Defusing the wind drought trap

7 January 2025 1:10 am

The problem that makes the energy transition impossible

The limits to wind farming

4 December 2024 8:55 am

150 years ago the Chief Surveyor in South Australia, George Goyder, drew a line across the map to warn prospective…

Wind and solar: the energy thieves

5 November 2024 1:34 am

The unpopular truth about electricity and the future of energy

What green energy transition?

18 October 2024 2:21 am

Last week the Net Zero universe was alive with the sounds of jubilation as the penetration of unreliable energy into…

Rebadging the Liberals

17 June 2024 3:00 am

Alexandra Marshall recently noted Peter Dutton’s support of the e-Safety Commissioner where he said, ‘Julie Inman Grant is one of…

Put coal back in the Coalition energy policy

3 May 2024 3:04 am

Most protagonists of nuclear power like to say it is clean, meaning no CO2 is released, as though this is…

A nuanced view of the nuclear option

29 March 2024 6:13 pm

Matthew Warren brings a refreshingly nuanced view to the acrimonious nuclear power debate because he knows enough about electricity generation…

Peak stupid? NSW Liberals back Greens and Labor on Net Zero target

1 December 2023 12:51 am

Two big events occurred in Macquarie Street on Thursday morning. In Parliament, the Liberals joined the Greens in the Lower…

Adriane’s thread: from wind droughts to the heart of darkness

26 November 2023 12:38 pm

According to legend, the Greek hero Theseus went deep into the heart of the labyrinth to kill the dreaded Minotaur,…

Looking for the Net Zero exit sign

8 November 2023 5:00 am

Let’s get serious about planning an orderly exit from Net Zero. We need a plan ready to go before a…

Planning for power failure

14 September 2023 5:00 am

In south-eastern Australia, the capacity of conventional power has run down to the point where there is just enough to…

End the Net Zero nightmare

6 September 2023 1:33 pm

Matthew Warren knows as much about the energy industry as anyone and his book Blackout (2019) is a very good overview of…

Net Zero is a revolutionary idea, but not all revolutions are a good idea

21 August 2023 6:00 am

There is a saying that revolutionary ideas are first heretical, then they become interesting and controversial, until suddenly they are…

Aboriginal cricket tour of 1868 the start of reconciliation

8 July 2023 4:30 am

Tom Will won hearts pioneering indigenous cricket

Change the narrative, change the game

25 May 2023 5:00 am

Michael de Percy challenged Chris Bowen in person at the Sydney Institute regarding whether or not the government had a…

The endless wind drought crippling renewables

23 April 2023 4:00 am

The spectre of power failure is haunting Europe as Britain and Germany demonstrate that modern societies can’t run on wind…

Power policy in parallel universes

18 March 2023 5:00 am

This year Daniel Westerman will become a well-known if not much-loved public figure. In his role as the energy czar…

The iron triangle of energy realism

28 February 2023 5:30 am

Possibly the most powerful argument against the quest for Net Zero can be briefly stated using the Iron Triangle of…

The voice of energy realism

9 November 2022 7:00 am

The transition from coal is limited by the lowest level of renewable energy input to the grid on windless nights……

Energy policy: where parallel universes are set to collide

29 July 2022 10:00 am

There are parallel universes in energy policy and they are about to collide.  In one universe, the governments of Australia…