Essay by Eric Worrall
The leaders of our glorious Net Zero revolution can’t organise the paperwork for a flagship scholarship fund.
$50m fund for clean energy apprenticeships remains untouched
Vocational Education and Training
Wednesday 1 OctoberIn short:
The federal government committed $50 million for a fund to support apprenticeships in clean energy, but the money so far remains unspent.
The sector has warned that some clean energy apprentices are being turned away due to a bottleneck in facilities and provider incentives.
What’s next?
…
A $50 million fund to support students wanting to study clean energy trades is yet to pay out a single dollar, nearly a year and a half after it was funded in the budget.
…
In budget papers from last year, money had been allocated over five years from 2023-24.
But even the eligibility guidelines for that funding are yet to be released, and there are no listings on the government’s grants website.
…
Evidence of clean energy apprentices being turned away
Independent Tertiary Education Council Australia chief executive Felix Pirie said he had not seen evidence that the fund had been progressed.
…
Read more: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10-01/clean-energy-apprenticeship-fund-unspent/105817458
What on Earth is going on?
The government claims it is on track to transition most of Australia’s energy system by 2030, yet over a year into one of their flagship programmes, funding for training all the additional skilled workers they claim will be needed for the great Net Zero energy transition, not a dime of those scholarship funds have been released.
Normally when WUWT discusses government expenditures, we report how taxpayer money is being wasted. But this is next level – the current Australian administration is so incompetent, they get jammed up even when they are trying to waste our money.
I swear Australia is the only outfit that can put New York and California to shame. Wake up Australia!
C’mon Bob, leftist irrationality and incompetence know no national borders.
If you look up Australian Labor Government, you get a picture of the Keystone Cops in their EV –
I don’t think this is a serious worry; the $50 million is being spent setting up the required bureaucracy. It will all work out like most government initiatives. Besides, the graduates would just design another Ivanpah or Crescent Dunes; Australia hasn’t built any of those yet–AFAIK. You guys do have Snowy 2, however; gotta get points for that.
“You guys do have Snowy 2,”
Seems the current mob are great at building white elephants. !..
Just a parameter tweak to get the colour right. 😉
Sorry. No points for a $2B estimate of costs that is now over $12B and still short of funds. Any guesstimate of the final cost – $20B, $25B, more?????
John, you raise a good point–if a group of humans can predict the final cost of an engineering venture with no better accuracy than they predicted something like that pumped hydro project–just where where would the human expertise come from that could predict the prevention of a change in climate that it is supposed to provide?
When woke “competence” harms its own indoctrination business.
Rooftop solar and batteries are the only “clean” energy with a future in Australia. Grid solar is an obvious stranded asset and grid wind is heading the same way but a bit slower because sometimes the wind blows at night.
Nothing unique about installing rooftop solar and batteries. Would already be included in sparky apprenticeships. Australia will never need industry to make the panels and batteries because that is what China does with their coal fired electricity and Australia’s met coal..
Drove past a small wind farm in coastal Victoria on Saturday morning. All braked because rooftops in Victoria were pumping out 59.4% of the demand and prices were negative. On Saturday, rooftops in South Australia were supplying the entire local demand through lunchtime. Some SA wind was being exported.
Last week SA got 95.1% of its electricity from wind and solar. Rooftops supplied 19% and it is only early October.
Every new rooftop solar and battery eats into the wholesale demand; reducing the the grid energy needed thereby forcing unit price higher to make a profit when they are needed. There has been no reduction in the capacity of the dispatchable generation to serve the occasional need. So all the standby costs are carried on reduced output. SA grid energy now 56c/kWh and has to keep increasing because wholesale volume is declining.
All of this is now clearly evident for even the most maths challenged politician.
A “maths challenged politician” would look at that chart panel and get nervous diareah.
Story Tip
The Rings of Trees
Wood tells many stories. One of them is the history of the climate. The varying thickness of the annual rings is actually a living climate archive. And this archive shows that the sun appears to be more important for climate development than carbon dioxide.
[…]
Comparing the HG curves with the C14 and Beryllium-10 curves, which are considered exact reflections of solar activity, a clear picture emerges: During periods of low solar activity with high cosmic radiation, the HG values are high – the climate is wetter and more balanced. During periods of high solar activity, the HG values decrease, and the climate becomes drier, often accompanied by climatic “chaos” with sudden extremes.
German link, translated by Google on Android
What is an HG curve?
seems to be the index of homogenity:
This is where the homogeneity index developed by the two scientists comes into play. It measures the degree to which tree growth in a region is parallel over a given period. High homogeneity means uniform climatic conditions across large areas, such as those found during prolonged wet or dry periods. Low values indicate a “frayed” weather pattern with strong regional differences.
Comparing the HG curves with the C14 and Beryllium-10 curves, which are considered exact reflections of solar activity, a clear picture emerges: During periods of low solar activity with high cosmic radiation, the HG values are high – the climate is wetter and more balanced. During periods of high solar activity, the HG values decrease, and the climate becomes drier, often accompanied by climatic “chaos” with sudden extremes.
I had a long chat to Dr Will Happer in Brisbane a few years ago, and if I understood correctly he’s not convinced there are any pre-satellite solar reconstructions which are good enough to analyse whether there is a link between solar activity and weather. I’d love for there to be a verifiable link, but if someone like Happer says the data isn’t good enough we need to tread cautiously in this area.
What’s about the Be10 data collection from ice cores as mentioned here?
https://catalog.data.gov/dataset/noaa-wds-paleoclimatology-grip-beryllium-10-data-and-description1
Can you say Slush Fund, chi’drens? 😉
Wow saw a whole 60 minute Australia episode on this. What broke my heart ❤️? Single mom who was struggling to make ends meet, that’s where the rubber hits the road for me. Additionally, the service outrages etc, since I am a nurse all I could think about where the patients on oxygen, that require concentrators
Welcome to Watts Up With That, WearingTwoGowns!!
Regards,
Bob
Looking forward to more 😀