Victorian Electricity Generation Water Usage

Conclusion: Victoria uses more than 5% of its total storage capacity each year on power generation. This is enough water for 3 million homes.

Calculation:
500MW = typical 8.3e9 litres/year, 250000 homes worth of water. (1)

Brown Coal plants:
Hazelwood 1600MW according to (2), uses 37.5ML / day
Loy Yang A 2200MW B 1050 MW
Yallourn 1450MW
Total 6300MW
(wikipedia)

-> 1e11 (100 billion) litres of water each year (6300/500 * 8.3e9). by (1)
-> 5e10 (50 billion) litres of water each year (37.5e6 * 365 * 6300/1600) by (2) (unverified)

Strangely it is ridiculously hard to find more accurate information about how much water each plant uses, where it comes from, whether it is recycled etc.

Victorian storage capacity 1,773,000 ML. (1.7e12 litres). (w:Melbourne Water)

1e11 / 1.7e12 = 5.8% of total storage used each year -> conclusion.
5e10 / 1.7e12 = 2.9% of total storage used each year -> 2 million homes.

Resulting question: why don't the power plants use recycled water? colder water will make the plants more efficient, so maybe the alpine water is important to them.

Sources:

1. http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy/coalvswind/c02b.html
2. wiki/Hazelwood_Power_Station,_Victoria#Water

should I get

Independence

Figure 1: Independence.

Australian Internet Censorship

As an Australian and an internet user, I have serious concerns about the new mandatory "clean feed" filter initiative.

Given currently unstable economic climate, I am outraged at the proposal to waste untold millions of our tax dollars on the proposed filters. According to the Government's tests, they are inefficient at blocking ‘inappropriate’ and/or ‘illegal’ content (however loosely you define it), often mistakenly block websites that are neither, and can easily be bypassed by users with even a modicum of internet knowledge. Furthermore, given that your tests also determined that most of the filters slowed internet speeds by 22-87%, I cannot see how this is line with Government plans to update and modernise Australia’s internet capabilities.

I am also amazed at the response to the overwhelmingly negative public reaction to the proposal. Instead of consulting and discussing their plans, those behind it have become publicly silent but continue apace with their implementation. This is not how I think a democracy works.

Given the vast amount of Internet content available, and its extremely dynamic nature, I sincerely doubt the Government will ever be able to classify it all. It is an exercise in futility: a clear waste of taxpayer dollars. Additionally, Australian households are diverse, and many do not have young children, so mandating a one-size-fits-all approach does not serve the public interest. It is not the Government's role to decide what is or is not appropriate for me, for parents, for children - for Australians.

I strongly protest the proposed censorship of the Internet, and demand an end to this plan which will cost all of Australia time, money, liberty and stability.

No Australian Internet Censorship

gah. people say to me, "I'm glad 4chan will be censored".

Oscar Wilde once said, "I don't agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."

I agree... why should other people decide what sort of things are appropriate for me to read? I can decide for myself! All those english teachers were trying to teach me critical thinking for a reason, and now I am thinking critically about censorship.

Don't Do It! I will fight you! And when I fight, it is not only to win now, but permanently. I have just read Ender's Game, and learnt that if you are going to fight, you must win so convincingly that you never have to fight again.

On a side note, the economy will not recover to 2007 levels until at least 2012.

Australian Internet Censorship coming in January

http://nocleanfeed.com/

Let's kill this so hard no-one considers trying it again for the next hundred years.