That is a very important job though and is dramatically cheaper than peaker plants.
https://www.energy-storage.news/news/undeniable-success-sout...
South Australia’s Tesla ‘Big Battery’ saved consumers $116 million in electricity costs last year
https://www.startupdaily.net/2020/03/south-australias-tesla-...
Throwing poor people under the bus (they're most impacted by high energy prices) so you can claim you're green (while opening brand new gas power plants) is pretty awful.
South Australia is still building new gas plants. Natural gas, which is nearly as dirty as coal.
> Natural gas is a fossil fuel, though the global warming emissions from its combustion are much lower than those from coal or oil. Natural gas emits 50 to 60 percent less carbon dioxide (CO2) when combusted in a new, efficient natural gas-power plant compared with emissions from a typical new coal plant.
From the above natural gas power plants do produce a surprising amount of CO2, but is far far better than new coal plants. Legacy coal plants also are a significant air pollution source, so if we get out of coal power plants by building out natural gas seems like a win.
Finally I checked renewables for South Australia and they seems to be doing really great at 53%, compare to U.S. at ~23%: https://indaily.com.au/news/science-and-tech/2021/01/27/sa-r...
List of currently operating power plants and the ones under constructions corroborates renewable energy percentage and actually suggests that South Australia is doing great on renewables: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_power_stations_in_Sout...
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/super-pot...
You're comparing the absolute best natural gas plant to the average coal plant? The source also isn't neutral.
>Finally I checked renewables for South Australia and they seems to be doing really great
At the expense of the poor and minorities, which I guess are acceptable collateral damage in this crusade. [1]
Source claims comparison is for new plants in both directions. Concur it is likely not neutral, do you have a better one?
> At the expense of the poor and minorities, which I guess are acceptable collateral damage in this crusade. [1]
Disproportional impact of higher energy prices is absolutely a factor... What I do not get is how much better South Australia could have done?
It is not in people's interest to actually know the correct answer than major changes would be required.