LMSU’s War On Tipping Points (And Peace With The ISP)

Let Me Sum Up

Support us on Patreon... Tennant, Luke and Frankie are calling all Summerupperers to come join the expanded LMSU universe and support our Patreon! Sign up today for access to coveted BoCo like bonus episodes and other savoury morsels like our notes on papers read, alternate paper titles and so so many custom memes. Head on over to https://www.patreon.com/LetMeSumUp.

—

This week your intrepid hosts are joined by a very special guest. He is a writer, a comedian, a broadcaster, a wager of Wars on Waste and a general in the Fight for Planet A, Craig Reucassel!

And the reinforcements are warranted as we launch into an extended opening segment focused on AEMO's 2024 Integrated System Plan. This discussion ranged across delights such as the big Consumer Energy Resources rebrand (and what’s changed other than the name), why gas peaking capacity is like insurance (Tennant tells all) and the zero carbon tech we can turn to to deal with dunkelflaute in the long term (probably not batteries, and definitely not nuclear)!

Our main paper
We also reached a tipping point on the concept of tipping points dear Summerupperers and took one for the collective team by diving into the latest offering from the University of Exeter’s Global Systems Institute, the 2023 Global Tipping Points report. We had a look at the summary report (lots of things to worry about in there) and then did a deep dive on section four, Positive tipping points in technology, economy and society. TL;DR: ‘tipping points’ may be a tad overused as a concept here but perhaps there are one or two areas in which we can leverage learning rates and catalyse some social contagion to replicate the success experienced by solar and wind.

One more things

Tennant’s One More Thing is an anecdote regarding a query he put to Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen at a recent forum at Parliament House. Politicians are known to duck questions from time to time, but at least the Minister's podcast themed parry gets points for novelty.

Craig’s One More Thing is his keen interest in ensuring costings for prospective nuclear plants factor in the expense of the continued use of aging, emissions intensive coal fired power stations while we wait for nuclear to come online. The man has a point!

Frankie’s One More Thing is a plug for friend of the pod, Tim Forcey, who’s just published a book! My Efficient Electric Home Handbook is a practical guide on how to make your home more comfortable, efficient, fossil fuel free and cheaper to run. Tim is also one of the founders of popular Facebook group My Efficient Electric Home. Go check it out!

Luke’s One More Thing is the proposal from the Victorian Government on minimum rental standards for eminently sensible things like draught proofing and insulation. Plus his chat about the new standards with Victorian Energy and Climate Minister Lily D'Ambrosio on his other podcast , First Fuel 🙄.

AND he got in a sneaky twofer (or is that a threefor?) but we forgave him because his third more thing was a plug for Tennant’s recent (and excellent) speech “The Sun is a harsh mistress: taking Australian energy advantage seriously”.

And that’s all from us Summerupperers! Support our Patreon at patreon.com/LetMeSumUp, send your hot tips and suggestions for papers to us at [e-mail] and check out our back catalogue at letmesumup.net.