EEVblog 1575 - TIPA: The World's Most Efficient Solar Panel - BUSTED

[Simon]

Well in the UK apparently, very easy

[.RC.]

As I do quite a bit of work for various startups I do have some first hand information on the number of hoops a company needs to jump through in order to get a grant. It is not easy.

All you need is use the right bullshit dictionary and it is pretty easy.

Remember the people who are going to be doing the assessing are firstly going to be aware of what their government wants.  They are also going to be long term bureaucrats, untouchable and living in a bubble world not based in reality.  Things like adverse end results are not thought of.

it is not their nor the government's money.   They know for little projects any wastage via it going tits up is not going to be a voting issue, because the government has endless money. Even a billion dollars these days for a government to piss against the wall is not an issue for even any government with a bit of size.

Speak the right words that will align with what the government thinks will get it to win votes and you are on the gravy train.

What else are you going to do.  Vote for a third party, throw your vote away?

[EEVblog]

As I do quite a bit of work for various startups I do have some first hand information on the number of hoops a company needs to jump through in order to get a grant. It is not easy.

All you need is use the right bullshit dictionary and it is pretty easy.
Remember the people who are going to be doing the assessing are firstly going to be aware of what their government wants.

Anything eco related is going to get an almost automatic tick.
Solar Roadways have been running that grift for about 16 years now, and they still have a new government study contract.
You don't even need to produce anything practical, you can just make a good living just faffing around on grant after grant.

[SiliconWizard]

Before that, that was all with graphene (it got many companies grants for completely bullshit projects), then the blockchain, then anything "energy/climate" related. And of course AI.
Yes, it's dead easy once you know the tricks and have enough network. And yes, most of these projects end with nothing usable at all, and nobody seems to care. It's not engineering, it's politics.

The fact that it would be supposed to help economy is bullshit. You don't create value when you, uh, dont have any positive output. So in the end, it's not helping anything, it's just draining resources. It just benefits to a minority of people living off it, that's not creating value. That's absolutely not sustainable. But it's not a surprise that those who benefit from that money on an individual level would defend the model at all costs.

[.RC.]

Yes, it's dead easy once you know the tricks and have enough network. And yes, most of these projects end with nothing usable at all, and nobody seems to care. It's not engineering, it's politics.

I sometimes wondered how many people could you selectively remove from the system before it starts to affect those remaining.

Or another way of looking at it is how many people really contribute to society or humanity in a positive way and how many are simply leechers. We know there are increasingly less people required to provide the three things we need, food/water, shelter and security, which leaves more and more to do their own thing. Some of which appear to contribute nothing.

I know it is a question so complex it is improbable to answer, because sometimes something very beneficial is created out of something many people think is a waste of time and energy.

[.RC.]

Anything eco related is going to get an almost automatic tick.

Latest news is the Australian federal government is going to force the  Australian taxpayer to go profit guarantee for all these renewable projects, if they do not make enough profit for the owner, the taxpayer coughs up.

This is the same taxpayer that will be paying for the electricity they make, so either win or lose the Australian taxpayer is paying one way or another.

You could not lose with terms like that, it is like handing these mega corporations their own printing press. It is no wonder all around the world these right wing parties are gaining power as people tire of these socialist left government's spending all the people's money.

[Simon]

I'm not sure if it is the left or corruption and you get corruption either way. Governments don't run countries, they are merely the front for the corporations that have more impact on our lives than any new law. In the UK it is the right wing conservatives that have always been corrupt, you occasionally hear of something like Robert Jenrick was at a dinner with a housing developer, the developer wanted to get planning permission, compromising text messages emerge and the developer has made a significant donation to the party whilst getting his controversial planning permission. Media go mad over it and a week later it's all forgotten.

They will tell you that they have caped the profit margins of energy providers, yes, but they did nothing to control their friends in the oil and gas industry so the people causing the price hike and profiting massively are left to carry on, the people that simply resell the stuff are made to look like the bad guys. Always the right wing in the UK if you want incompetence, or rather corruption dressed up as incompetence.

[EEVblog]

Anything eco related is going to get an almost automatic tick.

Latest news is the Australian federal government is going to force the  Australian taxpayer to go profit guarantee for all these renewable projects, if they do not make enough profit for the owner, the taxpayer coughs up.

Link?
Doesn't surprise me though, they do this all the time for private toll roads for example. If the government builds any competing public transport infrastructure then they compensate the private companies for the loss 

[.RC.]

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-11-23/australian-taxpayers-to-subsidise-renewable-energy-projects/103138990

[Simon]

Under the scheme, the Commonwealth underwrites new renewable projects through contracted revenue floors and ceilings, removing some of the risk by covering a company's costs when wholesale power prices are low, and recouping that money when prices are higher.

Depending on what that ceiling is it may balance out.

[.RC.]

Maybe, but apparently all the money the government would hand out is going to be secret and not revealed to the people.  The contracts are going to be secret.

We know that once the phrase "taxpayers money" is mentioned, corporations add x % to the cost.   The corporations are immensely much smarter then the politicians, whose only interest in staying in power via any means necessary.  The corporations only concern is making as much money as possible and "Damn you Jack, I'm alright" everyone else, plus they know what the politicians want.

So with the facts.

The politicians want to stay in power and we have a democracy.

The money involved is taxpayers money, not the politicians money.

The politicians have designed this so that any taxpayers money paid out is off budget and secret, the taxpayer will never know how much to whom.

Corporations only want to make money. That is their only goal.  All this talk of ESG and crap is just marketing to make more money.

Corporations are dictatorships and know the politicians only interest is staying in power and can thus manipulate the politicians because it is not the politicians money the politicians are pissing against the wall.

What does anyone think the outcome will be?

A highly expensive electricity generating network that has a short lifespan that the taxpayer is paying for either through the usage of electricity, or taxes.   

[Simon]

why would the network have a short lifespan? that's bad for business

[SiliconWizard]

why would the network have a short lifespan? that's bad for business

For whose business?