Fall is (almost) here!! I am summer gal through and through, but there's something about this crisp air, pumpkin beer drinking, cozy clothes time of year! I spent a fabulous morning with my blogging bestie Wellesley & King this week checking out the Irving Penn Exhibition at the Frick. It was the perfect morning to show off our fall must-haves.
Animal print is a fabulous neutral palate. This whimsy dress is comfortable and chic! Layer a cardigan, much like Lauren's over top and booties for a fun alternative to this look.


My memoir, Pale Girl SPEAKS, is now available! Click the links below to purchase now or find it in your local bookstore.
Designed by celebrity jewelry designer Maya Brenner, check out the Pale Girl Black Diamond Drop Necklace.
100% of the proceeds from this amazing necklace go to The Melanoma Research Foundation.
BACK TO SCHOOL SPF Leisurely summer mornings have quickly faded from memory as the realities of school set-in. And while I try to make our routine as simple as possible, sunscreen and sun protection is always a priority.
RED VS WHITE You may have heard that red wine is better for you than white, ever wonder why? I mean, both are made from grapes, and grapes are fruit so…? Red wine, like green tea and chocolate, is rich in polyphenol, a type of antioxidant.
SUMMER UPF It's time to start preparing for hot weather and there are tons of fabulous new products that will keep you sun safe and looking great. Here are a few of my personal "must have pieces" for the coming season.
REDHEADS & MELANOMA If you're a redhead, you have an increased risk for melanoma even without UV exposure. It's that simple. Avoiding over exposure to UV rays – both indoor and out – is still crucial, but it's not the whole picture.


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'Undo and screw' GOP shenanigans strip wage, sick leave proposals from Nov. 6 ballot
LANSING - Another day in the Michigan Legislature, another outrage.
State Republican lawmakers on Sept. 5 voted to adopt two proposals originally slated to go on the Nov. 6 general election ballot that will:
1. Raise the minimum wage to $12 per hour, and
2. Require employers to provide paid sick leave time to their employees.
So... is the party that has traditionally sought to lower workers wages (majority Republicans repealed Michigan's prevailing wage law), and at every turn prioritize the needs of corporations and rich people over individuals now - finally - putting workers first?
Naah. Michigan AFL-CIO President Ron Bieber said the legislation is a naked attempt by Republicans to suppress the votes of Democrats who might specifically come out to vote for those issues in November. Moreover, there's every reason to believe that the language the Republican lawmakers adopted this month will be amended in a manner less favorable to workers this year after the election in the Legislature's "Lame Duck" session.
"Lansing Republicans have repeatedly refused to address the issues of minimum wage and paid sick time," Bieber said. "Now these same Republicans are publicly conspiring to stick a knife in the heart of these proposals with an unconstitutional 'adopt and amend' strategy.
"If their intent was good, I would applaud today's actions. But Republican leadership has openly discussed their desire to gut the substance of these voter initiatives in Lame Duck to please corporate special interests. What these Republicans are doing is disrespectful to the citizens who signed petitions and to the working families who stand to benefit from these changes. The voters should reject these rotten tactics. We need legislators who want working people to succeed, not legislators who are manipulating the rules to benefit corporations and the wealthiest one percent."
State Democrats didn't call the Republican passage of the minimum wage and paid sick time bills "adopt and amend," or "bait and switch." One term used was "undo and screw." The tied-together measures yielded a 24-13 vote to pass in the Senate and 78-28 vote in the House. Instead of giving them immediate effect, the legislation won't put the laws into effect until next March. There were no Senate Dems who voted for the legislation, while more than 20 House Democrats voted for it, pledging to make sure it is not altered in the Lame Duck session.
One thing Republicans are suspected of plotting is to do an about-face and simply kill the paid sick leave requirement, which employers hate, in the Lame Duck session.
"I never thought I'd see the other side of the aisle take up a living wage increase or paid sick leave," said state Sen. Curtis Hertel (D-East Lansing), to the Detroit Free Press. "But a vote for these initiatives is not a vote for workers. It will only allow my Republican colleagues to make any changes they please when no one is looking."
The blatant effort to keep the measures off the November ballot - put there by citizen-led petition drives - was hardly denied by Senate Majority Leader Arlen Meekhof. "We're looking at a whole suite of things that we think are more friendly to Michigan," he said.
The Michigan Chamber of Commerce said "polling suggests both (the minimum wage hike and paid sick leave) would have passed by 60 percent or more of the vote." The chamber said as adopted the paid sick leave proposal would "give employees one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked. All employees (full-time, part-time, temporary workers and independent contractors) would be entitled to use 72 hours in a year. As written, the proposal places severe compliance burdens on employers, including those with paid leave policies currently in place."
The Chamber, which holds a tremendous amount of influence among GOP lawmakers in the state Legislature, called the current structure of the proposal "a legal landmine."
One Republican lawmaker who couldn't stomach the thought of passing this pro-worker legislation - even if it is likely to be changed by the Legislature - is one of the most conservative members of the state Senate GOP caucus, Patrick Colbeck (R-Canton), who voted no.
"Growing up, I recall reading the Adventures of Tom Sawyer," Colbeck said. "It is evident from today's vote that Democrat legislators have become adept at replicating Tom Sawyer's ability to get others to paint their fences for them. Rather than challenge the merits of the proposed minimum wage and paid sick leave proposals, members passed 'Republican' versions of these ballot proposals to avoid having the ostensibly more onerous versions proposed by Democrats on the ballot this fall. We need to start opposing policies detrimental to the economic prosperity of our state by clearly stating why they are bad rather than rely upon procedural tactics. Our citizens deserve robust policy debates that allow voters to better understand the pros and cons of pending legislation."

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Aurora: What you should know about Port Augusta's solar power-tower
Much has been written about the $650m Aurora project, and I set out here to collect together what is known and fill in some of the gaps.
Simon Holmes à Court Posted on 21 August 2017 21 August 2017 67 Comments
Time moves a little slower here
The paint peels 'cause the summers here are so severe
And we're nowhere near nowhere you would know of
Locals here pride, they show up just to show off
(1955, Hilltop Hoods, writing about South Australia)
Carriewerloo Station. A sheep and cattle pastoral lease belonging to Amanda and Scott Michael about 30 km north of Port Augusta.
No doubt they've been burning the midnight oil in the office of South Australian Energy Minister Tom Koutsantonis to deliver on the SA energy plan announced Premier Jay Weatherill in March.
It's hard to believe it has been only six weeks since the SA government signed up Elon Musk's Tesla to build the world's largest lithium ion battery. Three weeks later the Weatherill Government contracted APR energy to supply nine GE TM2500 aero derivative diesel-gas turbines totalling 276MW. (APR provided similar generators to Hydro Tasmania in 2016 during the failure of Basslink submarine HVDC cable to Victoria.)
Contrary to the apoplectic rubbish you might have read elsewhere, these state-of-the-art generators will run only when absolutely necessary to avoid load-shedding events and are significantly cleaner than SA's now-retired coal fleet.
And, of course, the latest news is the signing of a 'Generation Project Agreement' (more on that later) with SolarReserve that underwrites the development of what will be the largest solar thermal power-tower unit with storage in the world.
(There are currently seven solar thermal farms globally with higher capacity, but all others either use parabolic troughs or smaller capacity power-tower units.) SolarReserve was founded in 2008 and, like Tesla, is headquartered in California.
This third piece of the Weatherill-Koutsantonis triptych is intended to bring new, independent generation capacity into the state which will increase competition and put downward pressure on prices.
Much has been written about the $650 million project, and I set out here to collect together what is known and fill in some of the gaps.
Aurora, as the project is known, will be situated on Carriewerloo Station, a sheep and cattle pastoral lease belonging to Amanda and Scott Michael, about 30 km north of Port Augusta — not far from the former sites of the Northern and Playford power stations. Aurora is aiming to begin construction in February 2018 with completion expected in 2020.
A field of billboard-sized computer-controlled mirrors (100m2 heliostats) follow the sun and reflect sunlight onto a target at the top of a 227m tower, where the equivalent of 1200 suns heats up a molten salt — not table salt, but an inert mixture of sodium nitrate and potassium nitrate, traditionally used as garden fertiliser.
According to SolarReserve, the initial melting of the salt is a one-time process, after which the liquid salt is recirculated and used for the 40+ year life of the plant – without any degradation, or the need for replacement or topping up. Temporary equipment is brought on-site during plant commissioning to melt the salt, which is later removed after the process is completed.
Just to put a rumour to rest, no natural gas or other fuel is required for power generation, and the plant will have no pipeline feed.
Molten salt starts in the 'cold' storage tank at 288°C and is circulated up to the 'receiver' — a set of 14 panels of tube walls arranged into a cylindrical vessel approximately 30m high and 20m wide — heating the salt to 565°C. The heated salt then descends the tower and is stored in the 'hot' storage tank.
When power is required, the heated salt is pumped through a heat exchanger to transfer the heat energy from the salt to water in order to generate high temperature/pressure steam which is then run through a standard steam turbine generator, not unlike the turbines in many thermal power stations.
Because a solar thermal power plant operates like a conventional power plant, many of the jobs need the same skill sets as conventional energy jobs – from construction through operations
The salt, still in liquid state, is returned to the 'cold' storage tank ready to be 'charged' again when the tower is 'on sun'. The exhaust steam from the turbine is 'dry cooled' and condensed into water and then returned to be used again, meaning that water usage is kept to a minimum.
According to Solar Reserve's Senior VP of Development, Tom Georgis, the gross output of the turbine is 150 MW, however the plant's auxiliary load during the day reduces the daytime 'sent-out' power to 135 MW. "After the sun sets, we are no longer collecting energy from the sun, so the heliostat field and cold salt pumps are not operating, and consequently the auxiliary loads are much reduced."
In the evening, with lower auxiliary loads and generally when the value of the power will be highest, the plant will be able to increase its net generation. At 135 MW, the capacity factor is 42%, which will curiously place it with the second highest capacity factor in South Australia. (Only the 180 MW Osborne Power Station, a gas generator in north-western Adelaide, achieves a greater capacity factor at 77%.)
The molten salt storage tanks will store up an equivalent of 1100 MWh generation, or about eight hours at 135MW load. The facility is expected to generate in excess of 495 GWh annually, or 3.8% of SA's 2015–16 annual energy consumption of 12,934 GWh.
On the day the Aurora deal was announced, Tom Koutsantonis tweeted:
A shiver has just gone up the coal generation industry's spine. Solar thermal just won a competitive tender for base load generation in SA.
— Tom Koutsantonis (@TKoutsantonisMP) August 14, 2017
My guess is that Tom was referring to three strengths of the project:
Dispatchability — the generator will provide power on demand, especially on hot, still evenings when solar PV and wind generators are idle and wholesale power prices can be up to 150 times higher than average.
Grid services — the generator will provide valuable (but not yet valued) inertia that helps the grid ride through power disturbances, such as the one that 'blacked out' the state last September.
Cost competitive — the price is somewhere between very good and excellent, depending on a range of assumptions, and worthy of discussion.
The SA Government went to open tender looking for two power supply contracts to meet its long term power needs:
75% open to any dispatchable technology, to bring new generation into the market
25% constrained to dispatchable renewable energy technologies, to "drive innovation in storage and other technologies".
SolarReserve managed to beat out all other bidders in both categories, including a number of gas generators that bid for the technology-neutral portion.
The full energy output of the Aurora facility is contracted to the South Australian Government under a 'Generation Project Agreement' (GPA) designed by Danny Price of Frontier Economics, and will provide a benefit in favour of the SA government. (More on that here)
The SA Government's peak loads are typically during off peak periods for the market, thus allowing it to benefit from lower spot prices, however Aurora's energy storage will allow it to generate during peak market periods and help bring peak prices down with more competition and supply.
One quarter of the renewable energy certificates (LGCs) created will be bundled with the energy, which will be voluntarily surrendered by the SA Government, ensuring that 25% of the Government's power is carbon neutral, which will go towards the state's Carbon Neutral Adelaide targets. The remaining 75% of certificates will stay with SolarReserve, who will presumably market them as they please.
The SA government expects to pay a $75/MWh levelised cost for the 20 year duration of contract, but not more than $78/MWh.
For the South Australian government this is a good price — it's significantly cheaper than the average wholesale price of $108.66/MWh in SA in FY2017 and also below SA 2020 baseload futures price of about $85/MW. The contract also has the benefit of protecting the Government from price rises over the next 20 years and providing the opportunity for price reductions.
Given that SolarReserve will be holding on to 75% of the LGCs, it's difficult to state with certainty the full project levelised cost of energy (LCoE). By the time the project comes online in 2020 there will be only 10 years of the current RET remaining. Most experienced hands in the sector predict that, in the absence of new policy, LGC spot prices will tank well before 2025.
Energy Minister Tom Koutsantonis has stated that he is "advised that LGCs were not a significant factor in SolarReserve's ability to offer a capped price of $78/MWh."
My back-of-the-envelope calculation is total LGC revenue might add no more than $9.50/MWh over all energy generated in the first 20 years. As such the 'all-in' value of the contract would be less than $87.50/MWh. Note that the Finkel review, handed down just two months ago, estimated $172/MWh in 2020 and didn't expect the median price of solar thermal to reach $87 until 2050.)
(Ed: We probably need to factor in the federal government's "equity" contribution, which would lower the LCOE).
Given that alternative sources of long term electricity in South Australia almost certainly cost more than the combined value of the GPA and future value of LGCs, it is clear that the net subsidy (value of subsidy under the Commonwealth RET minus the value of savings to South Australia) is effectively zero — a far cry from the hysterical claims by the anti-renewables media that renewable energy is costly.
In late 2016 SolarReserve bid the 260 MW Copiapó solar-thermal project at US$63/MWh (A$79.50) without any subsidy into a Chilean reverse auction. However, the Chilean government chose instead to move forward with cheaper, but inflexible wind generation. SolarReserve will be rebidding the Copiapó project into the next Chilean tender later this year, and hopes to start construction by the end of 2018.
The company received an unwelcome setback when its $1bn Crescent Dunes facility in Nevada was taken offline last October for eight months due to a crack in the floor of one of the molten salt storage tanks. The problem was apparently caused by incorrect installation by a contractor and was repaired under warranty. The company says it has learnt from the decidedly low-tech problem.
As The Australian reported on Friday, it is not yet clear whether the project will receive all or part of the $110m 'investment' that was included in the 2017-18 federal budget.
(The deal was brokered by Nick Xenophon in what cynics might call a classic Xenophon move. In exchange for his decisive vote enabling the passage of the company tax cuts, a move that was bound to upset the 'left' and please the 'right', he secured investment in a project that had become totemic for the 'left' and popular with the 'sensible centre'. Moreover, true to form, he secured a win for South Australia — both government and electricity consumers.)
The $110m has been variously described as either a concessional loan at 3% interest rate or concessional equity in line with the federal government's March 2016 direction to ARENA to move away from grants and into investments with the opportunity for a return to taxpayers.
On Monday morning, SolarReserve's CEO Kevin Smith told ABC Adelaide that the current pricing structure to the South Australian Government includes the $110m concessional funding, and that the company was confident of receiving the funding as "SolarReserve is the only game in town", a statement no doubt contested by John Hewson, Chair of the Port Augusta Graphite Energy Company (formerly Solarstor) and others hoping for a look-in.
Smith commented that the $110m assumed is "not a grant, it's not a subsidy, it's an equity investment so we'll have to pay that money back along with the premium that's associated with the $110 million… if we didn't get that it would change the price but it wouldn't be a dramatic change in price." Smith added that SolarReserve already has commitments and interest for funding that together are 50% more than is required.
In six short weeks, the South Australian Government has signed three very important contracts that underwrite their energy transition. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Turnbull has the temerity to label the SA Government's efforts as "ideology and idiocy in equal measure", all the while trying to herd a cabal of confused backbenchers with coal fetishes to arrive at a much needed and overdue federal energy policy.
And while SA moves ahead with new wind, battery, solar PV, solar thermal and a proposed pumped hydro plant, the total capacity of coal fired generation under construction in Australia remains at zero megawatts — for the tenth year in a row.
Simon Holmes à Court is Senior Advisor at the Energy Transition Hub, University of Melbourne.
Listen to our podcast on the Solar Tower power plant with Giles Parkinson, David Leitch and solar thermal expert Keith Lovegrove. Click below.
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Tim Forcey 2 years ago
During the discussion about alternatives to gas, the words "heat pump" were not used. As Keith Lovegrove's ITPower report for ARENA showed (link below), heat pumps are a key technology that will provide lower-temperature process heat that previously was supplied by burning gas. http://arena.gov.au/assets/2017/05/ITP-RE-options-for-industrial-gas-users-Summary.pdf
Tim, really mate!
DON'T FORGET THE GROWING USE OF AIR-SOURCE HEAT PUMPS IN AUSTRALIA
Oops, I must have had too many windows open. My post above has now been duplicate-posted where it was meant to be… beneath yesterday's podcast with Keith Lovegrove.
When Australians think of renewable energy, they need to think of more than just wind and direct-solar. They need to think of more than hydro, biomass, wave, tidal, deep and shallow geothermal, and ground-source heat pumps.
Australians interested in renewable energy also need to be aware of air-source heat pumps!
Air-source heat pumps are already recovering heaps of renewable energy in Australia, as they are used to heat buildings (aka reverse-cycle air conditioners), heat water, and, as Keith Lovegrove describes in his report to ARENA, to provide low-level (low-temperature) industrial process heat. (See link to report above.)
In our University of Melbourne report, we described how reverse-cycle air conditioners alone are already recovering more renewable energy in Australia than all the roof-top solar PV panels. Who knew?? Link: https://theconversation.com/the-cheapest-way-to-heat-your-home-with-renewable-energy-just-flick-a-switch-47087
Perhaps it is the way that air-source heat pumps seemingly recover free renewable ambient heat out of "thin air"… that makes them seem too much like sorcery… and makes it hard for people to wrap their head around them.
Fortunately, international surveys like this one (REN21) mention air-source heat pumps again and again, so no blind-spot there. http://www.ren21.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/17-8399_GSR_2017_Full_Report_0621_Opt.pdf
Mike A 2 years ago
Agree with what you say except you are lumping economic renewables with wave. Need to beware wasting money on experimental possibilities versus tried and proven good investments. Wave has never proven to be economic anywhere. So now and quite possibly always, given global weather trends, wave systems only last as long as a big storm, so not so much energy as an experimental theory. I note you don't include fusion which is an appropriate exclusion for the same reason.
Yes, air-source heat pumps are much more widely applied as a way to collect renewable energy… than are wave energy devices.
Air source heat pumps used for heating make good use of RE but for cooling don't, and if fueled by FF add to GHG emissions. Furthermore, most refrigerants represent an enormous largely unregulated GHG risk, until or unless natural refrigerants are mandated – and that is a major blind spot.
Peter G 2 years ago
Ammonia is not mandated but thankfully now again available – with an increasing uptake in OZ
http://racca.asn.au/news/airah-2017-industrial-ammonia-refrigeration-courses
Yes carbon dioxide (CO2) is useful also as a "refrigerant", with global warming potential (GWP) of just 1.0 of course. My air-source heat pump hot water service at home uses CO2 as its working fluid (for heating water) whereas this ice rink uses CO2 as a working fluid (refrigerant) for providing cooling. http://www.machinedesign.com/mechanical/why-ice-rinks-choose-carbon-dioxide-climate-control
Tell me what temperatures can industrial heat pumps achieve?
Check out Keith Lovegrove's report: http://arena.gov.au/assets/2017/05/ITP-RE-options-for-industrial-gas-users-Summary.pdf
This ref (first line) describes how, depending what heat source your are pumping from, heat pumps can generate heat at up to 100 C. http://www.ipieca.org/resources/energy-efficiency-solutions/power-and-heat-generation/heat-pumps/
JonathanMaddox 2 years ago
It's an excellent academic point but well covered in different (equally valid) terminology: the gains of heat pumps are not neglected, but frequently mentioned and applauded under the heading of end-use efficiency: heating with reverse cycle air conditioning is "vastly more efficient" than doing so with resistive electric heaters or even by burning fuel.
Alastair Leith 2 years ago
Well the last paragraph in the ARENA report under the heading Concentrated Solar just got made redundant I think:
At a site with a reasonable solar resource, solar thermal is likely to be economically viable for temperatures up to 150°C and possibly viable up to
around 250°C. Higher temperature systems are not currently economically viable although may become so in future.
We don't know the LCOE of Aurora but it's now cheaper than gas fuel itself in Australia let alone combustion capacity, according to some.
Yes when I read that I knew they were well out of date already but even so the low price was a surprise.
sunoba 2 years ago
Thanks to Simon for this balanced and informative article. I analysed the LCOE for Aurora using my standard methodology and got AUD 149/MWh. My conclusion then (and now!) was that South Australian citizens have got a great deal given that the price the government will have to pay is capped at AUD 78/MWh. Significant factors must be the concessional equity from the federal government and the fact that Solar Reserve retains 3/4 of the LGC. Details of my analysis at
http://sunoba.blogspot.com.au/2017/08/cost-of-solar-power-69.html
The contract with the SA government is for up to 495GWh/a whereas 135MW x 8h x 365 = 395GWh, that is there is on average 2h/day at 135MW of generation in excess of what is stored. It would be useful to know just how much excess solar thermal capacity there is, so as to get a true picture of the LCOE. Clearly the plant stores and generates simultaneously.
The article says SA's peak is during off peak periods: I can't see how this could be: SA government demand, if SA Water is excluded, is mostly air conditioning of office space and would be strongly biased to peak demand. If the deal includes SA Water then this deal looks like a big loser for the SA government, since SA Water is able to make extensive use of curtailable water pumping demand to secure an average price of power at the lowest end of the market. If they've had to give this up for a sake of $75/MWh to the whole of government then this is a bit of a disaster for both demand management as a driver of lower costs and for the SA taxpayer.
Jay Weatherill said at the presser that govt load peaks at midday. Market for SA peaks in the evening, and may have a more pronounce duck curve than anywhere in Australia. AEMO forecasting zero minimum demand at midday by 2026/27 and then negative demand in years following. So cheap power will be accessible many days in the year to meet the govt demand. Weatherill and Smith made it clear this was the business model that got this up at $75/78/MWh.
It actually seems like the Govt will procure in the market, SolarReserve doesn't even have to do the bidding to meet the supply arrangement. I guess more will come to light over time.
SA Govt is not the loser I suspect, just getting rid of $14,000 peak demand events is worth it's weight in PR gold. Industrial users of electricity who fail to hedge will be grateful, even if they don't show it.
> (There are currently seven solar thermal farms globally with higher capacity, but all others either use parabolic troughs or smaller capacity power-tower units.)
Can only think of the Brightsource Ivanpah 392 MW currently with zero storage so they burn gas to preheat in the mornings, though being a molten salt conduit storage can be retrofitted and they say it might be one day.
Mick 2 years ago
There's a few trough plants that are larger than 150MW.. In no particular order.
– Solana (280 MW, 6hours Molten Salt – United States)
– Noor 1, (160MW, 3hrs Molten Salt storage – Morroco)
– Mohave (280MW, no storage – United States)
– Genesis (250 MW, no storage – United States)
There's also the SEGS plants (also no or little storage, gas) – and depending on how you count it ~400MW.
There's probably others, add in Ivanpah and the author's probably not too far off the money.
Thx Mick. i misread the line, took Simon to be saying seven tower CSP plants with higher capacity than Aurora.
Simon Holmes A Court 2 years ago
ivanpah uses three towers, each with lower capacity than aurora.
yeah, technically, true 🙂
seems like 2020 in SA is going to more like 2055 than 1955.
This technology will prove it's worth a little further in the future, when more plants are built and improved upon, even though it's already impressive. Storage can be designed for days or weeks if needed at quite low cost.
A lot is riding on this project, I hope it succeeds. The technology sounds very simple and , for the most, part similar to other heat-source generators being stream turbines, generators and condensers. The recycling of water is interesting , making the only destructive inputs being land, and equipment. This sort of plant could be placed anywhere where the only resource available is sunlight and land. Presumably there is a minimum sized plant smaller than which there is no profitability. Ideally you'd want to scale these up or down for different applications. For instance , remote centres like Alice Springs , or remote mine sites would require a smaller plant than this Aurora.
Ian all boiler plants need to blow down to control iron build up in the recirculating water. So I would expect this one to use 3% or more of the recirculating flow as blowdown which needs to be replaced. A lot less than the make up water in a wet cooling tower for sure. The siting restrictions relate mainly to the number of cloud free days – because CSP uses direct insolation only, clouds result in 100% loss of image and therefore output. This is the biggest disadvantage compared to PV. You also have to wonder where the big breakthrough in cost will come – PV is still on a steep downwards curve, whereas a significant part of the cost for CSP is a) the ST which is 100yo technology and b) mirror and actuators where there is a strong cost v quality payoff.
Mining sites tend not to have the life span, or certainty of a capital city. SolarPV and batteries with diesel gen-set more likely.
They may still use a small amount of water for cleaning the heliostat mirrors even though robots clean them now which reduced much of the water used for cleaning (and on site permanent labour I've heard).
Charles 2 years ago
My biggest complaint – couldn't they have come up with a better name? Aurora is the most generic name ever – see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora_(disambiguation)
In the electricity industry alone it is a retailer in Tasmania, a brand of solar inverters, and now this.
Brad 2 years ago
That was my thoughts when I saw the article. Im in tassie so thinking thats my power company 🙂
Old Salty?
Light Fantastic?
Hot Stuff?
Tim Buckley 2 years ago
Great explanation thanks Simon
Nick Thiwerspoon 2 years ago
Simon, excuse my ignorance, but I don't understand how you get from an LGC of, say, $85/MWh to the $9.50 over 20 years you suggest.
the $85/MWh we're currently seeing is an anomaly — the aftershock of the abbott/warburton renewables investment strike.
futures markets are pricing 2020 LGCs at ~$50.
my 'back of the envelope' calcs assume:
• LGCs prices from 2020 – 2029: $50, $50, $40, $40, $20, $10, $10, $10, $10, $10. i contend that these are 'orthodox' numbers, but i think they'll end up lower
• no LGCs from 2030 (as currently legislated)
• only 75% are marketable by SolarReserve
• spread over 20 years
which works out to be an average price of $9.36
happy to receive feedback on these calcs.
Oh, excellent. Thank you. Makes perfect sense!
Caffined 2 years ago
Unless i am reading this wrong…
# The SA Government get a capped price for all the power they might want (for their own facilities) from this plant,…but are still free to go elseware and buy at cheap spot prices when the market is low.
# Solar Reserve get a fixed price 20year contract for part of their capacity, but can go to the free market at peak price times to maximiise their returns.
That sounds like a cosy deal for the SA gov' , but doesnt actually do much for the open market pricing problems as Solar Reserve will be wanting to keep those peak time prices as high as possible to recover their costs which we know they wont be able to with just the SA Gov contract.
Sounds like the SA Gov, are screwing the public in order to reduce their own costs. !
My concerns as well – it would be interesting to know how much is fixed. Comments like "the price is not significantly impacted on by the size of the Federal loan" make you wonder. $650M capex needs about $140/MWh to wash its face.
i agree that some fancy financial / energy market engineering is going on here.
i suspect that it all comes down to value of dispatchability in the evening hours. i've seen analysis showing > $200/MWh for dispatchable solar in SA.
on the concessional federal finance: even if the project is ultimately awarded all of the 'xenophon' $110m, it only represents 17% of project capital.
i haven't crunched the numbers, but i'd expect that the concessional cost of capital (say 3-4% rather than say 8-12%) on just 17% of the funds wouldn't move the needle on the eventual WACC.
SR has said the Fed funds are equity. If that is the it would represent a significant proportion of the equity.
i did a quick calc using finkle's assumptions of:
• cost of equity: 11%
• cost debt: 4.4%
and assumed:
• 50% LVR, and
• 3% cost of gov funds.
• $0m gov funds then WACC = 7.7%
• $55m gov funds then WACC = 7.0%
• $110m gov funds then WACC = 6.3%
look right to you?
yes, gov funds make a difference — i was wrong about not moving the needle — but not enough to make a bad project good.
i don't fully understand your analysis.
as i understand it SAG won't be trading in the NEM — SR will be effectively paying for the wholesale costs of SAG's energy and offsetting the cost against the revenue attributed to their plant.
SR has every inventive to maximise production during high price events, which will maximise revenue and reduce the price and/or frequency of high price events.
without doing a whole lot of modelling (which would likely be wrong anyway!) it's very hard to predict how much effect this will have on the SA spot market.
From Giles P's article..
QUOTE..
"Aurora will provide the S.A. government with some of its needs from other sources in the market when demand and the price is low. Aurora will cover the government for energy and prices when the government's demand is at its highest, around the middle of the day.
But because the government can and will get some cheap power elsewhere, Aurora will be able store its solar power in its molten salt storage tanks so it can sell into the market at the system peaks, in late afternoon and early evening, when the market prices are highest, boosting its revenue.""
That suggests to me SR will be able to bid for peak supply at will with any surplus power they have.
That seems like a very dubious use of taxpayer funds.
Any reliable reference sources for average actual sunlight hours for PA ?
The only ones i can find suggest an annual average of about 110 hrs per month (min 60 hrs/month )
https://www.worldweatheronline.com/port-augusta-weather-averages/south-australia/au.aspx
Another site states a recorded average of 4.2 hrs per day over historical records.
That doesent seem like an ideal location for a CSP plant that needs direct sunlight. !
from a 2010 report prepared for RenewablesSA:
"The long-term average global horizontal irradiance value at the Port Augusta site (Latitude: 32.537019 S, Longitude: 137.813373 E) is 5.191 kWh/m2/day (216.3 W/m2). The long-term average direct normal irradiance value is 5.670 kWh/m2/day (236.3 W/m2), and the long-term average diffuse horizontal irradiance value is 1.631 kWh/m2/day (67.9 W/m2 )."
my understanding is that it is not an ideal location for solar radiation, but don't forget that access to grid, labour, electricity market, PPA etc can be a lot more important than chasing 10-20% more energy.
Without knowing in some detail the exact working area of collectors, i am no further forward..but thanks.
But these CST systems must need clear unclouded sunlight to get anywhere near efficient operation ?
Sunlight hour Data seems so inconsistent..with averages.ranging from 2 hrs to 9 hours per day,..depending on the month !
Correct and how do you deal with a site that isn't quite optimal…….. you design more collector area and storage.
This plant is just the start for other plants to be constructed in the future, which will address what I have said above.
but the collector area, and storage capacity (8-10 hrs) have been stated..
So how do you deal with a few consecutive days of cloud ?
If CST was the main stay to satisfy energy production for say up to 3days, it could do that if so designed, they would increase collector area relative to supplying a given daily load and design extra storage, up to 3 days without sun to do that.
E.G. Need 15 MW/day, then design it to have a collector area to produce 45MW. 2/3rds would be saved for 3 cloudy in molten salt storage………. does that make sense now?
I understand that the proposed plant doesnt have enough capacity or storage to maintain a continuous 135 MWh supply beyond 8 hours of no sun.
I also understand that weather statistics suggest that there is the probability of several consecutive sunless days .
So I assume they will have to maintain a sufficient "thermal reserve" to cover for any forcast sunless period.
I guess they could restrict the output to provide a 50.0 MWh continuous 24 hour supply, but then they would not be able to profit from the "peak" markets which they need to make the project viable.
Sorry, I meant to say in this analogy,15MWh/day total output during sunlight hours. So if you need 3 days autonomy one would have to produce 30MWh/day and store 15MWh x 3 days it would have 45MWh in storage. Or produce 45MWh/ day and send only 15 to the grid.
Of course in this analogy, the plant is designed to send power to the grid during day light hours only and to store enough for 3 days supply to be used in day light hours during cloudy periods or it could use that stored 15MWh during the night if needed.
Keep in mind Aurora won't operate that way, but I think you should be able to work it out. My expertise is PV not CST, but it would have to be very similar.
You are mixing up you units (accidentally ?).
From the above article..
""….Solar Reserve's Senior VP of Development, Tom Georgis, the gross output of the turbine is 150 MW, however the plant's auxiliary load during the day reduces the daytime 'sent-out' power to 135 MW. "After the sun sets, we are no longer collecting energy from the sun, so the heliostat field and cold salt pumps are not operating, and consequently the auxiliary loads are much reduced…..""
So, the plant ancilliary load is 15MW, but reduced when not collecting.
" Reduced" say by 50% ? For the 16+ hours of no sun , (120 MWh) ,or for a full day of no sun 180MWh.
OK , so if they can predict a bad weather spell and fully charge the store to max (1100 MWh) , they could survive a few days !
I wonder if they have a feed from the grid to power some heaters for the salt in an emergency ?
No I'm not mixing up units MW's and MWh are different things. In the analogy I gave you, I used MWhs so you could get an idea about the storage.
Plus I can't see 15MW would be needed to drive pumps and operate heliostats. For more info I suggest you contact Solar Reserve
Did you even read the quote i posted ?
..Or the article above ?
The 15 MW ancilliary load is a direct quote from Solar Reserv's VP of Development.
I suspect he is probably better informed to know how much power is needed to drive 10,000+ tracking motors and pumps to circulat 30,000 tonnes of liquid salt, etc etc.
So , tell me what a "MWh/day" …is a unit of ??
This system is going to consume 10% of it own production just to operate.
Now…imagine a partly cloudy day when they have to keep "tracking and pumping" etc (15 MWh) but the sun hours is only out for a total of 2 hours. ..(300MWh collected, 240+ MW hrs consumed !)
Not quite that bad Caffined (what's wrong with a real name on a technical blog?). On a partly cloudy day they would shut the steam set down and just store, and then run a shortened evening. A normal air cooled small steam power station would have 5-8% parasitics – feedwater pumps, condensate pumps, vacuum pumps, condenser fans, oil pumps, oil cooler fans, air compressors, etc then this one has a salt circulation system as well, so a total of 10% is not surprising. The trackers would be powered from PV panels on the heliopads I would expect. When you are storing but not generating then the ST auxiliaries are off. You still have a few percent losses in keeping things warm and in auxiliary power supplies, but the primary parasitic is the salt pumps, and even they are likely to use VSDs to modulate flow to maintain temperatures.
Sure, i wouldnt expect them to dispatch power at such a low capture level, in fact i suspect they will be feeding to store for most of the time on a full sun day also, so they can maximise evening/morning peak dispatch options.
Why do you think the trackers would be PV powered ?..has that been done before ?
How can you rely on PV for tracking power on a cloudy day unless each one has battery back up ?..That seems an unlikely senario for 10,000+ collectors.
..SR certainly stated that the tracking and pumps were parasitic loads on the main output capacity, and actually said that the trackers and pumps were a major part of that 15MW ancilliary load enabling a higher output capacity when not collecting.
And surely the main salt circulation pumps would need to be operating during any collecting
So how would they power that ancilliary load for even just collecting if not from the main generator plant…auxilliary generator plant ?
Either way its all energy used and not available for dispatch.
….the "Caffined" tag was not my choosing, somehow it was attached automatically when i logged in to Discus ??? ..and i have not been able to find a way of Changing it !
SR has contemplated PV powering the heliostats for a while – it reduces cabling in the field. PV is not affected anywhere near as much by cloud as CSP and is so cheap you simply oversize. There will be some battery back up for each heliostat to power the tracking computers. CSP developers have been looking at "intelligent" heliostats for a while even tho' you still need centralised control for load balancing and emergency off targetting.
The salt pumps will be large – several MW each, with multiple redundancy – a failure in circulation is fatal as it takes time to move all the heliostats off target. 1200 suns does a lot of damage very quickly – quite enormous heat flux.
But your central proposition is correct: self used power is not available for dispatch. Hence why I'm not a CSP convert – PVs plus pumped hydro and behind the meter batteries is my bet.
I think it's obvious you just want an argument and your starting to annoy me. I already advised you to contact Solar Reserve. Go do that!
No need,
SR have already clearly stated what the ancillary loads are (15MW) , and it seems reasonable,
Why do you not want to accept that figure. ?
..is it because it indicates one of the flaws in this type of CSP project ?
….Especially when its located in a non optimum location.
I am amazed how many inteligent people seem unable to to spot the holes in this proposal.
…let alone the deceptive presentation on the output power cost !
Clearly your a FF troll, now Fu%ck off.
Clearly , you have your tunnel vision blinkers on.
I do actually think renewables are the way to go, but this is not the way, at this time, for this situation.
I guess you do not live or run a business in SA, or you would be a bit more concerned.
SA urgently needs a stable , affordable , sustainable , power supply.
This solution is none of those characteristics, and is most likely just a political manouver by a lost state government in a last minute attempt to appear to be taking action .
Either reduce capacity or save for later and use other sources.
More below.
dono 2 years ago
About 50 years ago – before economics went mad – the governments owned all the power generation and transmission. Then they sold them off and the "market" convinced governments that they should decided what price they could charge. Now we are heading into the same morass with governments still at the mercy of the power plant owners .
Ignoring some of the fine detail,….. LGCs, Equity %, interest rates, etc etc…
i think i have some "Napkin maths" answers as to how this thing floats financially..
.. SR, "underwrites the SA Gov supply needs at $75-78 /MWh. , but they can supply most of that from the daytime off peak spot market at say $85-100 MWH,..costing SR $25 /MWh max.
..But, SR can then sell their own stored power into the peak price evening market at anything up to $200-300+ /MWh
Net result is SR are effectively getting more like $175-275 /MWh for their output !
which makes the whole project viable and attractive to investors
obviously not quite as simple as that but it seems to be the way the deal is set..
Neat ! ..SA Gov get a below market capped price for 20 years for all their personal needs, and Solar Reserve get a healthy profit !
So who is losing out ? …..anyone who is not included in the deal !
Corrections , comments,.. all welcome .
Gary Rowbottom 2 years ago
Thanks Simon, covered all the main points very well, complements Giles article excellently. As a Port Augusta resident and campaigner for this technology for over 5 years I am thrilled to see it is now going to happen, good for the SA power network, good for my region, good for the planet.
Simon, I have another question. Apologies for wasting your time. At the end of the article, you give annual output of the Aurora facility as 495 GWh. But if output is 135 MWh for 20 hours, surely that translates into 985 GWh? What am I missing?
Gold Platinum 2 years ago
The biggest thermal molten solar tower projects average power output is 15MW = (130,842 MWh_in_a_year / 8760_hours_in_a_year)
For comparison, Hazelwood Coal powerstation average power: 1369MW = (12,000,000 MWh / 8760_hours_in_a_year) so that's almost exactly 1% of the power. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crescent_Dunes_Solar_Energy_Project https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hazelwood_Power_Station
The increasing scientific consensus is that solar-farms that are non-roof top are just environmentally destructive for the amount of land they need and the tiny amount of power they produce. Compared with the land just being used for CO2 sequestration achieved via photosynthesis. All major solar farm projects in the USA have been met with criticism from nature conservationists https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJ8L9EAWF3E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fmZyFXfBBM https://phys.org/news/2017-10-nature-vital-climate.html
Drake Anderson 2 years ago
Still cost 8 billion to replace Port Augusta.
EnerjiBes 1 year ago
Thanks Simon. great explanation.
I write about commercial solar installation and investing in this blog (http://energyfive.net/) (speciality Turkish solar systems).
Example page: http://energyfive.net/2017/10/28/solar-power-plant-installation-and-cost/


The fourth issue of the Melbourne / Berlin based, risograph photography journal presents the work of 10 European-based photographers. After appearances at the Tokyo, New York and LA Art Book Fairs and being included in the National Gallery of Victoria's extensive Melbourne Now! exhibition, the journal's fourth issue continues to experiment with print and production methods alongside the Melbourne-based Dawn Press studio.
After an Australia-centric third issue I'm particularly excited for number four. It's the first I've published TITSO since relocating to Europe and I've been in touch with a group of photographers working on the continent.
The issue features work from David Boyson Cooper (Glasgow, Scotland), Lasse Dearman (Copenhagen, Denmark), Marijn Degenaar (Berlin, Germany / Gouda, The Netherlands), Jasmine Deporta (Bolzano, Italy), Victoria Mak (St Petersburg, Russia), Jessica Prescott (Berlin, Germany / Napier, New Zealand), Joe Skilton (London, UK), Katarina Šoškić (Vienna, Austria / Belgrade, Serbia), Ana Tabatadze (Berlin, Germany / Tbilisi, Georgia) and curator-publisher Samuel J Davison (Berlin, Germany / Melbourne, Australia).


--Oliver sings "Good Morning Starshine" (from the musical "Hair").
--The People (aka People!) perform "Ulla" and "Think."
--Mark Lindsay (series co-host) performs "First Hymn from Grand Terrace."
The Judges of The HAPPENING 1969 Amateur Band Contest are Warren Entner (of "The Grass Roots"), Sajid Khan, and Merrilee Rush.


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An authentic recreation of those legendary pickups.
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Make your tele sing the way it was meant to. Order today.


text:
The perils of a mobile-first IT strategy
By John Stein Monroe
Don't expect the mobile revolution to happen without a fight.
According to industry visionaries, the traditional PC is bound to be supplanted by a combination of laptop computers, tablet PCs, smart phones and similar products. Indeed, those gadgets have already been making their way into the federal workplace, whether agencies like it or not. So far, it has been a grass-roots revolution.
Now, some agency leaders are getting in on the action by revising their IT policies to incorporate mobile devices. A few agencies — notably the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the General Services Administration — have even begun talking about a mobile-first strategy.
Not so fast. As it turns out, given their druthers, many federal employees favor performance over mobility and would rather stick with their old-school desktop computers. Here is a sampling of the comments we received when we asked Federal Computer Week readers to weigh in on the matter. Comments have been edited for length, style and clarity.
When I can get a mobile/portable device that allows me to leave a dozen windows open as I navigate between several cutting/pasting/copying/sorting/reviewing tasks (did someone say virtual office displays?) and continue to be productive, only then will I even think about giving up my desktop.
Laptops simply lack the power to do even mildly complex analyses. There may come a point where laptops are finally up to par, but for now, they are still limited. As far as tablets, I agree that they are a step backward. They make great toys but aren't a serious consideration when it comes to doing anything beyond simple things like e-mail and streaming video.
— Paul
A bad deal
Unfortunately, my laptop was taken away and replaced by a cheaper desktop a few years ago. I am now tethered to my desk and can't work from home. It's even difficult to work away from my desk because we can't use thumb drives and have extremely limited share-drive and e-mail storage space. So, while the command is paying for a cheaper desktop, they've now lost the "free" work they used to get from me when working from home.
What a brick
Without connectivity, most of the "neat" devices are useless, with the exception of the loaded portable. What are we to do during an emergency situation involving significant destruction or a power outage? If your computer needs a cloud [to access software], you are left with a brick in your hand.
— HAS
Check the calendar
I already have a laptop — and that's what I've had in every job since 1994. I am amazed that it's taken the government this long to catch up. What would be nice would be a virtual desktop in the cloud at work, with an iPad or something similar to connect to it.
— Barry Graham
John Monroe is Senior Events Editor for the 1105 Public Sector Media Group, where he is responsible for overseeing the development of content for print and online content, as well as events. John has more than 20 years of experience covering the information technology field. Most recently he served as Editor-in-Chief of Federal Computer Week. Previously, he served as editor of three sister publications: civic.com, which covered the state and local government IT market, Government Health IT, and Defense Systems.


Dog Walkers in Mammoth Spring, AR - Dog Walking Near You | Wag!
Located in Fulton County, the town of Mammoth Spring is a rural community. There are several outdoor recreational opportunities located within about 20 miles of town. If you need a veterinarian for your pup, you'll find a clinic about 3.8 miles away in Thayer.
Plan an adventure with your four-footed friend, and head about 8.5 miles northwest to explore Grand Gulf State Park. Hike along the Natural Bridge Trail or the Interpretive Trail to view spectacular scenery here. Dogs can accompany you as long as they're on a leash that's no longer than ten feet. Make sure you have tick protection and plenty of water.
You can explore nature with your pooch in Cover Prairie Conservation Area, located about 14 miles northwest of town. This property features undeveloped prairie and brush. There's an access trail that you can use to walk through the property with your fur baby. Dogs need to be on a leash and under control. Bring water and waste bags with you.
Head about 21.6 miles west to White Ranch Conservation Area and spend the day fishing and hiking with your canine companion. This 6,614-acre facility offers trails, a fishing pond, picnic areas, and primitive campsites. You can bring dogs as long as they're on a leash up to ten feet long.
The town of Mammoth Spring offers access to several outdoor recreational facilities that welcome dogs.
Mammoth Spring is a small town with single-family homes and some apartment buildings. You'll be able to take Fido for a stroll through the neighborhood here. If you're looking for a place to take your furry pal for a campout, look no further than Mammoth Spring Campground off U.S. Highway 63. This small facility has sites for tents and RVs along Spring River. Cook out with your pooch and share an outdoor meal before you sleep under the stars. Make sure you keep your dog on a leash and under control at all times. Bring waste bags so that you can clean up any messes.
Right at the edge of Mammoth Spring, you'll find Mammoth Spring State Park. This facility houses a ten-acre lake and the largest spring in Arkansas. You can go hiking with your fur baby on the trails here. Follow the interpretive pathway around the spring lake and learn about Arkansas history. Bring some food and grab a picnic in the park with Spot. Dogs are welcome to accompany you in this state property, provided that you keep them appropriately restrained on a leash and stay out of the buildings. Remember to bring waste bags with you so that you can pick up any droppings.
Just 2.6 miles north of Mammoth Spring, you'll find the town of Thayer, Missouri. This community has residential areas, some small businesses, and the local high school. Here, you can take a daily stroll around the block with your four-footed friend. When you want to enjoy a float down the Warm Fork Spring River with your special pal, bring your canoe to the launch area off Oregon County Road 256, just south of Highway 63. There are picnic tables and some open space here where you can share a meal together. Remember to keep your pup under control and pick up his waste.
The neighborhood around Griffin Park in the town of Hardy is about 18.3 miles south of town. This area has some private residences and a stable. You and Spot can take walks along wooded lanes here. To spend a day by the South Fork Spring River, get a day pass to Griffin Park. Hike or jog on the trails in this facility, or launch into the water and go floating. Pack a basket and share a picnic together. You can bring dogs as long as you keep them on a leash and under control. Remember to clean up after your pup when you visit.
Loberg Park is about 16.7 miles south of Mammoth Spring. This Hardy neighborhood includes some lakeside estates and a commercial district. Walk along the river with your furry pal in this neighborhood. To enjoy an outdoor meal and some playtime in the grass with your pooch, head to Loberg Park. This pawesome facility has open fields, a playground, and a paved pathway that wanders along the Spring River. Bring your pole and fish from the shoreline here while Spot relaxes by your side. You can bring dogs with you, provided that they're on a leash and you clean up after them.


text:
Shox Will Assemble a Team to Go to the Major In Paris
Shox announced the gathering of his team.
Richard shox Papillon announced the gathering of a team whose primary goal will be to qualify for the BLAST.tv Paris Major. The player announced this on his Twitter.
I decided to create my own project, launch my own thing with the main goal - to qualify for a major in Paris, because this is a dream. And in the future, we will see where it will lead us.
Richard shox Papillon
Shox also reported that the presentation of the team will take place today.
Who Can Get Into the Team?
In the community, the shox's project has already been called the French Last Dance by analogy with the project of Gabriel FalleN Toledo, which the Brazilian created in early 2022. However, who does shox plan to recruit to his team?
Now it will take a lot of work to gather old players into one team. Now the Falcons lineup is more like the French Last Dance. Kenny KennyS Shrab and Nathan NBK Schmitt are playing there. They are needed for the Last Dance lineup.
KennyS is at Falcons
Yes, shox has problems with NBK, but for a great purpose, they can unite well. Some French players have contracts with HEET, and the situation with this organization is much more complicated. Now HEET has problems with salary payments. The players have already involved lawyers, so several performers may be released. Among others, Audric JACKZ Jug and Alexandre bodyy Pianaro have a contract with the organization.
JACKZ has a contract with HEET
In addition to old players, shox has the option to collect young promising players. One of them is Paul day0s Niel. Yes, he cannot be considered young, but he is just entering the scene, so the player definitely cannot be called a veteran. ESEA recently unbanned the player, and his skill is amazing. Also, at the end of last year, day0s announced that he was about to join the team. We wrote more about the player in this article.
Day0s can be included in shox's team
Shox will clearly be able to gather five young players, but it will be different from the French Last Dance that everyone is talking about. But this does not mean that the team will not show results.
Will Shox Make It to the Majors?
How does shox will achieve the primary goal, and will he succeed? We already have a positive example. FalleN collected his Last Dance in early 2022 and went to IEM Rio Major 2022, which was the same goal.
Shox has the maximum motivation because the Major will be held in his native country. Therefore, the Frenchman will be fully committed to training and during the roster assembly. However, there is an important difference between shox and FalleN: the qualification region.
The Frenchman and his team will have to qualify in Europe, where the competition is much more complicated than in America. Despite the massive number of slots (17), the shox's team will still have to pass a challenging open qualification and no less complicated RMR, which is much more competitive in Europe.
However, it is possible to pass a non-major. For example, last year, GamerLegion and Sprout appeared in the main tournament, from which no one expected an outstanding performance.
When Will We Hear More About the Shox's Team?
Shox will talk more about the team on his Twitch channel today at 10:00 PM Moscow time. In addition, the Frenchman will hold a mini-presentation of his project.
BLAST Paris Major
Shox Announced the Composition Of His Team: SmithZz Resumed His Player Career
Rumor: BLAST Plans to Hold the Group Stage Of the Paris Major With Spectators
BLAST Announced the Locations Of the RMR Tournaments For the Paris Major


UpCycle will add approximately 81,000 square feet of creative office space to East Austin's supply by converting old warehouse space into office properties.
AUSTIN, TEXAS — HFF has secured approximately $19.9 million in financing for a project to convert 81,711 square feet of warehouse space in Austin into a creative office property. Branded UpCycle, the new office property will be located on Sixth Street in East Austin and will feature conference space, bike storage and a coffee bar. Robert Wooten and Eric Tupler of HFF placed the loan on behalf of the borrower, a joint venture between EverWest Real Estate Investors and WHI Real Estate Partners. An entity affiliated with Marathon Asset Management LP originated the loan, which features a three-year term and a floating interest rate. Proceeds from the loan will be used to complete the conversion by May.


text:
10 Incredible Bollywood Movies Based On True Events That Are Coming Out In 2021
Saloni SinghUpdated on Mar 26, 2021, 15:26 IST
2020 was a year that will go down in history. With many things shutting down, movies shut down too and web shows paved way into our lives even more. 2021, things are swinging back to normalcy and hopefully movie business will revive soon. Because why not! We have some interesting line up this year. 2021 is all about movies based on true events.
ipiccy
Don't believe us. Take a look. After all, real stories do really strike a chord with us.
1. Bell Bottom
The movie is based on real events and will narrate the story about some unforgettable heroes. The movie as the title suggests is set during the 1980s. This movie is historic for more reason. Akshay Kumar-Vaani Kapoor starrer was the first film to be shot internationally in the midst of the pandemic when shootings had stopped in India
2 Saina
The movie was first offered to Shraddha Kapoor but due to health reasons she opted out and Parineeti Chopra was roped in. The actress who was last seen in The Girl On The Train is all set to play the badminton player Saina Nehwal. Directed by Amol Gupte, the movie hits the screens today.
3. Prithvi Raj
screengrab
Based on the life of Prithviraj Chauhan, the movie stars Akshay Kumar and Manushi Chillar. Akshay will play the role of Chauhan and Manushi who is making her Hindi movie debut will play his love interest. The movie that was supposed to release last year is now scheduled to release in theatres on 5 November 2021 during the Diwali week.
4. The Big Bull
Taking the stock market by storm, Abhishek Bachchan is arriving as a lead hero with this film. He plays the role of Harshad Mehta , stock broker who got involved in financial scams. Abhishek plays the protagonist along with Ileana D'cruz and Saurabh Shukla. The trailer released earlier this week and the audiences are already impressed with it despite a web show already on the same subject.
Haven't we all been waiting for this phenomenal movie. 83 which was supposed to release early last year but got stuck due to Pandemic will see light of the day this year. The movie is slated to release on 4th June, 2021 and stars Ranveer Singh who plays the role of Kapil Sharma and show the famous World Cup match in 1983 along with other cricketers.
6. Maidaan
This year is all about sports film and Maidaan is no different.Starring Ajay Devgn, the movie is based on the golden era of Indian football (1952–62). The actor will play the role of the famous football coach Syed Rehman.
7. Bhuj
Again starring Ajay Devgn, Bhuj: The Pride of India is Indo-Pak war film in 971. The movie is specific and shows the life of IAF Squadron Leader Vijay Karnik, the then in-charge of the Bhuj airport who, with his team, reconstructed the IAF airbase with the help of 300 women from the local village Madhapar.
8. Thalaivi
Now who doesn't know about this. A famous woman playing the role of a famous politician and actress. The movie based on Jayalalithaa who served six times as the chief minister of Tamil Nadu for over fourteen years between 1991 and 2016. Kangana Ranaut who plays the lead role shared the trailer of her birthday this week and even got emotional recalling the shoot of the film.
9. Gangubai Kathiawadi
Finally the much awaited collaboration has taken place. Alia Bhatt will be seen in Gangubai Kathiawadi playing the role of madam in a brothel house. Directed by Sanjay leela Bhansali, the film is a biographical crime drama film directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali. The movie also features Ajay Devgn and Emraan Hashmi. The trailer that released early this month has received a promising response.
10. Shershah
After really long we will see Siddharth Malhotra in a war action film. The movie is traces the life of Param Vir Chakra awardee and army captain Vikram Batra.


text:
L'Ethnikos Gymnastikos Syllogos o Ethnikos GS Atenes és un club esportiu grec de la ciutat d'Atenes.

És un dels clubs esportius més antics de Grècia, fundat el 1893.

El seu equip de gimnàstica va competir als Jocs Olímpics d'Estiu de 1896 d'Atenes. El capità era Ioannis Chrysafis i els altres membres eren Ioannis Mitropoulos, Dimitrios Loundras, Filippos Karvelas, i 15 gimnastes més de nom desconegut. L'equip fou tercer en barres paral·leles.

L'equip de futbol fou dos cops campió grec els anys 1906 i 1907.

Palmarès

Futbol
 Lliga grega de futbol: (2)
 1906, 1907

Altres esports
 Atletisme masculí:
 21 campionats grecs: (1901, 1910, 1920, 1925, 1926, 1927, 1928, 1930, 1931, 1937, 1938, 1939, 1940, 1946, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1953, 1954)
 6 campionats grecs de camp a través: (1908, 1910, 1911, 1912, 1926, 1927)
 Atletisme femení:
 1 campionat grec: (1975)
 1 campionat grec de camp a través: (1982)

 Tir olímpic:
 1 campionat grec: (1937)

 Boxa masculina:
 2 campionats grecs: (1961, 1981)
 Boxa femenina:
 1 campionat grec: (2013)

 Lluita greco-romana masculina:
 35 campionats grecs: (1936, 1937, 1938, 1939, 1940, 1946, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1958, 1960, 1962,[2] 1964, 1965, 1966, 1968, 1969, 1971, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982[3], 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988) (rècord)
 Lluita lliure masculina:
 4 campionats grecs: (1958, 1959, 1960, 1966)

 Judo masculí:
 5 campionats grecs: (1993, 1995, 1996, 1998, 2001)

Referències

Clubs de futbol grecs
Clubs de futbol desapareguts
Clubs d'atletisme
Tir olímpic
Clubs de boxa
Clubs de lluita
Clubs de judo
Clubs de gimnàstica
Esport a Atenes

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


I joined a club softball team that starts next Friday. I'm not that great at land sports that involve hand-eye coordination, so last night I went to the batting cages to practice.
It was a blast and a fun, but cheap, way to spend a Friday night. I still need to work on keeping my eye on the ball when it is thrown at me (I wish I was kidding, but I have a tendency to close my eyes at the last second), but I'm trying! I never played team sports on land, so it's a whole new experience. My boyfriend and one of our friends who came along both played baseball so they were trying to give me pointers and I made some progress as the evening progressed.
I think I mentioned that I joined a new gym by work and they have an olympic lifting platform that I have been spending a lot of time with.
I was finding it really hard to motivate myself to workout after a long day at work, so instead I've been catching the 6:10 am bus downtown to workout before work. It was rough at first, but I really prefer starting the day off that way and then I have my evenings free to do whatever. Plus, I am obsessed with hang cleans and love the look of surprise when I step up to the platform and start lifting. Usually I am the only girl in the weight room at that hour and I hope my presence can help break the ice for other girls to check it out.
I'm off to go camping for the night!
Tell me what you are up to this weekend! Anyone else going camping? BBQ-ing? Any races?
This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged CrossFit, diet, Healthy, Workout by fionaboger. Bookmark the permalink.
OMG OMG OMG that song is amazing. You just made my effing day.


The Gallery of Modern Art is located in the rooms once inhabited by the Habsburg-Lorraine family on the second floor of Pitti Palace, from which there is a magnificent view over Florence and the Boboli Gardens. Its collections of paintings and sculptures, ranging from the end of the 18th century until the first decades of the 20th century, are still being added to through donations and purchases. Once inhabited by the Grand Dukes of Habsburg-Lorraine, these sumptuous rooms host Neoclassical and Romantic artworks and numerous important paintings by the Macchiaioli school, mainly from Diego Martelli's collection. There is indeed a considerable number of historical paintings in the Gallery, including the well-known landscapes of the Maremma area by Giovanni Fattori, leading artist of the Macchiaioli movement. The 19th-century itinerary concludes with works of the Decadence, Symbolism, Post-Impressionism and Pointillism movements. Among the various painters on display: F. Hayez, S. Lega, T. Signorini, G. Fattori, C. Pissarro, M. Rosso, G. Boldini, A. Magnelli.


Q: If I move all the contents from my external hard drive Can they still see it?
I want to sell my External Hard Drive. If I Move all the contents unto another hard drive (not delete.. move).. can some tech smart person still see what I had all the hard drive?? Thanks!
A:If I move all the contents from my external hard drive Can they still see it?
I have read similar problems I am having now but NONE have so far as i have read, with a solution.
> My only concern now is that the system image i used to restore my pc is located on my old 500GB WD External Hard Drive.
>> Can anyone PLEASE EXPLAIN, how to i move the system image from my old 500GB External Hard Drive to my new 1TB External Hard Drive?
>> Can this be done by the simple COPY/PASTE, CUT/PASTE, or how to MOVE the system image CORRECTLY.
A hearty thanks to everyone..
On something so large and so very important, you should use Robocopy in command prompt.(sorry I've never need to use it, so I personally have no experience, but maybe someone else can.
Q: Can't move my paging file to an external hard drive.
I've got Windows XP home and two external hard drives (connected via USB) and I'm trying to give one or both of those drives paging files. My hard-drives are an I-Omega 500GB and a Maxtor 300GB, both with plenty of room. I want to set my paging file to 650MB.
I know how to change the size of a paging file. I go to System\ advanced\ performance...etc to get to the virtual memory box, I set the paging-file sizes for the external drives (remembering to press SET) then reboot. When the computer has restarted I run a disc analysis, but the external drives have no paging file.
I notice that many people move their paging file to an external drive, so why isn't it working for me?
Dell Dimension 5150, 1GB RAM.
A:Can't move my paging file to an external hard drive.
I have been moving some DVD's (iso and avi files) from my hard drive (C) to an external hard drive (I). At this point I have 45.8 GB of free space on my Hard Drive (C) and I have 62.1 GB of free space on my external hard drive (I).
Every time I try to cut a file from (C) and paste it to (I), I get a message: "cannot copy_____: there is not enough free disc space. Delete one or more files to free disk space and then try again." Generally each of these files I want to move is about 4.4GB. There would appear to be ample space on both the sending and receiving drive to handle 4.4 GB. But what do I know.
I have done disk cleanup, and even used Revo Uninstaller to clean out all temporary files, cookies, Remnants, and my recycle bin.
What do I need to do to cut and paste (or otherwise transfer) the files from (C) to (I)?
Thank you in advance. TSF people have always been able to help me on a timely basis.
Try a smaller file - just to see if that works. Try a text document.
I currently have a computer that will not properly boot, so I was wondering if there was a way to move all the files from my current hard drive to an external hard drive, then format the hard drive on the computer and reload the files I know are "clean" or would my only option be to buy a new hard drive, install windows xp on it, and then move the files from the old hard drive to the new one?
PS I have a 160gb maxtor external hard drive and a 160gb hard drive in my Dell Dimension 8400. I can also boot to the recovery console, but safe mode is quite difficult to access and I'm not 100% if I can even access it anymore. If you have any other questions just ask.
Q: Can't move my image files to external hard drive!!!
Problem: I have a game image file I want to transfer to my external hard drive. When I try to transfer it it says my external drive is full. I have about 70 gigs of free space on the drive and the image file is 5 gigs.
I've tried to transfer them to 2 different external drives and both say the same thing, "Drive is full... blah blah blah." My friend has the same image file on his comp so I tried to transfer it to my external drive from HIS computer and same problem.
This leads me to believe the problem lies in the image file. .MDS files and .ISO files won't transfer for some reason. I've tried transferring other files of the same size (about 6 gigs) and they transfer fine.
All drives have been defragmented and error checked. Any ideas??
Thanks for your help!! If you solve my problem I'll take you out for a big steak dinner if you come to Canada. Thanks!!!!
A:Can't move my image files to external hard drive!!!
I'm going to guess the hard disk is formatted FAT32 and not NTFS. This limits file sizes to 4gigs, anything larger will result in such an error. You need to convert the drive to NTFS for this to work.
I hope that I have posted this in the right place! I am trying to move a large file (19 Gb) from my computer to my external hard drive.
But it is saying the file is too big to move (obviously there is plenty of space on the External Hard Drive!!).
I am far from an expert on this - I think I compressed the file using WinRAR but still getting the same error.
Hello. I have a Dell Inspiron 9200 notebook. I take a lot of pictures and noticed they are taking too much space on the C: drive. Yesterday I purchased an external hard drive (Western Digital 120GB). How do I move the photos? I currently sort the photos with Adobe Photoshop Album 2.0.
Can I later on download photos directly to the hard drive?
I'm guessing it's possible to move an external hard drive from computer to computer, am I correct?
I have a Maxtor (Now Seagate) one touch 4 external hard drive connected to a notebook running Vista Home Premium SP2 with NTFS formatting using a USB 2.0 connection.
The computer I want to connect it to is a desktop running XP Pro SP3 with NTFS formatting.
Checking the external drive properties on the notebook it says it is formatted in NTFS as well.
The first time I connected the external drive to the Vista Notebook, the "Maxtor Manager" backup and configuration software began an autorun installation of the software to the notebook which installed to the main "C" drive program files on the notebook, where the drive is currently in use. By checking the Knowledge Base on the Seagate website it says the drive can be used as a simple storage device and installation of the software is not required.
Ideally what I want to do is to be able to move the drive back and forth between the two computers and I would like to have the "Maxtor Manager" software installed on both computers, but if this is not possible it won't be a problem for me.
The autorun install files are still on the external drive exactly as I found them, the only thing I did was back them up to CD.
You shouldn't have any problem at all moving the harddrive back & forth between computers. If you really need the software on the desktop, it should run automatically when you first plug it in. If you have the backup software set up to run automatically on the laptop & you don't have the harddrive plugged in at the time, it shouldn't run. I'm not sure if it will run automatically once you do hookup the harddrive. Probably not. It will just wait for the next auto setup time.
You don't need to completely shut down your computer to detach the harddrive. Just click on that "Safely Remove Hardware" thingy & wait for the harddrive to idle down. If it has a on/off switch, turn it off before unplugging the USB wire.
Q: Solved: External Hard drive OR External Hard drive/dvd-rw combo?
A:Solved: External Hard drive OR External Hard drive/dvd-rw combo?
Q: Putting a Zune 80gb Hard Drive in an External Hard Drive Enclosure, help please!
A:Putting a Zune 80gb Hard Drive in an External Hard Drive Enclosure, help please!
Q: Need Advice : External Desktop Hard drive vs Portable Hard drive?
A:Need Advice : External Desktop Hard drive vs Portable Hard drive?
Q: Move a game to another hard drive?
how could i move a game to another hard drive so i dont have to download it again?
the game im on about is called Aion takes hours to download.. i already have it on my laptop so was wondering if i could just move it via portable hard drive onto my computer?
A:Move a game to another hard drive?
So my original PC was an HP Compaq dx2250 with an AMD Athlon chipset running Win7 Ultimate x64. Unfortunately, a few days ago, the motherboard fried. Because I have a large amount of important programs on the PC's hard drive, I was wondering about the possibility of moving the existing hard drive into a new PC. I was able to locate a seemingly identical build, a Dell Dimension E521 with an Athlon X2 chipset running Win7 Ultimate x64. When I hooked up the hard drive from my old PC, the boot process gets to the point of "Starting Windows" with the Windows logo starting to appear. Then, blank. The computer reboots and it sends me to startup repair, which cannot repair any "errors" automatically. Is there something I'm missing?
Yes you need to perform clean install of Windows.
Hey, I'm running XP. I was wondering how I move files from a cd onto the hard drive. When I enter a cd into my disk drive how do I transfer it so that it is now on my hard drive even when you remove the CD.
Q: Opinions on BeyondMicro External Hard Drive?-or recommendations on External Case?
A:Opinions on BeyondMicro External Hard Drive?-or recommendations on External Case?
Q: Best external to external hard drive synchronized backup plan?
A:Best external to external hard drive synchronized backup plan?
I recently obtained a copy of Windows 7 Ultimate through Microsoft's "Get Genuine Online" program, having previously bought a counterfeit copy online. My motherboard has developed several serious issues--the SATA ports will NOT work, and I'm having to set the RTC every time I power the system up. I've exchanged several emails with Biostar, which manufactured my motherboard, and they are of the opinion that it is defective. I have obtained a replacement MB of the EXACT same make and model (although a different version number), and will be installing it very shortly.
I am also preparing to replace my hard drive, as it is beginning to show its age (SpeedFan indicates a SMART fitness level of 86%). The replacement drive will be a Seagate 1 TB 7200 RPM SATA drive. I also have an external hard drive enclosure, which I will use with the old hard drive to transfer the files and settings over.
From what I have read online, both here and on Microsoft's website, I don't think I have any license problems to worry about, since I am replacing a defective motherboard with the same make and model. What I am concerned about, however, is how to go about transplanting, as it were, Windows 7 and my files from my old hard drive to the new one. How do you suggest I proceed? Thanks in advance for your time and assistance.
Hello and welcome fawmaine I don't know if this is of any use to you post #8 may be the stuff you are looking for.
Q: Can i move recovery partition to a new hard drive?
Im fixing a pc with a hidden recovery partition and it seems the fault is the hard drive. I have made a recovery disc using the manufacturers software so if i replace the hard drive and install from the disc can i transfer the recovery partition using something like ghost?
A:Can i move recovery partition to a new hard drive?
Q: Best Hard Drive Copy/Move Software ?
I'm currently fighting with a Vista HD for a customer who's O/S went bad. The customer wants to keep a copy of all his data on his external USB drive, for manual migration back to the laptop after the Factory Restore has been run.
I'm running XP Pro, and Vista seems to be more difficult than XP for folder & file copying & moving. I'm moving the data from the 2.5" laptop HD to a folder on my 1 Tbyte HD, and then plan to export the data to the USB external drive from there.
First thing I did was take ownership of the folders at the root of the HD, thinking that would be enough to then move them to my desktop. That was wrong thinking.
Then I learn that permissions are inherited, and that I need to not only own the folders, but I also have to replace the permissions on the child objects (i.e. sub-directory folders & files) with the parents (i.e. the folders I've just taken ownership of.
And it's still fighting with me.
I installed "move on boot", thinking I could just move all the data all at once on reboot, but apparantly there is a size issue here, as the customers 150 Gbyte of data has caused Move On Boot to hang and do nothing until I cancelled it.
A:Best Hard Drive Copy/Move Software ?
I have had good experience with a file copy utility called teracopy (http://www.codesector.com/teracopy.php). It is is capable of copying large files over connections that are prone to disconnects by automatically resuming disconnected copies and so on.
I have windows 8.1 and c-drive is system drive.
Programs are mainly installed to C: but I have also some programs installed to E: Program Files, Program Files (68), Program Data etc .
Now I want to to move E-drive contents to another hard drive (all files stored on e-drive).
Can I use normal copy - paste to copy all files?
I think register references are the same after these steps because drive letter and content of the e-drive are still the same.
Yes, it should as long as the drive letter is the same and also I would move instead of copy to retain the ownership of the files.
Q: Solved: Move windows to a new hard drive?
So I decided my old Western Digital Blue hard drive is performing too slow and it is time to upgrade to a newer one. I'm thinking of getting this one http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136284. I wanted a fast hard drive with 1tb of store space since Steam takes up at least 300gigs alone. Would this be a hard drive you'd recommend?
I read the one of the sticky topics above and it said to just clone the old hard drive to the new one. I did a fresh install of windows a month ago and don't want to do it again so I decided that cloning the hard drive would be the best. The topic mentioned using Acronis True Image to clone your hard drive. Is that still the recommended program?
A:Solved: Move windows to a new hard drive?
You can download the Western Digital Free Version of Acronis TruImage from the WD website to do the cloning.