💧 David Mitchell

RMI released this report last week which has attracted a bit of attention on social media. /1 rmi.org/insight/the-cl…

This tweet explains the who thread. He an economist. 🤦‍♂️

@roobar1984 @alexmarketx Ouch. I got that completely wrong! You are correct.

@flexibledragnet @alexmarketx The agent works for the seller in Australia and the commission is paid out of the funds received by the seller. realestate.com.au/advice/real-es…

Ayer cancelé la compra de un piso. Negocié hasta 415.000€, aceptaron. En el momento de firmar me metieron 15.000€ de comisión de la inmobiliaria. A mí. Al comprador. Por enseñarme la casa 20 minutos. Me levanté, les di la mano y me fui.

I earn interest on after tax income. 🤦‍♂️

Rubbish. That’s reflected in the return you expect from equities.

@Will52773T @Tw_timerAlder No I don’t. That’s you who got called out so you did a side excursion into coal for process heat. You are either stupid or mendacious. This is an electricity generation thread.

@flexibledragnet @Tw_timerAlder The only problem is your own - you confuse coal fired generation with coal usage in primary energy. Cement is produced in China by direct coal burning not using electric furnaces.

China added generation capacity the size of Germany last year. Almost all of it wind and solar. Yet some people on X keep telling me this isn’t and can’t happen and keep posting me silly pictures of dirty coal plants. Those people are sick and wrong.

@Will52773T @Tw_timerAlder I’m not sure why you keep asking tangential questions to get the answer you want.

@flexibledragnet @Tw_timerAlder I just don't get why you folk make such comments, in complete denial of reality. Are you just too bone idle to check for yourself? Construction did indeed collapse as stated. Unsurprisingly coal usage thus far in 2026 March > March is up 4%

@Will52773T @Tw_timerAlder Keep up the fantasy.

@flexibledragnet @Tw_timerAlder The "plateau" was due to a downturn in construction with consequent reduction in demand for cement - production of which is extremely energy intense.

@AnthonyPHoran @evcricket Correct. This structure has been available forever. So why do people use trusts then? (Because you avoid more tax). You can’t have a franked dividend from a company unless the company has franking credits (by paying tax).

@flexibledragnet @evcricket The obvious one for a business is to pay a wage to family members. Companies can also can be used to split income. Although companies pay tax, they can pay dividend and frank it so the family members can claim franking credits & receive refunds.

Which is in fact a good reason to tax trusts.

@Will52773T @Tw_timerAlder Emissions from coal electricity have plateaued in China.

@Tw_timerAlder Constantly insulting those who disagree with you. Yet in this instance falling to point out that China generated 8900TWh of electricity alone (not primary energy) in 2025, and approvals for new coal plant are at record high, along with plans to exploit vast shale gas reserves.

Canada isn’t a nuclear blueprint. It’s a hydro system. ~55% hydro, ~13% nuclear, ~9% wind+solar. When rainfall dips, fossil fills the gap. Wind is scaling to stabilise the system. Solar still marginal, with upside if policy shifts. Staying clean is the challenge. System reality. Canada gets used in Western debates as proof, quite a lot, that nuclear delivers cheap, clean power at scale. That framing is misleading. It takes a single province and turns it into a national story. Nuclear in Canada is concentrated mainly in Ontario. It’s important there, but it doesn’t define the country. Nationally, nuclear is ~13% of generation. Hydro is the real backbone, supplying ~55% across provinces like Quebec, British Columbia, and Manitoba. That distinction matters. Canada didn’t decarbonise by scaling nuclear everywhere. It decarbonised because it has vast hydro resources. Geography did the heavy lifting. Hydro, though, isn’t perfectly stable. It moves with rainfall, snowpack, and seasonal flows. When output drops, fossil generation steps in. That’s why gas still shows up in the mix even in a system that looks clean on paper. Wind is now starting to play a meaningful role in smoothing that variability. It’s growing steadily and helping reduce reliance on fossil during weaker hydro years. Solar is present but still marginal at a national level, with more upside tied to policy than necessity right now. So the real story isn’t nuclear versus renewables. It’s how the system behaves. Canada isn’t racing to get clean. It already is. The challenge is maintaining that position as demand grows and hydro becomes more variable. Hydro made Canada clean. Wind will help keep it that way. Solar is the upside, not the foundation.

Electric surfboards are about to make jet skis look ancient. Silent, fast, and way too fun.

@Nirgal451 @honmattkean Or, they could use it to make steel if they had a source of direct reduced iron.

@honmattkean This is not actual steel making using a blast furnace with iron ore and coking coal. This is melting existing steel to be reused. Entirely different processes.

Those who claimed renewables can’t power Australia’s heavy industry must now confront reality. An Australian steel mill is sourcing majority renewable power — for the first time ever. The energy transition isn’t coming. It’s here. smh.com.au/business/compa…

If you want the battery graph…..

As for guys like this. They normally drop out of my feed after 12-18 months because they get no traction, the world keeps building wind and solar and batteries and nuclear continues to slide as a percentage of global electricity (despite glossy brochures). 🤷‍♂️

This bloke is one of the current crop of German naysayers. This thread is a typical “small number, big number” distraction. Show something small, (5 hours storage) then compare it to something big (that is a furphy). Throw up hands and slag off the opposition. /

@REbagholders @evcricket And you think DFAT is unaware of this fact? Far be it from me to be highly complimentary of DFAT, but how do you think countries with high corruption indices improve without outside assistance?

@evcricket Afghanistan holds a score of 16 out of 100 on the global Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index, ranking 169th out of 182 countries evaluated. This score indicates severe levels of public-sector corruption.

@AnthonyPHoran @evcricket Which ones?

@evcricket People will simply use other structures to split their income.

@peterkemplawyer @JC47053522 @Peter_Fitz @ShackelWill Yeah. If Frontier can’t get you a number you like, what chance do you have? I’ve been watching his work for over 15 years. The best was the time he modelled the cost of coal fired power assuming fuel was the marginal cost of production at mine mouth. Zero return on mine capex!

@JC47053522 @Peter_Fitz @ShackelWill Exactly, and Frontier also based their BS report on 40% less electricity requirement by 2050, so another sleight of hand factor to consider.

Thoughts, Will? @ShackelWill