20 billion for infrastructure that lasts 50 years is 400 million per year hardly a major issue for a 1.6 Trillion dollar economy.

The US recently spent more than that on a single nuclear power plant.

20 Billion is a rough guide. Apparently this estimate is approximate to 100% It also depends on lots variables, like - for a large powerline the towers can cost $1M each. I also assume the initial cost does not include maintenance costs.

Maintenance costs exist, but they can also extend the lifespan well past 50 years. So it’s all a big cost vs benefit tradeoff where maintenance occurs because it’s a net gain.

The point is the upfront costs aren’t actually that significant.

> 20 billion for infrastructure that lasts 50 years

Average solar panels last 20-30 at most right now just fyi

50 years is practically right out of the question

There are several 50 year old solar installations that are still working fine. They've only degraded 10%-20% or so. The reason that they are typically replaced after ~20 years is that the technology has gotten so much better that you can replace the old panels with new ones and get 4X the power in the same space. The wires and the mounts are worth more than the panels, so reuse those with modern panels.

Do you have any real study on this?

Considering they work by basically taking electrons from the material, they are guaranteed to get much less efficient and I doubt it's a linear effect. I think once you have destroyed the first layers, it becomes much more complicated to get meaningful power depending on variables.

Solar panel talk always focuses on the ideal conditions like California, but you have to account that plenty the energy transition is necessary in place where solar panels are not that efficient to begin with.

“We can also build power lines! Between different places!”

The actual panels themselves are a different kind of infrastructure.

But if you're from Australia you should know that your country isnt exactly typical?

There's a few big metros the rest of it is sparse, where sparse is a stretch? Isn't Perth like the most isolated city in the world?

Perth and that part of WA has its own generators and independent electrical network. Darwin in NT Australia is probably the same situation too. Large expanse's of desert and very sparsely separated areas to the east coast.

That's a steal compared to racing toward extinction.

I agree with you, but surviving is worth more than almost any amount of money and that fact doesn't depend on the median voter's opinion.