For more than 15 years renewables rent seekers have been peddling the myth that wind and solar power are practically free, and getting cheaper all the time.

As Australian power consumers anxiously crack open the envelopes that contain power bills guaranteed to shock over the next few weeks, the crushing bottom line staring back in black-and-white at gobsmacked householders will finally put paid to that well-worn lie.

The rates set out in the graphic above began to apply from 1 July this year; those on monthly billing cycles will have just received their first bills at the new rates. In notionally wind powered South Australia, power bills will be fully 20% higher than this time last year.

But everybody across the country is facing a thumping; Queenslanders, no exception.

The wind and solar industries have, until now, taken the notion that every sentient being on the Continent is 100% behind…