The story is about two weavers who promise the emperor a new suit of clothes that is invisible to those who are unfit for their positions, or are stupid, or incompetent.

The Emperor falls for the trick and parades naked before his subjects. The people are afraid to say that the king is not dressed, because they don’t want anyone to think that they are stupid. The game is up when a child cries out, "But he isn't wearing any clothes!”

Today’s version would say don’t believe everything the greenies tell you. If it seems too good to be true, then be wary, and ask for real evidence, the modern tale would say.

Driving home along the Hume Highway on Wednesday afternoon just over a week ago, I drove through torrential rain.

By the time I reached the Cullarin Range wind turbines about six o’clock it was almost dark, and cold.

The severe storm had passed. Now conditions were calm. Turbines were still. No wind power! No sun, so no solar power, either. 

If NSW and the ACT had been totally dependent on renewables that night, we would have been suffering the same fate that South Australians had to endure again last week. 

Thank God for our coal-fired power stations, and that NSW has not embarked on unrealistic “renewable” targets for our base power.

Here’s the truth. Renewables are little better than the emperor’s new clothes. The wind and sun are free, but solar and wind are unreliable.

For every megawatt of renewable power, in the background a fossil-fuelled power station is still steaming away, ready to supply power as the sun goes down or the wind stops blowing.

Like the emperor’s clothes, the savings in emissions are not there. The coal-powered stations are operating, just in case.

What happened in South Australia this time? Didn’t they learn any lessons from the July 7 disaster?

There was plenty of wind - but the 140km/h winds were too much. One of the nasty little details not told to the public is that in high winds, or freezing temperatures, wind turbines actually use power to protect themselves from the wild weather. 

As the ABC News explained on Thursday night, wind generators operating alone create “spikes” in severe conditions, tripping safety switches, which cut power. The mix of generation sources in other states relieves that problem. 

Lightning hit the power lines that bring coal-fired power to SA from Victoria. Once the coal backup was down, people were trapped in lifts for hours, traffic lights failed causing traffic chaos, and the police resorted to social media to ask people to stay home.

But, OMG! With no electricity, internet connections were out. Maybe young voters might at last be shocked into hearing the message.

As SA Premier Jay Weatherill walked across the city to get to an urgent meeting at the State Emergency Centre, his darkened capital city would have caused him to wonder how long he should continue to pretend that wind and solar can produce reliable baseload power.

The crowd began chanting, “The emperor has no clothes.”

How long before voters chant, “We want a reliable and cheap power supply”?