On the Threshold of Renewable Energy Chaos

Dateline 2041: "Icebergs in Gulf of Mexico Confirm Catastrophic Warming Trend -- IPCC"

 

VW Hybrid Car “Explodes”, Bursts Into Flames – 22 Fire Brigades To Extinguish Hazardous Battery Fire
By P Gosselin on 16. February 2021

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CORRECTION: 22 firefighters were needed (not 22 brigades).
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The burned out vehicle and unstable batteries had to be submerged in a container full of water for days to keep them from reigniting.

The German online HNA daily here reports how a VW Golf 8 Hybrid vehicle suddenly “exploded” Saturday evening before bursting into flames seconds later. The blast could be heard kilometers away, and the street was so damaged that it had to be closed. . . .

 

Green Folly: Berlin’s City E-Buses Leave Passengers Out In The Cold…Diesel Buses To The Rescue.
By P Gosselin on 17. February 2021

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Germany’s capital Berlin was forced to replace some of its electric buses with diesel buses due to range problems associated with the cold weather.



Berlin. Germany’s fleet of e-buses had a hard time coping with the recent cold weather as dozens had to be replaced by diesel powered buses. Photo by Robert Radke, CC BY-SA 4.0

The cold weather worldwide is exposing the weakness of green energies and transportation systems based on them. For example Texas has seen millions of people impacted by rolling blackouts due to solar panels being covered by snow and wind turbines being frozen still.

The extremely cold weather has also led to transport disruptions all over Germany. One example is Berlin, Germany’s fleet of electric city buses.

23 e-buses had to be taken out of service

The Berliner Morgenpost reported some of the green electric buses operated by the Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG) had been taken out service due to range problems in the extremely cold weather. Up to 23 electric buses had to be replaced by diesel-powered buses last Monday. Ultimately the German capital plans to convert its entire fleet to electric by 2030.

Hat-tip. Die Welt

According to internal memos provided to the Berliner Morgenpost daily, the very cold temperatures were too much for the electric buses’ batteries because so much power was needed for heating. A portion of the electric buses were substituted by diesel buses overnight because they no longer had enough power to complete their planned routes. . . .

 

The Day After Tomorrow: Renewables Fail Edition
David Middleton
Guest “The best laid plans of mice and men…” by David Middleton Note: I had originally titled this post, The Day After Tomorrow: ERCOT Fail Edition, and ERCOT did fail.…

 

‘Cheap’ offshore wind power claims are false, data shows

• Date: 19/02/21
• Press Release, Global Warming Policy Foundation

Ministers and the media ‘must stop deceiving the public’


A new paper from the Global Warming Policy Foundation shows that the cost of offshore wind power is high and barely falling. GWPF is calling for ministers and officials to come clean with the public.



Since 2017, renewables advocates have argued that offshore wind power is now very cheap. However, closer examination of their claims reveals a different story.

As the report’s author Andrew Montford explains:

“In fact, if you read the small print, renewables advocates are only saying that windfarms coming on stream after 2018 will be cheap. But we now know this is not true. Windfarm developers announce their budgets before they start work, so we can see that almost all the forthcoming developments are just as expensive as anything built in the last few years [2]. Even if these new windfarms perform much better than the older ones, they are only going to give us slightly cheaper power.”


Montford also points out that the renewables advocates’ claims are already falling apart:

“We are starting to get data for the first of these allegedly cheap windfarms. Beatrice, commissioned in the Moray Firth in 2019 is supposed to be 40 or 50% cheaper than other recent windfarms, but we now know for sure that its capital costs were higher than the average, while its operational performance is only marginally better.”

The GWPF study is the third recent review of the accounts of the UK’s offshore wind fleet to find little if any sign of cost reductions [1]. The levelised cost (LCOE) remains 3-4 times that of a gas turbine running flat out.

Nevertheless, the public has been sold a different story, as Montford explains:

“The man in the street believes that wind power is cheap, because that’s what the media reports and it’s what the government tells him too. But hard data, from audited financial accounts, shows that it’s not true. Environment correspondents and ministers need to come clean with the public.”

Andrew Montford: Offshore wind cost predictions and the cost of outcomes (pdf)

 

Fake

Re bold bit:

For those that are interested, solar produces roughly 50% of the energy in dead of winter as summer.

I didn't investigate further, because I don't waste my time with silly links, but I'm betting these websites link back to fossil fuel money - as I discovered time and time again when I used to take the time to investigate anti climate change claims.

 

The simple truth is when it comes to solar power ( in particular) we are looking at a massive, massive revolution over the next 10 or 20 years. Massive reduction in cost, massive increase in output, flexibility, efficiency, power storage & environmental safety.


I love the best that these fossil fuel shills can come up with is a few backwards fall-off-the-end of the world web pages cobbled together with shoestrings.

 

Wrong all around. From the "silly link:"

". . . German RBB (Berlin-Brandenburg) public broadcasting recently aired a report (above) on the region’s winter energy woes titled: “Germany’s green energies strained by winter.”

Coal to the rescue

The report acknowledges that all the power is “currently coming mainly from coal, and the power plants in Lausitz” are now “running at full capacity”.

Strangely the RBB report has been taken down from the archives, yet is fortunately available on YouTube thanks to wind energy protest group Vernunftkraft.de.

In the report Daniel Bartig, a mechanic at the LEAG Lausitz plant, tells RBB he is skeptical that green energy can do the job, and says “the greatest share of power is currently coming from coal.”

Green energies will not keep pace with demand

Next in the report, RBB interviews Harald Schwarz, professor of power distribution at the University of Cottbus, who tells RBB he’s very skeptical of wind and solar energy doing the job. As Germany moves to shut down its reliable nuclear and coal power plants, the gap between supply and demand will grow dangerously wide.

Physical reality “totally neglected” by policymakers

According to Prof. Schwarz:

With this supply of wind and photovoltaic energy, it’s between 0 and 2 or 3 percent – that is de facto zero. You can see it in many diagrams that we have days, weeks, in the year where we have neither wind nor PV. Especially this time for example – there is no wind and PV, and there are often times when the wind is very miniscule. These are things, I must say, that have been physically established and known for centuries, and we’ve simply totally neglected this during the green energies discussion.”. . . ."

 

Green energy is failing = Fake News

Ill let someone else research the background of professor Schwartz. Like I said, I just shrug and laugh now... Germany's going great! Any blackouts there of late?

 

Berlin On The Brink! Winter Blackouts Loom As Coal Plants Run At 100% Capacity, Struggle To Keep Lights On In
By P Gosselin on 28. January 2021

Wintertime wind and solar energy “between 0 and 2 or 3 percent – that is de facto zero,” says German power distribution professor. Berlin’s power supply severely strained Germany now finds itself in the dead of winter. Much of the country has seen considerable snowfall, meaning solar panels are often covered by snow and thus […]

Posted in Alternative Energy, Green Follies | 25 Responses


Last-Ditch Effort: Germany Weighs Electricity Rationing Scheme To Stabilize Its Now Shaky Green Power Grid
By P Gosselin on 19. January 2021

Is the German model America’s future? Putting matches in charge of fighting gasoline fires? Even more interference appears to be the German government’s approach to solving the power grid mess that its earlier meddling created in the first place. Germany struggles to keep the lights on, looks for a law to prevent its power grid […]

 

No mate. Just copy pasting same old article again won't convince me. See, I've actually been to and worked in Germany.

When Germany has issues like Texas we will talk. You have fun here

 

Then you should be able to provide some contrary facts. Why haven't you?

Under ideal weather conditions that do not remotely match reality in most areas.

No, you didn't investigate further because you are aware that your false beliefs will not survive an encounter with the facts.

So just another conspiracy accusation utterly lacking supporting evidence. Inevitably.

You just tipped your hand: characterizing skepticism toward the anti-fossil-fuel narrative as "anti climate change" is false, absurd, and disingenuous propaganda.

Have you been taking lessons from Trump?

 

Hmm.. My very first question is why you would find this alarming given that energy companies like Exxon et al are some of the largest providers of green energy options these days. But... ooooh .... scary..... fossil fuel money.... The honest person would at least try to evaluate the data and not leap immediately to kill the messenger.

 

I'm not afraid of Exxon. Just install your own solar panels? Exxon bye bye

 

Why examine the dark when you can turn on the light. *shrug*

 

Why turn on the light when you are happier not seeing anything? *shrug*

 

We've had chaos surrounding Fossil Fuels for a hundred years, wars in the Middle East, conflicts over
pipe lines in Eastern Europe, Japan's attack on the US was rooted in oil distribution problems, Nazi attacks in
the middle-east were over oil- conflicts in Nigeria over oil money ... hell, hundreds of thousands of people have
died in the fight over oil. The US has spent literally trillions of dollars trying to keep access open to
mid-east oil reserves.

Can anyone point to deaths or costly wars caused by keeping access to the Sun? Wind?
What has been the REAL costs of a fossil fuel based economy?


Anyone?


Anyone?


Bueller?

 

I lived/worked in Berlin for three years. Your fear of the data and resort to name-calling are noted.

 

No worries. If you post anything of substance about an actual (happening) issue I'll look into it. I'm not really that interested in hearing about barriers to renewable energy from skeptics, though.

Huh?

 

So.. babble? Thats what you got?

 

"fossil fuel shills" from your #32.

 

Millions. That is a measure of how useful it is.

As above. We might wish it was not so useful, but it is.

 

I believe the costs are overstated, but your point is sound.

 

I really don't know what your game is, to be honest

 

I advocate what I believe.