South Australia powerless as wind generators don't work.

https://stopthesethings.com/2017/02/11/south-australia-powerless-again-sudden-1000mw-wind-power-output-collapse-leaves-90000-families-boiling-in-the-dark/

Yes its true. "Renewable", "clean", "free" wind power that is to save us all from "global warming" has failed 90,000 Australian residents in the midst of a heat wave.

See, when the wind don't blow you can't cool (or heat) your house. Other news reports are that South Australia shut down a coal fired power plant to rely almost totally on "renewables" - to save the environment don't you see. Also, the cost of electricity is much higher than energy from other sources. So the folks there have the best of both worlds, power that they don't get and very expensive power when its available.

Watch all the usual "renewable energy" apologists try to blame the problem caused by government on greedy power operators.

Now, like Britain before them and then Germany, they find they have to construct auxiliary gas generators to be able to spin up capacity when the wind doesn't blow and the sun don't shine.

Glad I live in the USA where we are not under control of the unicorn believing environmental extremists.

 

And if people die as a result of the heat the leftists will be fap-happy to count them as "deaths attributed to global warming".

Amazing.

 

And people think Texas couldn't function as an independent country......

 

Sounds like stupid policy, putting all your eggs in one basket like that. Of course you need backup power when there's no wind or sun. But I don't see this as an indictment of renewable power as a whole; it's just an indictment of bad government. Renewables definitely have their place, but for now at least, they need to be part of an "all of the above" energy strategy.

 

But there is a substantial number of envirowackos who tell us that the ONLY sources of power we need are "renewable" sources, mostly wind and solar. Here in Texas we have one of the largest investments in wind energy in the world, but it only provides less than 10% of our total electricity. Ok to supplement existing but not as a total power source. You can drive through west Texas and see thousands of wind generators, at any one time though, when the wind doesn't blow, we have reliable alternate sources including coal, gas, and nuclear. We mostly have our own power grid. The Obamacons did a number on the coal fired facilities over the last few years with new regs that made them impossible to operate. I hope Trump will stop that silliness and we can reinstate the reserve capacity to meet emergency use.

If you have ever seen an enormous wind farm you can recognize what a blight on the landscape they are.

 

I have always wondered where the Roscoe Wind Farm sends all the electricity. There is no major populations anywhere near it.

 

If I'm not mistaken, it goes East to DFW and surrounding counties. Since wind energy can't be stored, they pipe it to the nearest market that can readily use it at any time.

 

Fap-happy? If you have no objections, I'm stealing that to add to my word bank. I wonder how many Lefty Don Quixote's think about how many birds those things kill?

 

Power plants do have outages even the fossil fueled ones, no machine is perfect it needs constant maintenance and parts replacements from time to time due to wear and tear or perhaps design flaws. But wind turbines was already proven to be working the same as other electricity power sources.

 

The issue here isn't wind power. There was no capacity shortage. There was a gas powered plant that could & should have been used to provide power. That is the value of gas power stations - meeting peak demand. The body that oversees the national electricity market decided it was easier not to turn it on. Regulations need to be changed to ensure that keeping homes & supplied is always paramount.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-02-09/aemo-orders-back-up-power-station-at-pelican-point-on/8256594

This has become a political football because we have a PM whose popularity is in freefall and who is barely in control of his own party. He is hoping to use this to attack the opposition on a 'bread & butter' issue while appealing to the right wing of his own party. Hopefully he fails.

 

Uncle Ferd says dey's prob'ly...

... some o' dat cheap Chinese crap.

 

Do you believe that power generating plants have just one sole generator that has to be shut down for periodic maintenance (or a breakdown) and causes an outage that lasts 'til it's fixed?

 

Actually there's what they call a power grid, supplied by a number of power plants, they can make planning or mitigations depending upon the supply and demand requirements. We will never know if a complete shutdown of a power plant would occur, perhaps safety or other emergency reasons.

 

So, what then was your point when you said the plants had outages?

 

All of which proves wind and solar both need a redundant power grid which leads to very high power cost

 

Funny thing, prices in Queensland are also incredibly high, though it uses very little wind & solar & virtually all coal.

We have always had gas generators to meet peak demand, even when we were using mostly coal. We have always had redundant capacity, even when we were mostly using coal. Of course, that was when the primary focus of electricity generation was supplying demand. Then our governments decided to sell off our utilities. Now we have less redundant capacity than we need and the main focus is profits for shareholders. That attitude was primarily responsible for terrible fires that killed over 150 people on the fringe of my home city & it is the reason power prices keep going up.

 

As a South Australian I can clue you up. As the Gigantic Koala said, it was about the national system being cocked up. That or they did an Enron on us. Either way it's a mess and time for the system to be closely examined. Renewables were not the problem.

 

Deaths by micro-climate (weather) events -- tornadoes, hurricanes, and lightening storms -- are readily observable.

Death by climate-change remains a subject of heated debate...

 

Rolling blackouts occur even in the US. This particular one in Australia occurred because consumption is abnormally high due to a heat wave and one of the backup generators was off-line for repairs. A perfect storm like we see occasionally in the US. This story is another example of grasping at straws.

 

There is so much spin on this story we could use it to run enough wind turbines to ensure ALL of Australia is assured power for the next 40 years

A) The latest problem was a massive heat wave - you know -- one of those things we are having more of because of climate change??

B) it was a complete SNAFU by the power regulators who failed to bring a gas fired generator on line

C) the coal fired power stations have closed BECAUSE THEY WERE LOSING MONEY - RENEWABLES ARE CHEAPER

D) Australia is now looking into changing the regulatory way it handles power

E) We have more power walls installed across the country and the "powers that be" are looking at solutions that involve micro grids and power sharing off of these power walls

What IS happening here is innovation in the electricity field - our system is evolving and when we have it tweaked JUUUUUUST right - we are going to sell it across the planet

PS love Trumps idea of going back to centuries old ideas in relation to power generation!!!

 

You are right - smart grids and micro grids are the way to go

And as one person said they actually have some of the big energy consumers offering to power down during this time and were knocked back!!

 

Wind farms allow for dual land use and provide an income when other sources fail. Given that you mentioned West Texas that would probably be cattle ranching if I recall correctly. Cows don't care about the windmills and will happily graze around them. But if there is a severe drought that the cattle can't survive the ranchers can still have an income from the electricity which means they don't need government subsidies.

 

No need for a "redundant power grid" since the existing power grid distributes electricity from all sources.

There does need to be redundant SOURCES but that applies to fossil fuels just as it does for renewables. The optimal redundant sources are dams and gas turbine plants which can bring additional capacity online far quicker than coal fired plants.

 

What are you on about?

The only power source the world needs is oil. Lots and lots of oil. And coal. Wind won't last forever, my friend. Sometimes it isn't even blowing! Who's going to power your marijuana farm then, smarty pants?

 

That's a good way to put it.

The notion of centralized renewables is a loser. Decentralized naturally diversifies types of energy reducing dependence on the grid with major sources developed by a public ultility.