The Lie of Cheap Renewable Energy

Siemens Energy’s Troubles: A Case Study in the Misallocation of Resources
Charles Rotter
This is not just a company-specific problem but one that underlines the broader challenges facing the renewable energy sector. . . .

 

Sweden is going nuclear.
Sweden Deals Body Blow to EU Climate Change Agenda
Charles Rotter
..an important step in the right direction, implicitly acknowledging the low quality of unstable wind and solar, and is part of a general collapse of confidence in the renewable energy…

 

Wind Fails Texas Again
Guest Blogger
This has placed a great strain on the grid because neither of these generation sources can be counted on when needed. . . .

 

Still Waiting For The Magical Future Of Free Wind Power
June 26, 2023/ Francis Menton

• 
  Wind power: It’s clean. It’s free. It’s renewable. Google the subject, and you will quickly find fifty articles claiming that electricity from wind is now cheaper than electricity from those evil, dirty fossil fuels. So why doesn’t some country somewhere get all of its electricity from wind?
  
  
• In fact, despite now several decades of breakneck building of wind turbines, no country seems to be able to get even half of its electricity from wind when averaged over the course of a year, and no country has really even begun to solve the problem of needing full backup when the wind doesn’t blow.
  
  
• Well, maybe this project isn’t as easy as the central planners thought it would be. News of the past week brings to light a few more speed bumps on the road to energy utopia.
  

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A Closer Look at the Impact of Bioenergy
Charles Rotter
…the EU and US drive for biofuels has had by far the biggest effect on food supply and prices. . . .

 

Huge Nebraska Solar Park Completely Smashed to Pieces by One Single Hailstorm!
Charles Rotter
Multimillion dollar solar project gets reduced to a heap of toxic rubble by one single hail storm. . . . .

 

Victims of renewables.
Massive Desert Solar Projects Are Sucking Up Groundwater, Angering Locals
Guest Blogger
No one took into consideration a community lived out here. . . .

 

World Now Wasting $1 Trillion Or More Per Year Investing In Useless "Renewables"
June 29, 2023/ Francis Menton

• 
  The world is currently filled with government-, corporate-, and billionaire-funded organizations advocating for a transformation of the energy system to “clean” and “abundant” renewables.
  
  
• In my post a week ago, I described the International Energy Agency — a consortium of governments (now 40+ of them, including all the major ones) originally formed in the 70s to combat the OPEC oil embargo of the time, but since transformed into a “a center of advocacy for elimination of fossil fuels from the world’s energy supply.”
  
  
• For today, here’s another one you may or may not have heard of — the Energy Institute. EI is a London-based advocacy organization set up under the UK charity laws. It appears to receive its funding largely from corporations and wealthy individuals. On its home page, it describes its mission as “creating a better energy future for our members and society by accelerating a just global energy transition to net zero.”
  
  
• Let’s review the latest from these two groups.
  

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China The Renewables Leader? Do Your Homework, Guardian
Guest Blogger
The Guardian don’t mention that China’s target was a very easy one. . . .

 

Nuclear Phaseout, Green Energy Transition Causing German Industry And Power Production To Leave
By P Gosselin on 7. July 2023

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Germany has gone from being an electricity exporter to being an importer.

Germany’s powerful environmental movement not only vilified fossil fuels, but also nuclear power. So much so, in fact, that Germany has shut down its entire fleet of nuclear power plants over the recent years.

Moreover, Germany plans to exit all fossil fuel power generation by 2038.

So where can Germany get its power from? The government doesn’t have a plan for that. Coalition partner The Greens claim that it is no problem to get it cheaply from wind and sun. But that’s a lie.

Already since Germany shut down its last three remaining nuclear power plants, the country has had to turn to its neighbors to keep the lights on. Germany has gone from being an exporter of electricity to an importer.



Blue indicates export. Red shows import. Source: Bundesnetzagentur (Federal Grid Agency).

The above chart shows Germany’s net exports and imports of electricity in gigawatt-hours since early 2021. Over the past 3 years, Germany has had to import power every May-June. But since Germany shut down its last nuclear power plants (Atomausstieg) in April this year, imports of electric power have grown like never before.

Power generation isn’t the only thing that’s getting imported. Due to the country’s record high electricity and energy prices brought on by the transition to green energies (Energiewende), German companies are leaving or planning to leave the country in droves. The environment has become too hostile to do business.

Companies plan to relocate

Euractiv here reports “16% of the medium-sized companies have already initiated steps to relocate parts of their business” and that “another 30% are considering following suit.”

“Almost two-thirds of the companies we interviewed consider prices of energy and resources to be among the most pressing challenges,” said German Association of Industry President Siegfried Russwurm, citing a recent survey of businesses.

“Electricity prices for businesses have to fall reliably and permanently to a competitive level, otherwise the [green] transformation of businesses will fail,” he said, adding that it was the “the responsibility of politicians to improve the conditions for businesses in Germany.”

In response surging energy prices, electric car giant Tesla scrapped some of its ambitious plans to build its biggest factory for batteries near Berlin and announced in February that it would focus on the US market instead.

Currently Germany’s economic growth is in recession, “with high energy costs and the EU’s carbon prices repeatedly cited as reasons for undermining the country as a location to do business.”

“We’re already observing that investment into energy-intensive industries has fallen significantly in Germany,” Clemens Fuest, the president of the Ifo Institute.

 

Spectator: Aussie Opposition Leader’s Call for Nuclear to Backup Renewables is Wrong
Eric Worrall
Why not just build nuclear and ditch the renewables? Or better still, stick to cheap coal? . . .

 

Fantasy forecasting.
Telegraph: “How central bankers got it spectacularly wrong on net zero inflation”
Eric Worrall
“The net zero transition is disinflationary”: Central bankers are clinging to the fantasy that renewable energy investment will cause a dramatic fall in energy prices. . . .

 

Austrian Biochemical Engineer: “No Energy Production Method Is More Damaging Than Wind Turbines”
By P Gosselin on 14. July 2023

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“There is no more harmful way of generating energy than with wind turbines,” Rudolf Hammer tells AUF 1 journalist Sabine Petzl.



Microbiologist, biochemist and professional engineer Rudolf Hammer warns that changing over to wind and solar energy is not a clean way to produce energy. Screenshot AUF 1.

As Germany and Austria rush to wean themselves off fossil fuels like coal and natural gas to produce electricity and replace them with weather-dependent wind and solar energy, the countries aim to substantially expand their fleet of wind turbines by 2040. Many would have to be installed near homes and in sensitive wildlife areas. e.g.the 1,000 -year-old Reinhard Forest.

In the AUF 1 interview, Hammer comments on the effectiveness and usefulness of wind power plants and offers a completely different view of what the entrenched politicians claim.

Damaging the local environment

Hammer explains that one problem with wind turbines is that hey extract a massive amount of kinetic energy from the wind, which in turn leads to a windspeed reduction downstream from the wind park and air layers getting mixed. The higher layers of wind end up getting mixed with the layers near the surface. “Colder layers are getting mixed with warmer layers and that is having dramatic effects on the temperature, humidity, and on evaporation,” which leads to “drier conditions and even drought.”

Currently the lion’s share of Germany’s 30,000 installed wind turbines are located across the north, where drought conditions have occurred over the past years.

“Economic nonsense”

When asked about how realistic it would be to quickly go 100% renewable, Hammer characterized the idea as “economic nonsense, saying it would require an additional 19,000 turbines and large swaths of land that just aren’t available in Austria.

 

DAVID BLACKMON: Here’s What Our Climate Overlords Fail To Understand About Fossil Fuels
Guest Blogger
Data indicates that future demand for oil and gas is UNDERESTIMATED, while demand destruction is HYPED. . . .

 

BRICS and Nukes and LNG – the energy transition few are expecting
Guest Blogger
The rapidly growing BRICS group is looking to forge its own path as a way to counter the influence of the west and/or have a more active voice in ‘how…

". . . In the energy world, we are told relentlessly that an energy transition is underway, and that the rate of change is dizzying and unprecedented. To a certain extent that is true, and new technologies are being developed that might be quite revolutionary – assuming we can integrate them in anything resembling a cost effective manner.

But while we’re facing the blinding light show that is the media hype over the energy transition many want – wind and solar and battery tech and Tesla -, spellbound and hypnotized by the spectacle (because our ethnocentricity and lemming-media limits exposure to anything else), behind our backs 7 billion people are putting together their own show that will dwarf ours. And brave souls here in the west are making enormous progress in a direction that a lot of people don’t want to see. . . ."

 

Energy Giant Vattenfall Puts Gigantic Offshore Wind Project On Ice, “Threatening UK Climate Targets”
By P Gosselin on 23. July 2023

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As Europe adventurously moves to wean itself off fossil fuels, more and more plans are being made to fill the electricity supply gap with wind energy.

But one major UK wind project illustrates how they are economically risky as the economy teeters.

Symbol photo. Image: P. Gosselin

Blackout News here reports that Swedish energy giant Vattenfall “has halted a gigantic offshore wind project, one that would supply electricity to 1.5 million households if built.

Blackout News calls the decision to halt the 1.4 gigawatt capacity Norfolk Boreas “surprising”.

“Vattenfall’s decision to halt work on the wind farm has significant financial consequences,” reports Blackout News. It means a 537 million dollar loss. “Vattenfall’s strategy reorientation threatens UK climate targets.”

According to sources, experts are warning of “sharply increased project costs, inflation and rising interest rates” and the project developers are calling for “targeted support”.

The UK government aims to increase its offshore wind capacity from 14GW to 50 GW, so Vattenfall’s move is a major blow to the UK’s energy future.

German electricity prices to high for industry
Uncertainty has also hit the German automobile sector, in large part due to sky-high energy prices. In another Blackout News report here, VW head Oliver Blume thinks building a large new battery factory in Germany is more difficult because of the high electricity prices, which are far above the 7 cents per kilowatt-hour the VW head says is needed.

“The production of battery cells is energy-intensive, Blume stressed. Price guarantees and the level of electricity prices are therefore very important. Regulatory processing and subsidies also play a role in the choice of location,” writes Blackout News

“I have experienced these aspects very positively in North America,” Blume told the two German newspapers.

Under the bottom line, the German government isn’t really deindustrializing, but rather is forcing German companies to move its industry out of the country using hostile policy. Germany faces a state of permanent economic recession.

 

Another fail down under.
‘When will politicians listen?’: Another green energy project ‘bites the dust’
Charles Rotter
Sky News host Andrew Bolt says it appears another green energy project has “bitten the dust” after it was revealed Broome’s Derby tidal power project has been impacted by lengthy…

 

Seems to me that solar is a very good way to get off-grid. It provides a household some measure of energy independence. Nuclear is ideal for the grid, I'm not at all convinced on chopping down old growth forests to install thousands of square miles of solar panels. As a household measure though, great idea!

If you want to see the value of nuclear, contrast France and Germany.

 

Offshore Wind has a Cost Crisis
Guest Blogger
Originally posted at CFACT By David Wojick The horrific term “cost crisis” is not from me. It comes down from on high, in this case the mega-conference: US Offshore Wind 2023.…

 

Going under down under.
Aussie Green Hydrogen Project Scrapped, “Not Viable”
Eric Worrall
Energy of the future? Even a $28.3 million grant from the West Australian Government company was not enough to push the project over the line. . . .

 

Nuclear is a good source. Finland just opened a new reactor, - the biggest in Europe. Solar, wind etc are good sources to compliment other sources. Not sure what you mean by cutting down trees to install thousands of square miles of solar.

 

Aussie NSW Farmers Call for a Ban on New Solar Projects
Eric Worrall
NSW Farmers, Australia’s largest farming organisation, is demanding a prepaid decommissioning fund for solar farms, to prevent farmers being left with the bill for decommissioning and disposal. . . . .

 

Dominion Hides Huge Offshore Wind Cost Risk
Guest Blogger
Dominion Energy says the cost of its monster project will not go up. Apparently, there is not even a risk of it going up. This preposterous claim is worth exploring. . . .

The financial magazine “Barrons” has done some work on this crisis situation. Here is a telling quote from a recent article:

“But behind the scenes, the news about wind power is more sobering. Financially, the industry is teetering, with a parade of companies planning to renegotiate or pull out of contracts, jeopardizing plans for projects that were expected to provide electricity for millions of homes. Inflation is erasing profits, causing some of the largest energy firms in the world to back away. “Returns on offshore wind are becoming more and more challenged,” Shell CEO Wael Sawan told Barron’s last month, just days after a Shell joint venture said it would pull out of a power contract in Massachusetts. Shell won’t build renewable projects that can’t earn initial returns of 6% to 8%, he said.

At least eight multinational companies in three states have quietly started to back out of wind contracts or ask to renegotiate deals in ways that will pass more costs to consumers. Beyond Shell (ticker: SHEL), they include BP (BP), Denmark’s Orsted(DNNGY), Norway’s Equinor (EQNR), Spain’s Iberdrola (IBDRY), Portugal’s Energias de Portugal (EDPFY), and France’s Engie (ENGIY) and state-owned Electricite de France. The projects those companies are building will collectively cost tens of billions of dollars to construct and connect to the grid. The cost problems they’re facing make offshore wind a dicey investment proposition today, with the potential for substantial write-downs ahead.”

https://www.barrons.com/articles/offshore-wind-power-energy-costs-24a9b387

 

Liars gonna lie.
More Media Lies About the Texas Electricity Grid
David Middleton
Guest “Lying must be like breathing to them” by David Middleton Solar, wind energy keeping Texas power grids running amid weekslong heat wave Inflated prices and power failures could have…

 

Green energy fraud.
ROSS CLARK: This polluting green sham has been mocking taxpayers for years
Guest Blogger
Neither has Drax given us carbon-free electricity – unless you turn a blind eye to a colossal bureaucratic sleight of hand. . . .