The UK which is famous for it's off shore windpower might be in for a bit of a shock this winter because it's power cables linking it to France were severed by a ship's anchor. The UK relies on Frances nuclear power to help it through times when the wind is not co operating. Just one more example of the failure of Green power. Where ever it appears high energy prices and a decrease in reliability follows. Germany, UK, Spain and Australia are great examples of what happens when you let Malthusians set the energy agenda. Here's a hint for my friends overseas. Get your governmenet to build natuaral gas generation, it's cheap, plentiful and clean. Not only that it works 24 and 7 not justsome of the time Winter power crunch fears as UK-France cables severed during storm National Grid, which is the joint owner of the link, said it had now discovered that four of its eight cables "have been severed", putting 1GW of capacity out of action until the end of February. The unprecedented damage - which it is thought could have been caused by a ship dropping anchor during the storm - comes as Britain heads into winter with power supplies already tight and National Grid expecting to have to draw on emergency back-up power plant reserves to keep the lights on. Analysts at Barclays said the outage was "likely to lead to increased volatility and higher UK power prices over January and February 2017 – especially during peak demand periods". A report by ENTSOE, the trade body for European power system operators, published earlier on Tuesday warned that "the UK will need high imports from all neighbouring countries" this winter, though it acknowledged the existence of back-up plans.
I don't see this as a failure of green energy at all. Nobody ever said that alternative energy sources could completely replace traditional power. But just think of how much fossil fuels Britain didn't have to burn and how much pollution they didn't create by using all those windmills.
Upto this point I was thinking 'Yeah right - I smell a subterfuge to relieve us of more of our money!', then I read: I'm smarter than I thought!
LOL sure. get rid of conventional power plants, oops all those expensive windmills are not only noisy eyesores they don't provide reliable power.. I have an idea lets build a big extension cord so we can buy nuclear power from France...what could go wrong. here's an idea..The UK build some Natural gas and coal plants so they can have reliable 24 and 7 power without putting their citizens into bankruptcy trying to heat and cool their homes how many coal and NG plants could the UK have built with the money they poured down the rathole of green energy. For that matter how many nuclear plants and had excess energy to sell like the French
There's nothing wrong with that proposal but none of that has to do with the failure of alternative energy. They had a plan in place to make up for the deficits they knew wind power would leave them with, because nobody expected alternative energy to completely replace traditional energy generation methods, as I said. That plan suffered a mechanical failure. It happens. Making up the difference using France's non-fossil fuel nuclear energy was also a great idea if you ask me, and not just because it's more energy not being generated by burning things that release tons of greenhouse gas into the atmosphere and who knows what pollutants into the environment. It's also good for trade between those two countries.
So is it safe to assume that ice buildup on power lines or wind damage is a failure of conventional power generation?
well it is safe to assume that if you rely on windpower and solar the sun will not always shine and the wind will not always blow. You can also assume your power bills for that unreliable energy will go up and your countries manufacturing will leave for places that have reliable and inexpensive power.
Are you assuming people can't plan around and take into consideration flaws within a system. And when does the price of power or anything else go down? It seems you have some unreasonable hate for alternative energy. Willing to find any flaws to support some kind of agenda.
I think anyone with a moral compass would do everything possible to reduce the damage caused by fossils fuels on our environment.
I guess you see mankind as a plague upon the Earth. Funny thing about that Malthusians is they keep living instead of just practicing what they preach and walking into the ocean like good little lemmings
Some Americans worry way too much about what is happening in other countries that are free to spend their money however they like. To use as a propoganda tool in their own countries. Besides, I haven't seen a day in my life the sun did not shine.
you might try visiting earth then http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20161129-the-colossal-african-solar-farm-that-could-power-europe Of course, on the day I visit the sky is covered in clouds. “No electricity will be produced today,“ says Rachid Bayed at the Moroccan Agency for Solar Energy (Masen), which is responsible for implementing the flagship project.
The sun was still shining. Power lines are destroyed by ice and wind all the time. So I guess fossil fuel generation undependable. "The wind blew down the power lines, no power today".
you might be more credible if you bothered to look and read the links you reply to, lol. Of course, on the day I visit the sky is covered in clouds. “No electricity will be produced today,“ says Rachid Bayed at the Moroccan Agency for Solar Energy (Masen), which is responsible for implementing the flagship project http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20161129-the-colossal-african-solar-farm-that-could-power-europe BTW with solar and wind do magic weather proof pink unicorns deliver baskets of power when the sun decides to shine and the wind decides to blow?
Fuel poverty killed 15,000 people last winter last winter in the UK, I wonder how many will die this winter in order to make the politicians, Prince Charles and their cronys bank accounts fat http://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...killed-15000-people-last-winter-10217215.html