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What a waste of metal. The UK should greatly increase its nuclear capacity, instead it is heading for a disaster. Just look at France.
The UK is doing better than Ontario today. The UK shows nameplate capacity of about 4000 mW, and 950 produced, for just under 25% of name plate capacity.
Ontario is about 10%.
http://www.ieso.ca/imoweb/siteShared/windtracker.asp?sid=ic
Clearly they forgot to list Britain’s substantial solar PV contribution in this table. Perhaps they should list contributions in parts per million, to make wind and solar numbers look better…
Don’t look at us too closely, here in France, Jimbo – the diminutive twat in charge here is just as daft as the rest of the shower AKA the EUSSR. I’ve no doubt they’ll continue erecting birdmincers here, too, and decommissioning nuclear stations (never to be replaced) in the name of f***ing, sorry, “saving” the planet, so when the economy in the UK is totally screwed, we won’t be coming up trumps. Sorry…
I’d love to see cost comparisons to cost of construction and cost of supplying.
A breath of fresh air.
Spain: 16.6% (2010)
Denmark 19.3%
Germany: 6.4% (2009)
Portugal: 15% (2008)
OK Brain of Britain.
You buy your electricity from Wind Mills at the true cost prices and do without power for the 80% of the time the wind does not blow.
Then I can carry on buying mine at the uninflated price from proper power stations.
You support wind power? Yikes! Nobody thinks about not only how inefficient they are, but instead of power on demand, you are at the mercy of the wind. No wind, no power. Not to mention all the mining of iron ore, copper, and rare earth metals in China and Mongolia (don’t even get me started on the brutal extraction processes for these), plus the vast amounts of concrete required to build them, and all the new roads that have to be built just to construct the turbines. Wind power is nothing more than a way for politicians to appease greenies by making it look like they are doing something.
By the way, here is the link to part 1 (of 2) of a short film about wind power in Europe. Talk about irony … it is called, “Europ’s Ill Wind” … I’m not kidding!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SYYz91oad4
P.S. By “you” I mean Ill Wind Blowing (sorry Paul H for any confusion … your comment wasn’t there when I started my reply to IWB).
Of course, Brain you forgot to mention that Denmark has to export its electric at a loss when the wind blows to avoid the grid blowing but has to import power at extortionate prices when there is no wind.
Meanwhile Spain has lost 4 jobs for every one “created” on green projects. Judging by the state of Portugal’s economy the ratio there is just as bad.
Don’t get me wrong. I have no issues with companies building windfarms if :-
1) There are no subsidies paid.
2) If proper local planning takes place. If windpower is so good, I am quite sure the operators would be happy to supply power at, say half price, to local people to get them to agree. I think I might even agree to that and sod the birds!!
http://www.aweo.org/problemwithwind.html
You buy your electricity from Wind Mills at the true cost prices and do without power for the 80% of the time the wind does not blow.”
When the wind doesn’t blow? Are you suggesting that winds die down throughout an entire country? When the wind isn’t blowing in one area it’s blowing in another.
@IWB: “When the wind isn’t blowing in one area it’s blowing in another.”
Strawman! In order to make sure you are able to get that wind blowing somewhere else in the country, you have to have these bloody turbines EVERYWHERE! And on days when the wind is relatively calm, you have to transport power from very far away, or rely on back-up generators. Of all the forms of electrical generation, wind power is the least reliable and least efficient.
lol, not strawman…..sophistry. IWB, are you suggesting we should plant whirlygigs and pinwheels at every location on earth?
@suyts: “not strawman…..sophistry”
Noted. I was in a rush to post my comment :).
“lol, not strawman…..sophistry. IWB, are you suggesting we should plant whirlygigs and pinwheels at every location on earth?”
What rational and intellectual bankruptcy. Why don’t you explain your sophistry to the
Spainiards who are getiing 16.6% (2010) of their electricity from windmills.
And the Danish at 19.3%
As well as the Germans 6.4% (2009)
And don’t forget the Portuguese with 15% (2008).
Last I checked, these four nations did not have windmills scattered all over the earth.
@IWB: “What rational and intellectual bankruptcy”
Why the hell do I even bother replying to you? You don’t even try to refute my points. You make one smart ass comment and then refer to your original comment.
1) Let’s look at Spain and Portugal. They are on the verge of REAL bankruptcy. Spain’s foray into the world of a “green economy” was a total disaster:
http://theresilientearth.com/?q=content/unsustainable-green-jobs
2) Denmark … did you even watch the short film? Do you have any idea how badly Denmark’s 19.3% wind power has backfired on them?
I will say it again … windpower is the least efficient and least reliable source of electrical generation. Everyone I know who knows anything about this topic laughs when I mention windpower. If you are ready to give a solid counterpoint as to why windpower is the way to go, please do so. If all you can do is give smartass remarks and refer to your original statement, don’t bother … I’m done with your nonsense.
IWB, if you were current, you’d know the 16.6% number by the spaniards is made up, but closer to true now, that they don’t utilize as much electricity as they once did…….. a dreadful limitation of wind generation. 16.6% of 50% of what once was, isn’t considered as step forward.
I’m glad you brought up the Spaniards. In their rush to embrace renewables, they almost bankrupted their country. They’ve totally rethought their energy plans and have rejected much of the they’ve embraced, it doesn’t work. For every job the renewable energy sector created, they lost 3.
Danish….funny…. that would be like powering Rhode Island, no? Denmark is unique in that wave and wind may have limited functional use there…..
Portuguese, …. same boat as Spain.
IWB, you’re looking at those numbers as if they mean anything. They don’t. If I used nothing but wind energy, then I’d be using 100% of my energy from wind. But, I’d only have energy 10-20% of the time. Worse, I’d be paying up to 5 times as much for the energy from renewables than traditional sources.
Germany…..that’s really funny…. you need to check on their new coal plant production.
IWB….wind is light years away from ever being viable. Solar is still out of reach. Hydro is the way to go for renewables, but that’s constrained by location and availability of water….. obviously.
Are you suggesting that winds die down throughout an entire country?
Well actually in a country the size of England, often that is the case. In the cold winter last year, wind power was often down to 10% to 30% of capacity.
ill wind: your breath of fresh air is actually quite stale, and likely to get more so….
Spain: 16.6% (2010)
Spain loses 2.2 jobs for every green job. Spain just slashed subsidies to solar, because subsidies are the luxury of rich nations with high employment. For every green job that is created, it costs about 571,000 euros.
http://www.juandemariana.org/pdf/090327-employment-public-aid-renewable.pdf
Denmark 19.3%
Denmark has the highest priced power in the EU. Denmark is also reducing subsidies. Denmark, while producing 19.3% of the power used, sells much of its wind power to Norway and Sweden at low prices (sometimes negative prices). The reason is the wind blows at low demand times. Norway and Sweden buy, keeping water in their dams, and then during peak periods sells power back to Denmark at premium prices.
And, alas, Denmark’s CO2 emissions are the same now, as they were in 1990.
http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/nwsltrdisplay.aspx?id=25374
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/23/AR2010042302220.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power_in_Denmark
Germany: 6.4% (2009)
Germany has also cut subsidies. (note a theme here?) Germany is also building new coal powered plants. It will build more now, with the shut down of its nukes. It will see an increase of 40 million tonnes per year of emissions, according to Reuters.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/01/us-german-nuclear-carbon-idUSTRE74U2Y220110601
A 2009 study from RWI Essen of the effects of the Renewable Energy Sources Act concluded that:
…using photovoltaics in emission reduction is 53 times more expensive than the European Union Emission Trading Scheme’s market price, while wind power is 4 times more expensive, thereby discouraging other industries from finding more cost-effective methods of reducing emissions; although renewable energy subsidies increase retail electricity rates by 3%, they reduce the profits of German electrical utilities by an average of 8%, making them less competitive with other European utilities;
Germany spends about 5 billion euros per year on subsidizing wind. The German Green party admitted that not a single gram of CO2 is saved, in spite of the cost.
From the article:
This is why the Bremen Energy Institute argues that “wind energy macro-economically has a negative employment impact”.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/dominic_lawson/article6719142.ece
ill wind; your
When the wind doesn’t blow? Are you suggesting that winds die down throughout an entire country? When the wind isn’t blowing in one area it’s blowing in another?
Good in theory. Not so much in real life. That is what happened in the UK this winter. It was cold over the entire country, and when its cold like that, the wind does not blow. It was estimated that wind produced at 1-2% of name plate during the cold spell. In fact, many turbines were net USERS of electricity, as the heaters needed to keep the units function-able, used more power than generated.
Same thing happened in Texas a few years ago, in a hot spell, and again this year during Texas cold streak.
Very cold and very hot weather are usually the result of stationary high pressure areas. These areas have little wind.
According to an environmental group who reviewed wind power, wind failed to generate significant power for large periods or time. And worse, at times of peak usage. The average was about 27% production against name plate capacity, but 1/2 the time wind was below 20%, and less than 10% for 1/3 of the time. Peak demand was worse:
“”During each of the four highest peak demands of 2010, wind output reached just 4.72%, 5.51%, 2.59% and 2.51% of capacity, according to the analysis.”””
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-12985410
From the regulator of power in Texas. Note that if Texas was a country, it would be considered the 6th largest producer of wind power in the world.
Using 2006 data, ERCOT has determined that 8.7% of the installed wind capability can be counted as dependable capacity during the peak demand period for the next year. Conventional generation must be available to provide the remaining capacity needed to meet forecast load and reserve requirements.
http://www.ercot.com/news/press_releases/2007/ERCOT_Response_to_Rep._Barton
sigh….. Les ruined my fun!!! I was saving some of those!!!
Well done!
Before the rest of the world follows this folly, the lessons learned should be taught to all. It would be insane to wish for what the Europeans bought into.
IWB is a denialist plant and only here to make the Chicken Little Brigade look bad. It is probably on the pay of Koch Industries, Big Tobacco, King Coal, And the Petrochemical consortium!
He is doing a really good job of discrediting the Chicken Little agenda.
“1) Let’s look at Spain and Portugal. They are on the verge of REAL bankruptcy. Spain’s foray into the world of a “green economy” was a total disaster:”
Correlation is causation? I thought everyone was close to bankruptcy.
Read Suyts’ comments (above). You might learn something.
@IWB: Something else for you to munch on:
http://theresilientearth.com/?q=content/americas-atomic-folly
I meant to put this one first:
http://theresilientearth.com/?q=content/wind-falters-while-nuclear-surges
Steve: I have two postings for Ill Wind, with lots of links. It appears hung up in the spam filter.
That has happened to me before. If you poast each link in a separate comment, they go through right away.
PJ: I will keep that in mind. Its a bit untidy, though, with lots of references….
Sometimes it is the lesser of two evils. I had a multi-link post for Ill Wind once … it took 9 hours to go through :(. While it was moderating, he posted a smart-ass comment about how a link would be nice.
Full Disclosure: 20% of my power comes from wind (according to Reliant).
My attic vents are being replaced with solar powered fans, to reduce the cooling bill.
I am placing solar powered insect killers in my yard.
All lights in my house are LEDs, with the exception of several CFLs. Most are on electronic dimmers, to further reduce consumption.
I use self sensing plugs for my rechargers. When it senses the battery is charged, it shuts it self off.
I use a load sensing power bar on the TV. When the TV is off, all other devices are shut down.
Why do I do this? Because I can afford to.