Reuters claims “Wind overtakes fossil fuels for UK electricity generation.” Reality is that wind is unreliable and forces the UK to maintain both wind and natural gas generation. In other words, the wind turbines serve no purpose.
Wind overtakes fossil fuels for UK electricity generation | Reuters
Wind power production as a percentage
Combined Cycle Gas Turbine(CCGT) power production as a percentage
Wind is given preference when it is available and Gas turbines are only allowed to fill in the gaps. So, given the increasing number of subsidized wind turbines, what else would you expect?
Using closed circuit gas turbine generators (CCGT) fuelled by natural gas as back up for wind turbines and solar is extremely inefficient as they cannot be switched off as such.
They have to be kept at “hot idle” – running off load, not generating, keeping the heat exchangers that generate the steam for the heat recovery steam turbines hot, burning gas all the time, ready for when the wind fails.
The open cycle gas turbine (OCGT) sets can be turned on and off but are much less efficient when on load as there is no heat recovery stage.
So how does wind compare when we include construction, maintenance and decommissioning costs? It appears to get the free lunch when energy policy is made. A few more pennies advancing the AGW refutation, i.e. the REAL science, and exposing the fraud and malfeasance, could pay off handsomely.
But what to do with all the useful idiots who apparently don’t know any better, and are currently enjoying full tenure at the taxpayer’s expense? MacDonald’s can’t
employ that many. But then, most lack the interpersonal skills needed for the job, and so MacDonald’s wouldn’t want them. Pompous self-importance are not valued qualities in any retail business.
“Enedis (the French power distribution network operator) is reportedly preparing a reform of the off-peak hours system at the request of the Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE), in order to lighten the public electricity network and adapt it to the production of electricity produced at from solar panels.
To adapt to changes in electricity production, Enedis proposes moving off-peak hours to periods of high solar production, particularly in the early afternoon during the summer months. This measure would make better use of the abundance of solar energy and reduce pressure on the electricity network. On the other hand, the reduced rates offered in winter, particularly at lunchtime and at the end of the day, would be removed to avoid peaks in consumption during these periods of high demand, and consequently, a surge in prices.”
https://lenergeek.com/2024/05/17/electricite-enedis-reforme-systeme-heures-creuses-jour/
In other words having spent gazillions on building solar power installations, they now don’t know what to do with the power they generate in summer – when you don’t need the power.
Summer peak hours are usually in the afternoon due to air conditioning load. We usually peaked at between 2 and 4 pm when I ran the load management program for a small utility company. Solar power peaks at solar noon, which simply is when the sun hits its zenith at your location, but it is invariably way before 2pm. So your maximum production from a solar array will never meet your maximum load if people are allowed to go about their business as they want to go about their business, and this is in the summer when your solar production is at its best. So the government, in its wisdom, is taking away your ability to go about your business as you would naturally like to go about your business. In short, government, not being able to manage itself efficiently enough to supply people’s needs according to their wishes, and being unwilling to let the utility be free to devise ways to meet people’s needs, has decided to disallow people from living their lives as they wish. The elites would be most happy if we would walk back our rights to those of our medieval forefathers, and actually even worse than that.
In some Australian States, they are now talking about charging the owners of home solar systems for exporting power to the grid in peak solar periods, i.e. the middle of the day. When solar first started being pushed 14 to 15 years ago, power supply companies (heavily subsidised by Governments of course) paid solar owners 50 cents for every kilowatt hour exported. This was when power to import and use cost around 15 cents a kilowatt hour. Now input power costs over 30 cents a kilowatt hour and the best feed in (export) tariff available for solar owners is 12 cents / kWh. To further reduce this tariff to the point it goes the other way and becomes a charge is absurd and socialism on steroids. Its like being a green grocer and having to pay customers for taking your fruit.
So, power grid wind and solar provide expensive, part-time energy and the operations seem fraught with high-maintenance and high costs. In tandem with shutting down fossil fuel stations, instead of ameliorating any kind of energy crisis, government-subsidized wind and solar generated electricity seem to be unnecessarily creating exactly that. It is as if that were the plan all along.
They are getting away with this insanity by scapegoating a non-problem with everything they can throw at it – everything except for solid science.
The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government and I am here to help.’
– Ronald Reagan