Here’s another example on how a once respected science journal has meandered off into junk-rated energy propaganda. Nature now says that global warming will cause blackouts. And of course there’s even media out there gullibale enough to believe it and to spread the nonsense.
This to me is an admission that they know blackouts are inevitable and now they’re setting up the machinery of blame when the blackouts start hitting. The growing green energy supply system, which is highly unsteady because it is increasingly made up of wind and solar energy, is impossible to regulate. And as more of it comes online, blackouts will be become daily occurrences.
But rather than blaming it on wind and solar power, the propagandists at Nature and their media stooges are laying the groundwork to blame it on “dirty” energy. Nobody is going to believe it, though.
Globalwarmingisreal.com writes:
The energy supplies for the United States and Europe are at risk, thanks to increasing complications attributed to climate change. […] Extreme drops in power generation, blackouts and full or partial shutdowns of thermoelectric power plants are expected to triple over the next 50 years. […] In fact the findings predict that energy efficiency or power production in the U.S. will decrease 4 percent to 16 percent and even higher in Europe due to a reduction in cooling water between 2031 and 2060.”
And on it goes. The solution, the silly report writes, is to switch over to renewable energy, which they claim is more manageable.
Cleary the authors have forgotten that renewable energies are extremely volatile in their supply.
For example, Germany’s once highly stable predominantly fossil fuel/nuclear power-based supply has been transformed into a mishmash of renewable energies and has become a laughing stock in just a year’s time.
Just take a look at the steadiness of wind supply for German power company E.ON, for example the year 2004:
Read more about the folly of wind here: http://www.europhysicsnews.org/articles/epn/pdf/2012/02/epn2012432p22.pdf
Today there’s a growing body of anecdotal stories to demonstrate the sheer folly of renewable energy in Germany, from skyrocketing costs, to negative prices, from windfarms being paid not to produce, to isolated windparks with no transmission lines to take the power to market, to name some.
A wonderful alternative to the impeccably steady power supply from coal, nuclear or oil, wouldn’t you say?
UPDATE: Also read here for more wind park follies!
and here 1.2 million for nothing
[…] Nonsensical Nature Study Says Global Warming Threatens To Cause Blackouts, Better To Switch To Wind …. Like this:LikeBe the first to like this post. […]
Chemistry lesson:
Burning coal, oil or gas ADDS to the water in the atmosphere. 😉
P.S.: See what some Australians are doing with the compensation payouts for the tax whose name may not be spoken:
http://www.warwickhughes.com/blog/?p=1635
The E.ON report is a top notch paper. It may be found in its entirety in
http://docs.wind-watch.org/eonwindreport2005.pdf
Its key exhibit, in my opinion, is exhibit 7, on page 9 of the document. It shows that due to the stochastic nature of wind:
“as wind power capacity rises, the lower availability of the wind farms determines the availability of the system as a whole to an ever increasing extent. … As a result, the relative contribution of wind power to the guarranteed capacity of our supply system up to the year 2020 will fall continuously to around 4%…”
True, that % may be upped a bit, with use of water pumping storage (never mind the increased cost and added inefficiencies). Or, with so called smart grids, or “how I learned to turn on my annealing furnace when it blows”. Germany managed to claim a 7% contibution to electricity by wind power in 2011. But with several hudred grid stability incidents, and a couple of close calls: http://www.welt.de/dieweltbewegen/article13798376/Oesterreich-rettet-deutsche-Stromversorgung.html (I believe you had mentioned this link sometime ago). Cost notwithstanding, wind power is OK, as long as it is only a hint above trivial, as a %. It crossed that threshold as soon as some nukes were taken down following the tsunami in Japan.
Solar is more predictable, or useful, as it may coincide with peak demand, but then again it is 3-4 times as expensive as wind. No free lunch, no thank you.
And my favorite question is: “How many wind generators and/or solar panels does it take to manufacture a single ball bearing”?
Solar power is exactly as predictable as the movement and extent of clouds. As Germany has a lot of them, good luck with predicting solar power output.
you are absolutely right… I was referring to my bankrupt country, where PV’s are advertized as a way to get a …free house (with a morgtgage), and where PV FITS are around €350-500/MWhr. And even we have clouds 10-11 months per year… But WE are rich, and we are pushed to buy Pv’s. Insanity.
Greece? The insanity! I knew that Italy had 50 cent/kWh but Greece as well it seems. All through this near bankruptcy… And Krugman thinks Europe does austerity…
I am not joking. This is past insanity. It is “when the going gets weird, the weird turn pro”. With whoever pays up the “producers” unable to pay for past dues, and a new black hole forming. The austerity does exist at the consumer level, and a lot of electricity bills are in arrears. And more permits on the way. You will hear the bang when it bursts.
The funny thing is that the Troika, and the IMF have been whimpering about scaling back FIT’s. But nooo…
Hey Pierre – hope you’re doing well. Have passed this article on to my NC colleagues. The state is playing with the idea of setting up a wind farm offshore.
Your data suggests this approach to energy might not be…shall we say…recommended?
Thanks!
Good luck!
Made me think of this
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy/windpower/8770937/Wind-farm-paid-1.2-million-to-produce-no-electricity.html
“A wind farm has been paid £1.2 million not to produce electricity for eight-and-a-half hours. ”
Not a constant reliable supply.
I find it incredibly irresponsible that ‘Nature’ and European Scientists have not demanded that the EU spend more on these wonderful systems at sea. It is obvious to even the most mentally challenged Climate Experts that there are no weeds at sea! The Soviets put something in the water supplies of the Old West, the World is going crazy!!!(SarcOff;-)