Here’s a great story at the English Der Spiegel that you’ll never, ever see or hear from the other drugged-up-on-green German media. It’s about how the drugged-up-on-green government assures failure – this one with potentially catastrophic proportions for Germany. Let it be a lesson for other countries.
Read about the entire bloody mess at:Germany’s Wind Power Revolution in the Doldrums.
Is Germany's renewable energy supply on the verge causing the entire system to crash and burn?
With its nuclear power reactors in the process of being shut down by government decree (done in a hysterical state of mind in the wake of Fukushima), Germany now needs to find an alternative supply for electricity, and real soon. The answer was to build huge offshore wind parks in the windy North Sea, for example like the one now being completed by energy giant RWE. However,
…when work is completed on the Nordsee Ost wind farm, some 30 kilometers (19 miles) north of the island of Helgoland in the North Sea, the sea air will be filled with a strong smell of fumes: diesel fumes. The reason is as simple as it is surprising. The wind farm operator, German utility RWE, has to keep the sensitive equipment — the drives, hubs and rotor blades — in constant motion, and for now that requires diesel-powered generators. Because although the wind farm will soon be ready to generate electricity, it won’t be able to start doing so because of a lack of infrastructure to transport the electricity to the mainland and feed it into the grid. The necessary connections and cabling won’t be ready on time and the delay could last up to a year.”
In other words, before Germany can launch itself into the renewable energy era Environment Minister Norbert Röttgen so frequently hails, the country must first burn massive amounts of fossil fuels out in the middle of the North Sea — a paradox as the country embarks on its energy revolution.”
Read more at: Germany’s Wind Power Revolution in the Doldrums.
Wonderful government management: Multi-billion euro windparks are going to just sit there and literally make the wind blow. It gets worse, read on. Other quotes:
So far 86 applications have been submitted for North Sea wind farms, though just 24 have been approved — and only four are in operation.”
RWE’s managers warn that even the more modest target for 2020 could be “missed by miles.”
Because of the weather conditions, engineers could only carry out much of the work between May and September.”
Without a grid to plug into, the turbines can’t deliver any electricity to the mainland. And without the sale of “green” power, the multi billion-euro wind farms won’t be generating revenues any time soon.”
RWE alone could lose more than a hundred million euros.”
…private investors now have doubts once more.”
The delays on the high seas are a bitter blow for the German government’s…”
Got to feel bad for the energy power companies – ordered by politicians to do the virtually impossible.
Germany’s power system was once tops in the world. Now that the government elephant has been allowed to run wild through the china shop, the risk of a complete collapse is real.
Anyone for Desertec?
Bwuhahahahahahahahahahahaha!
(sorry – couldn’t resist)
Nothing that taypayer Euros can’t fix.
From the posting, “The utilities could presumably only alleviate such a possible shortage of electricity by importing nuclear-generated power from the Czech Republic or France. ” Ironic to say the least.
Are there any public regrets about shutting down German nuclear power plants?
Shake gas is the future for Germany.
Drilling is already underway.
See this presentation by Matt Ridley which starts at 20.28
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=px8zp5F7dlo
Also read:
http://marcellus.psu.edu/resources/PDFs/shalegas_GWPF.pdf
In the mean time the Eu is playing with fire proposing an oil boycott with Iran.
As if we haven;t enough problems.
Our political establishment are a bunch of idiots.
http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2012/01/mutual-suicide-pact.html
And: http://rarereaders.seablogger.com/2012/01/there-are-many-ways-to-declare-war-to-a-nation/
This week a German Poll found that 60% of the German population is prepared to pay a higher price for electricity.
Nuclear fear mongering and years of green brainwashing finally pays off.
They are going to pay through their noses.
And the irony is they are sitting on a stack of shale gas with the potential to provide them with cheap energy for the next centuries without expanding the grid or investing the country into a black hole of absolutely useless wind power.
The irony.
But if there comes a moment when they open their eyes and connect their brains again their rage will burn the establishment as they will be treated like the French occupiers who went a bridge too far when they tried to take away the steel mills to compensate for the WWI damages.
The popular uprising of the steelworkers couldn’t be stopped by the police or the army and the French left empty handed.
Compared to today’s criteria of terrorism these steel workers were terrorists as they attacked the occupying French with self made bombs.
Nothing worse than a bunch of angry Germans.
“This week a German Poll found that 60% of the German population is prepared to pay a higher price for electricity.”
No surprise. This is the middle class. The increased energy prices are a degressive form of taxation, hitting the middle class far less than the poor – in fact many in the middle class profit from it as a lot of house owners own PV panels, or shares in wind farms, or in some other form have investment in the subsidized sector. So they get the money the poor have to pay, and they feel very smug indeed, saving the planet while cashing in (I did talk to such proud PV owners).
Or in other words: The 60% are not all crazy or dumb. They vote to maintain a system that is in their economic interest. They do not realize, however, that a market economy would create more overall wealth. Maybe it’s best to describe them as egotists.
“Anyone for Desertec?”
In the translation of the skeptical-science article you linked to on Tuesday I found this:
“Solar power from North Africa to Europe: The DESERTEC project. Aside from the enormous cost, huge losses in power generation and transportation to Central Europe make very long, high-voltage power lines necessary – and difficult to achieve. Moreover, the political upheavals in North Africa have made all the plans obsolete. “
I didn’t realise that Britain has a rival for, the world’s most expensive, inefficient and stupid energy policy.
Welcome to Germany!
[Note the French don’t go for any of this rot – do they!]
Thanks for posting this………………..here in Ontario, Canada we are witnessing exactly the same insanity that is happening in Germany and around the world.
The citizens of our Province do not have any Democratic means to stop this destruction any more. We have basically been taken over by a bunch of psychopathic politicos who see their plans for “energy poverty” realized against all rational thought!