Posted on 10/17/2023 9:41:07 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
In many parts of the world, nations are noticing some of the growing pains associated with trying to do away with fossil fuels and rely increasingly on “green energy” such as solar and wind power. We’re seeing the same effects in the United States. One of the main obstacles is the inability of aging power grids to not only provide enough energy to keep the world moving but to accept the newer forms of energy being provided. The International Energy Agency in Europe is sounding the alarm, warning that rolling blackouts are once again becoming a very real risk if adjustments are not made. And in the northern hemisphere, having this happen just as winter is approaching is something of a worst-case scenario. (Associated Press)
Stalled spending on electrical grids worldwide is slowing the rollout of renewable energy and could put efforts to limit climate change at risk if millions of miles of power lines are not added or refurbished in the next few years, the International Energy Agency said.
The Paris-based organization said in the report Tuesday that the capacity to connect to and transmit electricity is not keeping pace with the rapid growth of clean energy technologies such as solar and wind power, electric cars and heat pumps being deployed to move away from fossil fuels.
IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol told The Associated Press in an interview that there is a long line of renewable projects waiting for the green light to connect to the grid.
Some of the “complications” under discussion were completely avoidable and could have been dodged with a bit more advance planning. One of the major problems with these newer green energy solutions is that they each have their own unique infrastructure. If you go put up a bunch of windmills on a hill, hooking them up to the grid isn’t as simple as running an extension cord down to the nearest powerlines and plugging them in as if you were setting up a new Playstation in your house. Adapters and converters are required, all of which takes time and costs money, driving up the cost of the project.
Location is also a constant consideration when planning new power generating stations, or at least it’s supposed to be. In order for electrical power to be useful you have to get it from the source to where it’s needed. Transmission lines create losses over longer and longer distances, so you need to be smart and put your new generators as close as possible to the most strained portions of the grid.
Further, even if we leave aside all of the logistical and installation costs, wind and solar projects don’t produce as much electricity as traditional oil and gas generators. Pound-for-pound, nothing produces electricity as cheaply and reliably as oil and gas. So by engaging in this sort of widespread conversion, you are taking up more space and producing less energy as a result, even as demands on the grid continue to increase as the population grows.
The reality is that our energy grids around the world were designed and built to run on either fossil fuels or hydroelectric power. Both of them employ essentially the same type of hookups to the grid. Later, we added in nuclear energy, but those plants tend to be far apart and connecting them to the local grid is always part of the initial construction plan.
But today we have people scooping up government grants and funding intended to “save the planet” and rushing to set up wind and solar farms wherever they can manage to get access to some real estate. This has led to cases where a new batch of wind turbines can be tossed up only to be left sitting idle for considerable periods of time while waiting to be connected to the grid. Meanwhile, particularly in the United States, our grid is already adapted to oil and gas generation so it’s ready to go. If we would go back to setting up more oil and gas plants rather than shutting them down and trying to replace them with windmills, we wouldn’t be struggling with these issues.
Germany approves bringing coal-fired power plants back online this winter | Reuters.Oct 4, 2023
Gee whiz, it is almost like we don’t have 100 years of power generation experience to draw on....
GOOD!!! Screw ‘em. Let ‘em burn up in the summer and freeze in the winter. Let their old folks and young die from the stupidity of the “climate change” generation. Such deprivation is the only way to train the idiot voting classes.
Most electric utilities have load shedding plans to balance load with generation. The problem is that most “green generation” is not able to be scheduled and most does not have spinning reserves, hot standby reserves, nor the ability to provide power factor VAR’s.
A grid also requires higher voltage in some areas to move “power” to areas of high load over the transmission lines that have extra capacity. Sometimes, unless the utility can control all aspects of the generation, the power just doesn't want to go where it is needed or through the right transmission path.
My 5c to this.
Computers usually have some build it regulators which can compensate. It is mostly the Raw energy consumers who get in trouble.
The “New” energy coming on to the grid caused the so called “DUCK” shape of power consumption/generation.
The “green” sources have the stupid idea of generating power, when it is not needed, and they are hard to turn off.
The morning and evening energy peaks are as big as they ever been, but during the day, when the power curve used to be mostly flat, it is depressed by the greens.
But that flat level was well served by the coal and nukes, which are the best in generating power, but they are hard to turn on/off. (They are many hours or even days needed to turn on Nuclear power plant.)
So we are trying to got some batteries, peak power plants (natural gas), etc., to serve during the peaks. The more green, the worst the problem becomes.
Right now, we have the funny problem. On the spot energy price during the day is often NEGATIVE - yes, they are building boxes just to burn the energy and they are paying people to take the energy away.
But the peak energy cost is going up very much. A lot more than the daytime savings! Rolling blackouts during the peak hours are in the future.
Not too funny.
Fat people on exercycles hooked up to generator turbines. That is green energy, and healthy. Pay them minimum wage for getting slim and fit.
This would be the Triumph of the Will!
SURPRISE!!! SURPRISE !!!!
dumb a##es just realized this?
It's scary to think how quickly liberal 'elites' bought into the insanity of Climate Alarmism... Even that idiot Bill Gates is finally backtracking...
After 20 years of climate change crap, this is where we are. It will get worse. Climate change is a big scam and also mass hysteria.
MORE EVs!!!!!
For the US Energy Transition:
The Grid won’t be ready.
Minerals critical for solar and wind won’t be available.
Investment Capital has evaporated doubling deployment costs.
And, if by some miracle we are able to build and deploy, experience shows us that not only will intermittent power sources fail, they will fail at the Worst Possible Moment.
“dumb a##es just realized this?”
Nope.
Coal is now "green." Political narratives cannot control the "invisible hand" of which Adam Smith wrote so long ago. So they bend to reality in the end.
Hah! I won’t be surprised if the Marxist European leaders then say “Then you’ll do without!”.
And the lemmings will continue to re-elect them...
“It’s scary to think how quickly liberal ‘elites’ bought into the insanity of Climate Alarmism... “
Liberal elites didn’t buy into this. They fomented this and had their useful idiots evangelize it. They will never live with green energy, bugs for food, electric vehicles, etc. Picture the Soviet Politburo. That’s what they are. Nothing more, nothing less.
Look at Texas as the example of what will happen when we become more dependent on green energy sources. Texas had a major blackout in 2021 and several blackouts and near blackouts in the previous ten years. All of these blackouts were caused by not enough supply to meet higher than normal demand. Texas is unique in that it has its own grid system so it is a microcosm of our national system. Some 20% of electricity in Texas comes from wind energy with fossil fueled plants making up the rest. Wind energy is fickle and must have back up from other sources. In Texas there is not enough reserve for high demand. Even if all the windmills are at capacity, the loss of one or two fossil fuel plants due to maintenance at peal demand will cause collapse. If weather conditions are such that significant numbers of wind plants are idled and there is not enough reserve with the fossil fuel plants …blackouts
You're right. That said, nice to see Bill Gates backing off from some of the idiocy... even for him it's gone too far.
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