Posted on 11/11/2024 6:48:56 AM PST by george76
At 5 p.m. last Wednesday, Germany’s 1602 offshore wind turbines in the North and Baltic Seas stood still…solar output was also near zero. Germany had to scramble to keep supply going.
The enemy of green energy: the high pressure system..
In the words of Professor Claudia Kemfert: It is a myth to believe that solar and wind do not provide enough electricity. The myth that there will be enough wind and sunshine somewhere in Europe was shattered at the beginning of November 2024. Daniel Wetzel describes the situation in the online Die Welt (pay article)
At 5 p.m. on Wednesday, solar power was only supplying a single megawatt hour. The 1602 offshore wind turbines in the North and Baltic Seas – each one the size of the Eiffel Tower – were at a complete standstill. Zero electricity production.
The onshore wind turbines produced only 114 megawatt hours at that hour, with German electricity consumption at 63,000 megawatt hours. Transmission system operator Amprion described the situation on the LinkedIn web portal on Thursday: ‘The minimum feed-in from wind and PV was just around 100 megawatts in total (in the period from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.).’
This means that the 87,000 megawatts of photovoltaic capacity and around 72,000 megawatts of wind power installed in Germany with triple-digit billion-euro subsidies were virtually unused for hours on end. There was no danger to the power supply, it was said. ‘No sun, no wind – yesterday and today there was a dark doldrums in Germany,’ explained Amprion on Thursday: ‘But our system management had everything under control.’”
Without the fossil power producers and foreign countries, things would have looked bad. A situation that was to be expected – but was consistently smiled away. Instead, graphics of the annual cycle were waved around to show that sun and wind would complement each other perfectly.
The fatal thing about the situation is the prices. Fossil power generation has been made politically more expensive and in times of shortage, prices really go through the roof. Die Welt added:
The peak prices of the past week are possibly just a harbinger of what is to be expected in the coming winter. The expert agency “Montel” quotes energy market experts who expect price peaks of 1000 euros per megawatt hour in the event of further wind lulls. This is because in times of low wind power production, increasingly expensive gas-fired power plants have to step in, which then define the market price level.
Traders interviewed by “Montel” also referred to the German nuclear and coal phase-out, which has reduced the base load-capable power plant capacity that can produce regardless of the weather. The imminent onset of the autumn and winter cold in Europe is also likely to drive up prices. This is because France in particular will then see a sharp increase in its own consumption, as many heating systems in the country are powered by electricity. The surge in demand for electricity in France is likely to further increase the relative shortage on the European Power Exchange and thus drive up prices.”
Too bad they can’t harness the power of people shivering in the dark. :(
Why can’t they distribute 100lbblocks of Dry Ice to the residents so they can create their very own Greenhouse Effect in their homes as the CO2 dissapates and warms up their homes???
2) And if you implement #1 anyway (solar and wind farms for the grid), then have enough hydrocarbon fueled power plants on standby for when solar and wind don't produce.
Because of #2 being not used as often, it's not financially feasible to go with #1. This would mean having twice as many power plants: intermittent ones, plus standby ones. Rare exceptions would be with countries that lack natural resources to steadily do hydrocarbon fueled plants. So those would implement #1 as much as you can to reduce how much hydrocarbons you buy for #2 by not running those plants continuously.
But the greenies shut down the hydrocarbon plants.
Yes wind and solar can provide enough energy, when we are all relegated to living underground while the Earth is covered by Mr. Chop Chops and and solar air fryers.........but only an insane Gaia worshiper would want to live like that.
... But the greenies shut down the hydrocarbon plants.
**********
Can’t feel sorry for them. They also shut-down nuclear power.
> The onshore wind turbines produced only 114 megawatt hours at that hour, with German electricity consumption at 63,000 megawatt hours. <
Liberals always double down on their stupidity. So the liberal solution: Build more wind turbines! Thousands more! Just don’t put them anywhere near my house.
It’s expensive and inefficient to shut down and restart conventional power plants. Therefore they must be kept running even when “renewable” sources are functioning. By German law the power from renewables is purchased when available regardless of price. The excess power from cheaper coal plants is sold on the European grid. The NetZero farce is a fraud. Germany is in financial stress yet this expensive fraud continues every day
I lived in Germany for four years. This describes a typical winter’s day. I drove from Brindisi, Italy’s Sunny shores to Kaiserslautern on the last day of January, 1993. I didn’t see the Sun again until mid-March.
I like the movie The Fog(1980) not the newer one
Will Germany ever come to its senses? Doesn’t seem likely.
“I like the movie The Fog(1980) not the newer one”
An entire movie based around Adrienne Barbeau’s covered up boobs. And it worked.
Their Government has collapsed......so nothings going to operate right.
It couldn't have been painted today...too many offshore windmills.
An entire movie based around Adrienne Barbeau’s covered up boobs. And it worked.
It sure did!
Agreed. Hence, one reason I'm uncomfortable with nuclear power going forward. Nuclear is great from a physical science perspective, but not from in political science. Instead of trying to placate the left and pick an energy source they agree with (today that's nuclear), we should tell them we don't care about their whining and pick whichever energy sources are feasible.
What I'm saying is that they will turn on nuclear as soon as we have a bunch of nuclear power plants that we depend on. Don't believe me? Look at how quickly they turned on the "clean burning natural gas" that Obama's EPA forced many power companies to switch to. Obama forced coal plants to be closed and replaced with natural gas fueled power plants. Then Brandon issued multiple EO's in his first week to make it harder to extract natural gas because by then the Dims made out like natural gas was killing us all.
If the left can't make up its mind on such a simple thing like natural gas, they'll be even harder on nuclear, saying it's dangerous and such.
She had eyes? Wow, I have rewatch that classic now. Thanks alot.
I know. They need a Hitler. We have one now. Get your own.
Rock and hard place - they are.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.