It Takes Scads of Reliable Energy to Back up Wind and Solar

By David Wojick

Source: https://townhall.com/columnists/davidwojick/2021/03/30/it-takes-big-energy-to-back-up-little-wind-and-solar-n2587070

Power system design can be extremely complex, but one simple number is painfully obvious. At least it’s painful (and terribly inconvenient) to advocates of wind and solar power – which may be why we never hear about it, why it too often gets deliberately hidden from view. It is a big, bad number.

To my knowledge, this big number has no name, but it should. Let’s call it the “minimum backup requirement” for wind and solar, or MBR. The minimum backup requirement is how much generating capacity a system must have if it is to reliably produce the electricity we need when wind and solar don’t.

For most places, the magnitude of MBR is very simple. It is all the juice needed on the hottest or coldest low wind nights. It is night, so there is no solar. Sustained wind is less than eight miles per hour, so there is no wind power. It is very hot or very cold, so the need for power is very high. Continue reading “It Takes Scads of Reliable Energy to Back up Wind and Solar”

New York Can’t Buy its Way out of Blackouts

By David Wojick

New York City will soon be home to the world’s biggest utility-scale battery system, designed to back up its growing reliance on intermittent renewables. At 400 MWh this batch of batteries will be more than triple the 129 MWh world leader in Australia.

The City of New York’s director of sustainability, Mark Chambers, is ecstatic, bragging: “Expanding battery storage is a critical part of how we advance momentum to confront the climate emergency while meeting the energy needs of all New Yorkers. Today’s announcement demonstrates how we can deliver this need at significant scale.” (Emphasis added)

In reality the scale here is incredibly insignificant.

Read on here:

https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/12/24/new-york-cant-buy-its-way-out-of-blackouts/

Flood Plains are for Floods

By Viv Forbes

Natural flood plains form where floods spread silt and mud in river valleys. Being flat, fertile, picturesque and usually supplied with surface and underground water, they attract farms, orchards and gardens. These are inevitably followed by roads, houses and businesses.

Despite all the planners with their rules, the pressure of people plus a bit of corruption has always resulted in population clustering on fertile flood plains and deltas beside scenic rivers. There is no point trying to stop or reverse this tide of history but those who choose to build on flood plains must bear the costs of the occasional flood.

Community groups will always help those stricken by floods but taxpayers and insurers should not be forced to subsidise the insurance and damage costs for those who choose to live in risky places – their choice, their risk, their cost. Naturally insurance for flood-prone property will be expensive or not available – a clear message for those with ears to hear.

More cautious people build on the hills and leave the flood plains for floods, farms, trees, market gardens and grass. Rational town planning would require sellers and developers to provide accurate flood maps to buyers, and councils should paint flood levels on power poles.

Continue reading “Flood Plains are for Floods”

Emissions Confusion

By Viv Forbes

What parallel universe are our politicians living in?

Their Net-Zero policy says we must reduce carbon dioxide emissions to induce global cooling.

Then their COVID closures and lockdowns destroyed the travel industry, thus slashing travel emissions. Success – one industry approaches their zero-emissions goal.

Are they pleased? No, those who were locked down yesterday are today promised Queensland government travel vouchers to visit Cairns. And the feds have already offered 50% air fare subsidies. All travel subsidies increase emissions.
And now three levels of government collaborate to promote another travel emissions extravaganza – the Queensland Olympic Games.

Maybe tourists will ride bicycles to Cairns and the Games buses, trains and planes will run on political hot air?

Do they want more or less emissions? We are confused.

Queenslanders paid to take a holiday:
https://www.mygc.com.au/qld-government-travel-vouchers-how-to-access-your-free-200/

Federal Travel Subsidies:
https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/half-price-airfares-to-save-tourism-20210310-p579al

Brisbane bids for Olympic Games:
https://wwos.nine.com.au/news/olympics-paralympics-tokyo-games-2021-australia-brisbane-bid-2032-ioc-aoc/9e881a12-f2f5-42cf-b544-19b7f312d98e

Ad-Free ABC? (Australian Broadcasting Commission)

By Viv Forbes

In recent decades “our” ABC has become a pampered left-wing mega-phone.

And it is NOT ad-free. It runs continual free-to-air ads for itself and all its leftie, one-world, anti-industry, first-nation causes.

Ratings show that taxpayers don’t want to support it.

It is a billion-dollar business living on welfare. It should be shut it down, sold or donated to those who love it.

Most Australians believe that ABC television is not worth paying a single cent for:
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/most-swipe-left-on-dear-aunty/news-story/6b3247911e1e8b23ee45cffb3124f244 [$]

https://joannenova.com.au/2021/03/abc-is-a-billion-dollar-leftist-advertising-agency-that-most-australians-dont-want-to-pay-for/

Time to sell the ABC:
https://economics.org.au/2011/09/time-to-sell-the-abc/

Lessons from Fukushima

Introduction

The world just marked the tenth anniversary of the tragic Fukushima earthquake, tsunami, nuclear power plant meltdown and hydrogen explosion. The name ‘Fukushima’ is clearly etched in our collective memories, and we are frequently urged to learn lessons from what happened there.

But what did actually happen – and which lessons should we learn? In other words, how do citizens, governments and the news media avoid learning the wrong lessons?

As Africa’s foremost nuclear power expert, Kelvin Kemm is especially knowledgeable about Chernobyl and Fukushima. In the article below, he lays out what actually happened in Japan a decade ago – and what lessons we would be well advised to learn from that tragedy.

There were three main lessons: Continue reading “Lessons from Fukushima”

The Green Hobby

From Heinz Dähling

Source: https://kaltesonne.de/das-gruene-hobby/ [in German; “translate to English” button in the top right]

For millennia, the use of energy sources beyond muscle strength was limited to mechanical energy from flowing air and water and chemical energy from renewable sources. The limitations of these then also limited the human population, which for millennia barely exceeded a billion. In the middle of the 19th century, around 1.5 billion people settled on earth. Only with the utilization of fossil energy sources, with technical progress in the industrialized countries and the associated increase in food production, the world population rose by leaps and bounds, to 2.5 billion by the middle of the 20th century. However, this is still moderate compared to the subsequent tripling to 7.5 billion today,which took place almost exclusively in developing countries. And all forecasts assume that this development will continue. In view of this, going back to mechanical and renewable energy sources and calling it “sustainable” is more than strange. Continue reading “The Green Hobby”

Six Issues the Promoters of the Green New Deal Have Overlooked

By Jonathan DuHamel

From: https://wryheat.wordpress.com/2019/05/29/six-issues-the-promoters-of-the-green-new-deal-have-overlooked/

Although the Earth’s climate has been changing for more than 4 billion years all by itself, we are now told that we can stop climate change simply by reducing carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels.

Ignorance-based plans such as the Green New Deal propose that we terminate electricity generation by fossil fuels and replace all of it with renewables such as wind and solar. Proponents of such plans have not considered the environmental nor economic implications.

“Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.” – Martin Luther King Jr. Continue reading “Six Issues the Promoters of the Green New Deal Have Overlooked”

Taking the Wind Out of Climate Change

Taking the Wind Out of Climate Change

The proponents of Climate Change insist that we are facing an imminent existential threat to our very existence. To prevent this catastrophe they assert that we must make immediate, impactful changes — particularly regarding our energy policies. The primary solution advocated by the major Climate Change advocates (e.g. the IPCC and the scientists comprising the so-called 97% consensus) is industrial wind energy. Continue reading “Taking the Wind Out of Climate Change”