Another snippet for the next time a climate saviour tells you the “whole world” is moving to clean energy.
Last year Poland installed almost as many new wind turbines as Germany (the Kingland-of-Wind-towers). Wind make about 13% of Poland’s electricity. This year, according to the wind industry, the new conservative Polish government wants to regulate them out of existence.
Bill threatens Polish wind power, warns industry – Financial Times
Poland’s thriving wind energy industry has warned that it faces bankruptcies, rapid divestment
and an end to growth under a bill that threatens executives with prison.
“For some projects, it will be terminal . . . it will kill them,” said Wojciech Cetnarski, president of
the Polish Wind Energy Association…
The bill will make it illegal to build turbines within 2km of other buildings or forests — a
measure campaigners said would rule out 99 per cent of land — and quadruple the rate of tax
payable on existing turbines — making most unprofitable.
This is what the voters apparently wanted from the new government:
Jaroslaw Kaczynski’s ruling Law and Justice party, which campaigned on a promise to crack
down on the industry, said it wants to make legislation on turbines more “citizen-friendly”.
The government has a majority. The bill is being debated.
The methods appear to be pretty brutal (along with the sudden rule changes, state owned companies have backed out of deals, and there are promises of long shut-downs on monthly inspections). What big-government giveth, big-government can blow up. Some of it looks less than admirable. Fake Boom meet Bomb-Bust. Perhaps the messy end is the price of cleaning the slate after particularly bad-big government, but it would be nice to see some higher principles at work.
This was reported by the Financial Times. Despite the ABC interest in renewable energy, (solar is best for Uganda) they havent mentioned that maybe coal is best for Poland…
“Poland Bill threatens Polish wind power.”
Got to laugh. When I read this my first thought was “Who is Poland Bill?”
In a flash I decided that it must be an internet nom de plume. (Both
Poland and Bill are capitalized.) Then I smacked my face after I got the
correct meaning of the line.
Though there is nothing wrong with “Poland Bill” it is obscure. Better
would be “Polish bill threatens Polish wind power.” But then I would not
have enjoyed my morning funny.
Eugene WR Gallun
240
It is better off to see the forests than these dying monstrosities that will be too expensive to repair in the future.
When you try to force technology…all that is gained is garbage technology that will be most costly as time goes on.
250
Thanks Joe. Those dying monstrosities are huge, ugly, and useless. Hurrah Poland!
At last, a country/politicians who embrace the truth on wind energy – enormous scam that only works by robbing the taxpayers and hurting the poor. Ditto for solar energy.
120
Hey…were all loopy…according to an ./…actor…whose job is …………….playing make believe…..!!
Go figure…..
“In an interview with AFP, actor and comedian Alec Baldwin sounded off on climate change at the United Nations.
Baldwin touted the importance and described those skeptical of the theory to be suffering from “mental illness.”
“There can be no successful climate agreement and no future for our planet without greater protection of the world’s forests, everyone in the room understands this,” Baldwin said in his appearance at the UN.
“And so much of what’s coming on now is something that we have to treat as some kind of mental illness,” he added in his interview with AFP. “I believe the climate change denial is a form of mental illness.”
http://www.breitbart.com/video/2016/04/22/alec-baldwin-climate-change-denial-form-mental-illness/
30
In Europe, it was totally obvious the greenie obsession with imposing the use of expensive unreliable energy, as opposed to the cheap reliable kind, was going to end in tears. However, those of us able to think assumed this was only a winter problem, especially during periods of extreme cold associated with high pressure systems.
The UK’s National Grid is now warning it is going to be an equally big problem in summer, when electricity demand is much lower and solar power generation is much higher. The expensive and unreliable wind and solar power has to be purchased first, only once this is satisfied can conventional producers (oil, gas and nuclear) sell their electrical power.
Obviously, you cannot keep switching on and off major conventional power stations without incurring crippling financial losses and damage to generating equipment. So how do the power companies in the UK predictably respond? Answer: These companies are there to make money, not pander to greenie whims, so they are closing reliable conventional power plants and refusing to build any new ones unless guaranteed a truly enormous price (e.g. Hinkley Point nuclear) for their electricity.
It is difficult to gauge which has the worse electricity generating policy, the UK or Germany, but both countries are going to pay dearly for their political elite’s obsession with imposing Green Blob energy ‘solutions’. This poses the question of whether or not any of the green activist organisations have ever campaigned for anything real, useful, or beneficial, or are they just money making schemes like so many of the dubious religious cults that plague our societies? And that is a really stupid question, Greenpeace – real, useful, beneficial – yeah right!
210
Clearly some adult supervision is required so that the nuclear industry can secure some low interest loans so that it can afford to dispose of spent nuclear fuel instead of having to store it on site due to disposal costs.
Or perhaps the nuclear industry can pass the cost of getting rid of the spent fuel onto the consumer of nuclear energy. Maybe it could market the idea of getting rid of spent nuclear fuel as ‘clean nuclear energy’. Voluntary of course so that consumers who do not want to pay for the cost cleaning up can continue to enjoy cheap nuclear energy prices.
10
I think if you did a ‘poll’ nuclear power is vastly less good looking.
00
Eugene, it’s a bonus when the murdered grammar makes you laugh as well as the actual story.
80
aussiepete —
I am smiling. Glad to get a comment by aussiepete about my misreading of Poland Bill.
Eugene WR Gallun
30
By the way, nouns quite commonly are used as adjectives. “Coffee grounds” comes immediately to mind. (That’s “coffee grinds” to those who use an older English.) Orange juice. United States currency. Sidney Opera House (that’s a double). Etc.
Eugene WR Gallun
41
Sydney Opera House. 🙂
41
AndyG55
Sydney Opera House — Oops, sorry. I am only an American and must be excused.
Eugene WR Gallun
30
I took it purely as a typo 🙂
21
Andy – US spell checks would not recognise (recognize?) Sydney. Auto correct in overdrive?
Some years ago I sent a series of standard paragraphs to a software house in the US to integrate into a reporting program I was developing for smartphones. My contact rang me and told me my copy “was full of red underlines!” I had to guide him through the spell check process to find – Australian English – whereupon all the red underlines vanished! “Wa’ll be danged” said my Texan friend “Ah neva knew you had a different way of spelling to the right way”. I had to remind him who invented the language!
71
Didn’t that place get swamped by rising seas in 2000?
Tom Foolery said it would.
60
I remember that. That was when there were going to be 50 million climate refugees by 2010.
The one (1) climate `refugee’ who applied in NZ was, after two children, convicted of overstaying his visa and deported back to Kiribati in 2015.
New York City’s Battery Point still seems to be about as far above the tide as it was 50 years ago.
It’s past time the present modellers were dismissed and their models dumped. New modellers with new computers could then design new models under new terms and conditions.
30
Poland Bill threatens to Polish off Polish Wind Turbines…
30
Sounds like payback for refusing nukes by the environmentally astute polls found mainly in poll-land. The origin of polls.
From Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%BBarnowiec_Nuclear_Power_Plant
“The Żarnowiec Nuclear Power Plant (Polish: Elektrownia Jądrowa Żarnowiec) was supposed to be the first nuclear power plant in Poland.[1] Due to changes in the economical and political situation in Poland after 1989, as well as public protests in the late 1980s and early ’90s which escalated in the wake of the Chernobyl disaster, the construction was cancelled.
….”Environmental impact
Because the power plant was to incorporate an open-ended cooling system that returned hot water from cooling directly to the Żarnowiec Lake, the average temperature of the lake was predicted to rise by about 10 °C, so that even during winter the surface would not freeze. To prevent the uncontrolled growth of flora in such conditions, an ecological engineering project was started to introduce warm-water herbivore fish species, such as Grass Carps. As the first phase, to reduce the population of carnivorous species, fishing limits for them were lifted. The regulations were not changed after the construction was abandoned, causing an almost complete depletion of the lake’s fishstock.
The pumped-storage reservoir now operates as the Żarnowiec Hydro Power Plant, the largest pumped-storage plant in Poland. Its operation causes variations in the lake’s water level, causing the erosion of soil on its shores.
Legacy
Tableware with the power plant’s logo
One of the traces of the Żarnowiec Nuclear Power Plant is a special set of tableware emblazoned with the power plant’s logo.
The meteorogical station operated until its parent company went bankrupt in 2002. Its equipment included a Plessey WP3 meteo radar, which was destroyed by scrap metal looters.
After a 2004 earthquake in Kalinigrad, the seismic stability of northern Poland was put in question.[8]”
10
Sounds like a government creditor problem.
The government creditors giveth, and the government creditors taketh away behind the scenes.
For example…
From: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-01-15/sp-enters-latest-european-scandal-downgrades-poland-bbb
“RATING ACTION
On Jan. 15, 2016, Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services lowered its long-term foreign currency sovereign credit rating on the Republic of Poland to ‘BBB+’ from ‘A-‘ and its long- and short-term local currency sovereign credit ratingsto ‘A-/A-2’ from ‘A/A-1’. The short-term foreign currency sovereign credit rating was affirmed at ‘A-2’. The outlook is negative.
We also revised our transfer and convertibility (T&C) assessment on Poland to ‘A’ from ‘AA-‘ (a T&C assessment reflects our view of the likelihood of the sovereign restricting nonsovereign access to foreign currency needed for debt service).
RATIONALE
The downgrade reflects our view that Poland’s system of institutional checks and balances has been eroded significantly as the independence and effectiveness of key institutions, such as the constitutional court and publicbroadcasting, is being weakened by various legislative measures initiated since the October 2015 election. Poland’s new ruling party Law and Justice (PiS), which holds an absolute majority in the parliament (Sejm) and the senate, has set out to make fundamental changes to Poland’s institutions. For example, the constitutional court’s ability to work efficiently and independently will likely be undermined, in our view, by changes to the court’s composition and decision-making process. The government’s new media law, as another example, gives the government extensive powers to appoint and control the directors and supervisory boards of public broadcasters. A third law terminates contracts of all current senior, career civil servants and removes a constraint regarding previous party membership, therefore enabling the new government to change the structure of the civil service. In our view, these measures erode the strength of Poland’s institutions and go beyond what we had anticipated regarding policy changes from the general election.”
113
When dealing with the economic climate science of a country or on a smaller scale , it is worth looking at what a former meteorologist said recently. Former meteorologists make good economic climate scientists/observers in my opinion, shoddy as it may be as i do not get enough time to refine and study it in greater detail as other professionals/amateurs. In my view, the UN is like a credit rating agency to obtain a good credit rating to secure new loans from creditors.
from: Get politics out of climate debate: Opposing view
John Coleman 4:04 p.m. EDT April 22, 2016
“As a skeptic of man-made global warming, I love our environment as much as anyone. I share the deepest commitment to protecting our planet for our children and grandchildren. However, I desperately want to get politics out of the climate debate. The Paris climate agreement is all about empowering the U.N. and has nothing to do with the climate.
Weather Channel founder John Coleman has spent more than 60 years as a meteorologist, including seven years as the original weathercaster on ABC’s Good Morning America.”
80
Hmmmm……it’s a warped reality when the politics is removed from a fairy story but the fairy story remains…. Its a twisted and fractured form of reality….
00
you are on a slippery slope of seeing everything in the world through one lens. Current Polish government puts Donald Trump to shame. I do not know how much subsidy was going into wind towers, but I do know that the new bill is trying to impose onerous restrictions, not to remove subsidies. Ideology makes bad policy, right or left.
047
From what I found (see below) the Polish government is doing exactly what the government of any country should do, looking out for Poland and the Polish people.
What that has to do with Donald Trump isn’t at all clear from your comment. Ideology, like it or not is the driver of everything. No one makes laws thinking they’re a bad idea. They make laws when they think it’s a good idea. And that’s ideology at work.
It’s not government’s legitimate role to be in bed with any business or industry interest. If anything, government must be concerned with protecting it’s citizens from the excesses of business.
It’s not left vs. right but a matter of what works well for everyone. And provably wind turbines have not worked well for everyone. That they were a mistake is now so obvious it shouldn’t need stating. It may be unfortunate that some industry is going to take a big hit. But they will recover and go on to something else, just as always happens.
620
Why are the restrictions onerous?
Poland is a very flat country, which makes it very attractive for wind farming. But without a Government mandated limit, on the number or spacing of towers, you would get nothing but a sea of windmills, reminicient of the photos taken of prospectors drilling towers, when oil was discovered in the southern USA.
At least, in the USA the oil rigs were eventually consolidated into a few economically viable sources. But with wind, the more towers, the better from an energy perspective.
On the down side, each windmill produces subsonic noise, and if you have a large number in close proximity, the harmonics produced, can actually go into the audible range.
Not a pleasant place to live.
301
Hmm,
The above comment, should have been in answer to mf at comment #3.
51
” the Polish government is doing exactly what the government of any country should do, looking out for Poland and the Polish people.”
The Polish government is doing what the creditor of any government asks it to do. It is looking out for the creditors or the banking system. The banking crisis in the USA for example in 2007 or what the government of Greece had to do to look after its creditors more recently.
10
Mike,
On that you’re probably more up to date than I am. So I can’t argue pro or con. But I’ll acknowledge that any government has to protect it’s banking system, at least to some extent. And as I said, I’m sure they’re walking a tightrope trying to balance what they really want to do against conflicting interests, including probable sanctions from Brussels.
I do not envy any nation in the EU.
20
The EU has been referred to by the Russians as the European Soviet….. I guess they would know…..
10
“impose onerous restrictions” mf I agree there shouldn’t be any, rather an outright ban on these outdated public impositions designed to support an UNnecessary organizations agenda.
Nice to see Trump is already in your head, yes there are other leaders that want to stop wasteful expenditure and protect their borders, it’s called a Democracy, look it up.
290
There is no rational dependence on the uncertainty of wind without the irrational certainty of subsidies, engendered by unadulterated ideology, the very same ‘stuff’ that sees Obama and his eco-global cohorts waving their arms about like windmills, over the British people and the potential of their democratic departure from The EU. It’s the same ‘stuff’ that gives eco-lefties nightmares.
250
There is no rational dependence on the uncertainty of wind without the irrational certainty of subsidies
Which is the key to it all. Whenever some Govt makes noises about reducing tax subsidies to the windmills, we see a perfect storm of heaven-renting screams to the effect that the planet will be doomed to melt soon.
So predictable, so tedious, so nauseating …
No doubt some reply about the “subsidies” coal miners get from the diesel rebate may turn up. Just to confound that spiteful furphy, the diesel rebate is available to all primary producers, notably farming, fishing and mining. The initial tax was designed to supply Govts with compensation for the damage large diesel-powered trucks do to public roads. Since combine harvesters, contimuous miners and fishing fleets don’t actually use public roads, the tax is refunded, not subsidised. The british reolved this issue in a different way – they sell pink and white diesel (deliberately coloured) at different prices – one with a fuel tax, the other without (no, I don’t know which is whic, perhaps some kind UK reader coiuld help). Obviously the primary producers purchase the taxless fuel, presumably with an exemption certificate waved in the air. This avoids the messy “rebate” system Aus has … but of course Aus Govts much prefer to take the money first then make big deals of themselves refunding some of it. So magnanimous.
120
The agricultural diesel is coloured.
Trucks and buses are often pulled into inspection points where the fuel in the tank is ‘inspected’ with a probe.
50
Thanks Graeme No. 3
10
The rebate system is actually a very efficient way of ensuring that the Government gets the excise due to it. The Customer pays the excise when they purchase the fuel and then claim the rebate through GST, they must keep records to prove that they used the fuel for off road or non road fuel purposes. No proof then you are liable again (if audited). Before this system was introduced in Aus there was a marker system used in some products (HC solvents etc) and prior to that excise free products were “denatured” by the addition of a small amount of perfume, both systems allowed a substantial amount of no excised paid hydrocarbons to be blended into road fuel, reducing the Government excise payments.
CS123
10
” onerous restrictions”
you mean protecting your citizens from these useless monstrosities.
They should also take away the feed-in mandates, and get rid of all the subsidies.
And make sure the eco-thieves that profit monstrously from wind-turbines are responsible for cleaning up after themselves.
But I hardly expect the green agenda to environmentally responsible.. not going to ever happen. The tax-payer will have to pay for removing these eyesores, because the green profiteers will have taken their money and run.
311
“you are on a slippery slope of seeing everything in the world through one lens”
Then take your hand away from your other eye.
161
““you are on a slippery slope of seeing everything in the world through one lens””
You are of course quite correct. If countries had looked at so-called “renewables” with both eyes open , rather than just their left eye, then the slippery slope that their electricity supply systems are sitting on would not exist, nor would their countries be littered with useless monstrosities..
211
I’m not sure that a two kilometer buffer is particularly onerous. Most of these turbines are over two hundred meters high to the top of the blade sweep so the ratio of distance :height is 10:1. The 2km law maybe out dated soon as I understand some turbines in development now will have a sweep height approaching 500m.
This is a result of trying to harness low density energy…structures become large and numerous
141
You can add to that the killing range of 800 metres from detached blades.
141
The record throw is 1300 metres; fortunately small in that case.
71
I’d be more concerned with the infra sound issues – a slower moving blade means lower beat frequency and probably a longer distance traveled by infra sound……
10
It isn’t outdated at all. Bavaria (in Germany!) recently determined the same limit: No wind turbines within 2km of places of permanent residence.
And yes; the
subsidy harvesterswind turbine entrepreneurs are very cheesed off at that. Why should Bavaria’s plains, rolling hills and mountains be spared the industrialised landscapes of “wind farming”?Meanwhile in the North of Germany, villages have been split between landholders who lease land for wind turbines and those who suffer the consequences in terms of noise and light disturbance and a drop in tourism; because very few people want to spend a holiday in an industrial park.
151
Actually, virtually no wind turbines will be build in Bavaria this year.
It will be very funny when they shut down the last nuclear power plants in Bavaria in the next few years. We just will have no basic load then. We have brand new Gas power stations, but they never went to work, because of the high energy costs compared to REs with subsidies.
Fortunately the Austrians (not in down under, but our neighbors) have some old oil powerplants they planned to dismantle. This has stopped now, as they can sell electricity with no additional investment – at high prices when the sun isn’t shining an the wind’s not blowing. They laugh up their sleeves…
We will then depend on Atomstrom from France and Czechia, Lignite Strom from Stations in East Germany and Kohlestrom from Poland.
And the CO2 output will climb higher, as it happened the last few years. This is something which is not heard in the media and worldwide: Despite so much RE – the CO2 output is rising.
Something strange as well: Solar Energy is only 1% of the primary energy production in Germany and and Wind Energy only 1,5%. You may not believe it, but you can read it the government papers, when you dig in.
RE and the Energiewende in Germany has turned out to be a Luftnummer (Air exercise) wich in English is called a Flop. Nobody is mentioning it – it’s the new version of the Emperors New Clothes.
Germany thou brave new world…
51
Johannes:
I know they inflate the figures for ‘renewables’ by including hydroelectricity, wood and rubbish burning etc. but that is for electricity production, even if a lot of it is sold cheaply to other countries, and the source of all the headlines/feelgood stories in the green publications, but I would have thought that this would result in higher percentages in the primary energy figures. After all they are claiming 13.7% wind in the electricity sector, which is what? a third of the primary energy. Is there some way of separating out the wind electricity used in Germany as distinct from that sold off cheaply?
Yes, I agree RE and the Energiewende are flops, but very expensive ones and the damage has yet to be rectified.
10
Every time I land in Gdansk to visit my family I feel like I am surrounded by Rommel,s asparagus.
70
Rommels’ asparagus grew well in sand and salt water.
20
Maybe the good voting people of Poland requested the 2km buffer because they were sick of being showered with dead birdlife?
70
mf, All policy is based on ideology. Political parties are set up and operate from a stated ideological position and then campaign on implementing policies with respect to that ideology. Most leftists I have discussed this with, however, seem to think that what they believe is naturally right and, therefore, is not based on and ideology. They truly believe that only people who think differently to them are ideological.
Most international institutions, such as the ratings agencies, have now been co-opted by left wing ideology and this is just an attempt to bully Poland into accepting the far left wing ideological position that they have themselves.
As I understand it, the current Polish government has done nothing that is contrary to their constitution and they are quite within their rights to stop spending large amounts of money they can not afford on useless and inefficient power generation industries. Poland has plenty of coal and can easily use it to provide it’s people with reliable and inexpensive electricity and this is exactly what they should be doing. It is also exactly what we should be doing.
31
Unfortunately whatever Jo intended us to get from this link, “Bill threatens Polish wind power, warns industry,” is now long gone from the site or thoroughly hidden in archives somewhere. So what exactly is the question here? And I can’t tell. But could this be it?
Whatever the various opinions are, this looks like the Polish government is concerned with the Polish people a lot more than previous governments. I would say that’s a good thing. And keeping down electricity cost or keeping their coal industry from going under aren’t exactly bad ideas either. And the EU is a problem no matter what they do. So bull it through and stand on your own two feet. Go Poland!
I found a lot of commentary on it with this Google search, “poland wind turbine regulations”. It all makes Poland look like the sanest member of the EU.
And as far as the wind industry’s complaints go, I think you can guess what my opinion is so I wont have to risk moderation by saying it.
321
Roy it seems like only yesterday that filthy Polish coal was keeping the lights on in Germany yet …
‘There’s nothing exceptional about the current situation – the previous government exhibited a similar lack of will. For Polish politicians of all stripes renewable energy sources (RES) are like unwanted children. While the interest in RES is rapidly increasing around the world and the cost of their installation is falling, in Poland there remains a lingering conviction that they represent a harmful, German idea (and one therefore unsuitable for Poland), one which is intended to belittle the Polish power industry.’
Energy Transition
131
Come on Roy, That is a pretty low bar, you set there.
Let us not forget that Brussels is the place where the EU member countries send politicians, who are well past their use-by date, but not sufficiently inept enough to be Prime Minister.
80
Poland’s attitude or maybe the developing attitude towards wind turbines aka Renewable energy may also be coloured by the experience they have had with the Germany’s electrical excreta, the stuff the Germans couldn’t digest when the wind was blowing hard so they shoved it over the borders in large slugs into the Polish, Denmark, French, Belgium grids and wherever they could send it.
Poland in particular was faced with escalating problems with their grid becoming close to unstable and apparently close to collapsing at times as the Germans used the Polish grid to shunt power from the north of Germany where the main wind farms are located to the south of Germany where the main centres of power use are located.
The Germans are trying to build a grid of hugely expensive UHVT’s which being used to carry North sea regions wind generated power will rarely be used to their full potential, from the north to the south to take the very occasional large supply of wind power generated power from the North Sea down to the southern areas of Germany but have been and still are running into rapidly increasing and rapidly intensifying community opposition on a very large scale right along the proposed routes of the UHVT lines
This was a project which it was intended to begin a couple of years back but hasn’t begun as yet due to cost and the, in the UHVT path, community’s intensifying opposition.
It has been forced onto the German government itself by its own pig headed obstinacy and stupidity about going down the renewable energy route for its national power supplies.
This along with the German politicians total failure and an apparent complete lack of even a very simple and basic understanding of the variability of renewable energy, its unpredictability, the economic costs of both building and running a completely unpredictable power supply system, the economic costs which are as most skeptics could have told them, are immense and the highly unpredictable and unstable Energy budget which between wind, solar, Russian gas, German lignite and its now shut down nuclear reactors and American black coal are increasing bordering on being disastrous for the German economy and therefore for the entire EU’s economy and its social cohesion .
So to get that excess wind power, when it actually occurs which is usually when it is least needed according to the data, to the southern German regions, the German grid operators are shunting the excess power from the north through the Polish grid to the Germany’s south, creating lots of instabilities in the Polish grid which the Poles have to deal with to try and maintain supply at home.
The Poles, French, Danes and etc on Germany’s borders are all installing phase switching which will cut off excess German power flows into their own grids particularly when the wind farms in the German north and North Sea have ideal generating conditions and are sending far more power than can be handled by the German grid or Germany can cope with and use and still keep its coal and gas fired generators running.
All done just to ensure that the wind farm owners and scammers [ and scamming politicians, local, state and federal according to reports ] in on the act can continue to collect their stomach churning sized subsidies from the German government.
In view of the above, my guess is that Poland wants out of Renewable Energy and like Spain and Ireland and now even Denmark, they are going to put the economic and social boot into the wind power industry’s gonads until it slowly and permanently expires despite what the Brussels based EU and the UN and sundry political and business interests along with a whole phalanx of very shady and shadowy envro-goon self promoting interests might decree or legislate for.
91
Rom,
the subsidies in Germany are not paid by the government, but by the electricity customers. It’s actually 6€ct per KWH. But it’s not paid by the industry, because of global competition reasons.
On the other hand, the electricity prices on the spot market are as low as never before bc/of the subsidies, the RE priority and the overproduction. Sometimes the energy will be sold to negative prices to our friendly neighbors. Yes, if you get something free and even get paid, if you take it, that makes friends…
Which means only lignite power plants are profitable. Which means more CO2. Clean Gasstrom isn’t produced bc/of triple and quadruple prices.
OK, we are rich, and each nation has its own folly – but not at any cost…
41
RW,
That may be so. Brussels isn’t exactly a shining light as far as wisdom is concerned. But if you asked for my guess — I would agree generally with ROM’s reply to you, Poland has to balance fears, threats from Brussels and the people’s dislike of windmills. I don’t envy anyone with common sense trying to get along in the EU. The deck seems stacked against any kind of sensible decision making.
Besides, sanity is a relative thing with varying degrees of lack of it or possession of it. 😉
50
Thanks for the link, Roy. I loved the last paragraph!
“There are also a host of technical solutions available today to limit the impact of wind turbines, such as noise-reduction technology or automatically stopping the turbine at certain times of day to avoid flickering shadows on nearby properties,” he said.
If you are getting flickering shadows in your kitchen window the bat shredder must be awfully close.
30
The bat shredder is shown by experience to be a bad idea all the way around. But still they cannot see the truth. The whole world is caught up in a misunderstanding of carbon — except, of course, those who understand what carbon is and is not.
Technical solutions are too complicated for wind turbines. Elimination of them is the only thing that makes sense. Witness the vast fields of them here in the U.S. that are not operated or maintained for one reason or another. They just sit and rot, bearing silent testimony to foolishness.
10
Sorry to OT but Mr. Pachauri will be in court tomorrow.
Rajendra Pachauri to face Delhi court on sexual harassment charges
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/22/rajendra-pachauri-court-delhi-sexual-assault-charges
On Saturday, Rajendra Pachauri, former chair of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will face charges of stalking, intimidation and sexual assault of a former employee in one of the most high-profile cases of alleged workplace sexual harassment in Indian history.
It is a case that is likely to be closely watched by scientists, media and diplomats, as well as the controversial scientist’s critics.
The IPCC, which Pachauri headed, was jointly awarded a Nobel peace prize with Al Gore in 2007. Now he is facing charges that he harassed a 29-year-old former employee who worked for him at the Energy Resources Institute (Teri), based in New Delhi.
With a high-profile figure, prominent in national and international media, at its centre, the case has become a symbol of women’s struggle to speak out against sexual assault and harassment in the workplace in India, where abuses against women are often hidden.
The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, says Pachauri, 75, made sexual advances to her soon after she joined Teri in late 2013. A string of emails, texts and WhatsApp messages, which reportedly contain poems and declarations of love, have been submitted to the police as evidence. In February 2015, Delhi police filed the first report against Pachauri, setting in motion a legal process that has made headlines around the world.
Since then, two other women, both former employees of Teri, have come forward to make public statements accusing Pachauri of similar behaviour. One of the women, who worked at Teri in 2003, filed a police report in 2015, but is yet to hear if police will press charges against him based on her statements.
The third woman to come forward, who is not an Indian national, made a public statement in March, claiming Pachauri had made unwanted sexual advances towards her when she worked at Teri in 2008, including allegedly coming to her home with a bouquet of roses when she had taken a day of sick leave. She claims her contract was terminated early because she tried to stop his advances.
The allegations by the two other women, one of whom labelled Pachauri a “serial sexual harasser”, raised questions about whether there was any misconduct by Pachauri during his time as chair of the IPCC.
The UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said: “We [are] aware of these new allegations but, from what we understand, they took place in relation to Mr Pachauri’s institute. The UN has no authority nor any jurisdiction to investigate these issues.”
181
I didn’t realise that he charged for sexual harassment. I always thought he did it for free.
100
Must’ve thought it was a hands on position, should’ve focused on controlling himself instead of the climate.
30
“Controversial scientist”?? When did he get a science degree? (And how did he find the time?”
30
I think he’s got an degree as an Indian railroad engineer. If you know how late India’s railroads are, you must not wonder why all the time predictions over climate outcome failed.
He wrote also novels with slight pornographic content. Seems he tried to make the fiction true…
20
It seems that Poland doesn’t seem to want to support the EU strategy of renewable energy.
Looking at Wiki in 2014 3,390 MW of wind turbines produced 5,822 GWh, or 19.4% of their capacity, which alone is a good reason not to invest in them when you have lots of coal.
Production from the Aust. 3669 MW of wind turbines has averaged about 23% for March and April though the pundits say turbines should have a capacity factor of 30%. The King Is. turbines appear to be operating above this figure, but King Is. is a windy place.
131
Josh’s latest pic is very much on topic. 🙂
https://sunshinehours.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/902844-26987555-thumbnail.jpg
more about its origins here… http://bishophill.squarespace.com/blog/2016/4/22/in-the-news-today-josh-370.html
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Get to the facebook page and have a read of the Subsidy Sam story. 🙂
https://www.facebook.com/WindEnergysAbsurd
52
And for those who don’t do facebook…..
https://www.wind-watch.org/documents/subsidy-sam-the-turbine/
42
Phase Shifters
http://www.politico.eu/article/strong-winds-in-germany-a-problem-in-central-europe/
40
Not to worry. German government has allocated billions of Euros to build new HVDC overhead lines from the North of the country to the industrial South; just for wind power. Another subsidy; paid by the ca. 8 million nett taxpayers in Germany.
90
Are they going to invest further billions of Euros to build new UHVDC overhead lines from China to Europe?
The ca.8 million nett taxpayers in Germany will start to complain about the smell of large rodents, if the Government is not careful.
40
Taxpayers in Germany are about 43 Million.
http://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/1376/umfrage/anzahl-der-erwerbstaetigen-mit-wohnort-in-deutschland/
10
Johannes, I meant nett taxpayers. Apologies for being terse.
Nett taxpayers are those who are actually adding to the pool of taxes collected, not recycling revenue from taxes distributed by their paymasters. Germany has about 6 million people directly on the public payroll “Öffentlichen Dienst”. There are millions of others employed in “private” industry whose income originates 100% from government sources; where private contractors provide services to government entities; and essentially nobody else.
Germany’s “Sozialstaat” (Social State) provides income support and payments for up to “middle class” incomes; and in some cases; more. When one considers only income taxes paid and the “benefits” obtained for social support, less than half of the rest of income earners pay nett income tax. (The top 10% of taxpayers pay 53% of income taxes)
The other major source (>30%) of revenue for governments is the value-added-tax (now Umsatzsteuer or Mehrwertsteuer); which is applied by a more complex system than Australia’s and amounts to nominally 19%; but rebates and lower rates may apply.
11
The proper energy policy for a country such as Poland, which mines its own coal, is to spend money on making its coal-fired power stations more efficient, and cleaner in terms of local air pollution if necessary. The uber-green EU might even give them the money.
More efficient means less CO2, if that concerns you, so “more efficient” should satisfy everyone. Wind power makes no sense whatsoever when there is no shortage of fuel.
130
The problem is that Poland only gets 0.6% of their TOTAL primary energy from geo solar and wind.
That would mean that S&W only supplies about 0.3% of that total. And according to Lomborg the IEA states that S&W only supplies about 0.4% of TOTAL world energy.
This may increase to about 2.4% by 2040, so the argument about mitigation by renewables is ridiculous. Here is Poland’s pie graph.
http://www.iea.org/stats/WebGraphs/POLAND4.pdf
80
Here is the pie graph for world TOTAL energy supply. The hoped for mitigation by renewables is [snip, a failure]. Just ask the father of CAGW Dr James Hansen.
http://www.iea.org/stats/WebGraphs/WORLD4.pdf
30
No subsidy for wind power…and a huge fine for every KWhr of gas fired or coal fired power used to make up short fall of delivery to nameplate power. Nameplate says 10KW and delivers only 2 from each turbine then fines of double generating cost for each KW.
Generating power is not windfall. Generating for peak means guaranteeing that generated power at that time…or big fines!
If wind power is “mature” it is time to treat it as such.
81
I’d be happy enough if subsidies were removed and a pre-delivery contract signed.
Like any other service, you say how much you will deliver and when, and if you don’t meet that contract, you get fined.
Because of base load requirements for a near constant 80% of maximum, an electricity supplier would need to say how much they can provide on a pretty much constant basis, and sign a contract for that constant supply.
I have argued in the past that to get consistency of supply, the level should be the amount that the supplier can guarantee to provide for 95% of the time.
For wind turbines, from past calculations, that seems to be about 2% to 4% of nameplate.
92
Exactly.
Fines would be unnecessary if renewables generators operated in the “day ahead” bidding market like other generators and had to cover shortfalls at their own expense (eg pay for OCGT plants to fire up when the wind dropped out) and curtail when they generate more than the amount of power that they bid. The reduced earnings and increased costs would quickly make the wind farms even more uneconomical than they currently are and solar farms would also be far less attractive propostitions.
The AEMO does have a proposition for intermittent generators to bid into their day ahead market but it requires advanced weather forecasting and has not been implemented, even though the “semi dispatch” arrangements mainly place a cap on generation without penalties for shortfalls.
http://www.aemo.com.au/Electricity/Market-Operations/Dispatch/SemiDispatch-of-Significant-Intermittent-Generation-Proposed-Market-Arrangements
50
Some government somewhere and quite recently, maybe Spain but darned if I can remember who, has drawn up draft legislation that will require wind and solar operators to predict the amounts of power they will be supplying to the grid with at least 24 hours advance notice to the grid operators.
I can’t recall the details but I think it was along the lines of Failure to supply within 10% of the predicted supply in the time slots nominated will lead to heavy fines against the supplier.ie the wind and solar and mini hydro generator owners/ operators.
And thats for each time they don’t supply as they predicted.
The sheer greed, hubris and frequent outright corruption of the renewable energy scammers are at last beginning to get their just desserts.
50
The claim that a new Polish Bill,
Could shut down,bankrupt and kill,
All industry from wind,
With future farms binned,
Is bound to make some warmists ill.
120
Don’t you see?
They have to keep building these wind plants.
Because sooner or later, somewhere, one of them will actually achieve the modelled yearly power delivery for wind power of a 38% Capacity Factor.
Then they can, at long last, point to that and say ….. “See, we told you so!”
Tony.
130
Actually there is a small wind farm in Shetland that claims ~50% CF. (Shetland is a windy place).
It isn’t connected to their local grid as it would be too disruptive. (See countless comments along those lines here and elsewhere). Instead its output is used to heat a large tank of water, and the hot water is circulated in a local system to warm houses.
For fun – Click to enlarge – it isn’t proof of rising oceans, they were built that way, partly to make unloading easier (and unofficially to aid smuggling).
http://www.redbubble.com/people/thedabber/works/1276456-lerwick-lodberries
60
Have no fear. We are saved with GetUp’s practical joke, their 100% Renewables plan.
PART of that plan is to construct 880GW (Nameplate) of Onshore wind plants.
Using 3MW turbine nacelles, that comes in at 294,000 Towers. That’s around 1500 MEGA sized wind plants.
They even say hand on heart that these will deliver for their whole of life, presumably 1,000 years or so, at an average yearly Capacity Factor of 42%, and the Offshore (an extra 660GW Nameplate) at 51%.
Incidentally, that Nameplate total of 880GW ….. just for Australia, is just a little more than double ….. the current total Nameplate for the whole of Planet Earth.
Perhaps now you see why I have no need to add the /sarc where I mentioned practical joke.
It’s simple really.
The actuality is that they WILL build X in Nameplate.
Coalition Policy – Nahh! let’s go double that.
Labor Policy – nyahh nyahh nyahh! Let’s go five times the Coalition plan.
Green Policy –
Hey look, isn’t that Britney Spears?Whoops. Let’s go Labor multiplied by ten.Get up policy –
Hey I think it really is Britney Spears.Whoops. Let’s go Greens multiplied by whatever the chance is of winning Lotto tomorrow night ….. and then, umm, double that.Tony.
121
Here’s the future – and you left out the co-planners Solar Citizens (proper credit must be given to all participants)
http://cdn.getup.org.au/1499-Homegrown_Power_Plan_-Full_Report.pdf
It’s all based on the report by the Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology, Sydney that I presented on a previous thread/post so you may find a lot of the content fmailiar. Still worth reading through, though.
20
I tried but couldn’t read the whole GetUp thing. Life is too short. It is, as I expected, a pile of inaccurate political diatribe. Heaven help us if these people should ever run the joint.
20
Tony they will make great fish environments after they eventually rot and collapse…..
00
But instead, we see a much trumpeted news article exclaiming that on a particular day, 100% of (insert locality) electricity was generated by renewables.
It’s exactly the same tactic as the “hottest March Evaaaa” claim.
20
jo’s “Poland Bill” may have confused some, but what would listeners to BBC World Service radio last night have made of Matt McGrath saying one aim of the Paris Agreement was a FOSSIL-FREE FUTURE?
not that we’ll find that gaffe documented anywhere.
never mind, what is documented is incredible enough:
22 Apr: BBC: Matt McGrath: First big test for Paris climate deal
Do you remember the day we saved the world? …
After years of onerous, cantankerous and often tedious talks, somehow all 196 participants, like a large collection of cats, had agreed to be herded in the same direction.
They had agreed to keep global temperatures “well below” 2C and “to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels”…
***President Obama would love to make sure that his successor can’t welch on the deal, especially if the next US leader is a Republican…
According to Dr Oliver Geden, from the German Institute of International and Security Affairs, the world will need to remove huge amounts of the gas from the atmosphere…
One idea involves growing crops that capture carbon, burning them to make electricity and then burying the resulting CO2 permanently…
Dr Geden says that the world would need to dedicate land equal to 1.5 times the size of India to keep below 2C. He says it is “science fiction”.
“It is magical thinking, it might happen but as long as we can’t see that it works on scale, we should not assume that it will be there to save us.”…
People make things real by believing in them. If enough savers believe that a bank is about to collapse, and they rush to withdraw their money, they make the idea the reality.
The same can be said of the Paris agreement…
Markets and investors will be the key. If they believe that the extraction of fossil fuels is going to be limited they will not want to stay in that game. The recent collapse of one of the world’s leading coal companies, plus the announcement by Saudi Arabia that it sees its future away from oil, all are significant signs on the road.
According to Prof Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, a long-time participant in climate negotiations and adviser to the German government, things can actually change really quickly if people believe that something is inevitable.
“While 1.5C seems almost impossible, you never know how quickly the industrial revolution happens,” he said.
“If all the investors decide to not put all their money into fossil fuels, it can happen in 10 years.”
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-36088904
30
Before Obama was elected he told the whole world what he intended to do. I wonder why no one believed him. But have no fear Mr. President, Republicans themselves seem determined to make sure the next president isn’t a Republican.
60
I mean, these emissions reduction targets are not way off into the distance. They are actually in the time frame that most of the people who made them will still be around.
I wonder how embarrassed they are all going to be when their targets they all made are never realised, and they won’t be.
In the U.S. they can close down all those old coal fired units they want to, but no major plants greater than 800MW have closed in the last 8 years. All those smaller ancient units which have closed have all been replaced by Natural Gas (NG) fired plants, and in fact a greater Nameplate in NG plants have opened than coal fired unit closures. These NG plants also have a projected long life as well, well beyond emissions reduction target dates, and they’ll still be emitting for many years to come after that, otherwise the bean counters and number crunchers would not have even bothered to open them in the first place.
So, they may be lowering emissions in that power generating sector, but not on the scale required to meet those targets. That’s power generation. They can shut down industry which makes emissions also, like transferring their steel manufacture and other industries offshore to China. That partially covers the reduction in those major industry areas. They then have to remove one in three cars from the road to cover the emissions reduction in the transportation sector, and try taking one in three cars off the road in the U.S. No way that’ll happen. One in three planes out of the sky. Good luck with that. Trains, boats, planes, trucks, etc. Good luck with that too.
No, they will never reach their target. What’s going to happen then?
Even if they do send the U.S. and other Developed Countries back to the stone age, and fluke even getting close to the targets, the increases from China, India, and other Developing Countries will have cancelled out all those reductions long long long before those targets ever get even to a stage where they are close.
The U.S. has Nuclear Power as part of the mix for its power generation, and Australia does not. The only form of power generation that can deliver power on the same scale as Nuclear power is large scale coal fired power.
For the Australian total power generation, 86% of it involves emissions of CO2.
In the U.S. add on the Nuclear Power (large scale coal fired equivalent) to the CO2 emitting total for power generation, and it comes to, umm, wait for it ….. 86%.
Gee, who would have thought?
There’s going to be a lot of bewildered faces when those targets do not get realised, not that they can be reached anyway. But don’t worry, they’ll always find someone to blame who doesn’t appear in any mirror they look at.
Tony.
70
Tony, you have to realise the people who make these insane green theology have clearly said they plan to eradicate 95% of the population via global conflict, so 1 in 3 is chicken feed for these sick people….
10
“and quadruple the rate of tax payable on existing turbines — making most unprofitable.”
But it is saving the planet. Surely the turbine companies should guild them for free if its such a great idea.
50
Guild = Build 😀
Or does it? lol 😀
10
Great idea safety guy. If the objective is to “save the world” then the renewable energy companies could surely do their part and refuse subsidies and tax breaks as their donations.
50
btw when the BBC presenter mentioned the non-binding aspect of the Paris Agreement, McGrath said honour would make politicians carry out their promises; otherwise they risked public shaming in five years. LOL.
22 Apr: BBC: Matt McGrath: Nations ink historic Paris climate deal
Amid hope and hype, delegates have finished signing the Paris climate agreement at UN headquarters in New York.
Some 171 countries inked the deal today, a record number for a new international treaty.
About 15 nations, mainly small island states, had already ratified the agreement.
But dozens of other countries were required to take this second step before the pact came into force.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said: “Paris will shape the lives of all future generations in a profound way – it is their future that is at stake.”…
“Today we are signing a new covenant for the future.”…
Analysis
David Shukman, Science Editor, New York
Now, in a total transformation in morale, almost all of the world’s governments are here in New York to support the new Paris Agreement. The sheer scale of the turnout is seen as a signal of political determination. The atmosphere is positive, up to a point. Tough challenges lie ahead…
One is the task of ratification, another the continuing arguments over cash, a third the basic fact that the deal was only made possible because each country’s actions are entirely voluntary…
Mention of the name Trump triggers nervous laughter. A Republican victory would presumably lead to America’s withdrawal from the agreement. And that would risk undermining the entire process…
Hollywood actor and climate change campaigner Leonardo DiCaprio said…BLAH BLAH…
Even though the US and China represent around 38% of global emissions, getting to the 55% figure will not be that easy.
The European Union, which represents just under 10% of global CO2, will take a considerable amount of time as each of the 28 members has to ratify it themselves…
Marshall Islands Ambassador for climate change, Tony De Brum: “We did not expect that kind of distance in the process of ratification and approval.”…
BACK TO FEAR OF A TRUMP PRESIDENCY…
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-36108194
30
original headline:
Oz a ‘laughing stock’ on climate change
NEWS.com.au-47 minutes ago
23 Apr: news.com.au: UN Paris Agreement: Climate Change deal signed by 175 countries
by Staff writer and AFP,News Corp Australia Network
AUSTRALIA’S lack of follow-through on climate change will leave the Great Barrier Reef “completely cooked” despite it signing the Paris climate deal, the Greens say…
But Greens Senator Larissa Waters said Australia signing the agreement won’t see it avoid warming of three to four degrees if it’s not backed up by action.
“Unfortunately, Minister Hunt likes to bandy about some figures but Australia has been a laughing stock on the international stage,” she told the ABC…
She pointed to the Queensland and Federal Government’s backing of the Adani coal mine which critics say will further imperil the reef…
US Secretary of State John Kerry, holding his young granddaughter, joined dozens of world leaders for a signing ceremony that set a record for international diplomacy…
“We are in a race against time,” UN secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the gathering.
“The era of consumption without consequences is over.”…
The world is watching anxiously: Analysts say that if the agreement enters into force before US President Barack Obama leaves office in January, it would be more complicated for his successor to withdraw from the deal because it would take four years to do so under the agreement’s rules…
Oscar-winning actor and environmental campaigner Leonardo DiCaprio BLAH BLAH…
***DiCaprio urged world leaders to leave fossil fuels “in the ground where they belong” as he told them they are the “last best hope” for saving the planet from the disastrous effects of global warming….
The actor, who is a UN Messenger of Peace with a special focus on climate change BLAH BLAH…
“There is no turning back now,” Mr Hollande told the gathering…
The targets are not legally binding, but countries must update them every five years…
http://www.news.com.au/world/europe/n-paris-agreement-deal-climate-change-deal-signed-by-175-countries/news-story/43828de685755b66d2065f1dcfe02569
30
>> “We are in a race against time,” UN secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the gathering.
A race against time to… stop Greens MPs from setting rivers on fire, stop script-reading actors from acting outside of films, stop atomophobia from taking us back to 16th century wind power, and stop the authorities from using the violence of a Salafi minority as justification for reducing the rights of all.
Do you think the “impartial” national broadcaster is trying to give us instructions today?
40
Don’t you love how specialists in playing make-believe are falling overthemselves to further the twig blight zone……
00
Blasted auto correct ….. Should read “twilight zone”….
00
original headline Courier Mail homepage “Most Viewed”: #6: Reef dying: ‘It’s the great white lie’
changed to:
22 Apr: Courier Mail: Peter Michael: Great Barrier Reef: Signs of recovery despite major coral bleaching
THE Great Barrier Reef’s most popular tourist sites show just two per cent of coral has died off, with the rest in “positive” signs of recovery, despite the world’s biggest mass coral bleaching event on record.
New research found about 68 per cent of reefs from Cairns to Lizard Island had varying levels of coral bleaching, but most of it likened to sunburn on a human body where the coral glows pink before fully recovering…
“It’s the Great White Lie,” said Col McKenzie, chief executive of the Association of Marine Park Tourism Operators. “It’s not dead, white and dying. It’s under stress but it will bounce back.’’…
The RRRC report found on the 126 key tourists sites there was, on average, 35 per cent coral cover – about one-third unbleached – and, on average, only 2.5 per cent of the coral had died because of bleaching.
“We think there is a much lower level of severely bleached corals. To say 80 per cent of the reef will die is catastrophising the situation,’’ RRRC director Sheriden Morris said…
http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/great-barrier-reef-signs-of-recovery-despite-major-coral-bleaching/news-story/e826d014a1b593efaf879cbb030804d5
50
this is science?
22 Apr: Scientific American: Jean Chemnick: Paris Agreement Offers New Climate Covenant with Future
Reporter Benjamin Hulac contributed
“We won’t beat climate change with a piece of paper,” Rhea Suh, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, said in a statement. “We’re leaving the age of Jurassic fuels behind—for good—and moving to cleaner, smarter ways to power our future.”…
The first signs that midtown Manhattan was about to play host to an international ceremony of historic import came in the form of a security blockade that tied traffic around the United Nations’ headquarters in knots for much of yesterday.
Locals took a dim view. Said one cab driver: “If they can’t fix the mess around the U.N., how can they fix the planet?”…
The “high-ambition” coalition hosted advocates and three special guests yesterday: former Vice President Al Gore; Rachel Kyte, who serves as the U.N. secretary-general’s special representative for Sustainable Energy for All; and former Irish President Mary Robinson, who urged help for developing countries in translating their pre-Paris commitments into action…
Asked about the election that will occur later this year in the United States, (Tony de Brum, who stepped down as foreign minister of the Marshall Islands after the December Paris summit) said he hoped it wouldn’t undermine U.S. action, which is “essential.”
“We did some very fancy ballet steps in making sure that the U.S. remained on board and signed onto Paris because of their own internal issues,” said. “But we should not allow an election’s convulsions to dictate what happens in the climate change space.”…
Paul Bledsoe, a former Clinton White House climate aide and longtime observer of this process, said he was asked about likely scenarios by anxious Europeans.
“I think the single greatest threat to the Paris Agreement today would be the election of a Republican president,” he said. “That’s certainly a subtext here in New York.”
On Tuesday, New York handed another primary victory to billionaire Donald Trump, who has dismissed as “inconceivable” the notion that climate change is the biggest problem facing the world today…
Speaking yesterday at the United Nations, Governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney said that it’s past time to overhaul the global financial system to attract low-carbon capital and improve corporate disclosure, telling listeners that regulators like him have roles to play.
“We need to build a new system—one that delivers sustainable investment flows, based on both resilient market-based, and robust bank-based, finance,” Carney said…
Climate change cannot be solved with financing from development banks, niche investors and public sources alone, he said…
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/paris-agreement-offers-new-climate-covenant-with-future/
40
23 Apr: Irish Examiner: Conall O Fatharta: Climate change: Ireland accused of ‘fiddling as the world burns’ as Paris Agreement signed
However, John Gibbons of An Taisce’s climate change committee, said Ireland’s response to the global crisis was to miss EU targets which themselves fall far short of what is required under the Paris Agreement…
“Our new Climate Act mandates a transition pathway to a low-carbon future. Instead, we are doing the exact opposite.
“We are choosing a path of short-term financial gain, intentionally adding to global impacts and undermining our future wellbeing. Why are we being so foolish?” he said.
Data from the Environment Protection Agency last month indicated that Ireland is likely to miss its EU-mandated 2020 emissions reductions targets…
Meanwhile, EPA data issued this week showed that, while across the EU, participants in the Emissions Trading Scheme recorded modest emissions cuts in 2015, Ireland’s ETS companies increased emissions by 5.3%…
http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/climate-change-ireland-accused-of-fiddling-as-the-world-burns-as-paris-agreement-signed-394588.html
10
Cartoonist Josh helped out illustrating this article on Subsidy Sam in the Irish press. (Link via Bishop Hill)
30
see post #7 🙂
21
Earth Day was yesterday.
A couple of Earth Day complete co-incidences to ponder.
* http://www.nbcnews.com/id/42711922/ns/technology_and_science-science/t/earth-day-co-founder-k%69lled-composted-girlfriend
* http://www.famousbirthdays.com/people/vladimir-ilyich-lenin.html
* Extract from the Paris Climate Treaty which opened for signature on Earth Day / Lenin’s Birthday:
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/From_each_according_to_his_ability,_to_each_according_to_his_needs
I’m sure you will all donate generously to the vulnerable (especially when you’ve no choice).
60
22 Apr: AFR: Tony Walker: Unlike Justin Trudeau, Malcolm Turnbull’s house divided is against itself
What has gone right for Trudeau is that he finds himself leader of a united party and thus has remained true to his liberal – with a small “l” – convictions.
In other words, the Canadian leader has stuck to his beliefs. What Canadians saw is what they got on issues like same-sex marriage, climate change, and gender balance in Trudeau’s cabinet, and perhaps most important a “morning in Canada” sunniness after the doleful Stephen Harper.
On the other hand, Turnbull leads a divided party in which a conservative rump sits there like a rotting carcass…
Turnbull confidants will tell you that once re-elected in his own right, an agile and innovative prime minister will face down his internal party critics and redefine his leadership in a single bound…
http://www.afr.com/opinion/columnists/unlike-justin-trudeau-malcolm-turnbulls-house-divided-is-against-itself-20160421-gocfnj
22 Apr: CBC: Justin Trudeau signs Paris climate treaty at UN, vows to harness renewable energy
By Susana Mas, Catherine Cullen
The Canadian government has committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 30 per cent from 2005 levels by 2030 — a goal set by the previous Conservative (Harper) government…
The PBO (Parliamentary Budget Office) report (LINK) concluded that to meet Canada’s international target of 30 per cent reduction in GHGs by 2030, Canada will have to bring its emissions down by 208 million tons.
***This is equivalent to taking more than all the gasoline and diesel-powered cars and trucks in the country — including off-road vehicles — off the road…
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/paris-agreement-trudeau-sign-1.3547822
from LINK above: yes, “more than” all non-electric vehicles have to come off the road!
21 Apr: CBC: Margo McDiarmid: Budget watchdog says meeting climate targets won’t ruin economy
Report says reducing emissions could lower projected annual income by up to $1,900 per person by 2030
It concluded that to meet Canada’s international target of 30 per cent reduction in GHGs by 2030, Canada will have to bring its emissions down by 208 million tons.
This is equivalent to taking more than all the gasoline and diesel-powered cars and trucks in the country — including off-road vehicles — off the road.
And so far, the report pointed out, Canada doesn’t have the plans in place to do that.
“The actions undertaken so far by various levels of government, though substantial, will not be sufficient to achieve that target,” it warned…
Canada’s current target, which is the subject of the PBO report, was set by the Conservative government in May, 2015. At the time, the federal government didn’t have a detailed plan on how those targets would be met. It told the UN Canada’s approach would be to meet its targets through a mixture of domestic regulations and the possible purchase of international credits…
To appreciate the scale of the work required, the report recommended there would have to be a carbon price as high as $100 a ton to force consumption of fossil fuels and the resulting emissions down dramatically…
10
Lower everyone’s income by 1900 to solve a myth and hand over cash like stand over thugs…..I don’t think so…..
00
NSIDC caught red-handed FABRICATING Arctic Sea Ice graphs
http://realclimatescience.com/2016/04/nsidc-busted/
52
So Poland’s “thriving wind energy industry” will come to an end when public money stops?
Bankruptcies (in windmills)
Rapid divestment (in windmill investments)
An end to growth (in windmills)
No one will invest (in windmills)
Illegal to build turbines within 2km of other buildings or forests. Great. Sounds reasonable.
Quadruple the rate of tax payable on existing turbines (but is this simple removal of a concession?)
So where are the private investors? Or doesn’t it make sense for anyone?
This sounds like the Polish government wants to stop building and subsidizing windmills? Why not? The Golden Age of useless giant Pyramid building in Egypt lasted only 85 years in 4,500. 250,000 windmills are comparable in weight.
Besides, it had to stop sometime. Or should they keep building and subsidizing windmills forever? Were the first pyramid investors bankrupted after the first big government pyramid scheme collapsed in 2500BC?
It is easy to understand the “president of the Polish Wind Energy Association, an industry lobby group” being upset. Looking for a new job on Monday.
However that is what governments do. Poland is a very poor ex communist country with lots of coal like Germany and has no business spending so much of the people’s money (governments have no money) on windmills. You only wish other countries would wake up. Windmills are so Middle Ages and you do reach a point where adding more erratic low power windmills makes no difference. Basically public windmill building is simply not sustainable and windmills and solar can never replace coal. No one in business would build windmills because you cannot sell them.
Or maybe the Government has wasted enough public money chasing the Don Quixote vote.
90
TdeF:
Perhaps the new Polish Government was looking at the real world?
1. Poor Country
2. European economy is stagnant so no growth likely from EU.
3. Lots of coal.
4. Coal is cheapest form of electricity but needs assurance for investment to start.
5. Cheap electricity would help economic growth
6. Wind energy requires subsidies or higher electricity prices, hence lower economic growth.
7. Fluctuating supply damages polish grid/ upsets industry/blackouts annoy voters.
8. Gives them clout in rejecting dumping of excess wind power from Germany.
9. Doubts about safety of wind turbines.
10. Cheaper, regular electricity and higher economic growth makes voters happy.
11. With so many countries building coal fired plants, anything they do to reduce emissions won’t matter.
Either that or they are part of some nebulous conspiracy to deny the public the joys of clean, green (expensive, irregular) renewables.
80
At the end of the day, a “thriving wind energy industry” is just another mining operation.
Only this time, they’re mining the public coffers.
60
Vote Union Labor and we get an even higher Renewable Energy Target.
Vote the new left leaning Liberal Party and we get an even higher Renewable Energy Target.
What a choice!
60
Dennis, did you see this at BoltA’s site?
http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/turnbull_confidants_promise_media_left_a_more_left_wing_turnbull_after_the_/
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[Snip. Moved this long comment about Australian politics to the Unthreaded, Just up. – Jo]
10
It was in response to Andy55’s comment and therefore quite relevant, unless he was off topic too. This is breaking news of great significance. If this political goes ahead, all these insights will be irrelevant, but if you would rather stick to the very narrow topic of Polish windmills, fine.
20
Shades of Bob Hawke?
When Bob first came to power he did so by a quick, Frankenfurter like, jump to the right . . much to the consternation of the labor Party stalwarts.
20
As I’ve always said, turncoat is a champers socialist….
00
Thanks Andy.
In my considered opinion we need a revolution in Australia to end the “pass the baton” political alternatives for government.
This looks like a good plan;
http://stopturnbull.com/what-can-we-do-a-conservative-electoral-strategy/
31
As above, we need Abbott back immediately, or the Liberal party will vanish, captured by the progressive Liberals and wedded to the Greens. Everything Abbott has done will be undone. Big government, big taxation, runaway spending and as many windmills as people want. Many politicians now see their chance to be secure, powerful and rich. The idea of actually representing their electorate went out with Oakshott and Windsor and Slipper. Greed and power conquers all. It is nothing to do with world ending carbon scenarios and ocean acidification and climate change. It is all about political power.
80
G’day,
I was surprised when I read this week’s Land (Thursday Apr 21) to find two letters critical of wind farms. Their presence lessened my disappointment that my own letter, copied below, was not published. So I’m glad I didn’t bet against you beowulf.
The argument I submitted applies as well to wind as to solar, in my opinion. (I elected to omit addressing the added CO2 in the manufacturing and installing processes in the interest of brevity.)
As I previously posted the original Land article at 11.1 on Apr 18, I put the reply first.)
The exchange begins ****
To: The Land
Subject: Saving 5000 tonnes of CO2
I must challenge UNE Vice-Chancellor Duncan on her expected savings of 5000 tonnes of CO2 per year by her installation of the solar system at her university (The Land p19, 14/4/16). At even her expected “up to half” for power savings per day, she still needs over half from elsewhere, which I assume UNE gets from the existing grid. Available as when the university needs it all day, every day. This means that a “spinning reserve” has to be available. Such a reserve is currently available from our coal fired power stations, and I’ve not seen any plan to change that. So those stations won’t stop the burning of coal as a result of her solar installation. As a result I suggest that her CO2 savings will be vanishingly small, effectively zero.
David B
And the original article ****
“”Solar farm to power UNE”
Up to half of the University of New England’s energy will soon come from renewable solar, following the announcement of a new $6.6-million solar farm project at Armidale.
More than 10,000 solar voltaic modules will be installed on university grounds adjacent to the campus.
Vice-Chancellor Annabelle Duncan said the farm would displace more than 5,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions a year.
“That is the equivalent of taking 1000 cars off the road,” Professor Duncan said.
Electricity will be produced when it is needed the most – during the day.
“These measures will reduce energy costs and our carbon footprint.””
Re-keyed from:
The Land, Thursday April 14, 2016, page 19
Exchange ends ****
I will now prepare an email to Professor Duncan.
Cheers,
Dave B
50
David
Looks like the first question might be
“Who told you that”?
10
G’day A I,
I’ll say thank you to Tony for the excellent work he’s done, and described here, on the numbers involved in power generation and his comparisons. But for the propositions in my letter the responsibilty is mine.
Do you have a specific challenge?
Cheers,
Dave B
10
David
I would have been happier had I been wrong about it.
You were brave taking on green academia and Fairfax. Bad luck with that, still two letters against wind farms made it past the censor’s waste paper basket, and that’s a good score for one week. Brace for the flood of outrage next week though.
Keep on fighting the good fight.
Cheers BW
40
Would you set fire to a river if you knew Gas was present?
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-04-23/condamine-river-bubbling-methane-gas-set-alight-greens-mp/7352578
30
Dennis
Didn’t Benjamin Franklin discover electricity in thunder clouds by flying a kite?
So we’ll await history and see if this bloke can match Franklin’s publication record?
10
O/T
Nicola Scafetta has a new paper out and he reckons climate change has something to do with ‘astronomical forces of gravitational, electromagnetic and solar origin.’
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0273117716300084
41
22 Apr: Fox News: Alec Baldwin: ‘Climate Change Denial Is a Form of Mental Illness’
Actor Alec Baldwin thinks anyone who’s skeptical about the threat of climate change suffers from a form of mental illness.
As world leaders converge in New York to sign a landmark climate deal, Baldwin joined indigenous leaders on Thursday to call on the United Nations to combat climate change…
In an interview with AFP, Baldwin also had some strong words for the people who don’t agree with his climate change agenda.
“So much of what’s going on now is something that we have to treat as like it’s a mental illness,” Baldwin said. “I believe that climate change denial is a form of mental illness.”
Watch the video here (LINK), and let us know what you think about Baldwin’s remarks in the comments.
http://insider.foxnews.com/2016/04/22/alec-baldwin-climate-change-denial-form-mental-illness
20
22 Apr: Forbes: Christopher Helman: SunEdison Is Just The Latest Casualty Of The Popping Of The Easy-Money Energy Bubble
The collapse of the world’s biggest developer of renewable energy projects comes at something of an ironic time. With oil prices at $43 per barrel we expect oil and gas companies to go bankrupt…And most of America’s coal producers have failed too, including the world’s biggest miner, Peabody Energy…
So why would SunEdison go under at the same time the fossil fuel producers? What’s the connection? Clean energy apologists want you to believe that SunEdison’s failure has nothing to do with their revolution. But that’s not the case.
SunEdison, Peabody and all the rest are victims of the popping of the Energy Debt Bubble. Endless borrowings of easy money acted like methamphetamine on America’s solar power developers just as it did the oil frackers and coal miners. Rosy projections fueled rampant buildouts. Cash flows from those projects have been insufficient to cover debt payments…
With or without government subsidies, solar power remains economically untenable. It is simply not a competitive, scalable source of power generation. It costs twice as much on average as wind power, and even more for small-scale residential installations…READ ALL
http://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherhelman/2016/04/22/sunedison-is-just-the-latest-casualty-of-the-popping-of-the-easy-money-energy-bubble/#29fe99bd1f01
22 Apr: WSJ: Tom Corrigan: Judge Delays SunEdison Request for Independent Investigation
A bankruptcy judge Friday pushed back an unusual request by SunEdison Inc., a solar-power giant that landed in bankruptcy a day ago, to launch an independent investigation into its dramatic reversal of fortunes…
SunEdison lawyer Jay Goffman admitted the company’s request to investigate its own actions is unusual, but told the judge the probe would ultimately help prevent the company from languishing in chapter 11.
“I think it’s important that all the parties have the ability to rely upon an objective set of facts,” he said.
The examiner request has already drawn fire from bondholders, wary of any efforts by SunEdison to set the scope, cost and duration of the investigation so early in the case.
“People really need to be heard on something other than 24 hours notice before we put a process in place to figure out what went on,” said Christopher Shore, a lawyer representing a group of bondholders. “There are going to be investigations,” he added…READ ON
http://www.wsj.com/articles/judge-approves-interim-90-million-sunedison-lifeline-1461346870
10
O/T
“Polish wind power suddenly not so popular”
Apparently neither is older sea ice in the Arctic
http://realclimatescience.com/2016/04/nsidc-busted/#comments
10
Wojciech Cetnarski (40) did not shed many tears when high energy prices helped wreck the British steel industry, Jaroslaw Kaczynski (49) has sent a clear message . Bravo
(#) = scrabble score
20
Democrats taking fossil fuel industry money, OK. Republicans, not OK.
***and Nye seems to agree with Obama’s message to Africans in Johannesburg in 2013:
CNS News: Obama: ‘Planet Will Boil Over’ If Young Africans Are Allowed Cars, Air-Conditioning, Big Houses
22 Apr: CNN: Deena Zaru: Bill Nye ‘the Science Guy’ gets political
On the eve of Earth Day, environmental activist Bill Nye told CNN that while everybody is more aware of climate change “than ever before,” we still have a long way to go…
“There’s still a very strong contingent of people who are in denial about climate change,” Nye said. “And if you don’t believe me, look at the the three people currently running for president of the world’s most influential country who are … climate change deniers,” Nye said, referring to the three Republican presidential candidates: Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and John Kasich…
***”The world’s getting warmer because there’s 7.3 billion people tying to live the way we live in the developed world … by continuing to burn fossil fuels.”…
Weighing in on the spat between Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, in which Sanders accused the Clinton campaign of taking money from the fossil fuel industry, Nye said that although he is not familiar with the finances of either campaign, everyone burns fossil fuels.
“I think it’s a partisan issue, if I understand it, because the conservatives have decided to embrace money from the fossil fuel industry,” Nye said…
“Don’t be surprised after the conservatives or the Republicans pick somebody, that person will say that he or maybe even she accepts the reality of climate change and wants to do something about it,” Nye said. “And the reason he would do that is that they need millennial voters.”…
http://edition.cnn.com/2016/04/22/politics/bill-nye-the-science-guy-climate-change/
millennials would trust you, Bill?
20
Isn’t it just wonderful how people in this day and age can get away with saying this.
Let’s keep these people in the dark ages. Don’t let them have what we’ve already got.
Depends on who says it I guess.
And then Bill Nye gets to say this with impunity.
Well, Bill, your plan is for us to go back and join them. You could always lead by example and be the first, eh.
Tony.
90
Tony, you should be appreciative of Bill Nyes explicit articulation of the meme that has driven the “global warming” narrative for 30 years. The competition for resources and markets from an industrialised third world. In 1992 the initial belief was that “peak oil” would price the 3rd world out of the market, CAGW providing the rationale for allowing the continuation of poverty. This has failed as fossil fuel reserves (and prices) have proved more resilient than expected whilst the industrialised world pretended to substitute “renewables” for fossil.Hence the Paris 2015 agreement to foist renewables onto the 3rd world thus preventing their economic development.
China and India though are already lost and the cost of keeping up the pretence is now breaking the strategy.
We will soon be into the endgame.
50
Tony, the NWO crowd are basically white arayan supremacists, so the name of game has been keeping people they consider ” inferior” due to their dark skin, need to be kept down….this is also why mega corporations use Africa as a huge open air test lab…..
00
If I’d say that I were a racist, but luckily I disagree with Obama, so I am only a denialist.
And it is not about ‘allowing’, unless Obama is willing to start a war against Africa preventing it. Not that it would be impossible, American presidents have been pretty free to cause collateral damage. Personally I’m more worried on Putin than Obama, though. Putin has managed to bring Soviet Union back. And the whole EU is severely damaged by its huge and paralysing Green parties.
20
Denmark cuts back on renewables.
http://www.thegwpf.com/denmarks-liberal-government-to-roll-back-renewable-energy-policy/
30
22 Apr: SanFranciscoChronicle: AP: U.N. leader calls pilot of solar aircraft
“I speak to you from the cockpit of Solar Impulse in the middle of the Pacific, flying only on solar power. No fuel,” pilot Bertrand Piccard told U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon during a brief conversation streamed live on his aircraft’s website.
Ban hailed Piccard’s pioneering spirit as “inspirational,” telling him he was making history.
Piccard responded that Ban, too, was making history by having just presided over the signing of a climate agreement supported by representatives of 175 nations…
The trans-Pacific leg of his journey is the riskiest part of the plane’s global travels because of the lack of emergency landing sites…
The aircraft started its around-the-world journey in March 2015 from Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, and made stops in Oman, Myanmar, China and Japan. It’s on the ninth leg of its circumnavigation.
http://www.sfgate.com/nation/article/U-N-leader-calls-pilot-of-solar-aircraft-7304355.php
what did Associated Press leave out of their “inspirational” report?
23 Apr: UK Daily Mail: Ryan O’Hare: Solar Impulse 2 finally takes off! Plane resumes its round-the-world flight after being grounded for nine months
The plane was grounded for more than nine months after technical issues
During its last flight en route to Hawaii the batteries reportedly overheated
After battery problems and bad weather hampered the last leg of its mission, the world’s first solar-powered plane has taken to the skies once again…
It was due to take off at 3PM UTC but earlier this morning weather conditions exceeded the safety limits with gusting winds leading the team to store the craft in a hanger just before sunrise…
Piloted alternately by Swiss adventurers Bertrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg, the crew set off on the voyage in March 2015, with aspirations of flying around the world in a matter of months…
The solar-powered aircraft was left stranded on the ground in Hawaii last summer after suffering battery problems in the previous leg of its journey…
Solar Impulse 2 was grounded in July last year after ‘irreversible damage to certain parts of the batteries’.
Following its record-breaking, five-day flight across the Pacific last month, battery temperatures surged.
In particular, there was too much insulation which caused the plane’s battery temperature to spike on the first day of the flight across the Pacific.
The crew struggled to find ways of cooling the batteries once the aircraft was in the air…
Solar Impulse 2 and its pilots Mr Borschberg and Mr Piccard set off from Abu Dhabi in March with the hope of returning within five or six months.
It was forced to make an unscheduled stop in Nagoya in Japan after bad weather stopped it taking off on its Pacific leg, but it successfully touched down in Hawaii on 3 July…
This slow speed and light weight means it can only travel in certain weather conditions.
For example, in high winds or turbulence it can struggle to stay aloft at the altitudes necessary to gather sunlight…
After the unscheduled stop in Japan, Solar Impulse 2 was stranded for nearly a month with the crew scouring long-range forecasts for a favourable weather window…
The goal of the project is to show the possibilities of renewable energy such as solar power…
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3552005/Solar-Impulse-2-finally-ready-Plane-resume-round-world-flight-today-following-nine-month-delay.html
40
the free market at work:
19 Apr: ThisIsMoneyUK: Rob Hull: Dutch politicians back proposal to ban sales of petrol and diesel cars by 2025 – but existing owners could still drive them
The restriction, a proposal by the Dutch Labour Party (PvdA), gained backing from those in the lower house of parliament and could become law if approved by the nation’s senate.
On initial introduction, the law would allow anyone who already owns a petrol or diesel car to continue using it on the road.
However, you won’t be able to purchase a brand new car unless it is electric or a hydrogen fuel-cell model…
***The PvdA, the junior member of the Netherlands’ coalition government, initially wanted all non zero-emissions vehicles banned in the country in nine year’s time, but has since relaxed its stance.
However, not all are in favour of the switch – the Labour Party’s coalition partners, the centre-right VVD, has opposed the ruling, branding the plans as ‘unrealistic’…
Last year, new plans were announced in Norway to ban private cars from Oslo roads entirely by 2019 in a bid to half emissions in the capital…
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/cars/article-3547461/Dutch-politicians-proposal-ban-sales-petrol-diesel-cars-2025.html
22 Apr: GlobalConstructionReview: Netherlands may ban sale of non-electric cars by 2025
The bill was initiated by the Labour party, and has attracted sufficient support in the lower house of the Dutch parliament. It will become law if it gains the approval of the Dutch senate.
If introduced, the law would give a regulatory push to the market for electric vehicles. At present, consumers are deterred from buying non-petrol or diesel vehicles because of the lack of charging infrastructure, and companies are deterred from installing the infrastructure because of the lack of cars to use it…
At present there are few ways to refuel a fuel-cell-powered car.
Shell has made a start on installing hydrogen stations, having set up a partnership in Germany with industrial gas manufacturers Air Liquide and Linde, car maker Daimler and energy companies Total and OMV, to develop a network of 400 hydrogen refuelling stations by 2023.
***However, only three stations have been set up…
The UK government last year made £6.6m ($9.5m) available to set up 12 hydrogen refuelling stations across the UK, including new Brentford and Croydon outside London, and a mobile station that will be used across the south of England…
So far, the city of Oslo is looking to ban private cars by 2019 and the mayor of Paris has announced that the city will be rid of diesel cars by 2020.
http://www.globalconstructionreview.com/news/netherlands-may-ban-sale-n7on-elec7tric-c7ars-2025/
10
My wife was born in the Netherlands and despite a non science and technology education (she was a grade school teacher and then a marriage and family therapist) she knows better than to kiss up to the climate change game.
The Netherlands has sunk considerably in good judgment since she left for the United States. 🙁
Of course it’s a much smaller place than Australia or the U.S., even smaller than the UK I think, so maybe electric cars can be made to do the job, at least if you stay in the Netherlands.
I found 10 charging stations near me, all located in busy parking lots with no guarantee that when you get there you can park where you can recharge, So your garage charging station is your only very reliable option for local driving. But much worse than that — if you want to go from here to Phoenix Arizona where our son and his wife once lived you have to take off across hundreds of miles of desert occupied only by sagebrush, tumbleweeds, lizards, an occasional tortoise and jackrabbits, in other words, lots of nothing. To be sure I could make that trip in an EV I would need a 500 mile range at the speed limit, 65 MPH. And out there in the desert if you try to do just 65 you’ll be run over by someone going 80. And if you suddenly have a run down battery, the Auto Club can’t even reach you for as much as an hour or more, much less do anything but an expensive towing lob to the nearest safe haven for EVs.
I found numerous stations from here to Palm Springs. But then the next station is in Buckeye Arizona, a suburb of Phoenix, 242 miles of uncertainty considering current range capabilities of EVs at highway speeds. Then consider charging time and time waiting your turn to get plugged in vs. time spent at the gas pump (5 – 10 minutes, max).
Given that battery age, tire and other factors about the vehicle, wind and grades all conspire to reduce your range, I could not rely on this supposedly best selling EV Because the range would be marginal at best and inadequate at worst.
This is being slowly forced down out throats whether we want to swallow it or not. I hope buyers are very carefully considering what they’re getting into. 🙁
20
OK, that explains it. I was mildly surprised when our local ‘Pravda’ started to go around complaining the new populist and right-wing government. It was as if people voted wrong. But the Pravda was not quite willing to say exactly what was wrong with the new government.
So the problem, at large, is that the new government is taking hard measures to stop wind power [snip]. This is not a thing to mention, because other countries have their own [snip]. Don’t put any ideas into heads of the public. They could stop voting for social democrats (that is, [snip] with no guts), [snip] (that is, [snip]), and greenies (young [snip]). They could also stop voting for center parties which typically see wind power as a business opportunity.
Sadly many of the EU countries don’t have any wind power realist parties. The field has been divided to useful [snip] and opportunists. None of the parties will cut inefficient energy subsidies, even when they say so they actually act for more subsidies. All parties want a bigger state, all parties want more tax money under their control. None of them see any problem with this. There is no real right wing in the parliament, to the level that ‘right wing’ is understood as national socialism. On the other hand, extreme left has almost official position, and it is welcome to national television (comparable to ABC/BBC/CBC/NPR).
20