Coal is dead, an old relic, but Germany is burning a lot more coal
If the world cools and gets cloudier will renewables stall as margins become even less appealing? Will wandering jet streams interrupt reliable trade winds as the intersection of hot and cold air generates more clouds over solar panels?
German Wind Power Consumption Plummets 20% In First Half 2021… Coal Power Consumption Jumps 38%!
Pierre Gosselin
What would we do without coal?
The first half of 2021 saw a massive 20% drop in wind power consumption in Germany…while “coal power saw a renaissance.”
The reason for the steep drop, according to the findings, was due to unfavorable weather conditions.
The Germans ran out of wind both on and off shore. People stopped investing because the subsidies ran out and the populace insisted on not having the giant industrial plants in their backyard. Then the winds slowed (why didn’t their climate models see that coming?) Europe talked itself out of building gas plants in order to stop global warming, then got an extra cold winter, and they also run out of gas. So what was left was good old reliable brown lignite coal. The kind The Green really hate.
Emden, Germany by Gritte
@gritte
- Climate fears stop new gas plants in Europe, then cold hits and they go back to coal
- Germany shuts too much coal, lasted 8 days without them, now admits they can’t close them
- German experiment to make wind powered Silicon Chips fails
- German environmentalists say renewables are destroying their landscapes, killing nature, wasting money
Oh well
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(I eagerly await new Green initiatives]
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Were not these subsidies supposed to spur independent investors?
Instead they attracted companies that latched onto this free money and boy did they flourish.
As China changed into the industrial engine as our politicians added more laws, restrictions and regulations in the name of environmental restrictions.
So today, you can’t fart sideways without some government approval you need or harsh penalties are imposed.
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Be careful what you wish for. Farting is a real covid risk. No joke. Buttmasks are the solution
https://www.coolthings.com/subtle-butt/
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It’s called underwear.
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Puts a whole new daring perspective on “thongs of that area” and “going commando”
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Not to worry. The Great Reset has many other answers including flattening the population curve, already under way.
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Easy. Nordstream 2 will be complete soon. Then just declare natural gas renewable.
https://www.bmwi.de/Redaktion/EN/Artikel/Energy/gas-natural-gas-supply-in-germany.html
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Along with burning wood chips and household rubbish, which are already acceptable Green policy in the EU.
And if that isn’t enough then purchase Green Certificates.
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In my early life coal was what allowed us to cook and warm the house.
Coal could be purchased in a bag from the coal man at the front door, in a bucket from his house around the corner, or picked up for free on the train line where small chunks had fallen out of the wagon being hauled into the harbour.
Coal was shiny and useful and appreciated.
When coal combustion was moved out of town and burnt to make electricity the town was even better to live in.
Progress.
Then, decades later, wokeism arrives and we have idiotic windmills and glass panes over the Bush and wheatfields.
Progress?
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Good old days of the ‘smart home’, manually shovelling coal into the home boiler. Before my time. Only the coal shutes remain
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKe_4cOr75k
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KK:
Remember briquettes? I remember Woodettes made from sawdust. But we gone far from either now, coal is ‘sinfull’ and we’ve shutdown most sawmills.
Russia exports over a million and a half tons of woodchips to the EU, mostly to “green” powerstations but half a million tons comes in plastic bags for household use. The latter would be very useful in houses where they cannot afford the (high) price of electric heating. There are claims that wood chips are being used in London houses too.
At least Germany has coal fired powerstations left to save them when the wind doesn’t blow; in the UK the irrational policy is to shutdown all coal-fired generation and nuclear plants and rely on gas and wind, and they’re running out of gas.
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Pointing out there that progress is directionable
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Germany is cited as the example we all should follow so it looks like Australia needs to ramp up coal use for our electricity production
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Subsidies are to wind generation what oxygen is to coal generation.
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The technology exists to burn post-activity (example, making wood products, packaging) waste, and the gas from dumps (aka landfills). There are 2 dozen of these small thermal facilities feeding into the grid in Oregon & Washington. See the list under this chart:
https://transmission.bpa.gov/Business/Operations/Wind/baltwg.aspx
High-Temperature Incineration needs more emphasis.
I mention these things because they are useful – – not because there is a global warming problem.
If the non-problem requires a political solution they need to get serious and build nuclear facilities.
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Thanks John, but Australia already has 38 plants using land fill gas. All very small but it tickled my fancy when I saw that the largest one (15MW) was at Lucas Heights in Sydney. Lucas Height was the site of a huge rubbish dump (since covered with soil and housing blocks) but the dump was put there near Australia’s only (small) nuclear plant because no-one would want to live there.
And we also have small plants using gas from sewerage plants and from coal beds.
Years ago (in the 1980’s I think, I read about a chemical factory (paint resins etc.) who were subjected to a barrage of complaints about their smelly emissions which were actually coming from the very large rubbish dump next to their site. A chemist got the gasses analysed and found mostly methane. The solution was to install outlets below the clay soil ‘capping’ and pipe the gas to their boilers. Result no more complaints about odours as they then emitted nice clean odourless CO2 and as a bonus saved a deal of money.
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John
I see Greenies telling fables about burning rubbish or landfill gas – and you can really only have one or the other over time.
I like it but they are a tiny producer and will remain so all the time. In Perth they have a new waste to energy plant, with lots of fanfare, but I cannot find out how much power it produces, which is a clue as its probably a few MW only. Does anyone know?
Coal or nuclear is the way to go for Australia. Wind is a complete joke, I used to drive past turbines at Blayney in NSW when going to work. Nearly always they were still or barely turning – useless for powering an economy….
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_power_stations_in_Western_Australia
Would that be the one with 6.5MW capacity?
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Once they’d selected an inadequate supply, they had only coal to fall back on. They’d never stopped strip mining for it, they’d prematurely shut down their useful nuclear, and they never got enough loss leader gas or oil. The coal is a surplus, and the coal plants are not all gone yet.
We now will all have a chance to see whether the current government can be voted out, or if they will use public health scare to maintain an autocracy. It may be that they find a scapegoat for the green energy failure. There surely won’t be many whose careers suffer for this or the infrastructural and safety system failures, like the floods, that will continue to occur.
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Having them go bankrupt to be scooped up by China and their money creation.
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There are Greek, Spanish and Italian people just waiting for that to happen to Germany. But France and Norway hold the German energy future.
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I would have thought with Nord stream 2 and the older gas pipeline through Ukraine, that Russia now has Germany at its beck and call.
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Buy coal stocks folks, they’re still cheap.
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RE: So what was left was good old reliable brown lignite coal. The kind The Green really hate.
They don’t hate coal, they hate success. They hate people being comfortable and happy. They hate people not praising their every thought that pops into their head. In short, environmentalism is simply a medium through which they can hate others and praise themselves.
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Sorry. Miss hit. See green.
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The definition of insanity, it is said, is repeating the same mistake but expecting a different result. If wind and solar power generation has failed in Europe, and it has, why do Australian Law Makers think it will be different here. Even worse is the fact that European Law Makers believe they can impose taxes on products from countries that don’t subscribe to their madness!
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Correct. Repeating the same mistake of voting for LNP or ALP expecting a cessation of the suicidal agenda to keep closing down our coal fired power stations and move more and more towards renewables all in the name of reducing our emissions is very succinctly termed INSANITY. Thank you Australia, by and large you have been shown to be just a lot of whinging boneheads. Prove me wrong by stop voting for either major party and instead support of the of minor parties that do support coal and are not afraid of using nuclear, who would then have a lot of leverage to force a minority government, be it LNP or ALP, to stop the rot. Otherwise, continue with your bonehead voting patterns and stop whinging; you deserve the government you vote for. Sorry, but this is the reality of the situation. Time is short and we have only one more opportunity to turn things around at the up and coming federal election some time next year. If we a are lucky we might have one more after that but I would not bet on it given the time it takes to build new coal and nuclear power stations.
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At the moment labor is being steered by the greens, as they get preferences from them , so they are definitely off my list.
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Of course they are off the list. The Greens will never agree to using coal or nuclear.
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Beats me, why don’t the EU + all countries just spend 5 minutes and look at the last 200+ years of data and evidence?
Dr Rosling has done the hard yakka and plotted 120,000 data points, but apparently these donkeys would rather waste more endless decades + trillions $ and achieve NOTHING but our ruination?
And of course zero measurable change to our climate or temperature by 2100. See Lomborg, Shellenberger, Koonin, Lindzen, Happer, Christy, Pielke, McKitrick, McIntyre, Eschenbach etc.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbkSRLYSojo
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Neville,
the object of the bureaucracy is to spend more money = more controls = more bureaucrats.
Any ridiculous excuse is used e.g. see Tallbloke’s latest about stringing overhead powerlines for electric trucks.
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Don’t see the problem of shifting road to rail, except I suspect the shift from rail to road was due to free road usag
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In Australia the shift of freight from rail to road was not just a matter of cost.
Rail transport was slow, erratic and goods were often damaged.
One company in Victoria offered to pay the rail freight charge, as if they were actually using the service, if they could use their own road trucks. Permission was denied.
Reason- union monopoly, labor government relied on union, belligerent attitude to private companies.
That situation lasted decades longer than it should.
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Q. So, how is that “just transition” working out for Germany …
“Some coal-producing nations, such as Germany and Spain, are delivering just transition packages.”
https://theconversation.com/how-to-transition-from-coal-4-lessons-for-australia-from-around-the-world-115558
(“a transition that’s fair for local workers and communities in coal regions)
A. … it isn’t. It is a failure on all levels, most of all, green government.
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Since Dr Hansen started this scam in 1988 the OECD countries have wasted trillions $ and more endless trillions $ to be flushed down the drain by 2050, 2100 and beyond.
OH and in 1988 co2 levels were about 350 ppm and today are about 418 ppm. See NOAA link below.
And the OECD have wasted 33 years and endless trillions $ for NOTHING. In fact co2 levels have increased by about 68 ppm over the last 33 years. DUH.
China, India and the developing countries are building 100s of new coal plants and many hundreds will be built for decades into the future. But will the OECD ever WAKE UP?
https://gml.noaa.gov/ccgg/trends/
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When we have bonehead leaders of major political parties like Morrison and Albanese, what hope is there for Australians to wake up and realise we are being told lies about how reducing our emissions is a good thing? As long as we keep voting for either then I’m afraid we will have to learn the hard way; crash and burn. Then again I’m pretty much convinced most voters are boneheads too so that explains why there is a lot of truth in the saying we get the government we deserve. In reality the blame must be shared across governments, MSM, education institutions as well as the voters. Learning the lessons the hard way appears to be the only way at this stage. Only one other cause can break the cycle of death; an invasion and takeover by say the CCP who no doubt would build coal and nuclear power stations to supply power for their purposes here. I would rather we just crash and burn and learn, and let everyone learn the lesson the hard way.
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IF their so called NET ZERO is really dead in the water, then what is their PLAN B for the UK, the EU or for the USA?
I’ve already shown that the OECD countries haven’t increased co2 emissions since 1988 and YET co2 LEVELs have increased by 68 ppm by June 2021.
It seems they didn’t understand that the developing countries would want to become HEALTHY and WEALTHY, just like the OECD. DUH?
https://www.thegwpf.com/net-zero-by-2050-is-dead-in-the-water-so-whats-plan-b/
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It looks like Macron is trying to avoid more problems from their EU so called climate plan and so called carbon market?
Perhaps Macron has nightmares of another “yellow vests disaster” that will definitely finish off any chance of his re election?
https://www.thegwpf.com/eu-climate-plan-in-disarray-as-france-opposes-proposal-for-new-carbon-market/
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All they have to do is stop clearing forests and land to make room for the windmills and solar panels. All new roads lead to windmill posts.
Stop logging tropical softwood used in manufacture of wind blades in which process they have already caused global shortage in Balsa wood.
Stop clearing forests for biofuel electricity generators.
Burning coal and gas equals to more CO2 and viola… greener planet.
Invest the money in top soil protection, water management, nuclear power, education, health and senior citizens dignity.
If climate change was a fashion industry then the computer models are certainly on the catwalk. Strange, weird and pointless.
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AGAIN, just so we don’t forget countries’ co2 emissions DATA since 1988 or EVEN 1970.
Here’s all we need to know and to fully understand the OECD problems over the last 50 years and last 33 years.
CLEARLY ALL OF THE DEVELOPING COUNTRIES ARE NOT LISTENING. Very easy to understand the wasted endless OECD trillions $ of the past and the future.
BUT apparently the OECD countries STILL don’t understand very simple data and evidence?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_dioxide_emissions#/media/File:World_fossil_carbon_dioxide_emissions_six_top_countries_and_confederations.png
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AGAIN Willis Eschenbach has looked at all their scary stories and found no climate emergency.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/04/25/wheres-the-emergency/
And Dr Christy has put their so called “climate change claims to the test” and agrees with Willis. So AGAIN why are we wasting endless trillions $ on their non PROBLEM and for a guaranteed ZERO change?
OH and even Dr Hansen agrees that Paris COP 21 is just BS and fra-d. See DEC 2015 Guardian interview.
https://www.thegwpf.com/putting-climate-change-claims-to-the-test/
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Starting point is incredibly important.
https://notrickszone.com/2021/07/28/phony-climate-trends-alarmists-caught-hiding-large-quantities-of-historical-data/
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William the Conquerer’s invasion did not go according to plan …
The invasion fleet sets sail
About four or five days later, the Norman fleet set sail from the place where William had mustered his fleet – the mouth of the River Dives in Normandy.
But he set out in terrible conditions, and his whole fleet – which he had carefully prepared for months and months – was blown, not to England, but eastwards along the coast of northern France to the neighbouring province of Poitiers and a town called Saint-Valery.
William spent another fortnight in Saint-Valery, we’re told, looking at the weathercock of Saint-Valery Church and praying every day for the wind to change and the rain to stop.
Footnote
If only the steam engine had been invented.
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