Wind power “headed for disaster” in Germany

Is this the future of wind all over the world?
Windpower plant Germany.
The salad days of wind power in Germany are over. Bad news is rolling in from several directions. Twenty years of hope-n-subsidies has run aground. Profits are grinding down, and hardly any new towers are being erected. People are fighting back against the noise, the views, and the bird chopping.  Conservationists might like the idea of wind, as long as it’s in someone else’s forest. Suddenly groups that oppose wind towers are gaining traction, and the red tape and legal battles have grown wings and settled on new developments like a bat plague.

New turbines are now supposed to be two kilometers from any home, and there just isn’t enough spare land to build them on. German wind farms are running out of Germany.

If only they were profitable and provided an essential service, they might still have friends.

Wind energy in crisis as expansion stalls in Germany

Alex Reichmuth; Nebelspalter, via GWPF

Lengthy planning and approval procedures stand in the way of the expansion of wind energy. There is too little designated space for possible locations and too many lawsuits against projects. The resistance to the construction of wind turbines is enormous in many places. Countless nature conservationist groups and citizens’ groups see the landscape impaired, health threatened or rare birds in danger and are fighting with all possible means against new wind turbines. Frequently, political leaders of municipalities and states are against easing the elimination of wind power locations.

To make matters worse for the future of wind energy is the fact that many wind farms are threatened by shutdown. The German Renewable Energy Act which has been in force since 2000 guarantees wind turbine operators secure subsidies for twenty years. For thousands of wind projects this deadline will expire in the next few years. Without subsidies they are no longer profitable. By 2025, there is a risk of 15,000 MW of wind projects being lost which corresponds to over a quarter of Germany’s onshore wind power.

One Minister of Energy and Environment is talking of an industry in freefall:

 “We are heading for a disaster,” said Lies to the “Handelsblatt”…

“If the federal government does not pull the rip cord, Germany faces a gigantic dismantling of wind energy with all the consequences for eliminating it.

The wind lobby want to build in forests. Apparently in order to save the wilderness from climate change we have to accost it acoustically. We know infrasound can cause humans to get nosebleeds, dizziness, rashes and headaches — what does it do to badgers and wildcats?

After we finish the human experiments perhaps we’ll start the animal ones?

The government of the state of Hesse is planning to declare two percent of the state’s area to be wind priority areas. That would have serious consequences for the last undisturbed forests and the countryside, according to the Hessian Association of Nature Conservation Initiative. Above all, the construction of wind turbines in the extensive Palatinate Forest means “another break of taboos by the red-green-yellow coalition in favor of the wind power industry”.

Germany has 30,000 wind turbines, but this spring they made a third less electricity than they did a year ago. There was less wind this year. Imagine if a third of expected coal production just broke?

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145 comments to Wind power “headed for disaster” in Germany

  • #
    Jojodogfacedboy

    Always a disaster when governments try imposing defective technology…
    Questions…
    Would you not need boosting of this electricity with distance?
    I’m pretty sure that much of the power would be bleeding out for what they are trying.
    Not to mention the trees falling on lines and the all this bush being cleared for roads and heavy equipment.

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    • #
      David Maddison

      Disastrous examples of governments picking technology losers include NBN (Australia), alcohol automotive fuels heavily subsidised (Australia), diesel electric submarine new acquisition (Australia), current covid vax (world), Snowy Hydro 2 (Australia), nearly all desal plants (Australia), wind and solar power (beyond niche applications such as remote sites) (world), failure to utilise nuclear power (Australia), various (or most) government software projects which nearly always blow out massively in price and fail to perform (Australia), failure to utilise North South pioeline as soon as it was built (Australia), continued fantastic belief in carbon dioxide capture and storage (world), “the hydrogen economy” (Australia and world) and many others.

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      • #
        yarpos

        I saw a phrase the other day I thought summed it up nicely “politically malformed energy markets”

        Right up there with spasmodic power

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      • #
        Maptram

        A few days ago there was a post about a solar and wind proposal for the Pilbara. The proposal was to use wind and solar power to convert water to hydrogen. The article mentioned including a desal plant to provide the fresh water needed to extract the hydrogen.

        In previous posts on the subject it has been discussed that the extraction of hydrogen requires more energy than the hydrogen produces. I don’t recall any discussion about desal in previous posts, but I have read that desal plants require a lot of power. The question is whether the power required for run a desal plant is included in previous discussion about energy requirements to produce hydrogen or is is it additional? The second question is where does the energy to run a desal plant come from? Is it to be produced by the same solar panels and windmills that provide the “free” energy to produce hydrogen or are additional solar panels and windmills required? Either way, when the sun don’t shine and the wind don’t blow (or blows too much) there is no energy to produce fresh water or convert the water to hydrogen.

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        • #
          IainC

          Oh ye of little faith. They will of course, in times of low wind and no sun, burn the hydrogen to power the desal plant. Miraculously, this produces water! which can then be used as new fuel for generating hydrogen. Genius. The energy is practically endless and free.

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        • #
          Graham Richards

          The government see,in this technology , an irresistible opportunity to create a huge bureaucracy around this “new technology”. No matter what it costs, as long as there is no Co2 emissions in the final product (electricity). Doesn’t matter if there are huge Co2 emissions in the the creation of the hydrogen. It’s the politically correct/ green shaded outcome that matters. Looks like we’re going to limp &stagger toward another dead end.
          Go nuclear, it’s solid green, no emissions solutions!

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      • #
        Deano

        “various (or most) government software projects which nearly always blow out massively in price and fail to perform ” – Yes! I’m frequently amazed at the costs of a software package commissioned by a government department for common accounting or database tasks for which I’m certain existing software is available. They causally mention spending several hundred million dollars. I imagine most of the money goes on, ahem, ‘consultancy fees’.

        20

  • #
    David Maddison

    Warmists claim wind-dependent electricity production is “modern” but utilisation of the wind for rotary power is about 1200 years old. There is a very good reason wind power was rapidly dropped about 250 years ago as soon as a reliable steam engine was developed.

    Just imagine only being able to do work such as milling grain only when the wind was blowing? The Industrial Revolution gave us cheap, reliable power on demand and liberated working people from drudgery and dramatically improved everyone’s standard of living.

    The Left are trying to destroy all that, along with all Enlightenment values such as reason, liberty, progress, tolerance, fraternity, constitutional government, and separation of church and state (but with Marxism replacing traditional Judeo-Christian religious beliefs).

    760

    • #
      TdeF

      Where windmills worked was in laborious tasks which were not time critical, like pumping water in Holland. Even then, the moment the steam engine existed, they were abandoned.

      The cost of free energy was too much and the enormous benefit of getting a job done when you wanted and quickly was overwhelming. Commandable energy was king. We have gone backwards thoughtlessly and rediscovered why all the windmills of Holland were abandoned. Who needs to be milling grain at night or in a storm.

      And solar by definition is not going to be available for most of the day. How useful is that? Solar and wind energy and big batteries would not survive a complaints under Consumer legislation in any country as the most blatantly underperforming and misrepresented commercial products on the market. The vendors would be prosecuted for incredibly misleading advertising. They would have to carry warnings of lack of performance, utter lack of commandability and average power output at a quarter of that advertised or a fraction of the time expected.

      The unexpected benefit of South Australia’s $100Million battery is that it allowed wind farms to go offline without dragging down the entire state. Thus it turned a total catastrophe into merely a disaster. Again, not what was advertised or promised. At least they did not blow up the gas turbine at Pelican Point, which was turned off and facing demolition but is now running flat out. If only they had not utterly destroyed Hazelwood and Liddell and Yallourn are to go next. It’s all about Green profits, not jobs or necessity.

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      • #
        yarpos

        The gas plant outside of Launceston was also scheduled for demolition , until the “battery of the nation” worked out they couldnt sustain themselves with weather dependent power at that point in time with Basslink down.

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        • #
          Ronin

          That was hilarious watching the antics when the twoheads ran out of water and the caravan extension lead broke, the main bits of the gas turbine were overseas after being sent for refurbishment, but no one remembered where, the rest was in a million bits at Bell Bay, then the shiploads of diesel gennies had to be used to keep the lights on, fun times.

          280

        • #
          Philip

          Greens will be begging the Franklin to be dammed next.

          60

          • #
            Deano

            And showing them old videos of Bob Brown campaigning to ‘Save the Franklin’ wouldn’t bother them one atom. They don’t do facts.

            50

    • #
      Richard Owen No.3

      Dave:
      Actually wind dropped out of favour in selected areas where an alternative was available about a 100years sooner. In Brittany tide mills became the choice because they were more reliable (working 2 periods every day).
      Brittany has huge tides, up to 16 metres, but the world’s first large scale station (Rance river) wasn’t such a success that anymore were built in France.

      100

      • #
        Ted O'Brien.

        Yes. I often wondered why they couldn’t put the mills under the water, but clearly they have tried it and it can’t have been economic up till now.

        Who knows? If they ban everything else it may come into its own!

        20

  • #
    John R Smith

    When I was kid long, long ago, we were instructed to read fictional representations of superstition and ideology like ‘The Crucible’ and ‘1984’.
    I thought, how fortunate that I live in modern, enlightened times when hysteria and political dogma were relics of the past.
    I guess we counted our enlightenment before our hysterical and dogmatic eggs were laid.

    600

  • #
    David Maddison

    There are 30,204 electrical windmills in Germany. Germany has a land area of 357,386km².

    Assuming an even distribution, that makes one windmill about every 11.8 km² which is represented by a circle of diameter 3.4km or radius 1.7km.

    So (roughly), with an even distribution, the bird choppers would be based 1.7km apart. Given their height, you would easily see them from that distance so you would not be able to escape the visual pollution.

    It is probably much worse than I suggested because bird choppers won’t be built in cities, on mountains or in forests so the density of these rotary disasters is probably much more in areas where they are located.

    Visual pollution is only one problem of course, they sicken people with infrasound and shadow flicker, kill birds, and after their short and useless service life, their massive concrete pads are never removed. Plus they create a huge landfill problem with the blades, and mining “rare earths” for the magnets in China is an environmental disaster. And their electricity is useless.

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    • #
      David Maddison

      Correction, the bird chopper “zone” would be a radius of 1.7km, the choppers themselves would be 3.4km apart but still visible everywhere.

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    • #
    • #
      Binny Pegler

      Years ago we had some German backpackers working for us.
      Every evening they would borrow the 4X4 drive away form the homestead, and return about 1/2 hr after sundown.
      After a week it go the better of me, and I ask what they were doing. They replied “We listen” – Somewhat dumbfounded I said “But there’s nothing to hear”
      “Exactly!” they relied “In Germany nowhere is silent”

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    • #
      KPH

      As someone who lives 620m from 8x 125m high turbines we suffer noise in the form of EAM and LFN and of course shadow flicker, local authority is useless in stopping this, we suffer sleep depravation and home abonnement, we have even been to court to try and get an noise abatement but the case was thrown out on a technicality – now the wind farm owner is after £500,000+ in wasted costs – scandalous money grabbing bastards to lot of them – “green” my arse.

      80

      • #

        Really sorry to hear about your trials. 600m?!

        40

      • #
        Kalm Keith

        Thank you.

        Thank you for sharing this painful aspect of your life.

        It’s heartbreaking to know that a democracy would impose this on its citizens and deliberately act to prevent the truth coming out: Very Low Frequency pulsing is a real and very damaging effect in many workplaces and now with wind turbines.

        Wind turbines are the antithesis of everything that they are made out to be.

        It’s a government impost for money and control worldwide and is the epitome of Evil.

        What’s the world come to.

        50

    • #
      Erny72

      “…It is probably much worse than I suggested because bird choppers won’t be built in cities,…”
      I often ponder that; since the highest concentration of Greens voters, protestors and affiliated gobshites are in city centre cafes demanding ‘action’ on gullible warming over their lattes, why are they not demanding their own back yard virtue signals in the form of a whirly gig on every street corner and a screen of solar panels suspended over every street and appartment window?
      The only suburban whirly gigs I’ve ever seen were two Seimens eggs in eastern Dundee (UK) and the hilltop demo turbine in Wellington (NZ).
      So much for the urgency to be seen saving the planet, or of the need to take a ‘leadership’ position in the green devolution which we hear being mooted incessently by gang-green’s urban cheer-squad.

      30

  • #
    Simon

    Wind power generation has been a huge success in Germany which is why there is no more suitable land left.
    Coal power generation breaks all the time, which is why you need multiple and distributed sources of power generation.

    397

    • #
      OriginalSteve

      Nonsense……

      Coal plants can run indefinitely if constantly maintained, a coal plant never wears out, as bits can keep being replaced.

      If wind power was such a success, why are people working so hard to stop it?

      630

    • #
      David Maddison

      Simon, where do you get this nonsense? Just saying it doesn’t make it true. We are not Leftists here, you know.

      680

    • #

      There are much more days without wind than days with broken coal power generation, can’t remember one only day in my region 😀

      360

    • #

      You forgot to mention the necessary backup plants. And several old coal generators intended to shut down have still to be available for these reasons.

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    • #
      Penguinite

      Wind towers only survive because they are subsidised!! Lest we forget! RIP

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    • #
      joseph

      Subtle Simon . . . . .

      30

    • #
      clarence.t

      You did know that they have amongst the highest electricity cost in the world, didn’t you.

      Subsidies and mandates and other cash payments are still needed to support them.

      Did you know that for half the time, they are below 15% of nameplate. !!

      Germany can thank the nuclear from France, hydro from Norway, and Coal power from other surrounding countries for not having too many major system collapses… yet.

      430

    • #

      It depends on what you call a success. As the goal of these antediluvian monsters is to reduce, why ever, CO2, the so called success is null.
      And I can’t see it as success to enjoy the one or the other day with some more generation of the one or the other MW. If that is your success, your satisfaction level is somewhat to low.

      100

    • #

      Coal power generation breaks all the time

      You got something wrong. There are less breake down of coal gegeration as you may believe, there are lot of complaints of small industries because of shut downs because of lack of electricity.

      Increasingly more instabilities in the European interconnected system

      Again and again, there are dicey situationswhen solar and wind power plants supply too little electricity. Then industrial plants have to be shut down. However, the grid fluctuations could get even worse.

      180

    • #
      clarence.t

      Simple question, Simon.

      How much electricity can Germany’s wind provide, “on demand”

      What amount can they reliably produce, say, 90% of the time?

      200

      • #
        IainC

        I have some data for 2015/2016 for wind power from Germany. If it’s correct, wind provides 5% or more of nameplate capacity 90% of the time. Frighteningly, it only provides greater than 50% of nameplate 5% of the time, too. For 50% of the time, it was providing 15% of nameplate. Of course, all of these changes in delivered power occur at episodic but random times, making any future “on demand” promises a joke. Wind is not gridworthy.

        80

      • #
        Lance

        CT, absolutely correct. But there is more.

        The AC grid requires Real/Active power, Reactive/Complex power, and Total Power.

        Other than toasters, water heaters, clothes dryers, and electric cook stoves, everything else is Reactive/Inductive power loads.

        Wind/solar “follow the grid that follows the load” and their inverters can only synch with the grid frequency at grid voltage (+/- 6% volts).

        The real question is: “How much electricity can Germany’s grid provide into the connected load at frequency and voltage at a power factor greater than 0.85” without external assistance? Because if they can’t meet that load in real time, they are nothing but a helpless parasite upon the EU grid and are dependent upon the EU to do what they cannot do for themselves, and therefore they are subservient to France, Norway, Sweden, Poland, and Denmark, or else their grid fails.

        All Germany has done is Virtue Signal, Preen, and Boast about their Green Energy, while the hard work of keeping the grid online is outsourced to other EU countries. Ego gained for Sovereignty lost. And the People of Germany pay for all of this fluff so the Pollies can feel good at their social parties. Not a long term solution.

        80

    • #
      Peter Fitzroy

      The Germans (and the Dutch) have passed legislation which drives the requirement to get to net zero. To this end, and to protect the planet from CO2 pollution and improve health, any non CO2 power source will be used.

      Coal for power will be gone, and the hand wavers will not stop it

      As to the assertion that coal is reliable, just look at the capacity factors – depending on the country is is between 50-70% reliable. But way better than Gas, which is at 10-20%, Wind at around 30% does not look all that bad now does it?

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      • #
        Analitik

        The legislation will be repealed when the populations of those countries find their economies continue to shrink and more jobs are lost due to the increasing cost and unreliability of their electricity, not to mention the direct cost of their electricity bills skyrocketing.

        Coal will make a big comeback along with gas and hopefully nuclear will be appreciated again

        Those capacity factors for coal are not due to unreliability but the massive generation fluctuations of wind and solar generation. They would be around 90% if the market, rather than the government determinined supply of electricity.

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        • #
          Richard Owen No.3

          The Netherlands gets 60% of its electricity from coal, but buys Green Certificates from Norwegian hydro to cover about 46%**
          So all they have to do is buy a few more certificates. IDEAL Solution, cheaper, reliable electricity at far less cost.

          **leaving them with only 14% coal fired counting – added for Peter F benefit as we know he cannot do arithmetic.

          Oh, and a minor point Peter, there are many people in The Netherlands who don’t like being called Dutch.

          130

      • #
        Old Cocky

        Utilisation is not the same thing as reliability. Wind and solar are given absolute priority, so the others have to ramp up or down to fill the gap between the load and the amount supplied by the variable sources.

        Coal and CCGT can’t change output rapidly on demand, whereas OCGT can.

        150

        • #
          Lance

          OCGT can ramp rapidly, as you say, but at 40% thermodynamic efficiency.

          CCGT reach efficiencies of 56 to 60%.

          That’s a big deal, financially.

          OCGT topping plants have their place, for certain, but unaffordable as baseload.

          130

      • #
        clarence.t

        “country is is between 50-70% reliable. But way better than Gas, which is at 10-20%”

        Again with the deliberate misrepresentation of data.

        These are “utilisation” percentages.

        Sorry you are too unaware (ie ignorant) to know the difference.

        Coal can reliably run at 90%+ of nameplate for long periods at a time.

        So can gas.

        Wind and solar cannot ever do this, they are inherently unreliable.

        Gas is used to back-up the erratic intermittency of wind and solar.

        It does not get the subsidies that allow wind and solar to exist.

        eg the other evening , Gas was providing 99% of South Australia’s electricity (with coal from Victoria). It did so because it could and because it had to.

        There was no wind at all.

        270

      • #
        clarence.t

        As I type,

        in SA, gas is carrying 90% of the supply !

        in NSW, Coal is Providing 82% and Gas 6% …. because they can

        150

        • #
          Ronin

          SA is generating LESS wind power than any of the other states, and they have the largest fleet.
          As a matter of interest, what is the penalty for causing the death of a protected bird, such as raptors, why aren’t these clowns hit with a big fine every time a dead bird is found within a kilometer of their cowfans.

          140

      • #
        Mal

        Co2 is NOT a pollutant,
        Everything that follows is just rubbish

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      • #
        wal1957

        As to the assertion that coal is reliable, just look at the capacity factors – depending on the country is is between 50-70% reliable. But way better than Gas, which is at 10-20%, Wind at around 30% does not look all that bad now does it?

        What a load of lies!
        Coal may have a USAGE of 50-70% but that is not related to capacity factor.
        The same applies to gas.
        When called upon, both coal and gas can produce power on demand 24/7, every day of the year at 90% capacity factor or above.

        130

      • #
        Lawrie

        If you believe CO2 is a pollutant you probably believe in the tooth fairy and that Joe Biden won.

        160

      • #
        Forrest Gardener

        Another nice one Peter, but apart from comedy value why do you bother?

        21

      • #
        Grogery

        PF

        CO2 is not pollution

        40

      • #
        GD

        to protect the planet from CO2 pollution

        That is complete bulldust. CO2 is not a pollutant.

        40

      • #
        GD

        Coal for power will be gone

        Not in your lifetime, or mine, Fitz, or indeed not in the lifetimes of anyone on the planet today.

        Coal ain’t goin’ anywhere just yet.

        40

      • #
        Carbon500

        Peter Fitzroy: CO2 is not a pollutant. Without it, we would not be here. If you don’t know why, then it’s time to do some reading.

        30

    • #
      yarpos

      “breaks all the time”

      where have you been for the last 80 years? you think the lights stayed on and we all took power for granted by magic? delusional

      240

    • #
      Ronin

      Did you keep a straight face while you typed that.

      120

    • #
      Lance

      Simon, EU grid is 75% thermal powered. Germany relies upon interconnectors to Sweden, Norway, France, and Denmark and Poland in order to back up their unreliable wind/solar power and to offload excess wind power, often at negative rates ( paying others to take it).

      EU/France supplies the UK as well as GE. UK and GE have committed to close their coal plants and nuclear reactors. If they do, there won’t be enough remaining power in France or Norway or Sweden to stabilize the deficit. That could lead to an EU-Wide blackout. The alternative is to open those interconnectors, isolate GE and UK, and keep the grid going for the remainder of the EU.

      “The Myth of the German Renewable Energy Miracle”.

      https://www.tdworld.com/grid-innovations/generation-and-renewables/article/20970380/the-myth-of-the-german-renewable-energy-miracle

      There is a great difference between distribution system reliability and transmission system reliability. Abusing that difference is how the GE system “appears to look good” when in fact it is quite unstable.

      110

    • #

      Simon mentions this, and hey, I know he’s just stirring the pot:

      Coal power generation breaks all the time…..

      Now, you all know I keep the data on a daily basis for all wind power in Australia.

      That data now shows that the gap between the low for each day and the high for each day for all the wind generation in Australia is averaging 2000MW ….. on a DAILY basis.

      So to, umm, use his own words, that means that wind power ‘BREAKS’ by the equivalent of ….. FOUR coal Units ….. each and every day.

      Own goal Simon.

      Tony.

      301

      • #
        Analitik

        Simon is under the impression that when wind and solar happen to work and force coal plants to cut back, they are “broken”

        90

    • #
      Forrest Gardener

      Wow. What colour is the sky on your planet Simon?

      40

    • #
      StephenP

      Surely you missed out the /S tag at the end of your comment.

      20

    • #
      Hanrahan

      “Coal power breaks all the time.”

      That’s the same as saying Teslas incinerate their passengers all the time.

      10

    • #
      Carbon500

      ‘Coal power generation breaks all the time’ – a meaningless statement; what exactly are you trying to say?

      20

  • #
    David Maddison

    A scary movie about wind farms. Watch it and weep. Under 7 mins.

    https://youtu.be/zr3z_7iQ35s

    120

  • #
    Klem

    Wind turbines are primarily symbolic, they symbolize the Green Left. Temporay symbols is all they’ve ever been really.

    Eventually they’ll stop spinning, will rust and decay, and ultimately be sold for scrap.

    In the end they’ll be remembered as something from a bygone era, like Howdy Doody or big fins on cars.

    60

  • #
    Kalm Keith

    Noise isn’t a problem.

    Kinky Keith
    November 7, 2018 at 12:34 pm
    That’s it, the carefully hidden Scandal of VLF pulsing.

    “Noise” has been used as a smokescreen despite the fact that Infrasound has been known of for Twenty Years.

    This cover-up needs exposing and those responsible made to pay compensation out of their own pockets, not from the public purse.

    As TomO and Sommer show there’s more than noise;

    https://joannenova.com.au/2018/11/wind-turbines-are-new-top-predator-in-the-ecosystem/#comment-2067231

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    • #
      PeterS

      Funny how all these issues and others like the ABC are funded by us taxpayers. Perhaps it’s time we all paid only a proportion of tax by deducting the amounts that end up going to these destructive groups. It’s our money not theirs.

      100

    • #
      Ronin

      I seem to remember this was all researched way back, and infrasound speakers were designed to disable unruly demonstrating crowds, the pulses caused temporary blindness, and incapacitation even to the point of losing control of ones bowels.

      90

  • #
    Kalm Keith

    Kinky Keith
    November 7, 2018 at 8:05 am
    The Dirtiest Secret of Them All.

    Yes;
    wind turbines are noisey, high maintenance, uneconomic, money gulping BirdChoppers. As Michael points out at #9, they are also causing massive environmental damage.

    In short, they are doing everything in Contradiction to their stated Raison d’Etre.

    This is all in public view to some extent but the Ugliest Dirtiest Secret has only just been made Public by the WHO, and this only because some very brave researcher in Europe exposed it in a “scientific paper”.

    VLF pulsing, aka Infrasound has been a known, serious health issue for at least 20 years.

    Just imagine the damage done to a human body when the automatic control of the heart_lung is overridden by the VLF Pulsing from a Wind Turbine.

    Just imagine, all of your pressure sensitive body surfaces, skin, aural system and internal lung surface being pressured up and released at roughly the same frequency as your heart beat.

    This pulsing is fed back to the automatic control system in the brain and causes confusion, with resultant Nausea and Heart Damage.

    This has been known for Twenty 20 years.

    Who caused this important knowledge to be Hidden??

    Perhaps the UNIPCCCC?

    Make No Mistake, the Renewables Industry appears to be a product of altruism.

    It’s ONLY about One Thing.

    Serious Money.

    How many Human Lives have been Devastated by Infrasound?

    KK

    Seasick?

    https://joannenova.com.au/2018/11/wind-turbines-are-new-top-predator-in-the-ecosystem/#comment-2067310

    No, it’s the green bird choppers.

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  • #
    Penguinite

    In the same way that early coal mines were abandoned when their productive use expired, State and Federal Governments (read Taxpayers) were left to pay for remediation. So it will be the result of wind and solar developments when they outrun subsidies.

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  • #
    Steve of Cornubia

    We are constantly told that renewable energy is the cheapest available, so why would the expiry of subsidies kill off the wind power industry?

    Oh sorry, I forget. It’s because reasons, Donald Trump and shut up.

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    • #
      PeterS

      Actually they are cheaper in one respect. They are cheaper than using a war to destroy the West.

      170

  • #
    Neville

    Germany emits just 2.15% of global emissions and the EU + USA combined haven’t increased co2 emissions since 1970. FOR 50 YEARS.
    Check out the graph at the top R/H corner of this WIKI link and clearly counters the delusional nonsense that is taught to our kids today.
    All individual countries are listed + EU + USA are listed as well and Aussies now just 1.1% of global emissions. This has to be the greatest Ponzi scheme and fra-d in world history.
    NON OECD co2 emissions have soared over the last 20 years and many hundreds of coal power stns to be built for decades into the future.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_dioxide_emissions

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    • #
      Mal

      CO2 is approx 400 parts per million in the atmosphere
      Nature produces about 97% and man made about 3% , ie 12 parts per million
      Australia produces approx 1% of the man made or 1 part per 10 million in the atmosphere
      We have effectively zero impact
      Where is the cost benefit analysis of taking draconian measures now that will destroy the australian economy, impoverish millions and have a world where the elite will flourish so they think
      All that will happen is ccp will just step in and take over
      Can’t anyone in government, academia or ABC and MSM think anymore?
      Brain dead!

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    PeterS

    They might as well build them on the moon for all the good they do.

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    pattoh

    OMG, the Unicorn has run out of fartz!

    Thank God for Vlad’s Gas eh?

    50

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    David Maddison

    As I have posted before, the modern socialist “green” movement has its origins with German National Socialism.

    See the book:

    Green Tyranny: Exposing the Totalitarian Roots of the Climate Industrial Complex by Rupert Dawall.

    Here is another article. It’s disturbing that the Germans are returning to their Nazi roots but this time conservative thinkers are the targets, not non “Aryan” races.

    http://en.friends-against-wind.org/realities/how-renewables-and-the-global-warming-industry-are-literally-hitler

    Selected quotes:

    Delingpole: Revealed – How renewables and the global warming industry are literally Hitler

    Have you ever wondered what kind of sadistic, totalitarian mentality you might need to want to carpet the countryside with bat-chomping, bird-slicing eco crucifixes in order to save the planet from an imaginary problem?

    [..]

    It’s by a Nazi inventor and industrialist called Dr. Franz Lawaszeck, whose proposed solution to Germany’s energy problems in the 1930s was the wholesale adoption of wind turbines.

    In his book, he writes:

    Wind power, using the cost-free wind, can be built on a large scale. Improved technology will in the future make it no more expensive than thermal power. This is technically and economically possible and opens up a quite new life-important type of power generation. The future of wind is no longer small windmills, but very large real power plants. The wind towers must be at least 100 m [330 ft] high, the higher the better, ideally with rotors 100 m [330 ft] in diameter. This kind of high cage mast is already built in the shape of high radio masts.

    [..]

    The Nazis’ preferred newspaper, Vőlkischer Beobachter, was similarly enthusiastic about the transformative prospects of this new, cleaner energy. In its February 24, 1932 edition, it praised a “sensational speech” by a Nazi engineer Hermann Honnef whose enormous steel wind towers promised to provide abundant cheap energy.

    The surplus electricity from the windmills, situated along the sea coast, will be used for the production of very inexpensive hydrogen. This will make many products less expensive. Fertilizers will fall in price. The hydration of coal to liquids will be cost-effective. The cost can be reduced from 17 pfennig per litre [64 pfennig per gallon] to 7-8 pfennig per litre [26-30 pfennig per gallon]. In this way about one billion Reichsmark can be saved, which today goes abroad (for importing oil). The 300,000 workers in the coal mining industry can keep their jobs, 200,000 in the mines and 100,000 for the liquefaction of coal. The cost savings will make it possible that an additional 400,000 workers can be paid in the transforming process of the industry.

    [..]

    But Nazi Germany’s contributions to the modern climate change industry did not stop with gigantic wind turbines. No. One of the earliest proponents of man-made global warming theory was none other than the Luftwaffe High Command’s chief meteorologist Hermann Flohn.

    Archibald reports:

    In 1941, he published the first German-language article on global warming, the title of which translates as The Activity of Man as a Climate Factor.

    [..]

    See link for rest.

    To quote Ecclesiastes – Chapter 1

    9 What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.

    10 There is a thing of which [someone] will say, “See this, it is new.” It has already been for ages which were before us

    11[But] there is no remembrance of former [generations], neither will the later ones that will be have any remembrance among those that will be afterwards.

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    Kevin T Kilty

    “We are heading for a disaster,” said Lies to the “Handelsblatt”…

    Minister Lies? Are you kidding? This is a more apt name than the artillery officer I once knew of by the name of Colonel Boomer.

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    • #
      yarpos

      I do like those name/job realtionships , when we hear one my wife usually leans over and say “well, yes of course it is” Nice link with the derivation of the word Parliament (in Freanch at least) Parler – to talk Mentir – to lie.

      In other off topic name games, in the company I used to work for at one stage we had Donald reporting to Duck (first names), and Legrain (grain) reporting to Loiseau (bird). Reality is often sillier than anything you can make up.

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    Steve of Cornubia

    As the great Tim Blair often says, “Nothing green ever works.”

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    Ronin

    Wind and solar farms aren’t an investment, they are an imposition.

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    Serge Wright

    Every conservative commentator saw this coming and called it out at least 15 years ago. Subsidies of this magnitude can’t last forever on a dud technology, especially in the current environment of spiraling debt caused by the pandemic. Germany went early and hard in their quest to spend the next generation’s wealth and prove that “The answer is NOT blowing in the wind”. Now that the answer is clear, the sad part is that the Marxist lunatics are still running the asylum and it will take time for these people to be forced back into their padded cells and then to try and undo the enormous damage, if that is still possible.

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    Ronin

    King Island, 09:00 , 100% diesel, bless old Rudolph.

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    David Maddison

    Serge, apologies, that was meant to be a thumbs up.

    20

  • #
    Lance

    If wind energy is so cheap, then why do Germans pay 253% more than Americans and 152% more than Australians for a kW?

    https://stopthesethings.com/2021/05/06/rocketing-power-prices-grid-chaos-germanys-energy-transition-an-unmitigated-disaster/

    The Reason Renewables Can’t Power Modern Civilization Is Because They Were Never Meant To

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelshellenberger/2019/05/06/the-reason-renewables-cant-power-modern-civilization-is-because-they-were-never-meant-to/?sh=5caf6f20ea2b

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    • #
      Ronin

      Wind powered commercial shipping was got rid of for a damn good reason, ships were regularly delayed by lack of wind, causing ships to be sometimes a week or weeks late arriving, imagine waiting for your cargo for that long.

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    • #
      Ronin

      The ‘fuel’ is free, but the harnessing of it costs plenty, just ask a yachtie, they’ll tell you how much ‘free’ energy costs.

      70

  • #

    The situation in Germany is what confirmed my belief that wind power was not all we were being told it was.

    When I started doing all this, I had an idea that wind power might just be a part of the solution .. that is if a solution was really needed.

    However, when I investigated, and that was an endless task, what I found was that wind generation was nothing like what we were being told, completely utterly and totally nothing like it at all.

    During that investigation, I chased down as much information as I could, endlessly reading article after article, real info after real info, data after data. After Months of that, I had to actually bite the bullet and commit to what I thought at first was actually false, unbelievable in fact, that wind generation had a Capacity Factor as low as 25% to 30%, because no one even mentioned this at all, anywhere.

    And it was Germany which confirmed my view.

    There hidden away on page (in the teens or twenties of pages in fact) was a Link to a German site, detailing actual data. I actually had to use the Google Translate button to translate it from the German into, well, a sort of English translation anyway.

    Then I copied the images I could find and wrote the Post about it.

    The upshot was that the ….. WHOLE of the German wind plant fleet at that time was detailed in the data. That German fleet of wind power had a Nameplate of 24000MW from 19,460 individual wind towers, and it was only delivering its power at a Capacity Factor of ….. 20%. (and even then I balked at it, because it was just so unbelievable)

    So I wrote the Post, and on the following day, I wrote the UPDATE.

    The links to those two Posts are as follows:

    Wind Power – Epic Fail

    Wind Power – Epic Fail – Update

    If you want to have a look at them, and read them, be aware that they are in my usual style, trying to explain something so technical in a manner that can be more easily understood.

    IF you do go and have a read, have a look at the date I wrote them, and that date is shown just under the title of the Post.

    October 2009, twelve years ago.

    This is the beginning of this failure of wind power in Germany.

    Nothing new to me really.

    Tony.

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    • #
      Ronin

      Tony, I read somewhere years ago that the Poms found that their huge fleet on the East coast and out to sea had an actual CF of 27%.

      30

      • #
        Ronin

        27% of nameplate, I meant to say.

        30

      • #
        Richard Owen No.3

        Ronin:

        My figures for British off-shore “farms” average 36.8% up until 2018. 2 (out of 32) below 30% 12 above 40%. Not one reached over 50%. They are all subsidised by enormous “fixed” prices, way more than the wholesale rate. (Before I get corrected by our resident wind enthusiast I must point out that several PROPOSED wind farms have bid to supply at a very low rate but without that being binding).

        I can recall a figure of 27% for English on-shore wind “farms” as being the top limit as they were averaging (annual) between 27 and 21.6% depending on the weather conditions that year. They were a bit better than the Danish on-shore ones, and far better than those in Germany which managed 18% in a good year (but thanks to subsidies were still profitable).

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  • #
    Robber

    Meanwhile in Oz, wind generators still get to sell LGCs for $33/MWhr, over and above the wholesale price that all generators receive that currently averages about $45/MWhr.
    And the solar feedin tariff in Vic has just been reduced from $100/MWhr to $62/MWhr.
    Why are there still these incentives for intermittent power supplies, paid for by all consumers?

    60

    • #
      Richard Owen No.3

      Robber:
      What happens if we ever get over 50% renewables? More LGCs than are wanted – Law of Supply & Demand means that $33 will never return.

      10

      • #
        Robber

        Richard, the price of LGCs has come down from around $80/MWhr as supply has increased, but in the future it depends what target is set for “ruinables”. The current federal target of 33,000 GWhr by 2020 has been met. As more renewable energy is produced beyond the 33,000 GWh target, the number of LGCs generated will continue to increase, leading to an oversupply in the market that will significantly reduce their value. Futures markets indicate that LGC prices will fall significantly over the next ten years, with some analysts predicting that their value will fall to zero by the time the RET expires in 2030. However various States have started setting their own targets.Eg Vic 40% by 2025, Qld 50% by 2030, and most net zero by 2050.
        Looking at one of the largest windmills – Macarthur in Vic – 420 MW nameplate, cost $1 billion – average generation about 125 MW, that’s a cash flow boost they are currently getting of $36 million per year.
        And one of the smallest, Hepburn in Vic, just 2 turbines, total 4.1 MW, publicly owned so they publish annual report: for 2019, income from sales $1.1 million, from LGCs $0.6 million, net profit $0.45 million. Average electricity price $92/MWhr, LGCs $51, so latest year results may show a loss.

        20

    • #
      Ronin

      The thing with wobbly unreliables is you have to build two power system, the second to ‘firm up’ the first.

      50

  • #
    exsteelworker

    China, Indonesia, India, Vietnam, and Japan currently plan to build over 600 new coal plants between them, according to the report. The planned power stations are expected to generate “a total of 300 gigawatts of energy — equivalent to around the entire electricity generating capacity of Japan,” Agence France-Presse (AFP) noted on June 30. The Asia-Pacific region consumed more than three-quarters of all coal used globally in 2019, according to British Petroleum’s 2020 Statistical Review of World Energy.

    But Australia’s not allowed to build any because?

    100

    • #
      Lance

      Because…. AU Politicians put Australians Last. Just like US Politicians put Americans last.

      They give preference to Virtue Signaling, their egos, political power, and investments/kickbacks.

      “It’s a Big Club, and You Ain’t In It”. ( neither am I )

      90

  • #
    David Maddison

    Those EU countries that are “true believers” should disconnect themselves from French nuclear and Scandanavian hydro (both production and pumped storage).

    That will get the Sheeple thinking as they freeze in the dark…

    60

    • #
      Ronin

      Hopefully when that happens, the ‘sheeple’ will come for them with baseball bats, pitchforks and tar and feathers.

      40

  • #
    David Maddison

    Help! My comment #14 has been stuck in moderation for hours…! (It may not be #14 as other people see the posts.)

    20

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    Philip

    A refreshing white pill story for a change.

    10

  • #
    Ronin

    Coopers Gap, Australias’ largest windfarm in QLD has to have the blades replaced on one of its turbines and the generators replaced on 50 of the turbines, not a very auspicious start, and to add to the woes, has only achieved a CF of 26%.

    80

    • #
      David Maddison

      Ronin, Vicdanistan’s Stockyard Hill Wind Subsidy Farm will be Australia largest as soon as it has been turned on.

      It is finished but will soon be harvesting subsidies from hard-working people for the benefit of Chicomm-owned Goldwind Australia, fully owned by Xinjiang Goldwind Science & Technology.

      70

    • #
      yarpos

      State Premiers duelling for Peak Stupid, “my wind farm is bigger than yours” style.

      90

    • #
      Kalm Keith

      Disgusting. Obvious local beneficiaries at a very high level.

      Chicom “fallibles” have mysteriously found their way into Australia’s home building industry long time suffering Australian home owners.

      In NSW Berys Gladachikliken is featuring in advertisements for free rooftop solar. Is there a trickle down effect from the nsw taxpayers to the roof top provider and “local” organisers.

      People here need to realise that we have our own swamp, and it’s vast.

      30

  • #
    Flok

    It wasn’t that long ago there was a great opposition to installation of mobile network towers, their influence and sight. In difference they had no moving parts.

    The only thing green about the renewable energy is the 100 dollar bills of sales.

    70

  • #
    Lance

    If you truly want to see the politicians and the greens pull out their hair, ask them to provide a load flow simulation for a synchronized and islanded grid that provides a viable solution to the slack bus/swing bus situation in each case, for every 15 minute interval, for every day, of any average year.

    The slack bus is a hypothetical, but necessary, model of the grid that is used to predict which generator in the pool will provide reactive power at every time of the day. This cannot be ignored or the grid will go into a cascading voltage collapse. The most likely answer needs to be known in advance in order to be able to dispatch the proper amount of reactive power.

    A designated swing unit is the generator on the “swing bus” that will provide reactive power into the grid to stabilize voltage as needed at transmission levels. That unit may provide or absorb reactive power and it may shift from generator to generator throughout the day. but one or more generators must be able to fulfill that role.

    Unless this dynamic model is addressed with reasonable accuracy, there is no way to provide grid level stability with any confidence.

    This is a difficult enough situation when the generator capabilities are known. It gets more difficult when the generators are unknown and their capabilities are unreliable.

    But, the question must be answered. Or you don’t have a grid.

    90

    • #
      Analitik

      The politicians and the greens have no notion of imaginary power – to them, everything is watts and VA is just a redundant expression of the electrical units making up a watt as the concept of phase is beyond them.

      That’s for those who even understand DC voltage and amps.

      40

  • #
    Vicki Sanderson

    And how will all those farmers who welcomed wind turbines for a (temporary) income deal with the defunct and useless turbines of the future?

    70

    • #
      Philip

      Indeed. Im hoping they get lumped with them as a form of revenge. Farmers ( i am one ) who get behind climate change make me throw up.

      80

  • #
    Saighdear

    Well, as I wrote yesterday on Tallbloke’sTalkshop “Oh ffs as some say, I WISH, wish someone would make more of the simple everyday facts as supplied / presented eg : https://gridwatch.co.uk see for one’s self: Solar of course only part of day = Part time ( when it feels like it). Wind ( ?) like the rain – never when needed and not much this now. Maybepeopleshould see windpower aasa they see Rainfall in reservoirs: when drying up and levels fall, so is it with rechargeable batteries waiting for the wind to blow.
    WHEN there’s no Wind, the entire planet could becovered in windmills but there still wouldn’t be any electric generation: How Simple is that ? Boris n Co must be “on the weed” that grows well in a non-herbicide environment. We call allowing weeds for the birds n bees – Plain LAZY farming. Daresay that allowing Fauna and Flora to grow on Kitchen / Theatre Worktops is Healthy, then? Hence development of Covid ……..”
    and gridwatch today shows it is not much better! but the rest of the world is better ?

    40

  • #
    Saighdear

    Indeed, much as their “Professional” bodies follow the gravy train. Faming journalists, representative bodies ( eg UK -NFU) , woke (nearly all now) Educational institutes and institutions, most ( all?) rural affairs ‘experts’ etc. gie a ‘body a name o’ a title and then a platform tae speke o’ ( see Tallbloke’s talkshop – th’ day) https://tallbloke.wordpress.com/2021/07/01/prince-charles-wants-pension-funds-to-help-finance-his-climate-obsessions/comment-page-1/#comment-170422
    Aye munn, a’thae rubbish jist flows oot! . an jis hae a look @ https://gridwatch.co.uk th’ noo. Naae mater fit ye dae, fa’ thers nae weend , ther’s nae blaw. All I ge is the smell o’ Green Fartz.

    40

    • #
      Saighdear

      THis comment was supposed to be in Reply to Vicki Sanderson & Philip, above.
      Blinking windows 10 & PS2mouses – grief laely here with keyboard& Mouse having a mind of their ownwhere text is placed / spellt etc. Mirocaft knwos betr

      30

  • #
    CHRIS

    While I try to find a dictionary that can translate Saighdear’s comments (???), I would like to point out that our society is in the grip of “The New Capitalism”, WRT Clean energy. Anyone who thinks that wind and solar energy is “renewable” is totally off the planet. The German situation is directly related to Planned Obsolescence. Do people really think that “renewable” energy companies will produce solar panels, wind turbines and storage batteries for the betterment of the environment and will last forever? THINK AGAIN.

    10

    • #
      Saighdear

      Oh dearie me,or mechty me, A hunner key Doric words kin be foon he ar @ https://duckduckgo.com/?q=dictionary+of+Scots+doric&t=opera&ia=web an fan ye wint te ken mair http://media.scotslanguage.com/library/document/RGU_Doric_Dictionary.pdf

      Well, Chris, Menschens Kinder, …. The Sun has got to my head today, what with all those other silly comments and pronouncements from nae sae bonnie Prince Charlie, I fear that I have become the victim of Climate change. Very cold nights, very hot days and what looks like the start of the Silly Season. If Bori’ & Co.unLtd can come out with so much rubbish, then why not let us join them too.(for a whilie) Fars Ken Dodds Diddymen?

      20

      • #
        Kalm Keith

        🙂
        Bonnie Prince Charlie _ his approach to renewables is so disconnected from reality that it says quite clearly that he can’t be the next monarch.

        He and Boros are in the same sheltered workshop brigade.

        50

  • #
    Clyde

    Jo Nova wrote:
    “New turbines are now supposed to be two kilometers from any home, and there just isn’t enough spare land to build them on.”

    Uh oh… the Germans need more lebensraum.

    30

  • #
    george1st:)

    Wind farms are fine in Oz except in Bob Browns backyard .
    The hypocrisy of the left amazes me , but the backing of the msm and celebrity politicians is also crazy .
    Nuclear has to be the least intensive emeitter of the CO2 the dread so much , but does not suit their ‘power over the peoples’ agenda .

    20

    • #
      Saighdear

      Aye, ‘power over the peoples’ agenda …. as I’ve said manys a time before, the State needs your Hunger forCompliance

      10

  • #
    Kalm Keith

    I normally don’t bother with a red tick for the three ¥¥ intruders ¥¥.

    I haven’t in this case, but look, how many disapproval.

    https://joannenova.com.au/2021/07/wind-power-headed-for-disaster-in-germany/#comment-2438875

    So, we have KK2, I and PF, all of whom never produce considered comment but carry on and Clogg the Blogg.

    Is this sort of contribution useful?

    93 think not!

    20

    • #
      Kalm Keith

      Correction;

      PF is KK2.

      The third one was the “non contributing contributor” sometimes referred to as Simple Simon, or SS.

      A day of contrasts with one comment from SS heading for 100 reds and one of TdeFs heading for 100 greens.

      20

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    Kalm Keith

    It seems that I have been immoderate.

    10