The Year of Gloom continues for Wind Power
Wind energy is so cheap and profitable that last week, investors abandoned the annual UK auction to build industrial wind plants in the oceans around the UK. Exactly no one offered to spend money building turbines even though electricity prices are burning hot. Apparently prices for building the machinery to collect and transmit low density erratic energy are not “free” like the wind. Even after decades of advances, sacred green electrons still cost a lot more than war-afflicted-fossil-fuel electrons do.
The free market has spoken and it said “No”. At The Guardian though – it was, of course, all the Governments fault. That and the dreaded Hand Of Inflation. It’s so unfair:
‘Biggest clean energy disaster in years’: UK auction secures no offshore windfarms
Lack of interest was widely expected after government failed to heed warnings about soaring costs
Jillian Ambrose
None of the companies hoping to build big offshore windfarms in UK waters took part in the government’s annual auction, which awards contracts to generate renewable electricity for 15 years at a set price.
The companies had warned ministers repeatedly that the auction price was set too low for offshore windfarms to take part after costs in the sector soared by about 40% because of inflation across their supply chains.
Matt Ridley explained what really happened:
Electricity from wind isn’t cheap and it never will be
The latest auction of rights to build offshore wind farms failed to attract any bids, despite offering higher subsidised prices. That alone indicates that wind is not cheap or getting cheaper.
But the real reason for the lack of interest in the auction is that, for the first time, bidders are not free to walk away from their bids when it suits them. In the past, they could put in low offers, boast about them being cheap, then take the higher market price later. The Government has at last called their bluff, so they are having to admit that electricity prices need to be higher to make wind farms pay.
The cost of subsidising wind is vast. Then add the cost of getting the power from remote wind farms to where people live. And the cost of balancing the grid and backing wind up with gas plants for the times when the wind drops. And the cost of paying wind farms to reduce output on windy days when the grid can’t take it.
And yet the wind industry is complaining that today’s high electricity prices are not high enough, and without more subsidies they will stop building
The true cost of adding wind power to the electricity grid was always hidden with complex schemes.
It’s a catastrophe
At The Guardian, this auction was described as “catastrophic”, so we know it’s good news:
Sam Richards, the founder and campaign director of Britain Remade, which campaigns for economic growth in Britain, said the “catastrophic outcome” of the auction was “the direct result of the government’s complacency and incompetence”.
The government didn’t listen to the industry:
Industry insiders said the three offshore wind developers behind these plans – SSE, ScottishPower and the Swedish company Vattenfall – were forced to sit out the bidding after ministers refused to heed their warnings.
Now if the Government had listened to Exxon that would have been evidence of the planet-wrecking influence of Big Oil, but if the government didn’t listen to Big Renewables, it was incompetent.
Things are so bad, the wind industry is abandoning current half built projects:
The industry warnings intensified after Vattenfall said in July that it would cease working on the multibillion-pound Norfolk Boreas windfarm because rising costs meant it was no longer profitable.
Apparently the British government should have taken more money from citizens or forced the prices of electricity up for customers in order to “deliver low cost energy”, whatever that is:
Keith Anderson, the chief executive of ScottishPower, said: “This is a multibillion-pound lost opportunity to deliver low-cost energy for consumers and a wake-up call for government.
This “Low Cost Energy” seemingly refers to some mythical electrical kilowatthours that only show up on academic reports not on consumer electricity bills.
NetZeroWatch asks if this a landmark moment for renewables
Sept 8th, 2023: The Government has today announced the results of the fifth auction of Contracts for Difference subsidies for renewable electricity generation. Its has been a failure, and may represent a landmark moment for renewables policy.
Only 3.7GW of new capacity has bid successfully, mostly through small projects, as compared to nearly 12GW last year. There were no bids for offshore wind, the UK’s flagship renewable generator.
Participants in the auction bid for guaranteed prices, below a cap set by ministers in advance of the auction. The cap for offshore wind was set at £44/MWh (in 2012 prices, equivalent to around £70/MWh today). This is higher than successful bids in the past, yet no wind farm developers felt able to bid at this price. Wind industry claims that this is due to rising prices are implausible – CfD contracts are index-linked.
…UK offshore wind costs have not been falling dramatically as the industry claimed. All around the world the wind industry is in trouble for the same reasons; costs remain high, and high levels of subsidy are needed to reward investors.
Andrew Montford, director of Net Zero Watch, said:
Government seems to have believed the spin about falling offshore wind costs, and set a low cap on bids for new contracts, thus calling the wind industry’s bluff by accident.
Disaster? Catastrophe?
No, simply an attempt to sell wind rights for a highly inflated price.
Remember, wind energy is free 🙂
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Maybe I have misread it, but I don’t see it as “an attempt to sell wind rights for a highly inflated price“. As I understand it, the UK government is offering offshore wind licences with the generated electricity to be bought by the government at prices comparable to the price of other electricity, ie. fossil fuel and nuclear. The lack of interest shows that offshore wind cannot compete on price.
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I don’t mind if they did it by accident, they did it.
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Is it too much to hope that this makes it impossible to fail to understand that “wind” is not free?
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Tell Bowen Ted. He needs to know before he wastes more of our money.
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Unfortunately, i suspect, ‘they’ will use this as ammunition to enable them to build more of their useless windmills on land.
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An interesting post on the ineffectiveness of wind generation on ‘notalotofpeopleknowthat’.
https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2023/09/12/wind-power-reassessed-dr-capell-aris/
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People on the rational side of things keep making the mistake that this is something to do with facts, reason or logic.
Such things simply don’t apply, or at least are of no concern, to the anti-energy lobby and the Left in general.
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Of course wind is not free. Its unreliability means there needs to be backup for when the wind doesn’t blow.
Its like paying for a taxi continually running outside your house for when your car won’t start or you’ve run out of fuel {wind}.
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That is the travesty; all things being equal wind and solar cannot compete with traditional sources of energy as you indicate. I must say that I rub my hands in glee at the slow demise of these renewables and their rent seeking billionaires. But at what a cost environmentally and socially.
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And economically!
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We usually say “ I’ve got a bridge to sell you “,
Now we can say we’ve got a moron that identifies as an energy minister who’ll double any body else’s offer + 10%!!!🤪🤪🤪🤪🤪
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Exactly. Will the global warming insanity go down in history as mankind’s biggest waste of money and resources ever?
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Its right up there with world wars
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Disaster, catastrophe ??
I say celebration, opportunity.
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Wind energy is free.
That’s what my grandson told me, and was incredulous when I explained to him the “hidden” costs of which he was not aware.
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Spending more money to lower the cost sounds a lot like someone did something calamitous in Excel.
I can see it now… perhaps a diversity-hire accountant, or worse, a diversity-hire engineer is looking proudly at a function like this:
price per kW = kW / construction price
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I think they just learned it at Oxbridge.
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Nobody in Australia is buying locally sourced wind towers
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-09-11/wind-tower-companies-and-unions-want-local-procurement-guarantee/102837748
Seems there is a preference for Cheap Chinese knockoffs made by Uyghur’s in ‘wellness’ camps.
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While the Uigher men are in “camps”, where are the Uigher women?
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Darning their socks presumably.
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Getting raped mostly. Making sure the next generation has some Han DNA.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-55794071
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-03/uyghur-renew-calls-for-action-report-rape-abuse-xinjiang-camp/13118190
That is, assuming you believe the reports out of the Beeb and ABC. Personally, I find those stories a bit well too coordinated to pass the smell test. They showed up simultaneously in damn near every English-speaking media outlet around the world. Methinks they are Five Eyes propaganda that was fed to credulous know-nothing reporters who unquestioningly printed up press releases like the good little drones they are.
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This situation is straight out of “yes minister.” Writ large . Rishi , like Boris is a puppet – Liz Truss was removed because she wasn’t. “V for Vendetta” scenario now possible .
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Yes. Rishi Sunak said about fracking while campaigning to replace Boris Johnson as Prime Minister that he was “supportive of it… ’cause if we can get it to work it’s good for our long-term energy security” (Sky News, 4th August 2022). But when Sunak eventually became Prime Minister he renewed Johnson’s moratorium in England, which Liz Truss had lifted.
Ex-Bank of England Governor Mark Carney leads the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ), a cartel spurred by COP26 that is based on UN carbon targets. GFANZ controls $130 trillion in assets (BlackRock, State Street, Goldman Sachs etc). Did it foster the betting against the pound and UK government bonds that forced Liz Truss and her pro-fracking policies out of Downing Street? Why did Rishi Sunak reverse his pro-fracking declaration immediately after replacing Liz Truss?
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Interesting.
Brings lots of pieces together and helps place our former president, MT, in context.
It also adds perspective to the new U.S. PresIdential contender and cleanskin, VR, who has impressed so many with his “intentions.
Just too good to be true.
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I wonder if our technical idiots in the government actualy follow any overseas revelations about energy production or do they believe australia tells better lies because they feel they know better?
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In order to save the whales, we must kill the whales
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I saw a Greenpeace ad on SBS last night where those eco vandals at Woodside were blasting West Australian coastal waters looking for gas. Think of the whales, they are confused by the noise etc. How come they don’t get confused when companies blast for wind farms?
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These vile TOXIC wind disasters only last about 15 years offshore and then the entire mess has to be torn down and built AGAIN.
Just think of that TOXIC mess being replaced AGAIN and AGAIN, when a modern HELE coal or gas or Nuclear plant lasts at least 60 years and another 20 years longer if properly maintained.
AGAIN these TOXIC, DILUTE, UNRELIABLE disasters must have an expensive new grid to reach the businesses and homes of the long suffering taxpayers.
But coal, gas or nuclear can be built within the existing poles and wires infrastructure and save many billions of $ now and hopefully last until 2100.
YET Aussies have the clueless Labor govt in power and donkeys like Albo, Bowen etc are that dense and ignorant and don’t even understand simple kindy sums.
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Not likely they will survive 15 years offshore as recent data shows a ‘rapid loss’ of capacity i.e. 5-6 MW units drop to 25-30% CF in 10 years.
Uneconomic NETTZERO Watch.
Unless as a platform for birds.
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and as a fish habitat that trawlers can’t devastate.
Cheaper and better to sink old ships. The SS Yongala floundered in a featureless mud bottom. It is now a top dive.
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Given:
“At The Guardian, this auction was described as “catastrophic”, so we know it’s good news:
Sam Richards, the founder and campaign director of Britain Remade, which campaigns for economic growth in Britain, said the “catastrophic outcome” of the auction was “the direct result of the government’s complacency and incompetence”.
The government didn’t listen to the industry:
Industry insiders said the three offshore wind developers behind these plans – SSE, ScottishPower and the Swedish company Vattenfall – were forced to sit out the bidding after ministers refused to heed their warnings.”
It follows:
“Doesn’t the UK government understand their primary role is to guarantee the profitability of favoured private sector investment. Heads must role, and fine, upstanding, right-thinking fellows must be installed into power to ensure the rightful contribution of the public to the costs of saving the planet continues to increase at the correct pace.
If this disturbing trend toward non-compliance with the profitability of favoured private interests continues to pick up steam then along with a rising threat to the safety of our world, our position of rulership of western civilization will surely come under threat.
And that would be truly catastrophic!
Signed A. Davosman.”
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Vatenfall have also dropped offshore wind projects in the USA and Sweden, as have others.
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At last, “the scales are falling from eyes” is an idiom that means to suddenly realize the truth about something after a long period of not understanding it or being deceived about it. And boy have we been deceived! Biblical I know but oh so true! Even Toyota’s boss is admitting that forcing people into EVs will be problematic.
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“At The Guardian, this auction was described as “catastrophic”, so we know it’s good news”
Gold line, Jo.
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Eventually Reality bites.
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At last…reality bites, and bites hard.
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AGAIN here’s the very simple OWI Data sums for coal + gas + oil + traditional bio mass in 2022 = over 92% of the global primary energy share by SOURCE.
Solar and Wind are just 2.13% in 2022 after WASTING TRILLIONS of $ on these TOXIC, UNRELIABLE and environmental wrecking DISASTERS over the last 30 years.
If China, India and the other NON OECD countries understand these very simple sums, then why can’t the OECD?
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/global-primary-energy-share-inc-biomass
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Marcel Boiteux died this last week – he was 101 yo. Who, you say? He was the French economist responsible for building the French nuclear power fleet from the 1970’s. He rose in public service after university graduation, and after appointment to the head of Electricité de France, successfully built the most astonishing energy system in the history of the world, proving for all time that a country could truly rely on its own fleet of standardized nuclear reactors producing low-cost energy. But most importantly he understood liberal economics, and knew it did not apply to electricity grids and service. He built cheap power for all in France. He would have looked at the economics of wind power and proclaimed “ sacre blue” no doubt.
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And the reactors are back (after maintenance) and supplying France with electricity (and quite a bit to Germany where they shut their plants down).
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Great Britain also suckles from the sweet, sweet energy teat of France.
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Meanwhile
Europe’s solar industry warns of bankruptcies over Chinese imports
EU’s efforts to manufacture more green technologies are being undercut by cheaper rivals
Europe’s solar power industry has warned that a glut of cheap Chinese imports has pushed some manufacturers to the brink of bankruptcy, hampering the EU’s efforts to boost local production of green technologies.
SolarPower Europe, a trade group for the industry, wrote to the European Commission on Monday that soaring stockpiles and “fierce competition” among Chinese manufacturers to gain market share in Europe had pushed down the prices of solar modules by more than a quarter on average since the beginning of the year.
“This is creating concrete risks for companies to go into insolvency as their significant stock will need to be devalued,” the letter said.
Norwegian Crystals, a producer of the ingot used in solar cells, had already filed for bankruptcy last month, it added. Norsun, another Norwegian solar company, this month said it would suspend production until the end of the year.
The EU is hoping that solar power will become the biggest generator of energy within the bloc as it tries to reach a target of having 45 per cent of energy generated by renewables by 2030 — a goal set to be voted on by the European parliament this week.
But China’s dominance of the solar supply chain means that its products account for around three-quarters of the bloc’s solar power imports, prompting fears that the EU is developing a reliance on China akin to its dependence on Russian gas until Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The cost of manufacturing a solar module in Europe is more than double the current spot price, SolarPower Europe said.
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The reality is that Chinese technology and manufacturing processes are orders of magnitude more superior to that of the West. They saw the need and responded to it, whilst the West generated the need but were totally incapable of addressing the need they created.
And regardless of the apparent belief of many, not all Chinese technology is generated from low wages and slave labour. They have invested whilst our governments have not.
If there is a reliance on China it’s because our incompetent governments have let it happen – and still do.
And, if we want cheap power then solar and wind is not the answer.
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LOL
Manufacturing processes like ‘slave Uighur labor’ and massively government subsidies in order to drive foreign competitors out of the business. It also helps that they have a near-monopoly on many of the raw materials, an extremely lax regulatory environment, and a dirt cheap fossil-fuel based energy grid for manufacturing those green trinkets.
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Steve,
The Chinese economy has to a large extent been built up by the hedge funds and big business who provided the initial equipment and knowledge for their latest industrial revolution which has taken off . Most of the west then profited from the cheap goods this process generated . A lot of what you can buy has “made in china” on it especially if its cheap. When you look at what you pay for some things you have to wonder how it can be made for that price. Someone is getting exploited……
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But in good news, Australians can still look forward to all those high paying ‘green economy’ jobs. Someone has to clean the bird 5h1t off those solar panels, eh?
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A 10 GW Time Bomb
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The ability of the political class to talk about “low cost energy” in the face of observable reality everywhere is quite amazing. In VIC “downward pressure on prices” was a spin favourite for a while, but you don’t hear that so much these days. The amount of brazen lying they seemingly get away with on a daily basis, I guess is a symptom of an absent or complicit MSM and a docile populace.
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Do subsidies mean that it is profitable to have plastic panels looking like solar cells and a diesel generator? Just don’t do what one Spanish ‘solar farm’ did and produce energy 24 hours a day!
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As we well know the rejection of wind and solar arrays is taking place in rural Australia. Many projects have been knocked back already and that gives cause for encouragement. I’ll be up at Yungaburra in FNQ this weekend to check out the scene about the proposed development nearby. Any greenie that I see ,Ill ask them where they stand on the desecration of high value tropical wet sclerophyll forest. I think we must all connect with this movement generally to put a stop to this madness.
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Glen, ..
…i would not get too excited. You know the idiots in charge will invoke emergency powers ans compulsory purchace, etc, if necessary to override any resistance from land owners or public opinion, if they fell they have to.
It would be pleasantly ironic if it came back to the Greens stopping wind /solar/transmission lines installations, etc ……..due to environmental damage !
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I bet they don’t know what “sclerophyll” means, LoL.
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Sclerophyll was last used in the 1980s before they switched to descriptions of the canopy density, Open and Tall Open. Personally I always stuck with dry and wet sclerophyll. Much better descriptors
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AGAIN here’s global co2 emissions from OECD and NON OECD countries and note from 1990 the OECD emissions are about the same and NON OECD emissions have SOARED until 2021, or another 14.4 billion tonnes per annum.
Very simple sums but nobody seems to have noticed those wasted TRILLIONS of $ over the last 31 years. Or 33 years by 2023.
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/annual-co2-emissions-per-country?country=OECD+%28GCP%29~Non-OECD+%28GCP%29
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The graph includes annual CO2 emissions from cement. The concrete block that anchors each wind turbine tower to the ground includes cement. A couple of years ago there was a program on the ABC about a farmer who leased some of his land to a company to build wind turbines.
The project manager said that each tower sits on a 700 cubic metre block of concrete, say 10m x 10m x 7m. It was also mentioned that average wind was 30 kph, with gusts up to 200 kph, which means that the tower must be built to withstand wind speeds up to 200kph.
Then there is the concrete required to support the pylons that connect the wind towers to the grid.
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When Thomas Newcomen first invented a practical steam engine in 1712 random wind power, animal power, human power and other erratic and expensive forms of energy were rapidly abandoned.
At the time Newcomen invented his steam engine, the wind and its collection apparatuses (windmills) became useless and worthless as well, depending on local economics.
Here’s an idea. Why don’t we revert to using steam engines or their modern derivatives (Rankine Cycle engines as used in typical coal, gas and nuclear plant) just like they started doing with great success in 1712?
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It’s amazing that with extortionate electricity prices caused by the world’s most expensive electricity production methods (windmills) they still don’t want to build them.
How will the Left respond? Allow a doubling or tripling of electricity prices? Even more than that? Pay even more subsidies or tax concessions?
We are rapidly getting to the point where production of electricity at home with DIY off grid solar and diesel generation is becoming economic although few homes have enough roof area to make a sustainable off grid solar/battery system that can work through winter. Diesel generator supplementation will be required so the more extreme Nanny States like Australia and Once Great Britain will probably ban that as well.
Incidentally, because the Left keep telling us how wind power is the cheapest form of power production, you know the opposite is true because that is the nature of their lies.
They are well described by the Biblical verse:
Isaiah 5:20 Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
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In a recent article at wattsupwiththat.com the term ‘low-carbon electricity generation’ was used in a report that the UK needs to store hydrogen in caves.
“The demand will mainly be met by wind and solar. They are the cheapest forms of low-carbon electricity generation”
Expect Blackout Bowen to start using this term in the near future as justification for his ruinables push
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When I saw the headline about the government selling rights I imagined it was like the sale of 5G spectrum where what was on offer was highly prized and would enable the buyer to profit by selling access to bandwidth to consumers who wanted to use the new 5G phones.
I read the article a couple of times and still have the impression that this is a special kind of auction where the seller promises to pay the buyer to take the goods off the seller’s hands. And in this case the government did not offer enough for any of the bidders to take the damaged goods.
Do I have it right?
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In order to save the whales, we must kill the whales
That’s how The Science™ works, boys and girls. Respect it, or be made to answer to the Department of Homeland Security, bigot.
If you live on the East Coast of the U.S., chances are you’ve seen and/or heard tell of the increasing-in-frequency local news reports on the dead-whale-washing-up-on-shore phenomenon.
“A new documentary, ‘Thrown To The Wind,’ by Director and Producer Jonah Markowitz, proves that the US government officials have been lying.
The full film, which is at the bottom of this article, documents surprisingly loud, high-decibel sonar emitted by wind industry vessels when measured with state-of-the-art hydrophones. And it shows that the wind industry’s increased boat traffic is correlated directly with specific whale deaths.
The documentary may not stop the industrial wind projects from being built. After all, the wind projects were going forward despite urgent warnings from leading conservation groups and a top scientist at the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
But ‘Thrown To The Wind’ exposes the reality that the U.S. government agencies, and the scientists who work for them, either haven’t done the basic mapping and acoustic research to back up their claims, have done the research badly, or found what we found, and are covering it up.”
Anyway, what’s a few thousand dead whales when a totalitarian social control agenda is on the line? You want to make a climate change omelet, you’re gonna have to break some marine mammal eggs.
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Same in Norway.
https://www.offshorewind.biz/2023/05/22/equinor-shelves-floating-wind-project-offshore-norway/
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A few weeks ago the laws in the UK were changed to make the building of on-shore wind farms easier, with less constraints from local objectors. Before the amendment to the law, a single objection to a wind farm could block its go ahead.
Part of this plan was to give energy discounts for customers who back local wind farms nearby. The discounts proposed were 10 to 50% on your current electricity prices. This act of desperation was reported in the The Times newspaper on 6th September.
IMHO it is nothing more than bribery to get wind farms approved.
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Have they tried Ireland?
https://va.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_s0mls0uAHW1w5pr9j.mp4
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The UK grid is already crumbling.
This coming winter could be disastrous . .
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https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19962/climate-emergency-hoax
So say 1600 scientists including two Nobel Prize Winners. Worse still is that Global Warming is a cult fiction! Not science but Sci Fi!
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“This “Low Cost Energy” seemingly refers to some mythical electrical kilowatt hours that only show up on academic reports not on consumer electricity bills.”
Great explanation. !
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Feel the savings, Comrade!
Utopia will materialise once you FEEL the savings.
If you can’t feel them, well, pluck out your own eyes so that you may at least think it.
Right-think is trendy and righteous, Comrade!
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Wind turbines have always been a case of all spin and no output and it’s satisfying to see that the spin is finally extinguishing itself. This failure of investment confidence will extend beyond the UK and it will be interesting to see if the NSW Central Coast offshore wind farm gets legs, especially now that it’s been shifted further offshore due to public outcry. The best outcome would be a total collapse of the industry and that now appears a real possibility.
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Ahhh Jo,
I’m sorry that I to have to report that you must have got that wrong. I’ve just checked both the ABC and SMH and neither has anything about that story.
Or perhaps they forgot to mention it in this story about more acidification of the Pacific pond?
https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2023-09-12/ocean-acidification-pacific-marine-environment-climate-change/102630998
Cheers
Dave B
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https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/radionational-drive/offshore-windfarms-uk-gippsland/102841386
https://youtu.be/xCc-RWIp7XU?si=DoaXD-JhEUPnFHcD
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Ahh again,
Missed that, but I don’t listen to that source, only read their “Just In”.
Thanks for the link.
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The ocean is extremely alkaline, it will never be acidic, it just becomes slightly less alkaline which is described by the propaganda term of ‘acidification’ to fool the ignorant.
The ocean is ‘buffered’ which is to say that at higher levels of CO2 it reacts with seawater to form insoluble carbonates which lock up carbon for millions of years.
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No contributions yet from Simon or Peter Fitz? Still waiting for the daily talking points?
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Possibly, like myself, they don’t have much interest in wind generation on the other side of the world?
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but but but ..
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Gee Aye
Please explain the technical and engineering differences between wind generation in the northern and southern hemispheres.
Or have you not yet received the talking points either?
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I’m just not interested. Sorry.
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So Gee,
you won’t mind if us on the top half drop out of the Net Zero chase?
Plus, isn’t it trending colder in your half?
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BS, they would be stuck to it like limpets if the news was positive
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They would make a good “new age” progressive couple. If they married, Peter could change his name to Peter Fitz-Simon 😉
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Well there goes my theory, that energy producers don’t care how bad or expensive their product is, just as long as you have to buy it, if forced to by a fascist government policy.
Why can’t they just charge more for the product to make it viable? Obviously they can’t so something is wrong with my theory.
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The NYT says that Australians love cheap Chinese automobiles
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/06/business/china-car-exports.html?searchResultPosition=2
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Seems people are the same the world over. Aussies like inexpensive stuff.
Example: Put solar panels on the roof and save thousandsof dollars each year on electricity costs.. Who careswhere the panels come from. The cheaper the better. What’s not to like?
The Chines sell a cheap solar panel which you buy because the government says you will save money by using it..
Cheap stuff, cheap holidays, cheap cars. Who cares where it comes from eh.
At some point someone has to pay for all the hidden subsidies or trade imbalance. Someone has to pay for the backup to haphazard power generation. Someone has to pay for the infrastructure to plug in all that cheap stuff.
But tel me, what sensible selfrespecting personis going to pass up a good deal.
Enjoy your Chinese cars and cheap vacations and cheap imported labor. Life is beautiful.
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Australia gets solar panels, China gets coal!
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Off topic – but this story just broke –
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/five-cars-destroyed-at-sydney-airport-after-battery-from-luxury-electric-vehicle-ignites-20230912-p5e43h.html
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Sounds like it was preventable/someone messed up, if the battery was removed/disconnected there must have been a reason – they knew it was faulty or damaged.
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It’s the age old problem. Eventually you run out of other peoples money.
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Stealing OPM has never been a problem for governments, especially since the GFC.
Now they steal value from wallets and accounts without even touching them, because ‘money printer go Brrrrrrrr’
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OPM is addictive.
20
At last, The Free Market has seen the truth. No more political soundbites. No more fake promises. I can’t understand why it took so long for The Free Market to come to realize this.
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This is an overall environmental win:
– The whales have been saved from significant life threatening noise pollution.
– The pollution associated with the mineral resources required for low lifecycle EROI turbines with bad economics (ex-subsidies) has been spared.
– Less birds to be dismembered mid-flight.
– Less turbine disposal impacts.
Capitalism can be great for the environment when it imposes reality on deluded ideologues.
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This is where the theory of relativity kicks in.
Wind power is only too expensive if there are relatively cheaper alternatives.
People who read JN might think that the rational reaction would be to move away from wind power.
Greenies will see that the relative price of non-wind power must be raised, so that the wind power becomes relatively more attractive.
So, prepare for higher electric rates and higher gasoline prices. They’ll make wind power look attractive if it kills us.
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“Britain’s largest wind farm developer rules out onshore farms. SSE boss cites too little space and too many protests for its decision.”
SSE still seem to be banking on more offshore sooner or later, disinterested in onshore policy shift.
Probably blocked/paywalled, but anyway.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/09/09/britain-wind-power-developer-sse-onshore-offshore-farms/
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Like so many ‘green’ initiatives, wind turbines aren’t green.
Like so many ‘green’ initiatives all the bad points are ignored.
Like so many ‘green’ initiatives they are expensive even with subsidies.
Like so many ‘green’ initiatives it makes a few rich.
Like so many ‘green’ initiatives it needs huge amounts of fossil fuels to create
A worrying article on another bad aspect which is overlooked :
https://www.eastcountymagazine.org/do-wind-turbines-harm-animals
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A bad motorcycle with the devil in the seat,
Going 90mph down a dead-end street,
Warning signs are flying by us,
But we pay no heed,
Instead of slowing down the pace,
We keep pickin’ up the speed,
Disaster is growin’ closer every time we meet,
Doin’ 90 mph down a dead-end street….
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