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Talkshop comment:
Playing the expensive renewable energy game isn’t an option for the majority of ‘non-wealthy’ countries anyway, regardless of promoters of climate alarm. China for example forges ahead with dozens of new coal mines every year to help keep its growing economy functioning, while countries like Britain attempt to survive without any. Somebody has it wrong and it’s not going to be China.
Dose of engineering reality needed to counter climate obsessions
Posted: January 19, 2024 by oldbrew in Big Green, Energy, opinionTags: climate, energy policy, oil, renewables
Comments
Tallbloke's Talkshop 
Huh, For Flip Sake, I’ve just done a wee spiel over at Paul H’s blog … BBUT but but, whilst dozing yesterday after a very early start in this peculiar non- forecasted ( or not ) weather, locally. I had Sat tv on …Africa E-Mobility Alliance caught my attention https://africaema.org and Volkswagen makes Tractors too ! https://www.deutschland.de/en/topic/business/e-mobility-i-german-african-projects [ and as for those REMOANERS – will they ever understand …. when we WANT to watch / listen to Progs from other Euro Lands, we cannot ….. so Partly MY REASON for Exiting – we are not / NEVER WERE one of them, then ]
Anyway the Prog went on to how in KENYA they have a thriving industry converting / building Electric Motorbikes and have Electric BUSES too. The Bikes SWAP batteries quicker than a Petrol fill-up … Leaves our Euro Idiots behind in their progress on that front ….. just as their Mobile Internet compared with our Super fast fibre with “Narrow” bandwidth ( ie what goo dis hi-speed optic when the Client and I cannot send / receive the data to process in the first place = still watching hourglasses – or is that the new woke thing I discovered https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/420382946480863539/ )
and back to reality – a convoy of EVs all conked out and EVs sent to the rescue, stuck in the snow or ON the ice. Aye good old ICE vehicles to the rescue with their ICE on the wrong station or no reception of much value. ….
Here’s some reality…
French ‘rubbing their hands’ as Britain forced to import £1.5bn of electricity
UK buys a record amount of power from Europe as wind and solar fall short
19 January 2024
Britain imported a record amount of electricity from Europe last year as solar and wind farms struggled to generate sufficient energy in the wake of coal and nuclear power plant closures.
The UK forked out £3.5bn on electricity from France, Norway, Belgium and the Netherlands last year, accounting for 12pc of net supply, according to research from London Stock Exchange (LSEG) Power Research.
According to official data, France accounted for around £1.5bn of power sold to the UK in the year to November 2023 while Norway earned around £500m.
. . .
Met Office records have shown that wind speeds last year were below the 20-year average for 11 of the 12 months to December.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/01/19/uk-electricity-imports-hit-record-wind-and-solar-power/
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Physics of Wind Turbines says:
A crucial point about wind power is that the times of peak electricity demand and the times of optimal wind conditions rarely coincide. Thus, other electric power producers with short lead times and a well developed electricity distribution system are necessary to supplement wind power generation. [bold added]
https://home.uni-leipzig.de/energy/energy-fundamentals/15.htm
‘from France, Norway, Belgium and the Netherlands ..’ Aye and folks like me who were (forcibly – no option) transferred to a German company paying inflated prices to that company …. same thing ?
Who IS RUNNING our country: what ARE their main interests? …. THe Heron is his own man, regardless of where the fish are and which way the tide is going.
and a thought for the day – with a 🙂
Have you heard this old joke? – How do you know there was an invisible elephant in the fridge?
–There are footprints in the butter.
Well aye, But but but … who put the butter in the fridge?
Over Afternoon coffee n cake, talk around the table …Met Office records have shown that wind speeds last year were below the 20-year average for 11 of the 12 months to December. WHERE ?
We’ve been discussing just how windy it’s been here ( when it blows – really blows ) like the Tides. Gusts from nowhere – but the windmills are still standing still. Like the rain shower which stops at one side of the washing line. Where’s Isha this now? “sweeps over UK” eh? missed it then or was it 18.3mph gust at 04.18 today? but the snow is still here. 10C for 5 mins and nothing has changed Been over 4c since before 3am – Enthalpic heat then?
German climate obsessions causing energy chaos…
Germany’s dream of building a fleet of hydrogen-fired power plants is faltering
19 Jan. 2024
Plans to build a fleet of hydrogen power plants to supplement wind turbines and solar panels are faltering, amid a budgetary squeeze and demands for cost-cutting from industry.
. . .
Existing power plants can’t run on “pure” hydrogen because the “burners would simply melt”, he explained. Addressing this would require retrofitting the plants with ceramics, which would make them look like the nose of a spaceship folded inwards – a process that can be done but is costly, the BDI chief said.
“If these turbines are only supposed to run when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing, then they will be extremely expensive,” he added.
“I’m not even talking about the cost of hydrogen, which we don’t have, but only the investment costs of these new gas turbines and their new peripherals.”
https://www.euractiv.com/section/electricity/news/germanys-dream-of-building-a-fleet-of-hydrogen-fired-power-plants-is-faltering/
Is that a cuckoo in the German clouds?
Can you still be sure of SHELL? ( wrt my comments last year re: Shell & Steel prodn using H2 )
Clouds? Naw that’s their BLACK Forest of Dreams