We Don't Need No Stinking Giant Fans

The sad thing is were the German grid/power operators not VERY competent and conservative, their grid would already be a shambles AND yes they HAVE been warning everyone for years.

Heh.Believing that any green power can come even close to generating 1% of the sticker capacity is like believing the MPG that EPA boosts about for cars. Suckers.

Which problem is both OBVIOUS and unsolvable at our present state of technology. There is no such thing as a gigawatt capacitor bank, which fact has been belabored ad nauseam these last forty plus years since the greenie-weenies first brought it up. Tidal power, wave power and solar power likewise suffer from this problem.

Which means only one thing my friends. Politicians who pushed this thing KNEW it couldn't work, KNEW it would fail, and spent BILLIONS on it anyway.

They stole the money. Gun registry redux.

No kidding! Was it ever about making it work to begin with? Not bloody likely.

I found this part of the article interesting because of its contradictions:

"Because renewable energy must by law have priority in supplying the grid, the owners of conventional power stations, finding they have to run plants unprofitably, are so angry that they are threatening to close many of them down. The government response, astonishingly, has been to propose a new law forcing them to continue running their plants at a loss.

Meanwhile, firms such as RWE and E.on are going flat out to build 16 new coal-fired and 15 new gas-fired power stations by 2020, with a combined output equivalent to some 38 per cent of Germany’s electricity needs. "

So green energy has destroyed the profitability of conventional fossil fuel generation. In response the government is, by law, forcing them to stay running. Oddly, these same companies are going to build a lot of new coal power plants.

Assuming this is not a case of Teutonic insanity, the German government must have quietly promised the energy companies that it is going to reverse the green first feed-in policy and/or quit Green altogether and return to conventional energy reliance. A few more blackouts etc. should be enough to convince the public that green energy is not worth any of its promised benefits.

It is such a good time to be a coal miner in Germany.

Economic hardship. $Billions down the drain. Lower standard of living. All because of carbon dioxide alarmism.
The biggest scam the world has every seen.

This just typifies the chasm between the left and the right.

The left continues to propose and do things because....it just feels like the right thing to do....it's always about feelings to the left. Then frame it with half-truths and pseudo-science, and voila!

Too bad it never starts with logical thought, that's why the scams of the greenies and left continue to fail, once you scratch under the facade they create. Unfortunately, our society is lazy, and just swallows the pablum fed by the MSM as the God's honest truth......math is hard after all.

look at the bright side...Germany has definitevely proven this wind/solar thingy doesn't work...at their expense.

The down side is despite this empiracle proof/example our politicians continue to follow this fantasy.

As far as German pragmatism....WW2...Germany continued to build/field expensive tanks despite knowing that these marvels needed return to Germany for most repairs while their troops were operating cheap, captured easily repairable Russian T34s acquired at a higher rate than new or refurbished tanks from Germany.

The more things change the more they remain the same.

Wind makes no sense at all unless you are using it to store energy some how. Pump up water to run down through a hydro electric generator is one way of doing this. Then the energy from the wind can be 'stored' in the water reservoir, and released as needed to produce power.

Batteries might also work except I don't think of batteries as ever being 'green'.

I've seen this one http://www.abb.ca/cawp/seitp202/2445a8fea944fac8c125789b00507caa.aspx and the people there seemed pleased with it.

".... the owners of conventional power stations, finding they have to run plants unprofitably, are so angry that they are threatening to close many of them down. The government response, astonishingly, has been to propose a new law forcing them to continue running their plants at a loss."

And THAT is the response we can expect from any Left-wing government. I am going to send the link to this article to my MP,and hope he reads it.

Our own government still has an unhealthy attitude toward global warming/climate change, and millions are still being wasted on carbon sequestration.

CanadianKate ... the island mentioned in the article is a good example of wind power ... as they really have no other choice except to run a diesel powered generator 24/7 . However , the long term maintainability of wind turbines is seldom discussed in the rush to be green.

Also there was no mention of how efficient the system actually is ... water must be pumped uphill , and if the wind doesn't blow , either the water tank doesn't get filled or the diesel powered generator turns on.

http://news.providencejournal.com/breaking-news/2012/07/portsmouth-wind.html
...
For three years, the $3-million windmill fulfilled that promise, making the town about $400,000 after maintenance and debt payments.

But in February, technical problems started shutting down the turbine for weeks at a time. In June, it stopped again, and it hasn't started since.

Last week, the Town Council learned that the turbine's gearbox had failed and needed to be replaced for at least $460,000 -- completely erasing those three years of income
...

Pumped resevoirs sound greenishs, but you need an enourmous amount of land to keep a useful amount of stored energy. There is one associated with Niagara Falls on each side of the border. During off peak hours they used to fill the resevoir using power from the main plant, and kick in the resevoir power to handle peaks. Now with the forced use of wind power @$.20/kwhr or more, not only is Niagara shut down or reduced (@ $.02/kwhr) but there is no need for the pumped station. No wonder my 'Global Adjustment' was $50 per month during the summer.

Sorry about my long winded response.

D'Oh.

Here's why even water reservior storage is a fantasy as well;
http://physics.ucsd.edu/do-the-math/2011/11/pump-up-the-storage/

Say we find this method of storage useing the magical rare earth element unobtanium. Why would you waste it on wind or solar? You could throttle back gas or coal and run them at a more even, consistent, efficient level and use your new found storage invention to even out the bumps in demand. Having wind and solar be given preferrential treatment is like having a minor league goalie in for the playoffs while having your #1 goalie on the bench- as back-up???

"Last week, the Town Council learned that the turbine's gearbox had failed and needed to be replaced for at least $460,000 -- completely erasing those three years of income
...

Posted by: Brian at September 24, 2012 1:33 PM "

There is NO income from wind power,Brian.There is only multi-billion dollar subsidies from the taxpayer.I have also sent this money stealing scam post to our premier here in AB.Unfortunately,she is a UN lawyer,and supports UN Agenda 21 100%.We are so fubared here in AB.

The lights are going out in Europe without a war.

"...averaged only 5GW" is too generous, since it's typically not generated during peak demand. There should be a more honest way to calculate average usable output.

All of this was totally predictable by any energy ecconomist that looked objectively at the data.
Wind energy on a massive scale with priority on the grid does not work in Germany, Ont or anywhere else. The problem is not that engineers and economists are mistaken, it is that leaders have made a political, ideological decision, based on wishful thinking. Our Gr grandparents could have told us something of wind's reliability, but people like Dalton McGuinty know better; wind energy represents the future.

So....when has any politician anywhere in the world ever said , "I made a mistake that has cost you billions of dollars and it's my fault ?" Or even a simple "we were wrong." That would be admitting that they are just as dumb as the peons that elected them and certainly end the power trip they always dreamed of. Ego just doesn't allow it, and vanity is far more important than taxpayers money. McGuinty is the perfect example.