The Tesla had been traveling from a cul-de-sac on Hammock Dunes Place when it failed to negotiate a curve, and ended up crashing into a tree and bursting into flames.
According to the station, the Tesla’s batteries continued to ignites despite the efforts of firefighters to extinguish the blaze. It took them four hours—and used 23,000 gallons of water—to finally douse the flames completely.
Both of the dead were in passenger seats.
Germans scale back on wind energy
The German government loves to talk about the importance of green energies, but when it comes to their expansion, it is in fact doing the opposite: Old wind turbines are being removed without being replaced by new generation turbines.
Perhaps it’s beginning dawn on the German government that especially wind and solar energy just aren’t working out, and so they have massively scaled back subsidies with the aim of scaling them back. […]
The NDR [German public television] reports that in the coming years, 16 GW of wind power will be removed from the subsidy system. Almost two-thirds of this may not be replaced by new, more powerful ones.
As far as Altenstedt goes, where the three featured turbines are being dismantled, the NDR reports: “No more wind turbines may be built in Altenstedt, there are no more planning permits. The energy transition is now history here.
The remaining infrastructure: transmission lines, access roads, transformers etc. are available and are now no longer being used. In Altenstedt they will probably become the first relics of a past idea that went sour.
h/t PaulHarveyPg2
Germany’s energy transition has proved too costly and underestimated the risks to supply, a federal audit office report seen by Reuters has found.
Reforms are needed to state taxes and fees to fix a system that has left Germany with Europe’s highest retail electricity prices and at risk of grid blackouts, the as-yet-unpublished report said.
Wind is in green.
h/t TH
What’s notable about this news item is the way in which the story is presented as if this is a new phenomenon, or that a more sensible outcome might have been expected. It’s not just a matter of articulating the correct “goals”. Without price signals and the ability of investors to assess financial risk, “infrastructure” programs funded by the state will inevitably degrade into a fog of financial chaos. You’re just doing the same thing over and over while expecting a different result.
“The Liberal government’s $188-billion infrastructure spending plans continue to lag behind schedule, with government departments failing to provide adequate public reporting on the sprawling program, a new report says.
Auditor General Karen Hogan on Thursday released one of the most thorough reports to date on the progress of the Investing in Canada Plan, which found that “funds were not being spent as quickly as planned,” and that “objectives might not be met” after the full 12-year life of the program.”
Ironically, the one upside for taxpayers is precisely that the funds are not being spent as quickly as planned, and we may be better off if we actually don’t meet any of the objectives.
The driver was using Tesla’s Autopilot system when he crashed into the police vehicle, Michigan State Police said…
German online weekly FOCUS reports according to several Allensbach surveys that although there is a strong interest in environmentally friendly mobility [in Germany], they don’t view electric cars as being particularly practical, let alone green.
Fifty five percent, a majority, said the purchase of an electric car is out of the question. and only 29 percent can imagine buying an electric car in principle.
The cold wintry weather last February led to a drop in enthusiasm for electric mobility among German motorists because the wintry weather “apparently led to a critical debate about the performance of e-cars”.
“Only nine percent of those surveyed could imagine purchasing an e-car in the the next three years,” FOCUS reports. “The acceptance of electric mobility is much more pronounced among younger people than among the middle-aged and older citizens who have more purchasing power.” This does not bode well for the electric car market.
h/t rockyt
Via Canadian Observer — I certainly don’t remember anyone ever telling Exxon or Shell… “No worries about your tailings ponds, just breed some new ducks”
In an unusual — and somewhat controversial — move, federal wildlife officials in California are teaming up with a wind power company to breed endangered California condors in captivity, in an effort to replace any that might be felled by turbine blades.
The company, Avangrid Renewables, which operates 126 turbines in the windy Tehachapi Mountains about 100 miles northeast of Los Angeles, is working with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service to breed the birds in captivity at the Oregon Zoo. The proposed program, which was reported by The Los Angeles Times this week and is still subject to final approval by the Wildlife Service, could begin as soon as this spring.
That’s odd. I recall being reliably informed that they don’t kill birds.
Leigh Goehring and Adam Rozencwajg of the Wall Street research firm G&R Associates are among the latest to point to a bulging bubble. The veteran global commodities experts warn the road to a renewable-powered future will be tougher than anticipated. Worse, they expect it to be littered with over-valued companies and inefficient technologies that fall short of carbon-cutting goals.
“Over the last 12 months, green energy momentum has exploded. Investor euphoria has now reached new heights bordering on mania,” the investment firm wrote in its latest quarterly market commentary.
“Every green energy proposal we have examined relies on the trifecta of wind, solar, and electric vehicles combined with various battery technologies. In recent months, a renewed ‘hydrogen mania’ has broken out as well, which adds a fourth leg to the green energy stool,” they added. “These plans, including the current hydrogen craze, are bound to at best severely disappoint and, at worst, outright fail in what they attempt to accomplish.”
h/t PaulHarveyPage2
Just one week after Texas: Buffalo Pound Water Treatment Plant renewal looks to green future
“So we’re looking at using renewable energy, specifically solar at this point in time. We’re looking at putting in 2 to 2.5 megawatts of solar power,” explained Johnson.
He said that can be scaled up in the future with more solar, wind or geothermal power.
If you wonder if this is just naive incompetence, this is the same Regina City Council that attempted to ban oil and gas advertising.
Scientists unearth a consequence of solar panels in the Sahara…
While the black surfaces of solar panels absorb most of the sunlight that reaches them, only a fraction (around 15%) of that incoming energy gets converted to electricity. The rest is returned to the environment as heat. The panels are usually much darker than the ground they cover, so a vast expanse of solar cells will absorb a lot of additional energy and emit it as heat, affecting the climate.
If these effects were only local, they might not matter in a sparsely populated and barren desert. But the scale of the installations that would be needed to make a dent in the world’s fossil energy demand would be vast, covering thousands of square kilometers. Heat re-emitted from an area this size will be redistributed by the flow of air in the atmosphere, having regional and even global effects on the climate. […]
Covering 20% of the Sahara with solar farms raises local temperatures in the desert by 1.5°C according to our model. At 50% coverage, the temperature increase is 2.5°C. This warming is eventually spread around the globe by the atmosphere and ocean movement, raising the world’s average temperature by 0.16°C for 20% coverage, and 0.39°C for 50% coverage. The global temperature shift is not uniform though – the polar regions would warm more than the tropics, increasing sea ice loss in the Arctic. This could further accelerate warming, as melting sea ice exposes dark water which absorbs much more solar energy.
“They started lying within hours.”
(new video, for as long as it lasts)
Update — my friend contacted me and their power’s been restored, they’ve found more supplies and are better prepared should it go down again.
A friend in northwest San Antonio, TX (close to Helotes) posted this morning — there’s no wood left to purchase in the city. I know this is a long shot, but have we any readers there who might know someone who can get them some firewood?
From her lips to the Governor’s ears, one hopes.
Fell said regional natural gas and electricity prices in Oklahoma and Texas broke U.S. records over the weekend.
On Friday, Oklahoma gas transmission prices averaged US$350 per million British thermal units and Fell said one trade went as high as US$600 per mmBtu. In parts of the Texas panhandle and elsewhere, prices jumped to US$200, “all of which individually would have been new records,” Fell said, noting the previous record was US$160.
On Monday, natural gas for physical delivery in the U.S. was trading for as much as US$500 per mmBtu as demand for the heating and power plant fuel soared. Spot gas has been trading for hundreds of dollars across the central U.S. since Thursday with a surge in heating demand triggering widespread blackouts and sending electricity prices soaring. The fuel normally trades in the region for less than US$3 per mmBtu.
Similarly, electricity prices in Texas surged to US$6,000 per megawatt hour on Monday, which Fell said is “100 times the normal price.”
Nearly half of Texas wind energy production has frozen to a halt.
More details here. I have friends in Texas currently in blackout, dealing with challenges and conditions they have no experience with. We’ve been helping with what advice we can offer.
Fifteen years ago, Al Gore, in his Oscar-winning film “An Inconvenient Truth” predicted “Within the decade, there will be no more snows of Kilimanjaro. We all know how ridiculous that sounds now (well, everyone but John Kerry and Joe Biden and an endless stream of miseducated social justice warriors who have never read, nor heard of, Bjorn Lomborg.)”
Repeat After Me: Canada is Uninhabitable Without Fossil Fuels
If you remained in Alberta during the first major cold snap of the year and are alive to read this article, you owe your continued existence to fossil fuels; coal, oil and natural gas.
Using Red Deer as an example, from January 12 to 18 the average daytime high was -25.9oC and the nighttime low -34.7oC. It was a bit warmer in the south and colder in the north, but high/low ranges for the entire province were similar.
Without heat from carbon-based plants and animals – either long dead in the form of coal, oil or gas or not yet fossilized wood or grass – we’d all have frozen to death.
And that was January.
It’s odd how so few of these go unreported.
h/t Dr.R
Powering the planet with Unobtainium.
They should declare themselves “energy worker sanctuary states” and power ahead. So should we.
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