Think globally, inform locally;

“In Alberta, we have the capacity for 1,463 Mw of wind, and we gather that over a huge area,” he said, noting wind energy production is gathered from an area the size of The Netherlands in southern Alberta.
Often, wind generation is only able to hit an average of 30 per cent of capacity due to periods where it slips below the five per cent threshold (considered to be zero output). That instability in power levels is a major issue for supplying power to Albertans.
In contrast, the Sheerness generating station near Hanna has a capacity of 780 Mw.
“It provides more electricity than all the wind turbines in Alberta,” Schaupmeyer said, adding coal generation also has stable output.

Good work CAS.

The only renewable that matters: the Taxpayer.

Aussie Greens are lamenting that banks are still unwilling to lend to green projects, because they are worried about the reliability of political support, and the continuity of the generous government subsidies which make green projects possible.

And even that is unreliable.

The only renewable that matters: the Taxpayer.

Aussie Greens are lamenting that banks are still unwilling to lend to green projects, because they are worried about the reliability of political support, and the continuity of the generous government subsidies which make green projects possible.

Washington Post admits that, no: electric cars were NOT worth it.

Can Scotland keep the lights on?

The brave new world of distributed generation designed by politicians results in power stations and power lines everywhere. There seems to be a form of cognitive dissonance among those who believe that covering the countryside in infrastructure is somehow better than having a handful of centralised generators. The Green notion that distributed generation is somehow good, repeated over until it is accepted by many, as far as I am aware is not underpinned by any scientific or engineering evidence. It is simply dogma.

WHHAASSZAPROBLEM? Sunlight is FREE.

Investing in installations at home will no longer be attractive to British families and could now take more than 20 years for upfront costs to be recouped, critics said.
The announcement comes just days after Paris climate change summit where David Cameron committed to bringing down greenhouse emissions.
Tens of thousands of jobs are now at risk in the industry.

Richard Martin, MIT Technology Review:

Spelled out in a 31-page document that will be published in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish, the [Paris Climate Agreement] calls for the signatory countries to assess their progress toward emissions reduction goals every five years and adjust their efforts accordingly, while urging increased investment in research and development on clean energy technologies as well as an international fund of $100 billion to help the worst-affected countries adapt and survive. If the Paris agreement is implemented, the world would reach net-zero emissions before the end of this century.
Unfortunately, it also relies on emerging technologies that are barely proven, yet to be successfully commercialized, or downright illusory. Limiting the temperature rise to 2 °C or less is likely to require dramatic advances in three critical technologies: energy storage, advanced nuclear reactors, and carbon capture and storage. The first two are feasible given massive investment in both basic science and commercialization. The last is probably not.
[…]
According to the IEA’s road map for carbon capture and storage, we must remove and store more than two billion metric tons of carbon dioxide per year from smokestacks by 2030 in order to avoid catastrophic warming, and seven billion metric tons by 2050. Barring a major technological advance that is not currently foreseeable, those targets are unreachable. According to the Global CCS Institute, there are 22 significant carbon capture and storage projects under way around the world, with the capacity to sequester a total of 40 million metric tons of carbon dioxide per year. Several major projects, including the $1.65 billion FutureGen project in the U.S. and a billion-pound ($1.5 billion) CCS project led by the U.K. government, have been scrapped. Simply put, the technology for separating carbon dioxide from power-plant emissions–not to mention the infrastructure to transport it and store it underground–is too expensive and too cumbersome for commercial deployment. While there is intriguing research going on, there is no prospect on the immediate horizon for making it economical.

HAHAHAHAHAHA. Diesel farms could this week win contracts worth hundreds of millions of pounds as part of a Government scheme to keep the lights on.

Another good one to pass on to your friends and family.

THE WIND IN SPAIN BLOWS…

On eve of Paris Climate Conference, Spain’s Abengoa Solar goes bankrupt

The reviews are in.
More!
#NotACult

Charles Moore;

I spent much of Wednesday in fields in southern England. It was very warm for the time of year. I noticed there was almost no wind. Usually, even on calm days, one can see the autumn leaves trembling slightly on the branch, but there the stillness was absolute.
The following morning, it was reported – though not as widely as it should have been – that, for the first time, the National Grid had been so worried by a possible shortage of power when people got home from work on Wednesday that it had appealed to industry to reduce power consumption. Energy markets went wild. At one point, the Financial Times said, the grid was paying Severn Power £2,500 per megawatt hour: the usual going rate is £60.

Mississauga;

Metrolinx has packed up its 31-metre-tall wind turbine at the Lisgar GO Station after it produced 91 per cent less electricity than projected.
The provincial transportation agency has officially dumped a pilot project aimed at creating renewable energy using a $620,000 wind turbine. Unveiled in 2009, the turbine was slated to produce enough energy to power 80 per cent of the Lisgar GO station’s electricity per year – 98,550 kilowatt hours (kWh). It fell far short of its targets, producing less than ten per cent of that.

But fear not, gentle taxpayers!

Despite the setback, Aikins said Metrolinx has been firm on its commitment to an energy management program, installing solar panels on new buildings…

h/t Jim

Flat Calm Across the UK

On 4th October, in the early hours of the morning, 9136 MW of wind turbines were producing 66 MW of electricity. The load factor dropped to 0.7%. I find this astonishing from a meteorological perspective since about half the metered turbines are offshore and many of the rest are on Scottish hillsides. The wind momentarily dropped effectively to zero across the whole of the UK.

Meanwhile…

German Town Of Gescher Installs 9 Solar Street Lamps That Don’t Work At Night – For 28,000 Euros!

Can you explain more what you mean by double-counting? Plants regrow, so why doesn’t that make them carbon-neutral?