Wind Energy - "green energy" scam?

This woman worked for 7 years as a policy advisor for an Australian liberal senator and her area was in regards to windpower and to clear up the mess which liberal policies in that regard had caused. In effect she says that Australians pay AUD 40 billions a year to subsidies for these wind projects and that the money goes overseas. As she explains it, the farmer gets AUD 12000 a year to lease the land to the wind company, which then gets between AUD 600000-900000 a year in subsides per turbine. AUD is short for Australian dollars ( 1 AUD = 0,60 Euro).

yes, wind power is scam and it is ugly. burning coal is using the gift of earth elaborated in the past. does not australia export a lot of coal? what happens to this coal?
coal is like the yolk of the egg which serves to build up the chicken. it is a gift from earth, as oil is. the co2 is not harmful, but the stupidity and greed of some people is...
 
The part that is particularly interesting is when she speaks about the amount of energy that wind turbines consume for their operation and grid balancing. It seems that that part of energy analysis is missing from the general public, perhaps intentionally? Here is what one guy had to say about that:

Whatever the actual amount of consumption, it could seriously diminish any claim of providing a significant amount of energy. Instead, it looks like industrial wind power could turn out to be a laundering scheme: "Dirty" energy goes in, "clean" energy comes out. That would explain why developers demand legislation to create a market for "green credits" — tokens of "clean" energy like the indulgences sold by the medieval church. Ego te absolvo.

 
Talk about delusions...



Only wind energy doesn't work. And to the very, very small degree that renewables do work, they don't provide base load supply - for that you need coal, nuclear or natural gas. What's more, you need to balance out the unreliable renewables, which only works with power plants that you can easily turn up or down - which only works with natural gas!! So if they don't want coal or nuclear, then I know someone who's gonna like the plan:

giphy.gif

yes, i do not understand why "they" cant see the absurdity of their plans. either they are blind of fear or they have a hidden agenda = they are lying...
 
yes, i do not understand why "they" cant see the absurdity of their plans. either they are blind of fear or they have a hidden agenda = they are lying...
A lot of it is simply a scam to make tons of easy money for the "Green Industrial Complex" and its tax-funded cronies, IMO. There's a reason for the recent scandal in Germany where family and business ties ran right across "green" ministries, NGOs and "green" businesses. These networks are all over the place and hugely profitable.
 
Here is another video with comparison of running cost between petrol and electric version of cars. And again, the electric version costs more to run.


And another cargo ship is on fire because of electric cars on board:

An electric car was suspected in the blaze raging aboard a cargo ship off the Netherlands on Wednesday, which authorities fear could burn for days and threaten nearby natural sites.

Fires on car-carrying ships were increasingly the source of major losses, insurers said.

Last year the Felicity Ace sank of the coast of the Azores in the Atlantic Ocean with some 4,000 vehicles from German car maker Volkswagen on board.


About the last year ship accident:

After the incident, electric vehicles onboard were widely suspected as the culprit that contributed to the intensity of the blaze. As a result, some auto shipping companies have since refused to transport used EVs, opting to lose that business instead of risking a potentially devastating fire.

It's estimated that Japan's Mitsui OSK Lines suffered a $500 million loss due to the ship's sinking. There have been no known attempts to reach the wreck at the bottom of the ocean.

 
I saw this video about the Tesla solar roof, and it was interesting to watch it, but I was wondering about one thing. I will timestamp the moment where he shows the pricing of electricity in California, and I would like to know how do these prices compare to the pricing that our forum members get, particularly in Germany with the highest electricity price in Europe.

In my country, we don't have this Summer peak rate, but I would say that overall pricing is better in California than in my country. For example, in California Off-Peak rate is 5.5 time lower than Peak rate (in my country 4), and the Off-Peak rate lasts 13 hours (in my country 8). Plus we have the Red rate, if we consume more than 1600 kWh per month, when the prices double. If we consume less than that, prices are similar to California.

 
They say that Germany generally has a flat rate:

The flat rate podium: Germany

Smart meters are a must for dynamic rates. In Germany, these are completely lacking. Traditionally in many countries, especially those highlighted in blue for the peak/off-peak rates, it was usual to have two meters in the meter cabinet (sometimes even three): one registered the off-peak hours and the other registered consumption during the peak hours. Even before EV become popular, peak/off-peak tariffs existed in those countries. In Germany, historically this was never a thing: that is why nowadays it is still very common to have a flat rate.


But even when some companies do offer off-peak hours, the difference is less than 3 cents:


That means that somebody in California would pay 10 times less money for charging their EV car during the off-peak hours than somebody in Germany. I understand why people in California would be happy to drive EV cars, but I don't understand why would Germans want to do it.

The UK has off-peak hours:

According to MoneySavingExpert, while suppliers’ average daytime ‘peak’ rates ranges from around 39p–45p per kWh, when it comes to the overnight ‘off peak’ rate this drops to between 14p and 22p depending on your supplier.

Mountford explains: “At the moment, EDF is the best offer when it comes to the cheapest night rate on an Economy 7 tariff, but it’s worth noting it does come with the highest day rate.”

Based on an EDF economy 7 tariff, the day rate for electricity is 44.97p per kWh, whilst the night rate is 14.85p per kWh.


France also has it, with a small difference of 6 cents:

 
But where will they get so much gas? And how much will the hydrogen cost?

EU’s largest economy spending billions to replace nuclear power

Germany is set to make a large investment in four gas-fired plants, the government has announced

Germany is set to spend €16 billion to construct four gas-fired power plants as it seeks to ensure an adequate supply of electricity after scrapping its nuclear reactors, the Economy Ministry announced earlier this week.

This comes as part of a major overhaul of the country’s energy grid, according to the ministry.

The new gas-fired power plants will subsequently be converted to run on hydrogen between 2035 and 2040. A market-based capacity-boosting mechanism will allow power generation to be expanded by 2028, German officials said in a statement.

The plants will have a total capacity of up to 10 gigawatts (GW), which will come “in addition to the consistent expansion of renewable energies,” and are expected to be vital to ensuring steady electricity supplies “even in times where there is little sun and wind.”

German energy utility Uniper, which will reportedly be involved in the construction, said it was “relieved” that the decision to build the new plants has been made, adding that “swift action is urgently needed because the approval process and the actual construction of power plants and storage facilities will take several years.”

The EU’s top economy, which prior to the Ukraine conflict fueled its industry with Russian gas, had to ramp up electricity imports last year after the government decided to scrap nuclear power as it moves toward renewable energy sources.

Last April, Germany shut down its last three nuclear reactors despite warnings that doing so would actually cause more fossil fuels to be burned.

Germany has set itself a target of cutting greenhouse emissions by 65% by 2030, a plan even more ambitious than the one set by the EU as a whole. However, a report last year by the Federal Environment Agency showed that the goal is likely to be missed as the protracted energy crisis has pushed the switch to renewables in the country down the agenda.

 
The following article writes about how wind farms in Sweden just don't make a profit and that many are on the way to bankruptcy. This despite having very favourable conditions including big subsidies.

Three things stand out here.

One is that Sweden does not appear to have our system of constraint payments:

image-33.png

Second is the fact that low winds mean high market prices, and vice versa. Obviously wind farms make their money when the wind blows, so low prices at those times drastically impact earnings.

In the UK, the CfD subsidy protects wind farms from these fluctuations, whilst ROC subsidies are generous enough to offset low market prices.

And thirdly, the article rightly notes that wind farms don’t have to pay for grid adaption and other wider system costs.
 
Back
Top Bottom