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Shawn Connors's avatar

What needs to happen now is stop shutting down coal plants, reverse carbon capture and other EPA rules for new natural gas plants, and start building traditional GW scale nuclear plants. I am an advocate for re-powering Palisades nuclear plant in southwest Michigan. The general public hasn’t the slightest clue how close they are to not having affordable, reliable power, and once lost will be extremely difficult to reinstate. There’s going to be a lot of confused and pissed off people. All of this is self-inflicted damage.

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Rafe Champion's avatar

A warning from The Energy Realists of Australia

Around the Western world, subsidised and mandated wind and solar power have been displacing conventional power in the electricity supply. Consequently, most of the grids in the west are moving towards a tipping point where the lights will flicker at nights when the wind is low. This is a “frog in the saucepan” effect and it only starts to worry people when it is too late. Too late for Britain and Germany certainly.

https://newcatallaxy.blog/2023/07/11/approaching-the-tipping-point/

Consider the ABC of intermittent energy generation.

A. Input to the grid must continuously match the demand.

B. The continuity of RE is broken on nights with little or no wind.

C. There is no feasible or affordable large-scale storage to bridge the gaps.

Therefore, the green transition is impossible with current storage technology.

The rate of progress towards the tipping point will accelerate as demand is swelled by AI and electrification at large.

In Australia, the transition to unreliable wind and solar power has just hit the wall, while Britain and Germany have passed the tipping point and entered a “red zone,” keeping the lights on precariously with imports and deindustrialization to reduce demand.

The meteorologists never issued wind drought warnings and the irresponsible authorities never checked the wind supply! They even missed the Dunkelflautes that must have been known to mariners and millers for centuries!

https://www.flickerpower.com/images/The_endless_wind_drought_crippling_renewables___The_Spectator_Australia.pdf

There is an urgent need to find out why the meteorologists failed to warn us about wind droughts and why energy planners didn’t check. Imagine embarking on a major irrigation project without forensic investigation of the water supply including historical rainfall figures.

https://quadrant.org.au/news-opinions/climate-change/no-gusts-no-glory/

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