A posting titled “Renewable Power Fuels Europe’s Energy Crisis: by the Las Vegas Review-Journal stated:
“Europe is in the midst of a full-scale energy crisis. Unusually calm weather this year reduced wind power production in countries, including Germany and Denmark. SSE, an energy company in the United Kingdom, saw its renewable energy assets produce 32 percent less electricity than expected since April. Along with less wind, a dry summer reduced hydropower production.
The prices have skyrocketed:
“ In January 2019, the European price of a megawatt hour of electricity from natural gas was around 20 euros. That dropped to under 5 euros in May 2020 as the pandemic reduced demand. Today, it’s more than 70 euros.”
“Things are so bad that Britain recently increased output from coal plants to boost supply. But coal prices have soared, too — they have nearly quadrupled from a year ago.”
“In France, energy bills have gone up 57 percent since January.
“The coming winter months threaten to make this worse. Shortages of gas, which is used for heat, can have deadly consequences.”
When are the public going to realize that wind and solar are unreliable and a nation will not survive if it banks everything on renewables?
Lost in the discussion of Net Zero campaign, (the plan to cease use of fossil fuels) is that today many power sources are supplying energy. Natural gas, coal, oil, nuclear, and hydro are the backbone of a robust power supply system. Coal plants maintain a large supply of coal on their property. This supply can withstand transportation interruptions for example. Hydro usually has a large supply back up. Nuclear changes out about a ¼ or one-third of the fuel rods every 18 to 24 months so they should be able to withstand extended interruptions. Natural gas does not have a significant storage option, but the reliability of the supply pipelines is high. Solar and wind have no control over the sun or the wind; hence they cannot replace fossil fuels.
cbdakota
Climate Change Sanity 