by Color CS
You know, the one comforting thing about the insanity going on in the UK is that Australia doesn’t seem quite so basket-case, suicidally silly. Actually that’s not really true, both countries are barking mad, but thanks to David Cameron its a little less lonely at the loony farm. Democractic dementia has company.
Exhibit A:
In 2008 Ministers were aiming to generate 20 per cent of the country’s energy from renewable sources by 2020. Professor MacKay explained back then, that to reach that, they would have to put wind farms over the entirety of Wales. How did the governing class respond? By 2011, the UK Coalition took that crazy renewable target and doubled it.
Exhibit B:
— Two thirds of Britain’s turbines are fully or partly owned by foreign businesses.
— Total subsidies paid to these non-UK owned farms is £523 million.
— The subsidies paid to local folk are handy for Dukes and whatnot, and those who have large estates (especially ones they don’t live on) who can pick up the £20,000 a year in subsidies — milked from people who don’t have large estates and are forced to pay more for electricity.
Now I’ve got nothing against foreigners earning money from investing, taking risks, and producing something the people of the UK want, which brings me to…
Exhibit C:
— Wind farm paid £1.2 million to produce no electricity.
Because delicate electrical equipment needs a steady supply of electricity, and wind being what it is, wind farms often make too much or too little. When it’s too little, the rest of the grid has to ramp up to make up for it*, and when it’s too much, the grid has to blow up. Well, it’s that or pay scads of money to get the windfarms to stop.
We thought windfarms were wildly costly for electricity, but it seems, it’s a magnitude more so if you want them switched off. £1.2 million is the going rate for 8 hours of nothing. Who knew?
True to form of course, the BBC is protecting the people of the UK from their rulers insanity, by hiding the awkward facts. It’s a religion you know.
Image from Wikimedia
…
* Yes, it costs more when the wind doesn’t blow too. Keeping those other reliable sources ramping up and down costs more and is so inefficient sometimes it produces more CO2 with more windpower than without it.
H/t to Benny Peiser