Filed under: Skeptics are winning.
The EU was always the leader in the Great Green Push, and announcements on Wednesday are an excellent sign. Both the media and politicians are finally coming around, dragged by reality. This is the good news. The bad news is it’s cost hundreds of billions, and there are still renewable targets when there shouldn’t be, but we are over the peak…
Today is a big day in Brussels as the EU has begun the gradual process of rolling back its bankrupting climate and green energy policies. Of course this modest climbdown is not the end of Europe’s climate hysteria that has dominated Brussels for 20 years. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is the beginning of a much deeper retreat of its unilateral approach in coming years. –Benny Peiser, 22 January 2014
The talk is for an “ambitious” 40% target by 2030, but really this is about dropping the legally binding nature of the targets. So as usual in warmist politics, no one is up front and honest. It’s a face-saving move as the green reality falls.
European Commission to ditch legally-binding renewable energy targets
Climbdown on setting mandatory national targets, enforced in the EU courts, will be welcomed by Britain
“A 2009 EU directive set the objective of ensuring that 20pc of the energy used by 2020 should come from renewable sources. ”
“The binding target for renewable energy has probably had more impact on how power is generated and the bills paid by households in Britain than any other single piece of EU legislation.”
The media is turning around: more than half the stories in the UK are negative about renewables.
“A study by British public relations consultancy CCGroup analysed 138 articles about renewables published during July last year in the five most widely circulated British national newspapers: The Sun, The Times, The Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail and Daily Mirror, which enjoy a combined daily circulation of about 6.5 million.
“The analysis revealed a number of trends in the reporting of renewable energy news,” the study found. “First and foremost, the temperature of the media’s sentiment toward the renewables industry is cold. More than 51 per cent of the 138 articles analysed were either negative or very negative toward the industry.”
More than 80 per cent of the articles appeared in broadsheet titles The Times, The Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail, the report says, “but 55 per cent of these articles were either negative or very negative about the industry”.
Two weeks ago, the Czech government decided to end all subsidies for new renewable energy projects at the end of this year.
Now that the Spanish government has dramatically curtailed these subsidies…
No country was in deeper than Germany
Germany has the most expensive energy, “26.8 euro cents (40c) a kilowatt hour”. It has half the world’s solar panels, but while they make up to 40% of the countries electricity in summer, they make nearly 0% in winter, when energy is most desperately needed. Germany is building 20 new coal plants, and its CO2 emissions are rising. This despite the enormous bill most electricity users are paying.
Finally the mainstream press is starting to report the real pain. Cons are always cloaked in good intentions. And this is no different. A stupendous swindle dressed up as being good for the poor and the planet has instead extracted money from the poor towards some of the wealthy. Nearly a million people have lost access to one of the most basic essential services, electricity, thereby rolling back one of the great advances of the last century.
Benny Peiser: “EU members states have spent about €600 billion ($882bn) on renewable energy projects since 2005, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Germany’s green energy transition alone may cost consumers up to €1 trillion by 2030, the German government recently warned.
These hundreds of billions are being paid by ordinary families and small and medium-sized businesses in what is undoubtedly one of the biggest wealth transfers from poor to rich in modern European history. Rising energy bills are dampening consumers’ spending, a poisonous development for a Continent struggling with a severe economic and financial crisis.
The German Association of Energy Consumers estimates that up to 800,000 Germans have had their power cut off ….
Some people have to chop wood again, while others are paid to produce and use inefficient unnecessary energy. Both Germans and Greeks are stealing wood to heat their homes.
“With snow blanketing the ground, it’s the perfect time of year to snuggle up in front of a fireplace. That, though, makes German foresters nervous. When the mercury falls, the theft of wood in the country’s woodlands goes up as people turn to cheaper ways to heat their homes.
Thanks to unrealistic Green ideas (and wasteful Keynsian currency management), real pollution is coming back. Now wood smog is a problem too, and forests are being plundered:
“In this winter of austerity and Depression-era unemployment, a fog of woodsmoke hangs over the Greek capital on cold nights.
It’s coming from the tens of thousands of fireplaces and wood-burning stoves Athenians are using to heat their homes. Most can no longer afford heating oil, the price of which has risen 40 percent since last year. The government also cut a fuel subsidy for low-income families earlier this month.
Some Greeks buy cheap firewood; others used their discarded Christmas trees as kindling. The most desperate are burning old furniture and raiding protected forests. Someone even hacked away the remains of a 3,000-year-old olive tree where Plato is said to have taught.
It’s the beginning of the end:
Benny Peiser: ” There can be little doubt Europe’s flagship climate policy has turned into an utter failure. In a realistic assessment of Europe’s policy shift, the International Energy Agency recently noted that “climate change has quite frankly slipped to the backburner of policy priorities”.
Germany’s green energy strategy is likely to change significantly after federal elections on September 22; Merkel has promised voters to drastically curtail the €20bn burden they have to pay renewable energy investors every year should she win.”
h/t GWPF
Meanwhile in hot Australia…
Source.
The end is nigh.
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And the same thing applies in the cold places… When it was cold in Britain, a few Christmases ago (and for a few weeks, either side), the wind turbines didn’t turn for weeks on end. Imagine if they were they only source of power (which appears to be the green dream). This is how the greens envisage the future: http://toryardvaark.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/roadmap-to-paris-infographic.jpg. Have a look at the way that fossil fuels decline to nothing, with nothing else replacing them. (Apologies, by the way, if Jo has already shown this; I don’t recall seeing it before.)
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Owen, at -30C or lower, here in the arctic, there is usually no wind or sun.
The wind turbines are spectral figures and solar panels snow covered trash.
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In Australia you have peak power demands in heatwaves. In Britain we have peak power demands with extreme cold – the few nights of the year when the temperature plunge to below -5 degrees. The weather systems that cause them are similar – windless, high pressure areas. So wind power in both countries is useless to meet annual peak demand. We both need fossil fuel energy as backup for wind, raising the unit price of from fossil fuels as well.
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Fixed.
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Madness is rare in individuals — but in groups, parties, nations, and ages — it is the rule.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Stealing wood to heat their homes. That says it all.
What a convoluted way of stealing from the poor,
Was invented by one Mr Gore.
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That’s stealing wood in Greece, one of the poorest members of the eu (so far), but a long way from being the coldest. Finland is much wealthier (until Brussels fixes that) and more forested, but a heck of a lot colder. I think most books in Western Europe are made out of Scandinavian trees and most of the wooden furniture certainly is, but, if the Finns and Swedes start needing to burn their trees, to keep warm, Western Europe won’t be dependent on Norway and Russia just for its gas, but for timber, as well.
That would mean that the architects of an undemocratic economic bloc had deliberately handed over the bloc’s future energy supply to two countries outside the bloc.
Time for me to invest in some more jumpers (those are woollen clothing in Britain, not wallabies).
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Tasmanians are burning wood at present, the nights are very cool, and government-supplied power costs a lot there, according to my sister at St Helens.
Here in Newcastle, my tomatoes, passionfruit, cucumbers, lillipillies, petunias, and everything except hardy natives have had a very poor season. Nights are too cool. Here today we have had two cool fronts since 11.30am and at present this evening the temperature is 17C, mid-summer.
I have been gardening here for 38 years since I was 16, have a very good sense of conditions, and I really do see cooling. Tomatoes are a good clue when they don’t ripen before Christmas. Interestingly also, no native Christmas bush have bloomed in this part of the coast this year, no wisteria flowers, no crickets are chirping at night because the nights are too cool.
I don’t keep temperature records, I go by my personal observations of myplants and their growth and produce, the local birdlife, and the fact that our cats don’t try to get out at night at present, so it is a cool summer here at Newcastle.
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I live in Sydney and often take the train up to Woy Woy or Wyong, just for fun. There is a thriving, natural stand of Christmas bush between Cowan station and the first tunnel, and it was well in bloom this year. There is also a magnificent specimen in a garden just outside Woy Woy station, and its display this year was a delight, so I guess your comment is location specific. What part of the coast do you live in, Maree?
As with all climate matters, location makes the difference.
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It does seem that more and more people are prepared to go public with their views now. Id like to see a study at the end of 2014 on the ratio of stories in the media in favour of expanding conventional energy sources vs stories about expanding renewables. It would just be interesting to see how the MSM takes up what appears to be a growing undercurrent of questions around the logic of ignoring abundant energy sources in favour of expensive, less efficient options.
http://www.nce.co.uk/opinion/there-is-no-rhyme-or-reason-to-energy-policy/8657608.article?blocktitle=Most-commented&contentID=-1
http://dailycaller.com/2013/12/27/uk-towns-blow-millions-on-wind-turbines-with-190-year-payback-periods/
http://gulfbusiness.com/2014/01/middle-east-faces-oil-challenges-shale-within-bp/#.UuITNK-4aUk
The age of oil and gas is not only alive, its just kicking off. Who knows we may even get back to the days of breeding people like this again…
http://stratocat.com.ar/artics/excelsior-e.htm
Instead of people who would do something like whipper snipper an experimental cereal crop…
http://youtu.be/7xQWSgXgfl4
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Interesting article by Bernard Ingham; pity that the only comment so far is from a Green shill.
Oh, the irony of “Greens” using infernal combustion engines to destroy plants!
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it is difficult to know how much this “green crap” (supposedly the UK prime minister’s words) has damaged the world economies and especially those of the UK.
Solar power, if you live in Europe, has the obvious problems, of night, clouds and winter – so it is expensive and unreliable, not to mention ugly.
Wind power, if you live anywhere, has the obvious problems of wind variability especially in high pressure systems (when it is either very hot or cold and you have the greatest need for electricity) when the air is almost completely still – so it is expensive and unreliable, not to mention ugly.
However, we live in a world obsessed by ecoloon propaganda and politicians equally obsessed at being seen to be ‘saving the world’.
I am not particularly hopeful the European Union will do the right thing, economic sanity has never been their strong point, they prefer empty political gestures designed to stifle growth, but we shall see.
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I do not believe that any pommie pm has ever described the absolute waste of taxpayers money as “green crap”.
I will go further and declare that England’s one chance to survive as England is to declare war on Australia and let us come in and ‘conquer’ you.
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NFA
I happen to agree with you, I doubt he actually said that as his Greenpeace wife would have given him hell, but I am cynical enough to believe he thought it was a good political ploy to start a rumour he said that and then to half heartedly deny it.
In my opinion, Cameron will be gone by year end, especially if the Conservatives want to win the next general election. He is loathed by women, despised by climate sceptics, distrusted by euro-sceptics and viewed as an out of touch toff by much of the electorate. Perhaps most important, the Conservatives are going to be trounced by UKIP (the only UK party with a sensible energy policy) in this May’s European elections.
As for invading Britain, bring your climate and good humour with you, but leave your beer, ecoloons and accents behind.
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David Cameron’s alleged comments about “Green Crap” were reported in the Guardian, so they must be true. 🙂
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/nov/21/david-cameron-green-crap-comments-storm
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Well then it seems Mr Cameron is in the same boat as the Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott. Abbott is claimed to have said ‘climate change is crap’. But in both cases actions will speak louder than words.
Mr Abbott has made a good start by promising to ditch our Carbon Tax and refusing to taxpayer subsidise the propagandist unit that was the ‘Climate Commission. But he also needs to indicate his intension on hopefully ditching Australia’s even more destructive Renewable Energy Target which sounds almost exactly the same as Germany?
But I think the political tide might turn faster once the corruption of
Science is dealt with. All Western politicians turn to the so called ‘consensus’ on human induced climate change in justifying these stupid wasteful renewable energy policies. Fix the science and you fix the politics?
The longer the world continues to refuse to warm as the high priests of global warming said it would the sooner science will be forced back to reality and our politicians will have no rock to hide behind.
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David Cameron has further to go than Tony Abbott. Cameron ran his campaign promising to be the greenest government ever. He then ended up in coalition with the Lib Dems, who are strongly green and very pro-Europe
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By my measurements he comes close, if by green he meant inexperience,naive and clueless.
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Cameron isn’t referred to as Camerloon for nothing. Most unlikely that he referred to Green Crap.
The EU WILL change. Not because many functionaries and politicians are in favour, indeed they’re against it, but by force of reality. Germany is going back to coal for electricity, and Spain, Italy, Greece and Portugal cannot afford the subsidies for “renewable” energy schemes. Germany and Holland are cutting those subsidies, even in the lunatic area of UK generation are some cuts being talked about.
Following the decision some years ago by politicians and public servants to switch Germany to renewables, and the decision nearly 2 years ago to shut down nuclear a.s.a.p. the cost of electricity has risen sharply. Less well known is that disruptions to supply have skyrocketed as well. Last year german industry had had enough and various groups lined up to give Merkel an ultimatum “reduce the cost of electricity or we will move our factories elsewhere”. If she wants to remain in politics, let alone as Chancellor, she has no choice. Having entered a coalition with people who still think that “green ways are good” is going to take some fancy footwork. Hence the description of the first 5 new coal fired plants as “backup for wind farms”.
Germany will wind up with excess capacity producing cheap electricity, and they are joined to the rest of Europe, so cheap coal will drive out expensive renewables.
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I totally disagree that the EU WILL change.
The MAD Europeans, and England is now locked in, are looking at massive economic dislocation and disruption so How can they change?
They, whomever “THEY” are, have created the seed for the one thing “THEY” were purported to have been striving to avoid.
And it is going to end up in massive economic dislocation and disruption with the same dysfunctional Governments that have pushed for Global Warming as a panacea.
The EU is/are MAD basteds
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The decision to leave the la-la-land of the European Energiewende had little to do with CAGW Scientology and everything to do with the economic disaster that is the EU. Germany has led the way, principally to avoid social and economic breakdown due to lack of affordable, readily available energy. Frau Merkel is well aware of the dangers to German democracy in times of economic stress and has moved pragmatically and swiftly once the German political climate was benign enough to do so. There can be no doubt that, “The Quiet Sun”, has had an influence both in European politics and in the European Warmist camp. even Met Office AGW activists are now citing a weak Sun as one of a number of reasons for the
cessationpause in global temperature rise, dodgy stats or no dodgy stats. The long row back to reality has begun.360
It would appear that Government Ministers in several countries are actually talking of seceding from the EU. A subject that would be verboten a little while ago.
The pragmatic domestic costs of the experiment are getting to the point of being unsustainable.
Word is that the EU will either break up, or try to federalise.
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Is it any wonder that Vladimir Putin is nearly always pictured smiling?
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Europe has recent memories, and so does Putin. I can’t believe anyone in Europe would return to the politics and war of Europe in the 20thC, but fuel poverty and poor employment aren’t the way to keep people happy.
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Reality strikes in the EU. The lunacy of “fast tracking RE” is finally coming home to roost. No AGW for 15 years. So there was absolutely no reason to go down this track of “economic suicide”. As for the decision makers who have put the EU into their current economic “dysfunctional plight”, if you have not already disappeared, I would do so very soon. There should be an inquiry into how this farce happened in the EU. Never again should a scenario like this be allowed to occur, ie making such a large change to ones mode of energy supply (at great cost) with the inevitable destruction of ones economy and standard of living. Some will blame the GFC – this did have an impact but combined with the “RE fast tracking”, there could only be one outcome – a very negative one.
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Having linked straight into this thread , for a minute there I thought :- the EU fast tracking Religious Education ? Surely not ! Until I saw what the thread was about.
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As their economies continue to decline and some of the members of the EU burn as people riot more and more, the Green energy targets will be surely delegated to the dustbin where they belong in the first place. Pragmatism always wins in the end. I sometimes wonder if the Greens planned all this along to destroy nations and put in place a totalitarian regime not much unlike Hitler’s. But then I realise they are not that smart.
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A couple of links::
Germany’s second-biggest city wants its 8m residents to be car-free in 15-20 years.
“The green spaces in the city’s seven municipalities will be networked, and more will be added to help absorb CO2, help moderate Hamburg’s climate — with the city having seen the average temperature rise 1.2ºC in the last 60 years.
It will also be designed to help prevent flooding, which has become a growing threat with Hamburg’s sea level rising about 20cm over the 60 years and predicted to rise another 30cm by 2100, according to the Guardian report.
In 15 to 20 years you’ll be able to explore the city exclusively on bike and foot …”
. . . . .
Peasants Restless, Nobility Concerned
“Lord Mandelson, the former EU Commissioner [and one of the presiding geniuses of the Blair regime] said any vote would be a “lottery” in which the electorate would be swayed by irrelevant issues.
“We should be very wary of putting our membership in the hands of a lottery in which we have no idea what factors, completely unrelated to Europe, will affect the outcome…”
And if you want another reminder of how the EU apparat regards the voters, that will do just fine.“
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The North Sea floods are rare but “monstrous” events. There was a big one in 1962.
As Richard Lindzen remarked many years ago; the “global warming” would mostly become evident in temperate zone, reducing the energy gradients that drive large storms.
I noticed the trick of temperature rise in 60 years. Using the base of one of the coldest and most dismal/stormy periods in NW European weather. 61 years ago, much of the Netherlands was flooded after dykes were breached during a heavy storm.
Germans seem to have forgotten quickly. From the first link:
Stuff like that sends shivers down my spine.
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“In 15 to 20 years you’ll be able to explore the city exclusively on bike and foot,” a spokeswoman for the city’s department of urban planning and the environment told the Guardian.”
What? No horses?
You don’t have to go to Hamburg to get such nonsense from local government. Our daughter wants to build a backyard shed, but the council planner demands an industrial grade slab for it. Got to justify her existence somehow, I suppose.
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With the temperature today soaring to a balmy -8 C, Hamburg should be renamed Nirvana. Can’t wait to visit. Has anyone told Clover Moore?
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at last there’s a light at the end of the tunnel – I have copped so much flack from my lefty friends over their worship of solar and wind over the past years.
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there’s one problem with flack……..
wind turbines are near ground level. !
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Set the fuse time/altitude low.
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And don’t forget to arm.
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come on you folk… stop cluttering up this blog with potential threats to destroy property
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Would you prefer real threats?
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Janama haven’t you been able to convert your leftie friends? I have made some headway. You have to show them those UAH & Weatherbell Global Temps Charts/Maps and they then may see the “big picture” (the helicopter view), and then maybe, just maybe, they will then hopefully realize that the Sun is the main driver of Earth’s Climate, not CO2.
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Your “lefty friends”????
When I find out someone is a “lefty”, I have nothing to do with them – I have no “lefty friends”.
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O/T – great article in The Australian today.
“Ian Lowe, professor of science, technology and society at Queensland’s Griffith University, and president of the Australian Conservation Foundation, said:
“The NOAA report confirms at a global scale what we know from Australian Bureau of Meteorology data released recently: the world is getting steadily warmer.
“While some media outlets are repeating the myth spread by deniers that there has been a pause in warming, the NOAA data confirm that the trend of global warming is continuing. It also confirms that we are seeing more extremes of weather, as the science has been warning us to expect for 25 years.
“This is further evidence that our governments need to pay attention to the science rather than uninformed self-appointed critics, and take concerted action, both to reduce our domestic production of greenhouse gases and to halt the disastrous proposals to expand fossil fuel exports.”
Oh dear. The pause is a myth spread by deniers. Never mind the increasing number of peer-reviewed papers testifying to its reality, its significance and its interpretation.
Last week’s Nature which, following in the footsteps of many media outlets, considers the pause to be the biggest problem in climate science, quoted Gabriel Vecchi, a climate scientist at the US NOAA’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory in Princeton, New Jersey: “A few years ago you saw the hiatus, but it could be dismissed because it was well within the noise. Now it’s something to explain.”
What Professor Lowe is doing is calling science journals and climate scientists “deniers” just for pointing out the evident lack of a warming trend.”
The Australian Link
It credits: David Whitehouse is editor of the online site The Observatory.
I couldn’t find The Observatory website but I did find this:
“Dr. David Whitehouse is the world’s most cited science journalist. He has a doctorate in astrophysics from the world famous Jodrell Bank radio observatory. He then worked at the Mullard Space Science Laboratory of University College, London. He has been a consultant to many space agencies and involved in many space missions. He became the BBC Radio science correspondent in 1988, and between 1998 and 2006 was an internet pioneer as Science Editor of BBC News Online. His many awards include a Glaxo for newspaper science writing, a record five Netmedia awards (internet Oscars) and he is the only Briton to win the European Internet Journalist of the Year. He also won the first Arthur award for space journalism (named after Arthur C Clarke). He is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, and author of four books, The Moon: A Biography, The Sun: A Biography, Astronaut, and Arch of Heaven: The Science and Mystery of the Rainbow. He is a regular commentator on TV and radio, and the asteroid 4036 was renamed Asteroid Whitehouse after him.”
Link
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Poor Prof Lowe.. he can see his grants slowly drifting away into the sunset.
That multi-million dollar water-front mansion may not actually eventuate !!!
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I reckon you should phone him up, and tell him that his wireless has stopped working, and he is no longer getting the news.
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maybe he can ‘phone-a-friend’ in Ian Chubb
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What really worries me is the CEFC.
CEFC chief executive Oliver Yates said the corporation had already lent $560 million since July 2013. Why is this government approving this deadbeat organisation investing in all sorts of deals with the GREEN renewable energy sector. If blooody windmills and solar are now more competitive than coal & gas, why aren’t the investors running with it. Because they’re all on the gravy train of the GREEN pigs.
Oliver Yates:
Yates noted that while the RET is up for review, both ministers Hunt and Macfarlane had repeatedly stated that the government’s policy is for 20 per cent renewables by 2020.
And this by Tristan Edis of the Climate Spectator singing the song of GAIA.
Here is he is trying to compare fossil fuel with renewables and justify his little sunny windy day dream.
The time has come to really push to get RID of the RET. This is the killer of Australia at the moment. This is the last bastion of denalists like Tritan Edis to keep open the funding supply of the grubby little Green renewable money tree in Australia.
It’s now time to get RID of the RET.
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and I will step straight into the political arena here and totally agree with you that if the Abbott LNP Government does not get rid of the Howard LNP Government RET or Large Scale RET (or whatever the carpet baggers call it) then there should be open warfare in Australia!
and I will further state that if the LNP ever appoint Turnbull, or similar type of person, to another position ever again then kindly expect an Australian Rum Rebellion!
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Now that sounds like a lot more fun than a TEA party!
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When Australian folk begin to realise their massive losses in their individual superannuation funds I think a Rum Rebellion would make a tea party look very tame.
Couple that with Public Service, including University, Superannuation Funds that have propped up green scams then quite frankly I would expect if the truth were known then all so called Universities would be burnt to the ground and there would be no further investigative progress at all.
Post-normal science is bringing The Dark Age as fast as it can.
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Gee NFA, up the page you are criticising a bit of banter and here you are advocating rebellion?
Consistency, old chap.
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Dave, patience is in order.
In fact, the devolving of the scam will require order commencing with the repeal of the carbon tax.
Then the cascade effect will play out from that point.
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Here is the relevant ministers Email,[email protected]
If enough of us pester him,he may be forced to drop these Green-Looney skeams.
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Turnbull? Malcolm has no influence on climate policy whatsoever.
Keep the rage though, as the great epiphany to come will be more believable.
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scaper…
I agree, to be patient, but the problem is the power bills.
Everyone I speak to has the same problem. The price increases are unjustified and becoming close to where average families will experience fuel poverty.
Here is the power prices over the last 14 years or so. Virtually all electricity prices here in Queensland have tripled since 2006/2007. We have abundant coal, the generators haven’t been upgraded and the government blame distribution???
Everyone is becoming extremely angry over having to pay nearly triple that of Canada and double that of the USA.
Get rid of solar subsidies, RET, Green Energy Grants and get back to providing cheap power to residential, retail and manufacturing, and then you’ll see Australia really flourish.
The people are now demanding power prices be reduced to reasonable levels, as the politicians, Greens, ALP, LNP etc couldn’t care less. They are on the public teat.
The anger is building and quickly. We (the public) are sick of the excuses and lies.
Soon, and very soon the backlash will start. I’ve written to my local member (idiot Clive Palmer) and my retail provider AGL, and demanded a justification for the tripling of my power bill in just 7 years. Also stated that I will only pay 18 cents per Kw at current CPI increase over the period.
People are getting the shiits big time.
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Dave, I share the frustration but the repeal of the so called ‘carbon tax’ has to be the first skittle to knock down.
Thanks to the left in the Senate, the will of the people who gave the government a clear mandate are being frustrated.
Will just have to wait until July. Personally, I would prefer a DD election.
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Dave – it is not only the electricity costs that have risen – but also the replacement costs of hot water systems. We need to replace ours. We have a 250 litre mains pressure system, that runs on off-peak electricity – and we pay less than a dollar a day for hot water.
Because the hot water system is more than 3 metres from the neighbours windows or doors, we cannot replace with same (less than 3 metres we can). A replacement with same will set us back $1,300 including installation. We are now obliged to changed to either heat pump, gas, or solar assisted electricity. Quotes so far range from $4,500 to $7,000. So the distance from our neighbours determines how much we can “pollute”. The silly thing is that we self limited our hot water use so as not to run out of hot water – but if we go for gas we will not need to limit our use of gas or water.
Bill Shorten claimed that the Liberals are slugging the poor – yet all this came in under Labor.
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I’m afraid you have completely misunderstood EU politics. This is not a climb down or a retreat. Barrosa is a Moaist dictator he doesn’t do climb down. What he is doing is passing the buck. Here, in france, they are still imposing ecotaxes and have very recently banned fracking yet again. The french routier have been blocking the routes and protesting for months and nothing has changed. Hollande, le president, has been raising taxes as far and as fast as he can. It costs € 8000 to register a car that gives more than 250 gr co²/km. That was raised this year from €6000.
You would be very niave to think that the commisariat is giving up on it’s green policies. It isn’t happening and it won’t happen until we drag out the last guillotine in the Musée de Paris, tow it to Brussells and start chopping.
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I agree that Barrosa is a pretentious buffoon with the manner of a street-gang enforcer. He does all the arm-waving, but Frau. Merkel controls the EU’s purse strings. She who pays the piper calls the tune and the tune she’s calling is cheap energy. Even the unspeakable Ed Davey, UK Minister for the Environment and the ecoloon’s ecoloon, has almost unnoticed completed a u-turn of astonishing proportions even for a Lib-Dem and is now welcoming fracking as if he had supported it from the first. The French economy under M. le Bedhopper is disintegrating daily. It’s difficult to see how his administration can survive a full term. You have a point about the Green Hydra – cut off one head and 2 grow in it’s place, Years of inattention have allowed the Haters of Mankind the opportunity to dig themselves in all across the political machinery of Nation and super-Nation. It will take a generation to remove their malign influence from polite society.
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It is treason:
Foundations have begun to be laid at the Monaro site in the New South Wales south east of what will become the State’s biggest wind farm project.
. . .
Meanwhile, in the real world …
Coal-fired power stations supply 70 per cent of China’s energy, compared to a world average of 30 per cent.
Despite the latest measures, China’s consumption of coal will rise 38 per cent by 2020, according to Gerard Burg from National Australia Bank.
“As China’s economy continues to grow, its absolute energy consumption is also going to rise.”
China has made substantial efforts to increase the use of renewables and new technology, but only 10 per cent of the nation’s energy comes from renewable sources, including hydro.
“China’s the world’s largest coal producer so it has a lot of access to relatively cheap coal.”
. . . .
And not ONE politician will stop the destruction of Australia.
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Bingo.
CAGW
Created by, orchestrated by and currently protected from investigation by our bureaucracies.
Destruction of public wealth? Not computed yet.
But if and when the taxpayers recognize the magnitude of this theft from the poor and the many, for the benefit of the few and well connected, think France 1780s.
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Don’t be fooled by short term impressions.
A major new treaty is being planned and parts of it will be revealed in the coming months. The purpose of this will be to bring the Eurozone much closer to being a single country and this will necessitate member states giving up most of the final remnants of their independence as sovereign states.
Part of the new treaty will be the Single European Energy Market, which will give the EU total control of all matters relating to energy, power generation, distribution and the environmental issues.
The outgoing Commission leadership sees no reason to proceed with their renewables ambitions today while member states still have some freedom in this area. After the treaty is implemented in a few years from now, the Commission will effectively be in complete charge of all energy matters and a great deal more as well.
160
A major new treaty will spark referendums across Europe. The Eastern bloc, still recovering after 50 years of Soviet slavery, will be very difficult to persuade to adopt any measures which materially affect their efforts to catch up with the rest of Europe. Spain, Portugal and Germany are in desperate trouble after plumping for Big Green and the mooted SEEM will be difficult for the europhiles to sell to a suspicious electorate. While the game is heavily stacked in favour of a new socialist european empire, there’s still plenty of popcorn left to be eaten. The UK is better off out.
180
The UK maybe better off out but they still have their grossly inefficient “giant wind turbines” – so many UK billion pounds pissed down the drain for little gain.
120
We, in france, had a referrendum on the EU many years ago. We voted against entry and further integration. The government said we made a mistake and ignored the vote.
120
Very true SC.
Before we pop the corks about the EU change of heart, we should consider the thoughts of a well informed and often cynical observer of European matters, Richard North.
http://www.eureferendum.com/blogview.aspx?blogno=84653
To paraphrase Steve McIntyre; pea, thimble, watch.
70
Good Evening Jo,
What an absolutely fantastic start to 2014.
First we had “Turney’s Turkeys”!! – And now we have a few gigantic slices of humble pie having to be eaten by: Al Gore, David Cameron, Angela Merkel & Christiana Figueres!!
By the way, whatever happened to the “Greatest Moral Challenge of our time”??!!
Cheap shot I know, but I just couldn’t resist!!
Anyways, there’s still a few more months, maybe years, for this to fully implode, but boy oh boy it sure is looking good from this particular vantage point.
Now all we need is Electricity Bill Shorten to see the error of his ways. Then again, maybe not, let’s simply have a double dissolution & flush all the green and green-lite detritis out of Canberra!!!!
Maintain the rage, Reformed warmist of Logan
110
The problem all along here is that most misunderstood of terms, Capacity Factor. (CF)
It’s nice to say that a nice new wind plant has gone in with a total power of 500MW. They claim at the front end when the plant is proposed that the Plant will have a CF of (a basically theoretical) 38%. In actuality newer wind nacelles will provide a yearly CF closer to 30%, and here only three years back, Germany’s total Wind power CF was barely making 20%.
So now we have a wind capacity of 30%, so that 500 MW plant now has a real time total of only 150MW, which is poor to say the least.
Another thing I am absolutely caned for, mainly because no one understands CF is when I equate that CF back to time.
If that wind plant can only manage a 30% CF, that is averaged across the whole year, so realistically you can, and let me repeat that, you CAN equate that to the daily time period as well.
So, while a wind plant may deliver parts of its power across the full 24 hour period, it is the equivalent of a wind power plant delivering its maximum rated power for only 30% of that full 24 hour day, or only 7.2 hours.
This is where people are very slowly beginning to wake up to this lack of power delivery from these plants.
There is also the factor that these wind towers only have a (also theoretical) life span of 25 years at the absolute best.
The same applies across all three of the renewables of choice, Wind, Solar PV and Concentrating solar power, CSP) also referred to as Solar Thermal power.
While CSP is considered to be the way of the future, despite being horrendously expensive for what amounts to virtually minute amounts of power, it is a little known fact that the CF of CSP is barely managing to make 29%, slightly worse in fact than wind.
Solar PV, where the panels generate the electricity, that CF is (also theoretical) 17% and most of them are barely managing 13%.
So, while renewable power has so much hype attached to it, it comprehensively fails to deliver.
The Nameplate Capacities are low in virtually every case, and when that CF is taken into account, then the totals are almost laughable.
Once these truths begin to gain traction with the public, then people will wonder why they allowed themselves to be sucked into the vortex of getting rid of traditional power generation for something that patently does not work.
Imagine if you will that you are looking at a new Mercedes Benz in the showroom, and the advertising blurb mentions that the engine might start only one time in three, and if it does start, there is the possibility that you will only average making your destination one time in three. Imagine how many they would sell.
The real truth about renewable power of choice, wind and solar is the same as that.
Tony.
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Tony: Can you contact me through my blog–my email address is there. There are a couple of “new” turbine designs our there and I wondered if you had heard of them. Thanks.
10
From the very beginning it was fraud, there were never any good intentions,just corruption and fraud. They have all got away with it, millions upon millions of dollars, but no one will be prosecuted,because all of the governments were in on it,no such thing as justice exists for them. They and all there cronies are above the law.
160
“their” cronies
20
Correction. “their cronies.
20
“The hysterical reaction to Fukushima, convinced the German government to be first movers, and this winter, it’s the ordinary people who will yet again pay the price for others making bad decisions.”
http://thepointman.wordpress.com/2012/10/26/examples-will-have-to-be-made-germany/
Pointman
150
Pointman, maybe Frau Merkel is not as silly as some suggest. It could be possible that she used the Fukushima disaster to announce the closure of the nuclear power industry, which by all accounts is approaching its “use by date”, and while the ecoloons are distracted and dancing in the streets she greatly expands the lignite power industry.
60
I keep pointing out to my lefty mates that if they really want to run the country on renewables we should dam all the rivers on the eastern seaboard and Gippsland and put in huge hydro power generation and cover all the hills with wind turbines and solar panels that pump water back up to the reservoirs when and if they produce power.
All I get back in return is silence.
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Jo
That’s the beautiful thing about truth.
It. Will. Out.
Cheers,
Speedy
60
Sorry Speedy
What is Truth?
12
And yet, President Obama has learned nothing. Senate hearings were held 16 January 2014 on his Climate Action Plan.
Judith Curry, Chair of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Georgia Tech presented testimony which was a breath of fresh air, but the President and his party will ignore common sense.
“Multiple lines of evidence presented in the IPCC AR5 WG1 report suggest that the case for
anthropogenic warming is weaker than the previous assessment AR4 in 2007. Anthropogenic global
warming is a proposed theory whose basic mechanism is well understood, but whose magnitude is
highly uncertain. The growing evidence that climate models are too sensitive to CO2 has implications
for the attribution of late 20th century warming and projections of 21st century climate.
“If the recent warming hiatus is caused by natural variability, then this raises the question as to what
extent the warming between 1975 and 2000 can also be explained by natural cimate variability.”
http://www.epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Files.View&FileStore_id=07472bb4-3eeb-42da-a49d-964165860275
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Don,
the beauty of the obamanation promoting alternate energy and promising the new green future, is his track record.
Every time he speaks domestically gun sales spike.
Every promise he has made to date has produced the opposite effect.
So with Obama supporting big green ectera, they are doomed.
40
Whilst the EU and Germany talk about renewable energy reduction and cost cutting the world bank is still pushing for more spending
40
Hey Bones,
That is interesting that you reference “the EU and Germany” as if Germany is no longer part of the EU which indicates to me that French “Republic” is the dead weight of Europe.
10
NFA,now you’re getting picky,maybe I should put it another way just for you.The EU talk about rolling back their policies on renewable energy while Germany,part of the EU,independently wish to reduce the cost of their power production.Feel better now but the world bank still want more investment in the same old scam.
30
http://eureferendum.com/
EU Politics Binding targets on energy
Hi people
Before everyone gets carried away over these crooks I would read what Richard North has to say about the dreaded EU Commission.
The Commission stops work in May I think and he says and a new Commission selected later this year. As far as Richard North is concerned The current Commission can say whatever it likes because it won’t be binding on the new commission.
eureferendum is a good site for reading between the lines.
50
I noticed it Jo…
That’s, errr, 97% 🙂
40
The overall lesson I’ve learned from the many years of these Climate Change shenanigans…
Don’t listen to activists who don’t know anything about:
(1) Real world economics
(2) Science and Engineering
AND
(3) Human Behaviour
…In fact, one should speak against them and publicly point out their flawed ideas in practice!
That’s the biggest lesson for all of us! If we don’t speak up, we all suffer!
70
First they came for the poor;
then they came for the marginalised;
then they came for the industrious;
then they came for the (3) Human Behaviourists; and then they said
…In fact, one should speak against them and publicly point out their flawed ideas in practice!
01
Re #1: windpower low when heat is high.
Ah, is it possible that high heat in Australia is not a function of CO2 but the loss of oceanic cooling from offshore winds?
Windpower vs temperatures from sunup to sundown. Would that tell the tale that the Australian government needs to install reverse turbines on the coast, to suck ocean air and fire it inland when temperatures start to go up? Powered by coal?
Actually, a serious question: are temps high because of ground level solar insolation under cloudless skies and no wind? Can the Australian temperature record be correlated with cloud cover and wind?
20
When I was a small boy some 65 or more years ago, my father installed a 12 volt Wind Lite generator [ brand name of a small wind turbine ] on it’s 30 foot tower and we had the amazing experience of being able to flick a switch and have electric light just like they did in the towns and cities.
The old man sold the property a year or so later and moved on to another farming location.
The people who bought that property, just a few months later went through a six week long period without light as that was how long the calm period lasted and so no wind and no wind generator to charge the batteries for the lights.
Nothing has changed in the way the weather systems have acted during my lifetime of 75 years plus.
Its still all weather that is almost completely unpredictable beyond a dozen or so days ahead and thats coming from a farmer and a glider pilot and power pilot of over 50 years who has watched weather all his life from the view of both his profession and his sport.
90
The fundamental problem with global warming, green power, etc., in Germany, even France which supplies the rest of Europe with excess power from its nuclear reactors, is that the politicians are predominantly lawyers, unionists, etc., who are basically scientifically ignorant and do not understand that you require steam, or hydro turbines to provide base-load power. Take our local parliament, apart from Dr.Jensen, I do not think there are many who have enough knowledge to refute “green science” and if they did are drowned-out by political considerations.
110
Actually it goes deeper than that. Politicians see it as a nice excuse to increase their power. They do not care what the science is.
70
Political folks, (whether it be politicians, interest groups, activists, etc) don’t understand or care for science.
The only use they have for science is as a tool to suit THEIR agendas.
The worst group are activists with academic credentials. (They use credentials to get into areas so they can push their activism where it doesn’t belong.)
The thing that angers me about them, is that most of them do NOT care of the long term consequences they cause AND they are NOT held accountable for what they’ve done.
That’s the most important part to me; they can do whatever they want and they don’t have to be responsible for their actions.
They will never admit they were wrong. They will never be sued. They will never be sent to jail. They will never be asked to return the money they’ve taken or spent. They will never be publicly crucified for pushing amazingly stupid ideas that are fundamentally flawed. They will rely on the general public to forget the problems they have caused…While leaving the public (future generations) to foot the bill and live with the consequences.
100
For the last, short period of human history yes.
Hard times produce hard people.
When the scapegoating begins, unless the Presstitutes can provide cover, the order of sacrifice will be, climate scientist, policy advisor, politician.
Let the games begin.
Probably about the time this part of the( 60 year ish) cycle of northern weather is recognized as the low part.
20
Hey Robert O
“The fundamental problem with global warming, green power, etc…. France which supplies the rest of Europe with excess power from its nuclear reactors…”
Why is it that a country like France can have Nuclear Power generation facilities and companies that run around the world selling that ability, along with massive weapons production and sales into the Middle East, yet have NO green anti-nuclear protestors like Germany and England has had?
Why is it that France is the greatest stumble to free trade in the entire world?
10
As a beancounter, I like to the costs. I would suggest that the reason Germany’s bills are not much higher is due to only a small minority of the electricity coming from renewables.
Take the British example, expressed in Australian cents per kilowatt hour.
The consumer pays about 25 to 30 cents for electricity.
The wholesale price for electricity is about 10 cents.
If a coal-fired power station converts to burning wood chips, such as Ironbridge, they get an extra 8 cents. An onshore wind farm also gets an extra 8 cents. An offshore wind farm gets an additional 16 cents. A small onshore wind turbine will get 32 cents.
In addition there are the transmission costs. It may surprise you to know that the best sites for wind turbines are far away from the centres of population. For some inexplicable reason, the centres of population are no where near the best sites for wind farms – exposed places with strong winds for much of the year. So there is a huge investment in large scale transmission lines from the North of Scotland to Central England. The adds a few more cents to the cost of “renewable” electricity.
The UK has just ordered up a new 3.2GW nuclear plant, to supply 7% of national requirements at a minimum price of 18 cents.
Most of the recent growth has been in offshore wind turbines. So the UK is replacing the fossil fueled electricity costing 10 cents with offshore wind costing 26 cents. With increased infrastructure this is about 35 cents before the normal grid maintenance and local connection / metering costs are added.
40
Manicbeancounter,turn this round the other way,why would you build you’re town in an exposed area where strong winds will be constantly blowing up you’re pass.
10
Bones
Look at it historically. Like wind turbines, coal-fired power stations were built by the source of the fuel. But in the Industrial Revolution coal fields had originally caused towns to grow around them. So the generators were both close to the fuel source and many of the customers. They were also not far from other centres of population without coal. The wind turbines are often hundreds of kilometres from the main grid, hence massive construction schemes like the Beauly-Denny power line.
20
Off-shore wind-turbines..
Nary a word from the environmental groups.
What effect will those huge magnets have on sea creature navigation.
How will the infrasonics affect nautical wild-life.
There are so many unanswered questions that SHOULD/MUST be answered by the once-were environment groups.
Because right now, THEY JUST DON’T CARE, so long as it follows their agenda.
30
The UK has lost the plot. Completely.
Cost to the UAE with it’s 4 new reactors comin online this decade, and having oursourced everything to KEPCO, is less than 6 cents/kWh at the power station, amortised over projected life.
It costs LESS to build operate a “thermal” power station in cooler climates.
40
Actually this is one of the more sensible decisions they’ve made in the last 8 years.
That doesn’t mean that paying TWICE the current price for French nuclear power (and nearly 5 times that from a new coal plant) and guaranteeing that price for years isn’t rather stupid, but in the UK at least the money is being spent on something that actually works when needed.
The lunatics in charge still want wind farms, preferably offshore where they are more expensive and less reliable. With a little bit of luck either they’ll be gone or the turbines will have broken down by the time this nuclear plant comes on stream, otherwise they will try and dump surges of power into the grid and destabilise the nuclear plant.
20
MBC;
that price for coal fired includes a lot of the costs of “renewables” e.g. grid connections, cost of disruptions etc. plus a profit (of sorts).
You might also mention that wind farms get paid at times for NOT generating.
20
Graeme,
In the UK it is straightforward segregate the generation cost from the costs of the grid and other overhead. But it is not so easy to split the increased transmission costs for renewables from other infrastructure costs – hence my guess.
I did not include other costs to keep the comment short. These include payments to wind farms not generate when the wind is too strong, and having a reserve power source – increasingly from diesel generators – for when the wind does not blow. Both are a small part of the bills now, but will see growth that will far outstrip the increase in wind generation capacity.
10
RET? there are things you can do:
– after complaining about the RET to our energy provider, they immediately offered the 9% daily saver discount.
– phone your SuperFund & inform them you want NONE of your Super invested in anything remotely connected to CAGW. if they say they can’t guarantee this, TEMPORARILY place your Super in the cash option, even tho low interest rates might make that route less profitable at present. at least the SuperFund will get the message.
25 Jan: Bloomberg: Stefan Nicola/Marc Roca: Germany Tax on Own Use of Renewables Is First in Europe
Germany is set to become the first nation in Europe to charge owners of renewable energy plants for their own use of electricity, part of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s effort to contain rising power bills.
Merkel’s Cabinet backed proposals to charge operators of new clean-energy plants 70 percent of the so-called EEG-Umlage, a fee paid by power consumers that they’re currently exempt from, according to an economy ministry document. That would translate into 4.4 euro cents (6 cents) a kilowatt-hour…
Germany would be the first European country to penalize the self-consumption of solar energy, something only Arizona has done so far. Spain is also working on a similar plan to ensure small solar power generators, which reduce total grid users, help pay for network costs. As many as a dozen U.S. states are also considering charges for solar rooftop owners…
German households are now paying more for electricity than any other nation in the European Union except Denmark.
The charge would not be applied to new units sized 10 kilowatts or smaller, according to the document. Operators of new fossil-fired plants who consume the power themselves would have to pay 90 percent of the charge, according to the document.
Arizona approved a charge of 70 cents a kilowatt in November, setting a precedent for the U.S. market. In California, where solar already powers 626,000 homes, utilities are pushing for fees to connect solar panels to the grid that would add about $120 a year to rooftop users’ bills, a move trade groups say would slow installations…
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-24/germany-tax-on-own-use-of-renewables-is-first-in-europe.html
40
Thanks Pat,
Good Advice.
1. Get my 9% discount.
2. Guarantee my super has no CAGW links.
10
Gore’s spin:
24 Jan: Bloomberg/Businessweek: Alex Morales: Gore Joins UN Backing EU’s 2030 Climate Plan
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and former U.S. Vice President Al Gore said the European Union has been unfairly criticized for dropping nationally-binding renewable energy targets…
“I am actually encouraged by what the EU has done, and I think they’ve gotten a little bit of unfair criticism,” Gore said today in a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Ban said he agreed with Gore…
The EU is trying to set the lead in fighting climate change while limiting rises in consumer energy bills that have increased in part due to subsidies for renewable energy and carbon pricing…
The European Wind Energy Association, an industry lobby group, said the EU proposal was “weak” and the renewables goal was a “non-target,” while its solar energy counterpart, the European Photovoltaic Industry Association, said it was a “lame-duck” proposal…
‘Off the Radar’
The environmental campaign group Greenpeace called the renewables target “toothless.” Friends of the Earth said in a statement that the package was “totally inadequate” and “off the radar of what climate science tells us to do.” …
“Yes, they rolled back the mandated targets for renewables, but they actually moved aggressively forward adopting a binding target for a 40-percent reduction in carbon,” Gore said…
“Without these compensations, the cut trajectory to meet our 2050 goal of cutting emissions by 80 percent to 95 percent will be faster,” EU Spokesman for Climate Action Isaac Valero-Ladron said today in an e-mailed statement. “Most importantly, the EU economy will reap all the benefits of domestic emissions reductions: we will attract the investments and technology as we will cut more here.”
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2014-01-24/gore-joins-un-saying-eu-unfairly-criticized-on-2030-climate-plan
21 Jan: Bloomberg/Businessweek: Sally Bakewell: Allianz Sees More Renewables Deals After Investing $541 Million
Allianz Capital Partners, the alternative asset unit of Europe’s largest insurer, will seek further renewable-energy deals after investing more than 400 million euros ($541 million) in the industry last year.
Allianz Capital bought nine wind parks in 2013 including the 24-megawatt Cottbuser See wind farm in Brandenburg, Germany and the 76-megawatt Dahme wind farm south of Berlin, it said in a website statement. It also bought five wind farms in France, a venture in Italy and committed to fund construction of a Swedish plant, bringing Munich-based Allianz SE’s total investment in renewables to more than 1.75 billion euros.
Retirement and insurance funds are buying up renewable-energy projects that can generate electricity for more than 20 years and receive state subsidies…
“We will continue to seek opportunities in Germany, France and Italy,” David Jones, head of renewable energy at Allianz Capital, said in the statement. “But a further geographic expansion of the portfolio can be expected subject, of course, to being able to secure investments which offer an acceptable risk-return profile for our customers.”
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2014-01-21/allianz-sees-more-renewables-deals-after-investing-541-million
10
CO2 Group boss Grant quits as carbon opportunities evaporate
CO2 Group’s main business has been developing offset projects, mostly within forestry, that develop carbon credits that can be sold to companies wishing to use them to meet government-imposed targets on greenhouse gas emissions.
“We haven’t had any investment interest in 18 months,” Grant told Reuters in October.
70
(2 pages, read all) 25 Jan: ABC America: AP: Jonathan Fahey: Getting Carbon out of Your Portfolio Is Tricky
If you are like millions of Americans and own a broad stock index fund, you own parts of Exxon Mobil, Peabody Energy and other companies that earn money selling oil, coal and other fossil fuels.
For some, that’s great. Fossil fuels give us light, keep us warm, help grow our food, deliver our products and jet us around the planet. And companies such as Exxon, Chevron and Southern Co. are stable and profitable and offer consistent dividends that pad retirement accounts nicely.
For others, however, profiting from companies that produce or burn fuels that pollute and contribute to climate change — and lobby against laws and regulations that would reduce emissions — is something they want no part of. Still others fear the share prices of fossil fuel companies are sure to plummet when society decides we can no longer burn the troves of hydrocarbons they own…
Matt Patsky, chief executive of Trillium Asset Management, an investment adviser in Boston that has long helped endowments, religious organizations and wealthy families invest in socially-responsible ways, says that about a decade ago clients started asking the firm to create investment strategies that left out fossil fuel companies.
The firm, which manages $1.4 billion, now strips out investments in oil and gas companies, coal companies and utilities that generate electricity with mostly fossil fuels for these clients…
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/carbon-portfolio-tricky-21658935
16 Jan: Bloomberg: Sally Bakewell: BP Sees Renewables Outpacing Fossil Fuels, Eclipsing Nuclear
Renewables will continue to be the fastest-growing energy source, supplying a bigger share of the world’s needs than nuclear by 2025, according to BP Plc. …
Europe’s second-biggest oil company has committed to invest $8 billion in alternative energy by 2015, focusing on biofuels and wind farms after winding down its solar operations amid a glut. …
The (EU) 28-nation bloc, with legally binding clean-energy targets, will see the biggest regional increase in the share of renewables in its power mix, rising from 6 percent now to 17 percent in 2035.
Fossil fuels remain dominant in the energy mix in 2035, with oil, gas and coal each with 26 percent to 27 percent of market share, while nuclear, hydro and renewables each have about 5 percent to 7 percent, according to BP.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-15/bp-sees-renewables-outpacing-fossil-fuels-eclipsing-nuclear.html
20
My comment #31 showed the massive extra cost of renewables in the UK. But is the extra cost of renewables worth it to offset the cost of unmitigated climate change? Here in the UK we had the Stern Review published in 2006 to answer this cost/benefit question. The Stern review noted on pages xvi-xvii
This is equivalent to roughly A$125 t/CO2 at 2013 costs. But how does this translate to a benefit for renewables? The Carbon Trust, a Government agency, uses a conversion factor of 445kg of CO2 per megawatt hour of electricity. Thus, in Stern’s terms, a megawatt hour of clean energy reduces the full costs of warming globally $56. So it is of net benefit to humanity to spend up to 5.6 cents extra per Kwh for renewables. The UK pays around 35 cents extra for offshore wind. German consumers pay on average at least 15 cents more than without crazy energy policies.
The Stern Review was an outlier. The UNIPCC AR4 Summary for Policymakers in 2007 stated on page 22.
USD 12t/CO2 equates to about 0.75 cents per Kwh. The UK is subsidising offshore wind turbines by at least 6 times the maximum justifiable by its own report, and at least 30 times the maximum justifiable by the UNIPCC consensus. To believe in mitigation policy you have to ignore the leading consensus of leading policy experts.
60
From the opening post:
I admit quite openly that I really thought that would never happen
It has caused me to re-assess my estimate of political hubris and it’s corollary moral vanity. The glittering star of “saving the planet” while aquiring wealth simply proved too tempting for the political class. No contest … none at all
Power does indeed corrupt. It’s inevitable
110
I think it more likely that it’s those already corrupt who seek political (or any other) power.
They generally have form from quite an early age.
40
While the cost in monetary terms of these ‘renewable’ ideals is staggering, it’s the human cost that is the most troubling to me. The very idea that 800,000 Germans could be without power simply because it has been made unaffordable is a crime against humanity. A simple look at the temperatures in Germany today will show that people will most likely die as a direct result of this insanity. Or is that the plan?
80
Is this, in fact, a modern version of Holodomor?
20
The story of Greeks cutting wood and producing smog — is a year old.
npr 1/22/2013
20
And due to repeat.
20
The Value of Energy:
Check out the young energy philosopher Alex Epstein, who on Stossel last night made a moral case for fossil fuels.
He is writing a book on the subject that will get a lot of promo when it comes out next year.
Quote: ” The fossil fuel industry is not taking a safe climate and making it dangerous, they’re taking a dangerous climate and making it safe, and if anyone contradicts me they should go outside right now and live in harmony with nature.”
80
Handjive: your posting reminds me of a Russian scientist’s comments which I read some time ago. He worked in the polar regions, and said that people who believe in man-made global warming should get out of their offices more.
I don’t think many of us would survive ‘Gaia’ if dumped in the middle of nowhere without the trappings of civilisation.
40
I just noticed a trend – supported facts, no trolls .
50
[…] » Don’t miss the EU transformation on renewable energy Filed under: Skeptics are winning. […]
00
Somehow the promoters of the “renewable” energy managed to bring themselves – either by mechanical means: hitting themselves on the head – or by chemical means, to the mental level of a preschooler.
Since every first grader knows that there is winter, when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine.
That’s why it’s not summer.
That’s when you need heat and light, and there isn’t any around.
Since it’s winter.
After a decade and a half, and a trillion dollars or so, they start to get it.
I remember when people told me – no, you are doing quantum field theory, that doesn’t apply to climate.
And I was pointing out that climate science and renewable energy (its real aim) need to be brought to the thinking level of a first grader.
As in, to get things, you pay for things.
From the level where they are now.
Which, basically, is that the Renewable Energy Fairy will give us, free, all the energy we need.
When we need it, goes without saying.
00