Green Europe is running out of electrons
Last Monday in Great Britain the entire steel industry shut down because the wind stopped and wholesale prices reached £2,586 a megawatt-hour. As winter cranks up, British factories are getting ready to shutdown, as the threat of small, medium and blockbuster blackouts loom. In the fifth largest economy in the world, thousands of people are using communal warm spaces because they can’t afford electricity any longer, and the largest North Sea gas producer has decided not to drill for more gas just when the country needs it. The government has slapped a new tax on it, thus achieving the exact opposite of what the government aimed for.
Meanwhile over in Germany one eighth of the entire national economy is now consumed with paying for the energy crisis of 2022. They tried to hold back the seas in 2100 but forgot to secure their own electricity a year in advance.
These are very expensive experiments
They aren’t telling you this but UK is close to nationwide blackouts
by David Maddox , Daily Express
But the one nobody is discussing is the real possibility the lights could go out. Two stories this week should set the alarm bells ringing. The first was that Drax had been ordered to put its (mothballed) two coal-fired power stations in North Yorkshire on standby. The second came yesterday when a power cut left 2,800 homes in Shetland without electricity. In one of the coldest snaps in recent history where energy use has been peaking, they underpinned a briefing received by Express.co.uk that Britain is teetering on the edge of a catastrophe.
According to someone close to Mr Rees-Mogg [former Business and Energy Secretary], his conclusion was: “If the lights don’t go out this winter or next it will be more luck than judgement.”
His assessment, confirmed by a Whitehall source, was the margins of available energy supply to need were so low that “just one major problem would be enough for the lights to go out.”
The reality is that Whitehall sources and former ministers have confirmed to the Daily Express the well-intentioned headlong pursuit for Net Zero carbon emissions has left the UK in a precarious position.
After becoming the minister Rees-Mogg apparently had to badger staff for two whole weeks just to get an inventory of Britain’s energy supplies. Were they slow because they didn’t want to give him the bad news, or because they had never added them up?
Britain braces for winter of factory shutdowns as freezing conditions strain energy crisis
Jacob Paul, Daily Express
Gareth Stace, director of industry association UK Steel, told the Telegraph that the eye-watering wholesale electricity prices on Monday forced all his members to shut down some production until rates went back to normal.
He said: “We’re just priced out of the market. There would be no point in the energy companies telling our members to turn off, because they know that they will. You just couldn’t keep going, you just lose money for every tonne of steel you make with [energy] prices at these levels.”
Think of what €440 billion euro’s could have done instead?
That’s how much Germany has spent on energy bailouts and schemes since Russia invaded Ukraine. And it probably doesn’t include another 100 billion euro money bomb that was just approved in the German lower house.
Germany’s half-a-trillion dollar energy bazooka may not be enough
Reuters
Michael Groemling at the German Economic Institute (IW) said… “The national economy as a whole is facing a huge loss of wealth.”
The money set aside stands at up to 440 billion euros ($465 billion), according to the calculations, which provide the first combined tally of all of Germany’s drives aimed at avoiding running out of power and securing new sources of energy.
That equates to about 1.5 billion euros a day since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. Or around 12% of national economic output. Or about 5,400 euros for each person in Germany.
They could have bought 20 nuclear reactors and secured half their electricity supply for decades to come.
Trump warned about this in 2018, but this trainwreck has been coming for twenty years.
Thanks to NetZeroWatch
Photo: UK Flag Rian (Ree) Saunders
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Wind lull over Germany means their gas reserves are being sucked dry rather quickly.
https://notrickszone.com/2022/12/16/germanys-gas-reserves-emptying-at-record-speed-as-country-struggles-to-keep-warm-lights-on/
Will they make it through winter?
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Out of the link:
It’s always laughable to read, that the wind absence will be compensated by more windmills.
The missing math knowledges are a horror.
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Typical leftist response: Communism failed in the past because they didn’t do it right but we will this time and Our good idea is not working so we need more. In military parlance this is called reinforcing failure when the sane, some might say, the obvious way is to reinforce success which is coal, gas and nuclear. Our own Albo and Blackout could do well to buy a subscription to the Daily Express or Financial Times for a heads up in reality. OR they could just ask Jo to explain where they are going wrong.
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I have heard the plaints from the socialists for decades -“it would have worked but we just didn’t spend enough money.”
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The ONLY mathematics that interest these vermin is that required to calculate their share of the “spillage”.
And the money they spend is stolen from real people.
When the “cash” gets short the fun really starts.
Socialism, be it of the “International” or “National / Corporatist” variety, is a PROVEN “serial killer”: A TOTAL Death Cult.
Sadly, there has been a LOT of it about for the last century and a bit.
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They forget that 0 x 1000 is still zero.
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How hard is it to understand that when there is no wind there is no wind power, regardless of the number of bird-killing machines?
https://spectator.com.au/2022/07/energy-policy-where-parallel-universes-are-set-to-collide/
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The stupid, it burns.
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The German Government offical usage / supply status, week by
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https://www.bundesnetzagentur.de/EN/Areas/Energy/Companies/SecurityOfSupply/GasSupply/start.html;jsessionid=8644BA797D8300345F347EFEF041173E
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I spent 1974 in the UK, and remember well the effects of the miners’ strike. History repeats, but for different reasons. Back then, it wasn’t the government that was on strike. These days, it is!
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‘ Trump warned about this in 2018, but this trainwreck has been coming for twenty years’
Just don’t mention the war, or Russian gas, and the narrative makes sense.
Nordstream 1 came online in 2011, and nordstream 2 (not actually used) was completer in 2021 – they were a major component of the the energy mix for the EU
It would be better to talk about energy security, but that would rule out nuclear as the eu does not have the necessary uranium deposits, and fossil fuels have most been depleted buy industry, so they would also not supply the necessary security
What then, is left? Could it be renewables?
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Meanwhile the mob of “ wokes “ in Canberra that identify as a Government carry on merrily down the exact same road, leading Australia into disaster.
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“Could it be renewables?”
NO! Not ever.
Renewables (as in Wind and solar) can NEVER provide energy security.. that is a fool’s dream
Germany still has plenty of it’s own coal and gas deposits if it chooses to use them.
Plenty of uranium is available from non-hostile countries.
The German idiocy of relying on wind and solar. ie the greenie agenda, based on the anti-science of CO2 hatred…
… and destroying their REAL electricity supply is a root cause of their current problems.
Their reliance on Russia gas, was always going to be an issue.. as Trump warned.
So, as usual.. basically everything you said is WRONG….. Billy Madison would be jealous. !
“May god have mercy on your soul”
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We have to accept that the Greens and long time Chancellor Merkel are communists at heart and all they do is designed to support international communism. The German economy and those of the West have been white anted by the left so that China and Russia have emerged triumphant. The Greens and the elites use the environment as the medium by which they will destroy the West. They are concerned with power and could not care less about trees or animals. When we wake up to that reality we will see the Greens, Teals and the ALP for what they are; the puppets of international communism. There are a few in the Coalition as well. Kean and Birmingham spring to mind.
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Nothing else will run, it’s obvious 😀 You seem to be a wet dreamer
No wind, no “electrons”, at least we had some sunshine in Germany, heated one of our rooms to a max of 19.8°C at noon, no heating necessary, but for electricity….
Amazing imagination, RE will run the need in winter 😀
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“What then, is left? Could it be renewables?”
You already answered that question in the sentence above. Small clue – why do you think the were building Nordstream 2 ?.
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The EU, especially Germany, Pootting all their energy needs in the hands of a known tyrannical murderous dictator was the dumbest thing they did since ww2, and I thought the Germans where intelligent, bwahaha, enjoy your freezing winter EU, especially the Germans. Trump has the last laugh, bwahaha.
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This is incorrect. Germany has 35 billion tonnes of proven reserves. That is 500 years at present rate so plenty of opportunity to increase. The figure will be lower than what could be extracted because there would be no point increasing reserves if you thought you were saving the planet by not burning it and some areas have been sterilised by placing wind farms on them.
Germany has enough coal reserves to keep China motoring at present rate for 6 more years after they deplete their reserves in 30 years or so. I expect China will be in a position to take Germany and build power stations in the coal regions to send energy back to China.
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Much of the German coal is low energy lignite. Less than 40mt of black coal is mineable.
Brown coal is also usually highly prone to spontaneous combustion which makes exporting it almost impossible without briquetting (which consumes a large portion of the energy in the coal).
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PF, you spelt “ruinables” incorrectly.
You’re welcome.
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OK, let’s talk about energy security. Wind and solar are intermittent – that’s the opposite of secure. All of the reliable energy, apart from hydro, comes from fuels such as coal, gas, uranium and oil. Those fuels are all in plentiful supply and the technologies needed to use them are very well known and well developed, so the problem has to be political.
PS, I see that others have made the same points. Oh well, if it’s worth saying it’s worth saying twice. Lots of times, actually, in today’s political climate.
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PF says: “..but that would rule out nuclear as the eu does not have the necessary uranium deposits”
Uranium fuel is a commodity. Like most nations, France buys it. Major Supplier countries are Kazakhstan (39.4% of world production), Canada (22.5%) and AU (10.1%).
Uranium averages 910 PPB over the world, vs 3 PPB for Gold. Canada’s Cigar Lake mine is at 18% or 180 Million PPB.
France reprocesses their fuel rods, recovering 96% of what is recoverable and reducing new fuel requirements by 17%. They ;use 3 PWB standardized designs covering all 56 reactors, with recycled MOX fuel used in 22 of the 56 reactors.
So, No. solar and wind are not the answer.
Ref: https://www.quora.com/Where-does-France-get-its-uranium
https://cnpp.iaea.org/countryprofiles/France/France.htm
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If the EU can buy gas from Russia or solar panels from China I am sure they could buy a few tonnes of uranium from Australia. The latter is far more secure than the former two sources one of which is at war and the other thinking about it.
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‘What then, is left?’
Fusion power is the best chance for all humanity.
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But until that fusion daydream becomes a reality (always 30+ year in the future)…
We have plenty of reliable COAL, GAS and NUCLEAR, with Hydro where sensible.
In 20 years, we will see massive graveyards of wind turbines and solar panels.. pollution on a massive industrial scale.
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According to the authorities it might take awhile to reach fruition.
“Probably decades,” Kimberly S. Budil, the director of Lawrence Livermore, said during the Tuesday news conference. “Not six decades, I don’t think. I think not five decades, which is what we used to say. I think it’s moving into the foreground and probably, with concerted effort and investment, a few decades of research on the underlying technologies could put us in a position to build a power plant.” (NYTimes)
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Unless there is an incredible, miraculous breakthrough of some sort…
… no-one alive today is ever likely to see usable fusion power supply.
We should stick with what we know works .. Coal, Gas, some hydro and nuclear and waste biomass. !
And stop all the fanciful dreaming about wind/solar/batteries, and other non-viable supplies.
Maybe at some stage, fusion will make some inroads, but we are unlikely to ever see it.
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As of 2020, the world entered a thirty year Secular Solar Minimum. It’s getting cool already, barely two years into it… There are no longer any nice warm times.
European citizens will start kicking their pollies butts hard when the Warm runs away. Heh, heh.
The pollies aren’t going to be happy, themselves. Policies will change, you can bet on that. Fast. (Politics may become a blood sport (-: )…
How fast? We’ll see. It could be faster than expected. Cold citizens can be very persuasive, politically.
End of this decade is going to be … umm — very interesting.
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China is leading the charge.
‘Professor Peng estimates that the facility will be capable of producing commercial nuclear fusion energy production straight to the power grid by 2035.’ (Yahoo)
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China actually expect to be producing power, presumably into the grid, as soon as 2028, according to South China Morning Post.
“China’s reactor, known as Z-FFR, will be based in a “mega lab” according to the South China Morning Post. It’s due to be built by 2025 in Chengdu, the capital of the southwestern province of Sichuan. It may then produce power as soon as 2028 before becoming commercially operational by 2035, according to a reported estimate by Peng’s team.“.
Hmmm. Maybe they are using a computer model to make the prediction?
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Yep, that’s why they are constructing 135 coal fired plant’s just in case!
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Patience well beyond that of Job there
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For sixty years, if not longer, prarical fusion has been forty years away. After the news from California, my guess is that fusion is now about thirty-nine years away.
Auto
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Peter,
O dear, you really are showing your ignorance this time.
Germany, a nation with an extensive North Sea coastline, see, eg: https://www.tourism.de/german-north-sea-coast/, could, if it felt it absolutely necessary, set up a plant to extract uranium, (or thorium if preferred), from seawater. In your ignorance, you will no doubt LOL at the suggestion.
Perhaps you have the idea that, as per coal, several million tonnes per year would be the fuel requirement?
However, it seems that what you fail to understand is that there is a significant concentration of uranium in seawater, small, yes, but perhaps you are unaware that the uranium requirement is merely a few hundred tonnes at most to keep a number of reactors operating for several years. Certainly, opting for such an extreme nationalist approach would be relatively very expensive, but nothing even approaching the $440 billion quoted as being required just to get through the current winter – if they’re lucky.
Of course Germany can always purchase uranium from the likes of Australia, a supplier country required by international law to supply uranium to any country that is a signatory to IAEA-monitored International Safeguards, at a much, much lesser cost, and to have it processed into the required fuel by such as AREVA, which, again, would be required by law, this time within the EU framework, to supply services to a member State.
These arrangements are not new, Peter. How is it that you are seemingly unaware of them?
Once again, Peter, your proposed supposed unscalable obstacle goes up in flames.
As I have often said, do try to educate yourself in these matters before trying to pose counter- arguments to Jo’s posts. You really do look silly.
Paul Miskelly
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Thank you, Paul,
You saved me from writing similarly.
Geoff S
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Well I do Lol at the suggestion of extracting uranium from seawater. Not on a technical basis, but on an economic one.
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Trump warned about this in 2018…….
So the Donald was right again.
What were the sneering Left saying in 2018?
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A lot of people don’t like Trump because of his personality. They prefer a person whose pleasant but stupid…..mind you now the US has someone who is snarly, sarcastic and stupid.
The world needed one more term of Trump but the elites wouldn’t stand for it …..and the consequence is that America is barely a democracy anymore.
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Is the Air Force getting the Airbus ready to take Chris Bowen and his acolytes to the UK for the duration of the coming northern winter that they surely deserve to endure?
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I would prefer they were taken to Germany where 2 ‘protestors against global warming’ tried to glue themselves to a road in Munich but failed because the glue wouldn’t work on the snow. Bowen would be right at home with that mentality.
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This report comes from the Daily Express, a newspaper with very little credibility.
A very cold spell with virtually no wind over the last 10 days didn’t see the country close down. The weather is set to turn very much milder and windier from Sunday.
Industry is performing much better than expected with GDP up 0.5% in October and employment at virtually record levels.
The shops and restaurants round us are teeming. The Christmas markets are crowded. Our Christmas illuminations are blazing away in many towns-my own home town has got new Festive lights for one and a half miles along our seafront.
Whilst some people are undoubtedly suffering, the warm spaces (set up every year) will no doubt be busy as they provide companionship as well as warmth, the attention should be focused on Germany ,Holland with its 22% inflation (ours dropped slightly in November) France is also an interesting one due to their ageing nuclear fleet.
Over the last week or so the UK has been sending Electricity through the interconnectors to France rather than the other way round, and exporting a lot of LPG to the continent as we don’t store much. No doubt hoping they will reciprocate when we need energy at some point this winter, although no doubt they will do everything to inconvenience Brexit Britain as they are still smarting that we left their unpleasant gang.
Having said all that the UK has been sailing close to the wind on energy for several years, with renewables ramped up whilst grown up power stations are removed.
Its a foolish policy and an extended cold spell with no wind will mean the margins of error come ever closer. Hopefully the public will see for themselves that cold winter nights with no wind, no sun and the running down of fossil fuels is not a good policy. Ironically because of the price of energy, demand has reduced substantially, which makes it more likely the lights will stay on.
However, in the meantime the news of our imminent demise is hugely exaggerated. BTW the power cuts in Shetland were, I understand due to heavy snow and subsequent damage.. Hundreds of engineers have been sent there.
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Yeah, I’ve got to agree with Tony here.
This reads more like partisan grousing from political actors rather than serious concern. Get back to me when someone with an electrical engineering degree who works in public utilities has something to say rather than some anonymous source ‘close to’ a politician.
I don’t doubt there are serious risks this winter due in large part to irresponsible green policies, but this kind of ‘sky is falling’ fear-mongering rarely pans out.
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” no wind over the last 10 days didn’t see the country close down.”
And I didn’t say it did Tony. I said it closed the steel plants and quoted Rees-Mogg and the price, all of which is accurate. Is the Daily Express lying? It would be pretty easy for Rees-Mogg to say so. He thinks they are just one “major problem” away from the lights going out. Seriously Tony, it’s only the start of winter and there is at least one time this month when heavy industry can’t operate and must be losing millions. Is that not a sign of a grid on the edge?
The UK survived a mid december wind lull, but what if that happens in Jan? What if the pipe to Norway is sabotaged or one nuclear plant in France has an unexpected delay or maintenance issue. There’s no buffer in the system.
Even you agree it’s “been sailing close to the wind” and below “like a lemming off a cliff” — so in your own words your saying similar things to Rees-Mogg and the Express. Just because the UK has some good days when it can export to France is irrelevant. The week before South Australia suffered a statewide blackout it was probably exporting energy too. Many could have called fears for SA “hype” that week. What does an electricity grid look like before it goes under — Normal, until a millisecond before the cascading collapse.
And this Daily Express article was sent out by the GWPF, based in London, who publish papers on the UK grid regularly, and who didn’t think it was unreasonable for people in the know to brief the Express.
Steady on with the Wet Blanket. Underneath it, your position and mine are not that far apart. A national blackout in the UK could be a real disaster, and as you know, you can knock out half the pylons supporting a bridge and it will look OK til the moment it doesn’t.
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Snowfall records will be a feature of climate reporting in the Northern Hemisphere for the next 8,000 years.
The annual snow extent is trending upward. So far only Greenland and Iceland have been identified as having increased permanent snow but termination of the modern interglacial has only just started.
The images on this link compares the January snowfall extent variation from average to the nominated year.
https://1drv.ms/u/s!Aq1iAj8Yo7jNhHryFKAvLQZwkIT_?e=5esvqx
The fringing areas that see the annual variation are coloured according to the degree of annual variation – white means no variation so could have a lot of snow or no snow. What is noticeable is the advancing of the snow extent at the fringes. Specifically the difference between 1971 and 2021 is noticeable with Spain now getting snow, snowfall advancing south into Texas and toward Florida and snow fall advancing east and south in China. Subtle changes but more insightful than just plotting an increasing trend.
The snow clearing budgets in North America are going up. No doubt two factors at play there; more snow and higher cost of energy.
So now all the climate modellers have to come out and explain why they have been forecasting the end of snow when, in fact, the trend is solidly up. AND the northern oceans are only in the very early stages of warming up. Wait till most of the surface of the Atlantic is at 30C in September ahead of crashing sunlight in November. That will more than double snowfall from present level across Europe and Eastern North America.
One of the observations I have made with Glaciation is the influence of Gulf of Mexico on the snowfall through central USA. It is a source of moist air that feeds atmospheric water over cold regions to the north.
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“power cuts in Shetland were, … due to heavy snow”
And yet we were warned that children wouldn’t know what snow was.
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It is great to get perspective from Tony. I also get a bit of insight from my son living near Cambridge in the UK.
He messaged us to say that he was surprised the snow had not melted because they had clear sky but temperature still -8C. That is the thing with snow it requires radiant heat above 770W/m^2 of sunlight to melt and will not melt if cooler the 0C.
Anyhow they are appreciating the new BEV as it avoids having to plod through snow to get to school. On the other hand, the daily school runs are chewing up the battery charge. Just melting the ice to see out sucks up energy.
Charging the car requires a day’s outing to queue up at the charging station at a nearby supermarket. Their rented townhouse does not have a suitable electricity supply for charging.
I figure he is not alone in this dilemma.
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Rick
It would be interesting to get real world range figures for an EV loaded with 4 people and luggage, in nice warm dry conditions, then the same load but at -8c at night with snow falling so wipers heaters lights and radio all operating .
My son also lives very near Cambridge and came home by train a few days ago. It is around 8 degrees cooler there. The south west is generally much milder than the east. I have succulents in my garden and reckon to replace them every fifth or sixth winter when there is a bout of very cold weather so it looks as if this winter might be the one that gets them. We have had no snow here on the coast worth talking about but it has been brilliantly sunny and very cold.
Weather is expected to turn much milder here Saturday into sunday when it will rise to around 14c. It will be accompanied by heavy rain and string winds as the westerlies reestablish themselves.
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There is a story here on a Tesla in Canada:
https://www.teslaoracle.com/2020/11/23/calculating-tesla-model-3-range-loss-through-a-cold-winter-night-video/
I think my son is experiencing a similar loss but he does not have the opportunity to leave on a charger at home.
There is some prospect that a car left in an outdoor carpark would not be usable after a couple of months in winter. And some prospect of the battery being destroyed if lieft without charging over a winter period. So if you own a BEV be thoughtful about leaving the car at a freezing airport while you venture off for the winter break in warmer parts.
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There was a report in The Telegraph today that an EV in the UK would only expect to reach 70% of its stated official mileage in cold weather. The colder it is and the more instruments running, such as lights, wipers and heaters, then the lower the range will be.
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Gosh Rick why would your son buy a BEV that wastes a day to recharge and I imagine it’s also very small and costs a lot more than a similar ICE car?
I recently upset a group looking at a tiny hybrid car and they actually claimed that we could change the climate and have less droughts and floods to worry about etc.
I told them they were barking mad and they should look up the REAL world data and forget about their delusional fantasy world.
Trust me they were very upset by the time I left them.
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He did not buy it. It was part of his wife’s salary package. She had a choice of any car color and make. The only stipulation was that it be a BEV. She got a VW BEV. UK is the wokest off all. They are outpacing Germany in that contest because they have no industry to protect.
Up until she got the car they walked to the train station and schools plus the occasional taxi if they had heavy luggage. Shopping used to be delivered but they can now do that while queueing for the charger.
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Years ago, when I went to the UK, the abundance of cheap mini cabs meant I didn’t have to buy a car for months, until the wife arrived. Then we got you beaut second hand Nissan Primera for less than 1000 quid that lasted us 5 year …. and sold it for 500 quid.
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I, personally, have no sympathy for anyone stupid enough to buy a battery vehicle without a charging station in their own garage. The idea of going out to charge up at a retailer’s profit level, instead of at your own home rate. Then, using it in the snow as well. No, not happening in my home.
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tonyb – the 0.5% October growth in GCP is welcome, and long may it continue, but the UK is not yet it seems free of recession risk yet, Alpesh Paleja, chief economist at the CBI (Confederation of British Industry) says:
“A small uplift in GDP over October was expected, reflecting an unwinding of the impact of an extra bank holiday in September. But it doesn’t mask the fact that times are tough for businesses and households. Inflation is still historically high, and growth, productivity and business investment is far too weak.
As we approach 2023, the Government has a choice to make between action and inaction. The Prime Minister and Chancellor must use levers of growth not only to stem the severity of an upcoming downturn, but also to address the persistent weakness in investment and productivity. We cannot afford to have another decade where both are effectively stagnant.”
I liked your comment re France wanting to inconvenience Brexit Britain. I suspect that Rishi Sunak’s Remainer cabinet will help them.
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tonyb:
I was in Spain in 1977 and they had snow in winter, both in Madrid and Cordoba (both minor) but some Canadians were taking the bus up the Seirra Nevada (outside Cordoba) and skiing down the slope. They then took the next bus up to the top of the pass and skied down etc. They commented on the excellence of the snow.
And when I was in Shetland (in summer) I asked about winter snow and was assured that the wind blew it away (local humour? They certainly got gales in winter).
60
Once again, Germany leads the way. First it was with the transition to RE and now it leads the way into economic oblivion, proving that the RE experiment was not just a failure, but a spectacular failure that will be recorded in history as the greatest act of economic self sabotage. But, despite this failure of historical proportions, our own government sees this as a great success and is now heading full steam ahead towards the same cliff. It seems we have no shortage of lemmings in positions of power. God help us all !!!
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“The world shall be healed by the German way” Really ? 😀
It wasn’t at earlier bad times and not nowerdays.
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The “German Way” cost more than 60 Million lives.
http://www.worldwar2facts.org/world-war-2-casualties.html
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Serge:
Don’t forget that Denmark and the UK also made a mess of their electricity supply. Spain too with renewables although they are recovering (they are at odds with France that won’t allow a pipeline to bring gas – piped to Catalonia from Africa). Add France to the list, also The Netherlands shutting down their big gas field very recently.
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Germany remains the engine room of the EU but that engine is losing steam – literally and figuratively. Current account has crashed this year. Still positive but winter is yet to hit this trend.
https://i0.wp.com/wattsupwiththat.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Screen-Shot-2022-12-16-at-9.03.01-am-1671141829.6793.png?fit=767%2C471&ssl=1
Putin may yet be recognised for restoring reality to Europe’s energy supply.
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Putin came, point of view energy, some month “to late”.
And Putin didn’t blow up the pipes…
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Discussion on Nordstream 2 in the MSM is non existent, which indicates Putin is blameless.
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And Putin didn’t blow up the pipes…
Correct, as Peter of Fitzroy inadvertently highlights by omission, it wasn’t Russia.
Likewise, as el+gordo mentions, MSM is not saying anything about it, because there was no logical reason for Russia to do it, but others had VERY logical reasons to do so.
Imagine the negotiating power Putin would have over Germany right now, if Nordstream 1 & 2 were operational…but that is exactly what the UK/US have removed from the table in destroying the pipes. The Great Game continues.
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There are 8 or so western lemmings running eagerly towards the sheer cliff. The rest of the world, ironically including those creating the most co2 , are looking on with complete bemusement and have no intention at all of following the lemmings over the cliffs and on to the rocks of poverty and social chaos that lie under
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Video:
German delegation at UN laughs at President Trump when he warns them about energy security.
https://youtu.be/FfJv9QYrlwg (29 secs)
Whose laughing now?
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Not the same people 😀 😀 😀
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The coming three months will prove whether the worst forecasts for the EU, Germany and UK etc are realised and we can only hope they muddle through.
But the agenda of the left wing extremists tells us it’s all caused by Human co2 emissions since 1989 and the OECD countries must reach net zero ASAP to stop their so called Climate CRISIS or EXISTENTIAL THREAT etc.
But the latest co2 emissions data proves they’re wrong and it is China, India and other developing countries that have had SOARING co2 emissions for the last 30 years.
AGAIN the combined USA + the EU haven’t increased co2 emissions since 1970 or the last 52 years. Look up the data for yourselves and WAKE UP.
170
Friends were telling me about a gathering they went to in Lismore to protest the jailing of a woman who blocked the harbour tunnel. The authorities have now released her. But really, what sort of piss weak protest is this? She should have demanded to stay in jail. The world is ending in less than 8 years, and she is unwilling to pay anything. In fact she is going to come out, and strut around as a hero, and encourage others to create chaos. Maybe we could pass the hat around and get her a ticket to Iran, or Hong Kong, where she could learn what real protest involves. Or if she wanted to make a real impact she could get a ticket for the bridge walk. The investigation would shut down the bridge for hours, and we would have a real martyr. Millions have been willing to die for their cause over the centuries, this is piss weak. Remember, ‘THE WORLD ENDS IN LESS THAN 8 YEARS,’ so really it’s no great sacrifice.
170
You will be happy to know that the drone-in-a-dress who shut down the Harbour Bridge raised over $80000 in a Go-Fund-Me page when she was sent to prison but since released.
51
” thus achieving the exact opposite of what the government aimed for”
I’m shocked I tell ya — Shocked!
The list is so long, I won’t even start.
70
Albo and Bowen have done the same thing here and will get the same result which just proves the adage ; doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result is insane and we know Bowen is insane.
140
It looks like the modern socialists are fulfilling the dream of the National Socialists who had similar fantasies about relying on “renewables”. I’m sure pagan nature worship is a good part of it as well, both then and today.
Website:
http://en.friends-against-wind.org/realities/how-renewables-and-the-global-warming-industry-are-literally-hitler
Written by National Socialists in the 1930’s.
AND
In 1941, he published the first German-language article on global warming, the title of which translates as The Activity of Man as a Climate Factor.
Book:
Green Tyranny – Exposing the Totalitarian Roots of the Climate Industrial Complex by Rupert Darwall
171
Why, what do you believe, non-conformists as climate sceptics, vaccine sceptics etc are titulated as “Naz1s” insead as what they were and are, national socialists ?
50
Seems my formulation wasn’t correct resp. not comprehensible the way I meant , these socialists of course are these naming the non-conformists to be naz1s.
40
Incidentally, I remembered the above website but couldn’t find it with a Goolag search. I had to search my old posts to find it. It looks like Goolag is trying to hide the truth.
There is nothing more offensive to a socialist than the truth, or an alternative opinion, hence the extensive censorship of platforms controlled by them, including Goolag.
151
Using the Brave search engine, searching for “friends against wind” resulted in the website at the top of the list.
10
Australia’s insane governments, and that is EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM, are keen to emulate the failures of Europe and are well on the way.
The Liberals (pretend conservative party) are nearly, if not more so, as fanatically committed to unreliables as Labor.
The Liberals are only in power in NSW and TAS but I am confident they will lose the upcoming NSW election in March, just as they recently lost the Federal election and Vicdanistan, and for the same reasons.
171
David:
And they were nearly wiped out in WA by being “more looney than thou”.
120
Here’s the only graph that should matter if you’re trying to push the NUT ZERO lunacy. This is now updated from 1970 to 2021.
Of course the data proves that China and other developing countries’ co2 emissions have soared since 1990, while the USA + EU combined co2 emissions have stalled since 1970.
What a pity that Labor, Greens, Teals etc ignore the real data and continue to PREACH their BS and FRAUD to a very gullible, ignorant electorate.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_dioxide_emissions#/media/File:World_fossil_carbon_dioxide_emissions_six_top_countries_and_confederations.png
130
The Left are advocating rationing. This is from 2019.
The Globe and Mail is relatively middle of the road to mildly conservative and rational but this is an opinion piece.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-the-climate-crisis-is-like-a-world-war-so-lets-talk-about-rationing/
SEE LINK FOR REST
91
“Ecosystems are collapsing” well they are in Germany thanks to freezing overnight temperatures that dropped to around -10 degrees C. The bitterly cold temperature is said to have caused a 25 metre high fish tank with an internal temperature of a tropical 27 degrees C to collapse.
Over 1000 tropical fish spilled out onto the street.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/berlin-aquarium-spill-1.6688180
90
Plenty of wind being generated in all of those Guv’ment Places around the World. And that light at the end of the tunnel is the train wreck hurtling towards everyone.
And it’s goodnight from him and goodnight from me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CU5UPi7STk
50
The Two Ronnies would never go to air today.
The Left would go into meltdown with all the non-PC humour. That goes for Benny Hill as well, and just about any other show from the 1970’s or 80’s. Or indeed anything that doesn’t for with Leftist doctrines of what constitutes “humour”. (Have you ever seen a Leftist-approved feminist “comedienne”? It’s torture watching such a being.)
141
Here Anthony Watts and team discuss the latest ESG EXTORTION idiocy that companies must now endure to get a loan from these extremists banks.
Unbelievable but true.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2022/12/16/live-at-noon-cst-end-of-year-climate-horrors-er-potpourri/
100
A couple Oldies to reprise for a start:-
CO2 fertilization has increased maximum foliage
cover across the globe’s warm, arid environments
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/grl.50563#:~:text=The%20direct%20CO2%20effect,cover%20in%20warm%2C%20arid%20environments.
&
Implications of the Globally Increasing Atmospheric CO2 Concentration and Temperature for the Australian Terrestrial Carbon Budget: Integration Using a Simple-Model
https://www.publish.csiro.au/bt/bt9920527
50
I like a lot of Oldies, but unfortunately here isn’t question of good music 😀
00
..meanwhile, Zekensky’s wife spends over $60,000AUD in a 1 hour shopping spree in Paris and demands more money for Ukraine, which goes to Zelensky personally, as he approaches becoming the richest corrupt politician in the world.
Wake up EU!!!
40
Sad to have to say it but the UK needs this crisis to wake them up, will it sink in or not.
70
Stupid people understand Pain. EU, UK , USA, CAN, AU, NZ, GE, etc, are going to understand pain.
Self Inflicted, un necessary, delusional, economic, medical, personal, national, generational, pain.
Pain is a great teacher. Those who survive the pain have lasting memories of it. But often don’t know “why”.
Intelligent people ought document, preserve, protect, and broadcast, “exactly why”.
110
Way back in BC there was a discussion on the cares of the world and the type of physique that was most suitable.
That of big, strong square shouldered Atlas was mentioned and compared with a set shaped like an arrowroot biscuit.
It was concluded that the first had the problem of allowing the cares to accumulate but remain for attention, whereas the biscuit shape allowed them to slide off easily.
I guess you could conclude that the “biscuits” are in now full control of the power grid.
30
Interesting comments from WeatherZone about Christmas forecast
https://www.weatherzone.com.au/news/australias-extended-christmas-outlook/987049
Variability in forecast models only 9 days out is rather large… But they admit that problem.
Now why can’t the “climate” modellers admit that they really don’t have the vaguest clue. !
80
In the previous 18 years residence in this area (Adelaide Hills) I’ve noticed that the agapanthus near a road bloom in the first week of December, Others in less sunny positions may not bloom until the week leading up to Christmas. This year the first signs of flowering have only shown in the last 2 days and these have been tentative, so they might be flowering by the 25TH.
It is not due to a lack of water, nor since the BoM assured us that we’ve had a warmer time this past year, can it be the weather, so it must be the increase in CO2.
What do readers think of that?
And how would you rate the combined intelligence at the BoM? e.g. one agapanthus or higher?
50
“one agapanthus or higher?”
How dare you ! …
…. denigrate the intelligence of agapanthus. 🙂
20
Regarding religion and Marx mumbling about it being the “opiate of the masses:
What the comfortably numb seem incapable of comprehending, or deliberately complicit with, is that socialism has ALL of the hallmarks and trappings of a totally dogmatic religion.
It is eerily similar in operation to the dogmatic belief system that rampaged out of the deserts of Araby.
Except, amusingly enough, that mob hate the godless even more than they hate the Jews.
30
Yes, Bruce, The Marxists want you on Soma, comfortably numb.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTseTg48568&ab_channel=HDPinkFloyd
Seems like they’ve succeeded with most of the Victorian populace.
20
I like the version of “The Wall” by Waters, presented in Berlin, just beneath the real Wall and Van Morrison singing, and as second lead guitar Snowy White at the right side. (Gilmour and White often had common gigs on tour)Bad snowy stopped playing because of shoulder problems…
00
Sorry, the link didn’t appear:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpFo_E9Fq2k
00
Drax was planned to close in September 2022 so I assume that competent management planned their maintenance with this in mind. This begs the question how costly has it been to get Drax on line?
11
Many of us have been warning for over 20 years that these blackouts will ultimately happen if the energy policy was not changed and renewables were ditched. But we couldn’t get past the green gatekeepers.
40
Cheap coal was the entire basis of the Industrial Revolution in the 18th century in England. It is now illegal.
I have come to two conclusions
First that man controlled CO2 levels is anti science, completely fake. Not a shred of truth. Look at the government published rubbish and look at the graph. See if you can spot say the world wide lock down of the Wuhan flu or even the spectacular growth of China which now produces over half of all CO2. It’s not there. Nothing is there. CO2 just measures average sea surface temperature and the ripples on the graph are just summer and winter, not jet travel or car use.
The reason the press push ’emissions’ and Nett Zero is that there is absolutely no point measuring CO2.
More CO2 naturally goes into and out of the ocean in a few weeks naturally than human output in a year. There is virtually no man made CO2 in the air. The CO2 molecule is like water highly polar and super soluble and compressible. Thus all CO2 is in the ocean, 98%. And what is in the air is what is released by warmer water, so slight warming releases CO2. This is simply chemistry.
Second that Green parties are completely fake, evil charlatans, power hungry marxists who are anti humanity. To them humans are a cancer on the planet to be enslaved and starved and wiped out. It is underway in Europe, say in Holland. The Socialist Fascists in the 1930s also posed as caring Greens and it was not just violent conquest they launched but whole societies were wiped out or reduced to starved slaves to serve the all powerful state. Exactly as under Stalin. Green are identical.
As for the utterly fake cost of electricity, countries like Australia and the UK could drop the price of electricity in a day by just repealing the Acts which hide massive cash theft from our electricity bills. Coal is free and plentiful, which was their problem. In Australia the Renewable Energy(Electricity) 2000 Act was so effective in strangling coal and funding windmills that it was copied in the UK. Albanese talks of saving families $250 a year but repealing the one Act would save them $2000 a year and open all the coal mines and prices would plummet. And exports would soar.
Only Western democracies are playing the self destruction electricity game. Australia and the UK and Germany are joining the energy poor even though they have abundant coal. In the UK, officially 0% of their electricity is now from coal but 14% from imported US wood pellets. These are the same Greens who protested against wood chipping in Tasmania!
Officially they are saving the planet except no one believes a word of it. Because it is so obviously not true. For politicians it is literally a power play like the response to the Wuhan flu. Absolute power. Supported by a fifth column in the Press undermining Western democracies. It started with the universities and Post Modernism, an anti science, anti democracy movement, Marxism metastasized.
50
Not only would repealing the Renweable Energy Act (2000) and its successors instantly remove the legislated theft, the price of coal electricity would drop instantly. And wind and solar as well.
This is because if electricity retailers who buy carbon electricity, have to give cash to the windmill owners via compulsory government controlled large scale certificates. That not only pushes up coal prices massively but also allows wind generators to set their prices just under this fake higher price. And they also get paid in certificates whether their electricity is used or not as they earn cash certificates for just production, not sale. Who cares if it is all wasted? So we the public not only pay too much, we pay for what is not even used.
This massive carbon tax has been going on for 22 years. End the insanity. There is no climate change science, no nett zero. Even NASA and the CSIRO agree that more CO2 means more trees, more crops in direct proportion. Everything we are told is the reverse of the truth, pushed out by the United Nations who want to be the world government.
40
I was also forced this week by the Australian government to get a company director’s number. This is solely because the United Nations demands it! Having crippled our electricity, forced us to spend massively on ‘saving’ the Great Barrier Reef which is as big in area as Germany, we now are being told that we have to obey the dictates of our masters in the UN. Their tentacles are slowly spreading over the world, starting with compliant Western democracies and their sovereignty. What’s next? Race and religion?
What starts as a request becomes a threat becomes a demand and the voluntary and vague UN Paris Accord is being now enforced in Australia as real law by activist judges who are bypassing parliament.
50
[…] Jo Nova notes Germany is close to a national blackout […]
00
Late in the thread but it seems to me that gas turbines combined with a conventional thermal heat power plant offers rapid construction time and high energy efficiency. This could be enhanced with fracturing of steam under plasma arc conditions. Anything to elevate burn temperature has to help as maximum expansion of the nitrogen is the key to efficiency. We already have fancy plasma ignition systems for cars which strike a high voltage spark and then flood that pathway with amps. What you lose in driving the capacitor discharge ignition is more than off-set by the increased output torque to the generator-set.
00
440 billion euro’s?
There’s a LOT of “spillage” potential, in that figure. ONE percent is 4.4 BILLION; beer money to some, but you could buy a LOT of politicians, churnalists, etc. with that sort of loose change.
ALL of it money taken at virtual gunpoint from the “loyal subjects”.
I would hazard a guess that an open audit of this caper will NEVER occur.
So, what sort of numbers are being tossed about, here in Oz?
00
According to the source here in England by which I mean one of the engineer spokesmen on the news, the UK is nowhere near a nation wide or even local blackouts/power cuts.
What happened at the weekend or just before was that they fired up two old coal power stations on stand by, good job too!
(should never have shut them down).
The reason given was the lack of wind and very cold temperatures placing extra burden on the system.
Of course they didn’t mention all the new electric vehicles causing problems with supply.
Just as in California in the summer, the electric vehicles really were the cause of most of the problem.
The spokesman emphasised that we are nowhere near the point of power cuts.
00