Did they forget to mention a clean green planet is full of steel transmission lines?
Recently the International Energy Agency (IEA) told the world off for not preparing the Earth for the transition they want to force upon us. Apparently, we should have paid attention and built the right grid and now, due to our laziness, we will have to rush in another 80 million kilometers of interconnectors by 2040. Just like that.
All the high voltage lines we built in the last century, we have to build again in the next 17 years.
Remember, it’s not their fault that renewables need far more land, more space, more back up and more infrastructure — it’s our fault we didn’t build a world ready for their holy energy. Those sacred wind and solar gifts cannot be bestowed upon us! We are unworthy:
IEA Lack of ambition and attention risks making electricity grids the weak link in clean energy transitions
First-of-its-kind global study finds the world must add or replace 80 million km of grids by 2040, equal to all grids globally today, to meet national climate targets and support energy security.
Notice how these changes “are essential” girls and boys, and you should have paid for them already. It’s only half a trillion dollars a year for the next 7 years…
Achieving all national climate and energy goals will require adding or replacing 80 million kilometres of power lines by 2040 – an amount equal to the entire existing global grid – according to a detailed country-by-country analysis carried out for the report. Major changes to how grids operate and are regulated are also essential, while annual investment in grids, which has remained broadly stagnant, needs to double to more than USD 600 billion a year by 2030.
Issues are already emerging. The report identifies a large and growing queue of renewables projects waiting for the green light to be connected to the grid, pinpointing 1 500 gigawatts worth of these projects that are in advanced stages of development. This is five times the amount of solar PV and wind capacity that was added worldwide last year.
Just bill it to the wind and solar investors, says Jo Nova, and make them pay to put the lines underground so they don’t pollute the forests and farms and start fires.
As Henry Geraedts said in the Financial Post — 80 million kilometers by 2040 is is enough to wrap around the globe 2,000 times. It’s all so utterly improbable.
And as Australian farmers say when AusNet wants to build interconnectors across their farms:
Western Victorian Farmer
Tell the children they’ve been lied to. The Green future is an industrial wasteland of concrete and steel built to line the pockets of billionaires and bankers.
Photo: Interconnectors by Frans Berkelaar
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I just love that photo at the end of the Article. Australian Farming at its BEST. LOL.
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The towers are steel.
The lines are aluminium.
For the 500 kv line we used to live by that was 6 bundles of four plus the lightning arrestor, each cable a little over an inch in diameter. No steel core.
That line operated for about 25 years at 330 kv. Then they bumped it up to 500 kv, after which on a muggy day the kids could hear the line crackling.
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I thought they have a steel core for strength.
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Net Zero is rapidly becoming the dominant political issue of the age. Its obvious collectivist nature gathers support from mostly sectional interests in society. It has no significant grassroots support, since it aims to restrict human lifestyles and wealth on a scale never attempted before in history. It is awash with junk science, fake statistics and computer models.
https://www.algora.com/Algora_blog/2023/12/03/the-royal-bastard-on-climate-warming-for-thee-but-not-for-me
The late Queen, in her infinite wisdom, never went anywhere near it.
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So why don’t we just forget about their TOXIC W & S BS and Fraud and just build the best BASE-LOAD HELE COAL or GAS plants or SM Nukes?
No need for environmental disasters that have to be replaced over and over again, FOREVER and certainly no need for HIGH VOLTAGE power lines to connect up DILUTE, UNRELIABLE W & S disasters. And all for a ZERO return and no MEASURABLE change to CLIMATE or TEMP by 2050 or 2100.
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Just think of the subsidies we could save if we built what works in the places they once worked. No need for more transmission. No need to destroy farms and forests. No need to have exorbitant electricity bills. A few very wealthy outfits will become less wealthy and a few million tonnes of dirt won’t have to be dug up.
Lots of wins there.
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But how would our globetrotting, COP attending nerds be able to hold their head up among their peers, they would be embarrassed and laughed out of town.
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And with the money saved, think how many more trees we can plant?
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The UK gov. is going to bribe people with £1000 a year off their energy bills to accept new pylons. A recent Telegraph article said 100,000s of homes will be affected. Great, yet more cost piled on to bills.
For years the UK national Grid has been embarking on a massive project to remove pylons from the grid, especially in areas of outstanding national beauty. What a waste of money, now that the whole country is going to look like a giant angle iron scrapheap anyway.
And of course they kill birds too.
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It won’t help that the National Grid is starting to install these incredibly ugly T-pylons, that stand out like sore thumbs.
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Local ITV news tonight – Aberdonians against Scottish network extension: around 3000 people / farmers objected. NIMBY or commonsense ? I prefer the latter: the damage to area wouldn’t be getting undone in the future when the windmills have gone …. Large ( for us ) fieldies being split up by pylon towers to manoeuvre around. …. and so on
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Vast Village Pump Will Cost £40,000 Per Household
In a quiet field in eastern England a vast heat pump generates enough warmth to supply houses throughout a historic village, a pilot project testing ways to spur renewable energy use in a country that is falling behind its net zero targets.
Resembling a large agricultural site, with gleaming silver water vats, the heat pump produces water hot enough to feed existing domestic systems, removing the need for costly home retrofits. A 60-year funding scheme removed upfront costs.
Supporters say the network, the first of its kind in rural Britain, not only shows one way for the UK to catch up with Europe on heat pump adoption, but addresses how it can fund the wider net zero transition when household finances are tight.
“The truth is getting to net zero is going to cost money,” said Miles Messenger from Bouygues Energies & Services, which helped design and build the heat network in Swaffham Prior, near the university city of Cambridge.
The 12 million pound ($15 million) cost was covered by a 3 million pound government grant and a loan secured by the local council which will be repaid via household bills over 60 years. To help the switch, bills are index-linked to be in line or less than the cost of heating oil and will in time be indexed to the price of electricity.
So far in a village of two churches, two windmills and around 300 houses, more than 60 are connected to the heat pump which uses both air and ground heat sources. More than 35 are ready to be added, and others are weighing whether to join.
https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/vast-village-heat-pump-tests-one-route-net-zero-rural-britain-2023-12-06/
£12 million divided by 300 houses equals £40,000 each. That’s probably double the cost of installing them individually.
And the cost for 28 million homes adds up to £1.12 trillion!
https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2023/12/06/vast-village-pump-will-cost-40000-per-household/
Just know that those telling you to give up everything won’t be giving up anything.
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“The 12 million pound ($15 million) cost was covered by a 3 million pound government grant and a loan secured by the local council which will be repaid via household bills over 60 years”. So, totally unviable without grants and loans.
One also wonders how much heat is lost between facility and homes, and lots of other questions. At least the supplier will make a fat profit …
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Of course we should understand that we don’t have a climate emergency at all.
Why don’t these fools understand that Humans have FLOURISHED since the 1950s?
And all supported by, Shellenberger, Koonin, Pielke jr, Lomborg etc and the co2 Coalition Scientists and Clintel Scientists.
Why don ‘t they just spend a few minutes online and look up the DATA for themselves?
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Because that would mean dragging themselves away from their corporate-sponsored mass-media entertainment.
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Or to put that another way, they’d have to be informed rather than just opinionated.
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Coal, gas, nuclear and hydro power stations distribute their power via a small number of HV transmission lines because they produce a large amount of reliable, 24/7, inexpensive energy from one relatively compact and usually out-of-the way power station.
Wind and solar plantations produce small amounts of expensive random power in large size installations producing very little power and a lot of them are needed all over the countryside. It’s hard to escape the sight of them or their visual pollution or the environmental destruction to install them or the ongoing destruction of bird, bat and insect life for windmills as well as the impact of windmills on marine life for maritime plantations.
Added to the visual pollution of the solar and wind plantations is the added visual pollution and land clearing for large numbers of transmission lines collecting their small amounts of expensive, random power. Of course, there will likely be even more if they install thousands of toxic battery banks to store the useless, expensive product.
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Also the transmission lines for renewables have to be built to carry the nameplate output, so they are over-built three times larger than for an equivalent fossil fuel energy source.
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Howard needs a big size 12 to the rear end for ever allowing these ephemeral, off spec playthings to have ever been allowed to connect to the grid, it’s that act that has started this whole farce to get up a head of steam, if he had put rules in place that said only on spec, dispatchable power be allowed on the grid, we wouldn’t be in this situation.
We could still have solar & wind but the promoters would have to store the power in whatever works then dispatch it to the grid, be it ponds, flywheels, batteries, whatever.
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Renewable generators are smaller, distributed, and usually closer to consumer. The total reticulation required is less, but it is different. The numbers that Jo are quoting indicate the lack of investment in historic infrastructure.
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How can it be “historic” when it’s infrastructure needed to connect new solar or wind subsidy farms to the grid?
Funny how people like you complain about the tiny footprint of coal seam gas on land that remains productive and accessible, yet have zero problems with using vast amounts of land for disposable solar and wind hardware with transmission lines and ancillary infrastructure.
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It’s bizarre that Jo continues to allow this type of contributor. In this case every claim made for Renewables is the exact and indisputable OPPOSITE of the reality which even a casual observer could perceive without any confusion.
It’s insulting to Jo.
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As I have said to Jo recently, allowing the inclusion of those like Simon on this blog also allows those with superior knowledge to refute the nonsense he posts. And for this I am very grateful.
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Last time I looked the solar generator appeared rather large, and at quite a distance.
I’d rather the busy old fool kept his distance.
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” indicate the lack of investment in historic infrastructure.”
How on Gods green earth could it be historic when there was nothing to be connected on the other end.
The only thing I can think of are interconnectors coupling states together.
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‘ … investment in historic infrastructure.’
The farmers and graziers wouldn’t complain if they put the cables underground, but the boffins say this would be financially prohibitive.
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Simon, you could not be more wrong, just one small area of the UK, the problem explained.
https://www.nationalgrid.com/electricity-transmission/network-and-infrastructure/infrastructure-projects/norwich-to-tilbury/need-for-the-project
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Simon,
Where is your evidence of this claim?
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Just imagine all those zillions of tons of steel for the towers that will be have to produced using power from wind and solar!
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And low quality Chinese steel at that! Towers prone to falling over due to weak, poorly made steel.
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Nowhere as bad as their concrete though…
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Green steel has to be taken, what else ? 😀
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Perhaps they’re expecting the Green steel to take root and become self supporting?
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Tch! Tch! I think you have it there.
Why didn’t they tell us?
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testing. Have to re-establish my name.
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Because of the deliberate dumbing-down of the education system plus extensive Leftist propaganda most people have no idea how:
1) Relatively compact power stations are and how reliable and inexpensive is their product.
2) The tiny amount of expensive, unreliable power produced by solar and wind plantations. I think the average uneducated citizen thinks a few windmills replace a power station and they believe Leftist/Government propaganda that these subsidy harvesting devices produce cheaper and more reliable electricity than power stations.
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The cost a battery back-up for a winnd and solar only power grid in Australia is around $10 TRILLION – the maths is not difficult.
Will never happen.
Just because something is technically feasible does not make it economically viable.
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When did that ever stop “green” madness?
In any case, it’s not about technical feasibility. The sole purpose of wind and solar plantations and Big Batteries is for harvesting subsidies from consumers and/or taxpayers.
Also, batteries may not even be technically feasible to back up the grid.
There may not be enough recoverable lithium in the entire world to make the batteries needed to provide storage for all the solar and wind plantations required to replace existing power stations
Also, using pumped hydro as battery storage in the United States has been examined and it is not feasible for a variety of reasons. See https://dothemath.ucsd.edu/2011/11/pump-up-the-storage/
It’s tragic that “engineers” aren’t speaking out about this. The younger ones are too dumbed-down. The older ones are too scared of being sacked/fired if they state what they must know to be true.
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The madness may end around 2030:
World’s Top Arctic Scientist Warns Climate Crisis Is a ‘Globalist Scam’
found at Notrickszone
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The same applies to “Green” Hydrogen
I gave a presentation as a Chemical Enginnering student in the early 1970s on the coming “Hydrogen Economy”
My professor who had had worked in the fossil fuel inductry was not impressed.
The prof was right – 50 years later the “Hydrogen Economy” is still in the future as the techincial difficulties of hydrogen transmission and cost of production are still to be resolved.
Hydrogen is not a source of energy since naturally occuring Hydrogen gas is rare on this planet – it is only a means of transferring energy from a source to a use (such as running cars with fuel cells).
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“Gold Hydrogen”
You can bet the Albanese Goverment and Chrissy Bowen with be offering heaps of taxpayer subsidies to these gold diggers!!!!!
Twiggy Forrest got most of the $2 Billion in the Budget for his plan for Hydrogen production in WA.
https://www.goldhydrogen.com.au/
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I saw Dr. Forrest on ABC this morning and was shocked by his smugness ! They called him Dr. Forrest, if I not misheard…
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Dr Forrest has a PHD in Marine Ecology
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I’d love to know how many hours of ‘research’ he put in and to read his thesis.
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He got his PhD in 2019 in a totally woke topic that wreaks of catastrophism, not science:
BTW. The Left’s finest intellectual, Greta Thunberg, school skipper and drop out is also “Dr” with honourary Doctorate in Theology from University of Helsinki. I assume the religion is Gaia worship.
It devalues PhDs for those of us who actually worked hard for them and engaged in actual scholarship.
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The same goes for Nobel prizes
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Fortunately, Airbus/Tennis, Elbow and all the others will be booted out of Office in 2025. The worst Feral Guv’ment here ever.
Unfortunately, the next Feral Guv’ment may well be no better when it comes to “Climate Alarmism”.
However, reality may just be starting to become the ‘norm’ once again by then.
Hopefully.
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Poor ol’ Albo, he needs a holiday! This Friday ( tomorrow ) he goes on holiday until the end of January. Must be because he’s worked so hard and achieved so many things- not!!! Not only is he taking an extended holiday, he is likely to be jetting around in the PM’s jet at our expense.
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Gold hydrogen have drilled 2 wells on the Yorke Peninsula in South Australia, with nary a complaint from environmental groups. They pumped a massive volume of water into the first one at a depth of about 280metres, as they “lost circulation”. – what ever they pumped, did not come back, so they continued drilling a 6.125inch hole to about 1000m without seeing anything come back.
The 2nd well was about 450m away and had no real problems, with hydrogen detected, some of which may be real, some generated by the drilling process.
As for Hydrogen, they detected some in both wells, but I really doubt there is any significant volume, let alone permeability to allow productive flow.
I’ve been on the periphery of these drilling operations so it is always interesting to compare the press releases to reality, especially when they have someone as ignorant about the energy industry, let alone drilling and geology as Alexander Downer on the board.
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“It’s tragic that “engineers” aren’t speaking out about this.”
I’m sure 97% of engineers agreed the official story for the twin towers collapse was quite OK, or not worth worrying about anyway…. Like scientists, they’re just ordinary guys who want to watch TV with a beer and not think hard about the thousands of things going wrong.
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“Just because something is technically feasible does not make it economically viable.”
I recall a conversation back in the 80s with a telecommunications engineer regarding telephone exchanges and their performance. He made the unforgettable statement “All our exchanges perform perfectly, it is only when you connect the users that we have problems”.
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A bit like ‘Yes Ministers’ empty hospitals.
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The cost of electrity to consumers is far more than the cost of production – it includes transmission and distribution as well as back-up power and peak power.
Claims that solar and wind power are now “cheaper” to produce than fossil fuel produced electricty may be true at noon on a cloudless day and when a strong breeze is blowing – however the cost per kWh tends to infinity as the Sun sets and when the wind stops blowing.
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And dont forget the “margins” and “sevice charges” etc etc ..which are much , much, more that the generation cost
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Around 55% of a Consumer’s electricity bill is for the cost of those transmission lines and associated infrastructure with this cost now rising dramatically for all the new lines still to be built (if ever that is).
Only 30% is for the cost of generating the electricity.
With the ‘Old Grid’ before all of this madness started, the transmission infrastructure had been paid for and any costs were for ongoing maintenance, etc.
What a sick very expensive joke.
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On a vaguely related subject, …
I am trying to get a definitive answer to a much debated question regarding Roof Top solar that is fed back to the grid.
Does anyone know for sure if that domestic solar feed back actually can be utilised universally / anywhere else , on the grid ?
For example, if there was no other generation, could surplus RT solar generated in NSW be used in Qld or Vic ?
OR.. is there some point ..ie the local area sub station transformers…that prevent that solar feedback going beyond the local area.
I can understand how any solar feedback will reduce the overall demand on the full grid, but i am yet to be convinced that the National grid is a fully “bi-diretional “ system.
What factors are involved here ?
Can anyone offer input .?
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The real issue for Roof Top solar is that peak production occurs at noon, when demand is low.
Peak demand is from 5.00pm to 7.00pm when the Sun is setting or has already set in winter.
Our power grid is AC and not DC.
The Feed-in tarrifs have been greatly reduced becuase of the high growth of roof top solar when peak production does not match peak demand.
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My hope is for human ingenuity – we are known for creating huge problems but then finding ways out of them.
At the moment though Australia is working 24/7 digging herself deeper and deeper into the hole…
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Hence the move to neighbourhood batteries where household solar is collected and stored locally in a community battery during the day and then put back to the houses during the night. Billions have already been allocated to be thrown at this “innovation”.
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We should at least entertain a possibility that GreenLabor scheme, ie – that a combination of EV + rooftop solar in most houses + country-wide AI Controls can resolve this issue.
I do not believe for 1 second that there is a single engineer in their midst but sometimes even a broken clock is correct.
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Firstly, the grid mains have to be online in order to provide the synchronization signal for the grid tie inverter. Otherwise no electrons can flow from the PV system to the local grid on the substation secondary distribution lines.
Then the PV inverter has to provide power at a higher voltage than the mains. So if the mains are at 250 Volts, the inverter has to be at 252 volts to push the electrons.
Usually any power delivered is consumed on the load side of the nearest local substation transformer.
If the solar PV is producing more than is consumed locally, it “can” backfeed to the primary distribution lines.
But, there are caveats and issues. Unless the inverters are pure sine wave, they feed harmonics onto the mains which can play havoc with sensitive electronics. The PV inverters do not have significant instantaneous current capacity, so the “real” mains must supply motor startup loads for a few seconds or the inverters overload and disconnect.
You really do not want the PV system pushing energy past the local substation, because, depending on where the power plant voltage and current sensors are located, if the downstream voltage is higher than the upstream voltage, it ‘can’ cause an unwanted erroneous feedback signal that tells the power plant to start lowering the supply voltage at the automatic tap changers and possibly throttle back the steam turbine because the downstream voltage is higher than it ought to be. This can cause a cascading collapse. Very bad.
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Thanks Lance,
Obviously my comment re “ if no other generation was in play “ etc,…was hypothetical, but i was trying to gauge the technical limitations of a RT solar source penitrating the grid any distance.
Your comment ..”it CAN backfeed into the primary distribution lines seems to suggest there is no technical restriction, just those potential issues you stated.
So do the system controllers have any means of blocking , or restricting , how far any RT solar can backfeed into the system ?
I ask because i am trying to understand the graphic of NEM generation/distribution used on the Renew Energy site that shows RT solar is a prime generator to the grid supply.
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A “Prime Generator” is a generator that is dispatchable and designed to be a reliable energy supplier to variable loads over extended periods of time. RT solar PV is not available or reliable for a majority of any day. It is intermittent and thus it cannot be a Prime Generator, by definition. See: “Night” and “Clouds”.
If no other generation is in play, as you posited, then Zero RT solar PV will be available because the grid tie inverter has no frequency synch pulse and cannot connect to anything.
I’ve no idea if the Utility generators or grid operators can restrict/block RT solar PV. Probably “Yes” if the residence has a “Smart Meter” which can be remotely disconnected from the mains.
The harmonics generated by a modified sine wave inverter will mostly be blocked by the first transformer core laminations they pass through, but harmonics cause heating in the core laminations, so enough power backfed through those cores will likely cause overheating and transformer failure.
Any RT solar PV or Wind generation in an amount that is above the capacity factor of the intermittent generator is a destabilizing force upon the grid. Ie, if more than 20% of the grid load is being supplied by Solar, or more than 30% being supplied by Wind, the ability of the thermal generators to compensate for the instability becomes near impossible in any economic or reliable sense. What the NEM is showing isn’t the important picture. It is eye candy. The thing not being shown is the cost of ramping thermal plants up and down to compensate for the instability of the RT solar PV and wind.
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Thanks again Lance,
To be clear, i want to be able to refute the reported claims that… “RT solar supplied over 50% of GRID capacity for an hour or so” … typically in WA and SA .
Implying that at around midday the surplus RT solar feedback is being widely used to supply demand elseware on the grid.
In order for that to be true, the grid infrastructure would have to be capable of significant “bi-directional” power distribution.
Can that infact be true ?
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The solar PV is likely simply offsetting local power loads/demands. It is possible to reach 50% of “local grid load demand” for a segment of a grid, as you say WA or SA. But that is very far from the total grid load. Grid Capacity is the ability of a grid to distribute energy to the connected load. Interconnectors allow bi-directional power transfer, but at a high cost of construction and maintenance.
A grid supplies the connected load. Thermal generators are the ‘first responders’ to that load. Any other generators are following the thermal generators and are thus ‘behind the load’ in terms of time response.
There is a complex feedback/control loop taking place. Grid stability depends upon thermal generation. Backfeeding energy or “bi-directional” power distribution makes the dynamic systems analysis much more complicated. Beyond a certain amount of unpredictable power injection into a grid, the probability of stabilizing the intermittency tends to zero, which means grid collapse. There will NEVER be reliable grid that is fully intermittently generated.
Yes, IF you can supply enough band-aids, Batman Cards and Bubble Gum, it is theoretically possible to patch up the transmission lines to intake all the RT solar PV and Wind power that can be constructed. But the amortized cost per kWh delivered becomes ridiculous. Transmission lines are 2 to 4 Million USD/mile. If they are only used from 10 AM to 4 PM, then their utilization is 75% less than lines connected to a thermal plant. So the effective cost of connecting those intermittent sources is 8 to 16 million USD/mile for solar PV and 6 to 12 Million USD/mile for wind systems. These costs need to be included in the wind/solar costs per MWhr. A typical transmission line takes 10 years to complete all of the design, permitting, eminent domain acquisition of land, construction of access roads, concrete batch plants, mobilization, and execution, at a rate of perhaps 2 miles per month afterwards.
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Lance, .. or anyone ,..one more question..
Since RT solar feedback is metered (needed for billing ), somewhere there must be a data set of those kWs by States and the NEM total.
Have you ever seen such a data set or a scada reference to one ?
Strange that is not readily available ?
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“Transmission lines are 2 to 4 Million USD/mile. If they are only used from 10 AM to 4 PM, then their utilization is 75% less than lines connected to a thermal plant. So the effective cost of connecting those intermittent sources is 8 to 16 million USD/mile for solar PV and 6 to 12 Million USD/mile for wind systems. These costs need to be included in the wind/solar costs per MWhr.”
That is very, very interesting, nowhere will we see that cost quoted for any build.
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That’s a good point Ronin.
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I thought that the grid operators don’t want the home solar exported energy on their grids, and they may push to prevent exports in future. There was some mention here of the exported energy pushing up the grid voltage to either 260V or above this value.
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Graeme #4 as far as I’m aware when there’s an under supply they love solar but when the wind is blowing , it’s nice and sunny and the temps mild there is an over supply so they have to shutter wind farms and fossil fuel generation. As for too much solar on rooftops and localised over supply yes that is a problem which is why the inverters cut solar from the roof if it gets too high.
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How the heck do they manage this real-time? Must be a nightmare.
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The grid operators, if they wish to dump the solar input at say midday, can let the voltage ride up until it hits the set point in all inverters and will trip them offline, no solar power to the grid, or to the consumer.
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Yes, we’ve had that discussion- In a power cut they can turn off rooftop supply so you don’t get any power from your rooftop solar OR from the grid.. however it means their electricians don’t get fried as power comes back on. Apparently the newer systems can now provide power to your house while locked off the grid.
..and the voltage pulses to turn off some people’s solar just give everyone else’s computers and electronics a hard time.
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The whole rooftop solar scam might have worked if done this way:
– No subsidies. You do the maths and work out if it’s viable. Your choice.
– Solar panels, inverter and local battery backup (just your house).
– No feed from the house to the grid.
– When you’re consuming more than you are generating, draw power from the grid (and pay for only that power).
To those who say, “but only rich people would do it”. Stiff sh!t.
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Without subsidies, home solar would I believe be marginal. Based on a 10-year depreciation period, I expect to pay off my solar in 7.5 years. Would still have paid it off in that time without export earnings. But without the substantial subsidy, I doubt that it could be paid off in the expected inverter lifetime. Certainly adding a battery would not achieve any worthwhile cost benefit.
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I tried to get solar panel system (neither battery nor favorable feed back tariff expected) even paid for preliminary inspection but, after giving a quote, they never were seen again. The installation was too hard…
My hope was to use the excess power by swimming pool pumps.
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Chad, the solar electricity goes no further than the first transformer on the pole at the end of the street which will not be bi-directional. If every house in the street is on solar then output is curtailed when they are all producing at midday. To update all transformers to bi directional ones would cost Billions if not trillions.
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Uranium Reserves – Top 10
Country Reserves as of 2019 (tonnes)
Australia 2,049,400
Kazakhstan 969,200
Canada 873,000
Russia 661,900
Namibia 504,200
South Africa 447,700
Niger 439,400
Brazil 276,800
China 269,700
Ukraine 186,900
Australia is currently governed by idiots
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It’s not an Australian unique selling point 😀
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Please don’t insult the idiot community.
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The current market price for Uranium is around US$130 per kilo
There is 3 ppb of Uranium in Seawater and the current cost of recovery is around US$600 per Kilo.
So still some way to go – however further technogical advances might close the gap.
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“Australia is currently governed by idiots”
It has been for a long time.
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Which is what the oft repeated quote of Donald Horne goes on to say. To paraphrase ” Australia is a lucky country, its general people are good, but its leaders are idiots”.
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Ross,
Australia is not a lucky country from the grace of Mother Nature.
Our wealth from mineral resources is not from luck, but from the application of proper science by geoscience professionals. They apply science according to the Scientific Method and not by the illiterate, home-made methods dominating climate research.
Geoff S
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Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of Congress; but I repeat myself.
– Mark Twain
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Don’t we just add Ukraine’s total onto Russia’s these days?
I suppose it explains why Australia will never be allowed to have an opinion independent of America, they aren’t letting us go anytime soon! ..and I use to think that all those Marines in Darwin were just for show!
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Our leftist donkeys always complain that we don’t spend enough money on Hospitals, Nurses, education, foreign aid, Aboriginals, etc.
Yet they want to burden us with the impossible task of WASTING TRILLIONS of $ on TOXIC W & S and all for ZERO change?
Just look up the China, India and developing countries SOARING co2 emissions over the last 30 years and then tell us how we can make a difference?
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The tropical cyclone is strengthening and entering the Coral Sea. It will reach Queensland.
https://www.tropicaltidbits.com/storminfo/
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Yes, it will most likely reach the coast, but …
Sea surface temperatures are apparently not warm enough to allow it to intensify or move south, and a ridge pushing up the coast will keep it up north. If it does cross the coast it will be north of Mackay, probably even north of Townsville. It may even degenerate into a tropical low, cross the peninsular and reform in the gulf of Carpentaria, maybe even traverse all the way to north of WA. Or it could waffle around in the Coral sea as a low for a while. Either way, we might get some much needed rain up here.
The over-hyping in the media of the potential severity and landfall is yet another disgusting example of wishing disaster on people remote from them, all in the name of talking up “climate emergency” and a “boiling planet”. The worst the media executives and news readers might experience is a temporary rise in the price of tropical fruit if the plantations are damaged.
Things are as they have always been in the real world weather department.
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The fear porn squad is out in force on this one. Cyclones have been happening for a very long time in the area designated , but to listen to the media it is the end of the world.
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‘ … apparently not warm enough to allow it to intensify …’
The cool waters in the Coral Sea should reduce intensity while the high pressure, with a south easterly breeze. Jasper could become a rain depression near Cairns.
https://earth.nullschool.net/#current/ocean/surface/currents/overlay=sea_surface_temp_anomaly/orthographic=-186.49,-6.70,1060/loc=160.058,-21.785
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I am very sorry, but the cyclone draws its energy from the equator, where the ocean is very warm. If the jet stream in the south is strong, the cyclone will remain strong and the cyclone will hit high in the northeast.
http://tropic.ssec.wisc.edu/real-time/mtpw2/product.php?color_type=tpw_nrl_colors&prod=ausf×pan=24hrs&anim=html5
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In 1750 co2 levels were 0.028% of the atmosphere.
In 2023 co2 levels are about 0.042% or an increase of about 0.014% over the last 273 years.
Australia is about 1% of global co2 emissions or about 0.00014% of that increase.
So what difference could we make even if we sacrificed ourselves and stopped all of our co2 emissions today?
Dr Finkel thinks about SFA difference , so what do our blog donkeys BELIEVE and when would we be able to measure that difference?
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Note even that is settled science”.
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In any event – what if global temperatures did increase by 1.5 C as the UN predicts based on its “computer models”?
This would increase the growing season in many locations and global temperatures have been higher in the past.
A fall in global temperaures would be far more of a concern that a modest increase
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Please, please do not tempt the Gods – the thought of coming back to 5-7 degrees in Melbourne morning makes me shiver !
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Vladimir:
Don’t look at https://notrickszone.com/2023/12/06/leading-russian-polar-scientist-cooling-begins-in-2030-climate-crisis-a-globalist-scam/
where a well credential scientist predicts sudden global cooling from about 2030-35.
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You can bet Blackout Bowen will be eyeing this Kiwi initiative!
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2023-12-06/kiwi-land-grab-new-zealands-elite-plot-land-theft-under-climate-guise
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“Although climate change can be a challenging topic, we’re dealing with something the human race has never faced before. It’s important to recognise these feelings are normal and valid.”
Wow. Just wow! “we’re dealing with something the human race has never faced before”!! Many decades forever, many settled areas would lose half their population to famine or disease.
This is from a document of some council has put out. A whole new level of stupidity!
I’m a climate sceptic, you’re a weather denier.
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Think I’m a realist and reader of world history. Of course the human race has faced similar challenges. In terms of ice ages for instance, of which there have been several, people just gravitated to warmer climbs. CO2 has never been a problem for us!
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The Australian Land Mass supports thousands of hectares of flora absorbing CO2 that more than doubles the amount of this life-supporting gas that we emit. Far from paying carbon taxes or being held to ransom for the benefit of non-subscribing China and India they should be paying us!!!
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At long last the BOM have updated our cyclones graph to 2021.
And note that Aussie SEVERE cyclones have been lower since 2015.
Of course the overall trend is down since 1970.
http://www.bom.gov.au/cyclone/tropical-cyclone-knowledge-centre/history/climatology/images/figure1.png
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Keep an eye on that Neville. I suggest you archive the page at archive.org .
https://web.archive.org/
Keep the the b@st@rd$ honest.
That data is ripe for “homogenisation”.
The data doesn’t fit the narrative
Obviously the data is wrong.
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Thanks David and note the new 2023 study I’ve linked to below and Dr Nott is still trying to tell the truth about much earlier and more dangerous CAT 5 cyclones.
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That (BoM) graph from 1971 to 2021 appears to be going downwards, ie. decreasing, less & less and fewer & fewer – unless! – you ‘read it’ from right-to-left, as some holy primitive languages do, then it’s WORSERER THAN WE THUNKED! Send money to
COProlite™ International
PO Box 666
Dubai, UAE.
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The latest 2023 study of Aussie historical cyclones has found that CAT 5 cyclones were 5 times more frequent in much earlier times and note that Dr Johnathon Nott is part of this study.
This seems to disagree with all the popular BS and FRAUD that the kiddies have force fed to them at school on a regular basis.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11069-023-06019-5
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Note:
They can’t fudge the frequency but they can fib about intensity.
The last damaging cyclone I can remember was Marcia that hit Yeppoon in 2015. Yasi was 2011 and Althea [I remember her well!] was 1971.
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“Althea [I remember her well!] was 1971.”
Was she the one that bent the steel lightpoles on the Strand to 45 deg.
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That’s the one.
As usual, before the storm the Strand was pretty daggy but rebuilt, it is quite picturesque.
When I was a boy my Grandfather owned a house right on the Strand so I can remember what it was like 70 years ago. There is now over a metre extra sand [deep] and Rowes Bay has over 100 m more [horizontal]. That’s the tell that there have been no storms since.
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Looking through the references I found this gem, solar forcing is the main driver of TC behaviour.
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2016GL068012
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Great rant Jonova!
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(Jo _ perhaps I should have waited for an open thread, but this was, I felt, important).
The best analysis of global warming/climate change consequences that I have ever seen is on this youtube by Viscount Christopher Monckton, with whom I have had the pleasure to meet.
It is lengthy, but it is so easy to undertstand and so important that I encourage all to read it and spread it.
Geoff S
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwdLXsCDevA
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O T,..But…what has happened to the “Open” threads this week ?
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Jo’s scared of my looming posts, and they’re reaĺ shockers.😉
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As they often are
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Aaawww…blushes…you do care! 😁
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did you fail to see the irony?
00
FIRST THEY CAME FOR YOUR CAR…
…now they are coming for your meat. Global warming, the universal excuse for left-wing policies designed to make your life worse, demands that modern agriculture be shut down. If you think that is an exaggeration, talk to anyone in Sri Lanka or the Netherlands.
The UN’s COP28 global warming conference in Dubai is turning its attention to agriculture:
Climate advocacy groups are pressuring world governments gathered at this year’s United Nation’s COP28 climate conference in Dubai to commit to cutting global food sector emissions, as the conference host promises to put agriculture in the spotlight.
Global food systems- including farming and land use, livestock production, household food consumption and waste, and energy used in the farm and food retail sectors – account for 31% of human-made greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, according to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
How do you cut down on those emissions? Basically, by doing away with meat and substituting insects as a protein source for the masses.
A full day of the 28th Conference of the Parties (COP), Dec. 10, will be dedicated to food and agriculture – a first for any COP – and the United Arab Emirates host has said the event will be a “game-changer for food systems.”
A “game changer” for your diet.
Not coincidentally, the Biden EPA, which is running amok on several fronts, is promulgating new anti-methane regulations. At Legal Insurrection, Leslie Eastman points out that such regulations, while initially directed toward the oil and gas industries, can easily be deployed against agriculture, a major source of methane.
One thing you can be sure of: the liberals who are telling you to eat insects instead of steaks, pork chops, bacon and hamburgers will do no such thing themselves.
Their plan is to drive up the price of meat to the point where you, and most people, can’t afford it, but they can. Meat will be like, say, truffles.
And you will never have a chance to vote on this plan. It will be done through regulation, not legislation, and most people (if the liberals get their way) will never understand that it is left-wing government action that has priced them out of the market for meat.
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They are telling you to not eat meat to reduce your carbon footprint.
Meanwhile … they arrive on private jets at their latest international conference in Dubai.
I wonder what’s on the menu?
Bugs or Wagyu beef?
The COP26 menu is ‘like serving cigarettes at a lung cancer conference’
Climate and conservation groups have questioned the sustainability of the COP26 menu, which is almost 60 per cent meat or dairy based.
You might expect the world’s biggest climate change conference to opt for eco-friendly menus, given the clamour to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. Yet the menu at COP26 in Glasgow is almost 60 per cent meat or dairy with dishes labelled as high-carbon at almost every food stand, a move which ‘beggars belief” according to climate and conservation campaigners.
Delegates are presented with a broad menu at the conference, from soups, sandwiches and salads to pizza, pasta and pastries.
The carbon footprint for every item is listed on the menu, available online at a website called ARecipeForChange.co.uk, with burgers, venison, beef ramen, and haggis all featuring, despite their high carbon footprint.
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“Meanwhile … they arrive on private jets at their latest international conference in Dubai.
I wonder what’s on the menu?
Bugs or Wagyu beef?”
They really have a sense of humour this COP mob, here they are smug in their oil and gas powered aircon, arriving in private jets, stuffing their gobs with all manner of rich food decried for it’s CO2 intensity.
20
..the pigs in Animal Farm, no more, no less..
Just like all politicians, they crave power over others so they can have what THEY Want and you can’t!
30
Would/could Dubai even exist if it wasn’t for fossil fuels ?
Rubbing our noses in their hypocrisy and corruption. Damn them all.
30
They definitely intend for non-Elites to have insects on the menu.
They are already feeding them to Aussie school kids.
https://www.spectator.com.au/2022/09/1000-australian-schools-are-fed-insects/
Remember people, the Left aren’t hiding their intentions!
Blah blah blah as Dr Thunberg would say. See link for rest.
10
Heh…riiiight…a few hundred million is more like it…
20
All those nice new steel transmission towers…
Now, what about the 1.8 tons of CO2 produced for each ton of steel?
Or the carbon content, in the low carbon future?
Better build ’em fast, before the next generation of engineers reaches the employment stage. 😆
20
Well done Jo on this article and in particular the highlighting of the opposition to these intermittent powerlines by the farmers in Central/ Westen Victoria. I drive past these protest signs on a regular basis and they are most amusing. Their appraisal of our local Federal Member (Catherine King) is also none too gracious. It would appear a protest movement that is also worldwide. The latest podcast for ” Business of Agriculture ( Damian Mason) No 322, has the following description- “Calvin Koeller’s Illinois farm operation is about to lose a couple miles worth of farm land to an electrical grid expansion. This new electric line project was defeated a few years ago but, with support from the Inflation Reduction Act — and some Illinois politics — the Grainbelt Express Electric project is back on track. As currently designed, it’s going to cause significant disruption for farmers like the Koellers”. So, not unlike the Australian experience, where supposed representative politicians ( & government ) are not acting in their constituents best interests.
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Turning Food into Jet Fuel
One of the absolutely nuttier ideas to come out of the climate change / anti-fossil fuels mania of modern times comes from the international airlines business.
They are being pushed by governments and getting unending pressure to signal their virtue by visibly climbing aboard the “Stop Fossil Fuels Now” bandwagon.
The hitch is, as we all know, is that airplanes need fuel to fly and currently, fossil fuels are the only choice.
But, thanks to the venerable Old Gray Lady, we are now informed, with interactive media, that:
“Airlines Race Toward a Future of Powering Their Jets with Corn”
“Carriers want to replace jet fuel with ethanol to fight global warming. That would require lots of corn, and lots of water.”
The headline is simultaneously literal and tongue-in-cheek – the (I am fighting the urge to use the phrase “corny idea”) concept is to replace the more usual jet fuels with ethanol made from corn.
“Ethanol (also called ethyl alcohol, grain alcohol, drinking alcohol, or simply alcohol) is an organic compound with the chemical formula CH3CH2OH.
It is an alcohol, with its formula also written as C2H5OH, C2H6O or EtOH, where Et stands for ethyl. Ethanol is a volatile, flammable, colorless liquid with a characteristic wine-like odor and pungent taste. I
t is a psychoactive recreational drug, and the active ingredient in alcoholic drinks.” [ source The Wiki ]
Ethanol is “alcohol” of the same type one finds in their whiskey, vodka, gin, moonshine, beer and now fruit drinks.
Ethanol is a fairly simple hydrocarbon composed entirely of Carbon, Hydrogen and Oxygen. Products of its complete combustion are CO2 and H2O.
“Wait,” you say, “replacing fossil fuels with ethanol will still produce CO2?” Of course it will, they are both, jet fuels and ethanol, primarily hydrocarbons.
So why make the switch?
Already, in the U.S.A., “Today, nearly 40 percent of America’s corn crop is turned into ethanol, up from around 10 percent in the mid-2000s.
This was largely because of government mandates that began in 2005 requiring gasoline to be mixed with minimum amounts of renewable fuel.” [ NY Times, linked article – hereafter just NYT ]
How much ethanol are they talking about for automotive gasoline each year? “14 billion gallons”. “….the 135 billion gallons of finished motor gasoline consumed in the United States contained about 14 billion gallons of fuel ethanol.” [ source – US EIA ]
How much fossil fuel-based jet fuel is burned each year?
In 2019 commercial 95 billion gallons of jet fuel were consumed. [ source ]. The Covid panic reduced that somewhat, but the total is expected to reach that again this year.
To replace all of the fossil-fuel-based jet fuel would require, if all things were equal (which they are not) another 95 billion gallons of ethanol.
The U.S. already uses up to 40% of its total corn crop to produce the measly 14 billion gallons of ethanol mixed into gasoline.
It would take 250% of today’s total U.S. corn crop [ something wrong with my math here – a little help? – kh ] to produce the 95 billions gallons of ethanol to replace jet fuels – not even considering the number of additional ethanol plans that would be needed.
Of course, the U.S. need not carry the whole ethanol load necessary to replace worldwide jet fuel use, but it gives us some idea of the magnitude of the suggestion.
In acreage of land planted in corn, that would be an increase from 100 million acres to 250 million acres.
Much of that acreage would have to be irrigated and aquifers in the mid-west corn belt are famously overtaxed already.
Other sugar crops such as sugar cane and sugar beets can be used to make ethanol using the same processes as for corn.
Ethanol can also be produced from almost any plant materials even cellulosic feedstocks, such as crop residues and wood—though this is not as common.
But wait, there’s more: ethanol does not contain the same amount of energy per gallon as jet fuel.
Jet Fuel contain approximately 135,000 BTUs per gallon. Ethanol contains only 76,330 Btu/gallon which is only 56% of the energy in jet fuel. Thus, many more gallons of ethanol will be needed – around 130 billion gallons of ethanol to replace the 95 billion gallons of jet fuel.
Then there is the idea of burning food to power jet airplanes.
Of the world’s current 8 billion humans, just under 10% do not get enough food to eat – do not get enough basic calories, not to mention vitamins, proteins, micro-nutrients – they just plain do not get enough food.
Corn is good food. Land used to grow corn for jet fuel could grow other food or other basics grains which, if transported to areas of need, would help resolve that problem.
Corn and other grains are also food for animals raised as food – chickens, pigs, cattle, sheep, rabbits and goats that provide high quality protein around the world.
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“That would require lots of corn, and lots of water.””
And lots of fertilizer, lots of diesel and lots of tractoring.
40
Yeah but, these miracle imaginary planes will be ‘self-driven’ – no pilots nor navigators needed – however, trolley dollies of all 138 genders will be required to serve (nerve-calming) … alcohol.
Trust ‘the science’. Or not.
50
A while back I saw an article that pointed out that the third world ues about the same amount of fossil fuel for lighting, heating etc as does the worl for jet fuel.
No doubt they will be pleased to sacrifie that – you reckon?
And no wondeer the Tilley light is still available
40
Thanks Ossie, it’s just so hard to believe the rubbish that comes rubbish comes out of these lefty think tanks whatever. They know the practical likelihood of getting commercial aircraft to fly on anything other than regular aviation fuel is zilch . .
40
If we could progress aviation we wouldn’t be still flying light aircraft and helicopters with 1940s Lycoming engines!
Updating anything past the FAA and CASA is damm near impossible!
30
Should say:
First-of-its-kind global study finds the world is full of fools who can’t understand basic maths.
30
Hmm ?..i would have just stopped at…”a global study finds the world is full of fools”…
..and i dont think you would need a global study to find that out !
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https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/zero-public-ev-chargers-built-congress-approved-75-billion-expand-network
Zero Public EV Chargers Built Since Congress Approved $7.5 Billion To Expand Network
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[…] JoNova […]
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One gets lost for words evertme we hear from this IEA, self appointed and self anointed worldwide beurocracy. Surely the ordinary people around the globe must see through all the lies and fearmongering.
20
For those who follow weather modelling –
“An evaluation of ECMWF SEAS5 seasonal climate forecasts for Australia using a new forecast calibration algorithm”
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1364815219302476
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Thank, another ian:
By coincidence I listened to the next day weather forecast (while driving and the first of anything from the ABC for, what? at least 6 months) and it had strong storms, heavy rain, fire outbreaks and electric blackouts for tomorrow in the Adelaide Hills. Time will tell.
10
Storms, heavy rain and fires, ah ok.
10
UK has roughly 23,000 wind turbines despoiling land and sea. Yet on Dec5 at 22:30,
* Wind was supplying 13% of UK electricity needs;
* Nuclear 13%;
* Coal, that we sit on, just 2.5% (Home production has fallen 96% over 10yrs; so in 2022 we imported, via fossil fuelled transport, 6.4million tonnes);
* Biomass (felled, chipped, transported, shipped across the Atlantic, transported again, all using fossil fuels) almost 9%;
* Solar, 0%, it being almost the winter solstice;
* leaving almost 2/3rds, 59%, to be made up by GAS (also under our feet, that we are not allowed to frack for), 45% of which in 2022 was LNG, imported via fossil fuelled processing and transport.
40
Open threads are out now ?
10
Apologies, Krishna. I need to program them up, sometimes a month at a time, and didn’t realize they’d run out. Usually I see a comment like yours or an email the next day. Fixed now. But golly. Three days! I wish there was an app…
20
May be tabs at the top of the page for popular topics would be nice?
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[…] Australian science journalist Jo Nova is in no mood to be understanding: “Remember, it’s not their fault that renewables need far more land, more space, more backup […]
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[…] Australian science journalist Jo Nova is in no mood to be understanding: “Remember, it’s not their fault that renewables need far more land, more space, more backup […]
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[…] Australian science journalist Jo Nova is in no mood to be understanding: “Remember, it’s not their fault that renewables need far more land, more space, more backup […]
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[…] By Jo Nova […]
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[…] Australian science journalist Jo Nova is in no mood to be understanding: “Remember, it’s not their fault that renewables need far more land, more space, more backup […]
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[…] Australian science journalist Jo Nova is in no mood to be understanding: “Remember, it’s not their fault that renewables need far more land, more space, more backup […]
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[…] Australian science journalist Jo Nova is in no mood to be understanding: “Remember, it’s not their fault that renewables need far more land, more space, more backup […]
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[…] Australian science journalist Jo Nova is in no mood to be understanding: “Remember, it’s not their fault that renewables need far more land, more space, more backup […]
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