Forget eco-nonsense, reliable power is vital
CALIFORNIA leads the way to electricity blackouts, closely followed by South Australia.
They both created this problem by taxing, banning, delaying or demolishing reliable coal, nuclear, gas or hydro generators while subsidising and promoting unreliable electricity from the sickly green twins – solar and wind. All supposed to solve a global warming crisis that exists only in academic computer models.
Energy policy should be driven by proven reliability, efficiency and cost, not by green politics.
Wind and solar will always be prone to blackouts for three reasons.
Firstly they are intermittent, producing zero power when wind drops or sunlight fails.
Secondly, green energy is dilute so the collection area must be huge. Both solar panels and wind turbines are old technologies and now close to collecting the maximum energy from a given land area of wind and sun, so limited technology gains are possible. Wind turbines generate nothing from gentle breezes and must shut down in gales. To collect more energy the green twins must collect from greater areas using a widespread scatter of panels and towers connected by a fragile network of roads and transmission lines. This expensive, extensive but flimsy system is far more susceptible to damage from cyclones, hail, snow, lightning, bushfire, flood and sabotage than a big, well-built, centrally located, well-maintained traditional power station. Green energy also requires far more
investment in transmission lines and inter-connectors that consumers must pay for, and the energy transmission losses are greater.
Thirdly, green energy is like a virus in a distribution network.
When the sun shines, solar energy floods the network, causing energy prices to plummet. Coal and gas plants are forced to operate at a cash loss or shut down. Erratic winds make this problem worse as they are less predictable and changes can be quicker. But when all green energy fails suddenly, like in an evening peak demand period after a still cold sunset, coal cannot ramp up quickly unless it has been kept on standby with boilers hot, waiting for an opportunity to generate some positive cash flow. Gas and hydro can fire up swiftly but who wants an expensive fair-dinkum power station that operates intermittently?
When Danish windmills stand silent, they import hydro power from Scandinavia. When German solar panels are covered in snow, they import nuclear electricity from France. And California can draw power from Canada.
The looming Covid depression has no room for more green energy silliness. A hard dangerous new world is coming. To survive we will need cheap reliable energy – coal, gas, nuclear or hydro.
Viv Forbes Washpool, Queensland, Australia