British wind power overtakes gas for the first time in Q1 2023 - report

[Caribbeans]

The sun sets behind wind turbines on the Burbo Bank wind farm in the Mersey Estuary in Liverpool, Britain May 8, 2023. REUTERS/Phil Noble

British wind power overtakes gas for the first time in Q1 2023 - report

LONDON, May 10 (Reuters) - Britain’s wind farms generated more electricity in the first quarter of 2023 than gas for the first time, a report from Imperial College London showed on Wednesday.

Britain is seeking to scale up its wind generation as it seeks to meet a goal of net zero emissions by 2050 and to become more independent of expensive imported energy following the supply disruption caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Almost a third of Britain’s electricity, some 32.4% came from wind farms in the first quarter of the year compared with 31.7% from gas-fired power plants, marking the first quarter where wind power output was higher, the report said.

“There are still many hurdles to reaching a completely fossil fuel-free grid, but wind out supplying gas for the first time is a genuine milestone event,” said Iain Staffell of Imperial College London and lead author of the report...more
https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/british-wind-power-overtakes-gas-first-time-q1-2023-report-2023-05-10/

"Worthless" ??

[Shermann]

1. 42% for all renewables...impressive! nt

[NNadir]

2. Yes, worthless.

The wind industry is unreliable and dependent on fossil fuels. The lifetime of this junk is unacceptably short, and pretty much every fucking wind turbine on this planet will be a liability before today's toddlers graduate from college.

The LCOE is measured in dishonest terms, which is to treat electricity prices as if they were constant, and not accounting for the fact that the prices of electricity fall to worthless when wind energy is producing energy when no one actually needs it; and conversely generates absurdly high prices when demand is high and the wind isn't blowing.

We have, regrettably, a bunch of very ignorant people who imagine all kinds of stupid nonsensical ideological stale bullshit, crap flying around for half a century, soaking up money and producing no results, like say hydrogen idiocy and battery idiocy, the first worst than the first, but not by much.

What is amusing is that the people hyping this crap love to engage in "percent talk" while still hyping energy storage. It is very clear to anyone who didn't do badly in eighth grade math, never mind a college level class in thermodynamics, that in "percent talk" we would have to produce 200% percent of the energy supply to cover one day of absent wind, never mind month long episodes like the Germans saw this November, where the wind didn't blow for weeks, and these "percent talking" fuckers burned coal, killing people.

This means that the "percent talking" Germans would have needed to produce thousands of percent energy with solar and wind in order to cover their needs, all at a huge thermodynamic loss, the building of vast infrastructure that humanity and the planet can ill afford.

But of course, hydrogen fools and battery fools couldn't care less about physical laws, because they wallow in contempt for science, just like antivaxxer types.

The results of all this worthless junk, being constructed to serve the interests of badly educated bourgeois people who can't think clearly and who live in nirvana based fantasies at the expense of all future generations are in:

Week beginning on April 30, 2023: 423.96 ppm
Weekly value from 1 year ago: 420.18 ppm
Weekly value from 10 years ago: 399.74 ppm
Last updated: May 12, 2023

Weekly average CO2 at Mauna Loa

In the last ten years, with people carrying on endlessly about how wonderful solar/wind/hydrogen/battery/gas/coal/oil are, the concentration of the dangerous fossil fuel carbon dioxide rose by over 24 ppm. Since I started here, in November of 2002, more than 20 years ago, it has risen by over 50 ppm, with empty brains hyping solar and wind junk the whole fucking time.

Of course, people hyping wind and solar do not now, and never have, given a serious flying fuck about climate change. The source of their reactionary fantasy was not about the environment, but was rather about their insipid fear and ignorance in hopes of destroying the last best hope of humanity, nuclear power.

They won, by the way. The planet is burning.

I'd congratulate them on their great "victory," except that their "victory" is not only destroying human lives; it's destroying a vast number of irreplaceable biomes, the seas, the air, and in fact, the land.

Have a nice weekend.

[zipplewrath]

3. A little over the top

Yes, the press and advocates often over simplify the data, ignoring the less than desirable aspects. And, yes, the life span of a wind turbine is vastly shorter than most folks realize. However, your assertion that the wind energy is "worthless" is a distortion itself. Even with the realization that there are times they are able to create energy that has nowhere to go, it doesn't make the energy they do create "worthless". And as much as they are distorting data, your CO2 data has a tremendous number of explanations, probably the most significant being the population increase over the period of time you are describing, and has little to do with the production of wind based energy.

[NNadir]

4. We spent well over 3 trillion dollars on this WORTHLESS junk...

...in this century in leiu of sustainable energy.

I would consider addressing climate change to have value, worth. Spending vast sums of money for no result, to in fact accelerate climate change does not qualify as a worthy exercise.

Numbers don't lie, and they are not subject to lame excuses.

We hit 424 ppm of CO2 this year, less than ten years after first hitting 400 ppm.

I have zero respect for claiming that these points are "over the top." On the contrary I take such a claim as a sign of deliberate indifference.

I live by numbers, not excuses.

[zipplewrath]

5. Increasing population

An increasing population, and a more affluent China and India, along with shifting migrations due to climate change, is what is causing much of what you detail. Windmills aren't the cause anymore than they cause cancer. One can suggest that the money could have been more efficiently and effectively spent, but calling it all "worthless" is over the top.

[NNadir]

6. Oh, I see. Indians and Chinese should have agreed to remain impoverished...

...so the bourgeoisie in the United States and Europe could carry on stupidly about wind turbines, electric cars and other oblivious consumer junk.

Dependence on the weather for energy is a reactionary idea. Wind turbines are definitely a cause of climate change, because the money squandered on them did no more than entrench dangerous fossil fuels, the use of which is growing, not falling.

Three trillion dollars for an annual output of 11 Exajoules represents a crime against future generations. I often doubt that solar and wind generate enough electricity to power all the bullshit websites dedicated to saying how great they are.

Wind and solar generate far more complacency, wishful thinking, and denial than they do energy.

We hype this horseshit at peril to all future generations.

History will not forgive us nor should it.

Have a nice weekend.

[zipplewrath]

7. Nice try

But you can't economically, socially, or physically connect the construction of wind turbines directly or otherwise to CO2 increases. Your best chance is to suggest that somehow the money would have been spent otherwise on more effective technologies. And that has always been shown not to be true.