Why Renewables Without Storage Are A Trick To Go On With Fossil Fuels; So Is Imaginary Carbon Capture!


(Pseudo-) Ecologists and associated politicians go all around, claiming “carbon net zero” will be achieved soon, brandishing various dates: 2035, 2050, 2060. The latter number is that recently proposed by China. It is, like the others, a lie: pretending that China will stop emitting CO2 by 2060 depends upon equipping fossil fuel plans with mystery “Carbon Capture” mechanisms… Which do not exist (as plausibly economical candidates; right one could inject all the CO2 one produces underground, but that’s possible only in particular geological formations and rocks, and would eat up most of the energy produced…).

In the “West” the myth has it that plenty of solar panels and windmills will solve everything. What about times, in winter, when there is no sun, and no wind, for months sometimes? Oh, no problems say the fools, we have gas and coal, and oil. So basically the fools say that, if one has windmills and panels all over, one needs to keep a 100% fully functional fossil fuel industry as a back-up. But it cost energy to build windmills and solar panels (using energy from coal in… China…) Are they foolish, or are they dishonest? Maybe both…

Anyway, here is the result: one can see British power prices get multiplied by more than 12 (twelve) in a year or so… And German power prices by more than six…

The peaks are caused by wind dropping over Britain. Britain has the most windmills and many are in parks at sea. Wind has been known to be variable since windmills started to be used massively… more than 1,000 years ago…

So is the solar panel plus windmills revolution just a deliberate trick to keep fossil fuels around longer? Making projection of non-existing, and hard to conceive, “Carbon Capture” part of “Carbon Net Zero” predictions, is certainly such a trick: it enables China to build one new energy producing coal plant each week… while claiming they will become no net emitters of CO2… soon… thanks to the mystery CC mechanism… Much of that coal energy is used to build US solar panels…

Nuclear energy is a full replacement for fossil fuels, 24/7. Solar, plus windmills, plus hydrogen (or derivatives: ammonia, methanol, etc.) can work, too, but… one would need to develop an entire “green hydrogen” economy… It can be done, like nuclear and thermonuclear… But money has to be spent. Instead, the crafty Biden wants to spend 74 billion dollars on electric plugs and nearly thirteen thousand dollars in subsidies for each electric car that the wealthy will purchase… Presumably so the latter can drive around in fake ecological style…  In truth, all these spending on useless pseudo-ecology enables to persist with fossil fuels. Right now in California, under an order of governor Newsom, electricity is generated from oil. So, right now, electric cars, in California, are mostly propelled by oil… rather inefficiently… even before considering they are enormously heavy vehicles, thanks to their battery packs… hard to launch and hard to stop… 

But let little African children digging for cobalt enable righteous hyper wealthy ecologists drive around in show-off, pseudo-ecological vehicles: this shows how powerful they are, and great their virtue!

A preferred method to renew conspiracies, is to play dumb. But conspiracies are not plots, or, more exactly, not everybody engaged in a conspiracy is conscious of the unfolding plot…

So most ecologists involved in the conspiracy to renew fossil fuels thanks to renewables, may be too dumb to guess that there is a plot in the works, indeed. In this case the plot is to act renewable, when actually what is promoted, in the end, is ever more fossil fuels…

Patrice Ayme

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From Wall Street Journal:

Energy Prices in Europe Hit Records After Wind Stops Blowing
Heavy reliance on wind power, coupled with a shortage of natural gas, has led to a spike in energy prices.

Natural gas and electricity markets were already surging in Europe when a fresh catalyst emerged: The wind in the stormy North Sea stopped blowing.

The sudden slowdown in wind-driven electricity production off the coast of the U.K. in recent weeks whipsawed through regional energy markets. Gas and coal-fired electricity plants were called in to make up the shortfall from wind.

Natural-gas prices, already boosted by the pandemic recovery and a lack of fuel in storage caverns and tanks, hit all-time highs. Thermal coal, long shunned for its carbon emissions, has emerged from a long price slump as utilities are forced to turn on backup power sources.

The episode underscored the precarious state the region’s energy markets face heading into the long European winter. The electricity price shock was most acute in the U.K., which has leaned on wind farms to eradicate net carbon emissions by 2050….

[Meanwhile Europe, with Biden’s assent, augmented its dependency upon Russian gas delivered by autocrat Putin… By building a new pipeline… Trump had frowned upon it…] 

In electricity markets, the cost of generation at the most expensive supplier determines prices for everyone. That means that when countries derive power from thermal plants with comparatively high running costs, it boosts prices for the whole market. Operating costs at fossil-fuel power plants are high right now after a relentless climb in prices for gas, coal and carbon permits.

Energy prices could shoot even higher if cool temperatures stop gas stores replenishing before the period of peak winter demand, said Tom Lord, a carbon trader at U.K.-based Redshaw Advisors. “You’ve got a gas market that’s extremely tight,” he said.

Electricity, gas, coal and carbon markets have a way of feeding on one another. High gas prices prompted utilities to burn more coal, so they had to buy more emissions allowances. Expensive carbon permits then prodded energy companies to turn back to gas, whose price rose again because the fuel is in short supply.

The feedback loop has the potential to ripple into the broader economy. European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde this month referred to energy markets as one of the main forces driving inflation higher.

Wind accounted for about a quarter of Great Britain’s power last year, according to the system operator National Grid. After the wind dropped this month, National Grid asked Électricité de France SA to restart its West Burton A coal power station in Nottinghamshire. That won’t be possible in the future: The government has said all coal plants must close by late 2024.

In France, most electricity is produced by nuclear power. So Britain imports French electricity. However:

To be sure, abundant wind power has at times led to periods of cheap electricity. This month, however, U.K. wind farms produced less than one gigawatt on certain days, according to Mr. Konstantinov. Full capacity stands at 24 gigawatts. Maintenance work on subsea cables restricted electricity imports from France….

Winners include U.S. and Russian companies exporting gas to Europe… Shares of Cheniere Energy Inc., a major U.S. exporter of liquefied natural gas, have risen 47% this year.

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9 Responses to “Why Renewables Without Storage Are A Trick To Go On With Fossil Fuels; So Is Imaginary Carbon Capture!”

  1. ianmillerblog Says:

    Politicians simply want to wave a wand and get votes next election. The idea that they logically analyse the problem is wishful thinking, on par with finding a lamp that, after rubbing, grants three wishes.

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    • Patrice Ayme Says:

      Except the elected politicians have continual reception, cocktails, dinners and golf with the hyper wealthy, and they together-breathe: con-spire. Also the politicians know their present and future income and power depend upon how well they listen to the worthy. Right, they are like dogs. Underneath them, but often unmovable, are gigantic administrations, themselves corrupt as their topmost elements shuttle between private and public. The present relatively young White House red hair spokesperson, Psaki, is typical of this class. She has earned millions since being noticed by Obama, just from hypnotizing people with her sensical nonsense and protruding, ex-orbited eyes. She has her own “consulting” firm. She had exact equivalents under Trump…

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  2. Paul Handover Says:

    You set out what is becoming widely known. But what is required are the solutions and we only have another, say, 5 years, or even fewer, to put the solutions into effect. I am certain you know this. Please describe what has to happen. This is the most vital crisis affecting humanity.

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    • Patrice Ayme Says:

      Hi Paul! So nice to hear from you!
      We both agree, and I have written many articles on the subject, over the decades…
      The Biden administration SHOULD have been a golden opportunity to inflect the world economy towards sustainability.
      HOWEVER, it is not doing it right!
      It is confusing the superficial and cosmetic, or what should come later, with what is urgent. what is urgent is achieve clean energy generation, LONG TERM.
      That, once again means NUCLEAR for generation AND hydrogen for storage (and hydrogen derivatives).
      Nuclear is itself of two types: fission, which is problematic in various amount, or somewhat speculative (large scale THORIUM)… Or FUSION, which WILL work, but needs much more investments, say a few trillion dollars… Instead Biden is proposing 74 billion dollars for luxury driving…
      That’s two orders of magnitude above the present US fusion budget… Presently 425 MILLION (not billions, millions!), including around 110 million dollars for ITER….

      Recently at LLL California, a thermonuclear reaction in a laser device produced 700 times the total power of the US electric grid… For a fraction of a second…
      That’s what we need to master…

      Liked by 1 person

      • Paul Handover Says:

        Hallo Patrice, yes I heard about that laser device in California; very impressive! I agree with all that you say. There are plenty of good ideas around; the BBC recently had on Radio 4 a series called 39 Steps To Save Planet Earth. The programme is in two episodes and the second is sometime next month.
        But the urgency is frightening. George Monbiot recently had a post On The Cusp in which he speculated that it is unlikely to be a smooth happening and that the tipping point maybe so, so close. I recently interviewed a group of young people, the eldest was 35 and the youngest just 16, and they are very scared. If humanity wriggles out from this it will be incredible!

        And are you well?

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        • Patrice Ayme Says:

          I am very well, Paul, thanks. In the spot of California I am, many plants lost all their leaves last year… Just from the poisonous gases from the burning fires.
          There is no doubt in my mind that we have passed the tipping point. I have precise reasons to believe that, but I keep differing writing a full essay on it: too busy otherwise…
          The Cusp? As The Guardian blocks my comments, and Monbiot used to be there, I rarely reads him…

          What Biden did with Australia, prepare to send it HEU, highly enriched uranium is incredible, a major nuclear proliferation, unprecedented…

          Biden Orders Nuclear Weapon Grade Uranium To Australia, Organizes Preliminaries For WW3.

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          • Paul Handover Says:

            I am 76, soon to be 77. Once we have no dogs with us and Jeannie has gone, she has Parkinson’s by the way, I think it will be time to hang up my socks! Leave it all to the younger generation. (I’m assuming I will die after Jeannie but who really knows!)

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          • Patrice Ayme Says:

            Death is a mystery, shrouded with probabilities…
            We should always live as today is the last day. Because it may well be, whatever our age…
            Parkinson is hard, but there is tremendous progress in biology nowadays…

            New procedure can treat disabling tremors, such as those caused by Parkinson’s disease
            Dr. Wael Asaad, a neurosurgeon at Rhode Island Hospital, is using MRI-guided focused ultrasound technology for this incisionless procedure…

            Gene therapy is an exciting option for PD and to date has already shown great potential. Presently, there are 25 trials involving PD and gene therapy listed on clinicaltrials.gov. The overarching goal of gene therapy for PD is to give neural cells the tools to produce dopamine.

            Encouragingly there have been many phase 1 clinical trials in recent years that have shown success. For example, in a phase 1 trail sponsored by Genzyme/Voyager, the gene encoding for Aromatic amino acid decarboxylase (AADC) was delivered to the putamen in the brains of PD patients. AADC is an enzyme which is key in the transformation of levodopa to dopamine. The decreasing presence of this AADC enzyme in PD could be linked with the loss of levodopa’s efficiency with time. Thus, increase in AADC expression through gene therapy could result in more effective levodopa treatment. The outcomes of this phase 1 trial were promising in that the patients who received the therapy showed modest improvement in the Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale and increased FluoroDOPA uptake. The findings of this trial and other gene therapy for PD trials were beautifully summarised in Frontiers in Neuroanatomy.

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  3. Paul Handover Says:

    That is incredibly interesting and valuable, Patrice. Thank you. I will look up Dr. Asaad’s details online. Once again thank you!

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