TonyfromOz has run the numbers on wind power in Germany.
Note also that the delivered power was below even the guaranteed minimum for 1,920 hours during the year, so it could not even generate the guaranteed minimum for 22% of the year, almost one quarter of the year. That’s not the maximum power but the guaranteed minimum of only 6%.
And then he looks into what all this Green Goodness is costing us.
Comments
4 responses to “Wind Power In Germany – Running The Numbers”
Energy from “renewables” is just one more liberal masturbation fantasy.
Meanwhile, the one truly effective renewable, hydropower if off the table, liberals want to destroy existing dams, let alone building new ones.
And why is there next to no interest in thorium reactors? No high-level waste, easily converted to electric power, and there’s vastly more thorium than uranium. Ever get the feeling that the real agenda for our liberal masters is for us to be shivering in the dark?
I had a lefty friend on FB promoting that one day (during the day), Germany generated 80% (or so) of its power from renewables. The squeeing was so loud that simply reading the words hurt my ears. Sadly for her, I work in power generation and have access to the actual numbers from Germany. She was technically correct on one point, but wrong in the whole of her implication.
First off, Germany has a buttload of renewable generation capacity. Nameplate capacity, that is, which is far, far different from actual generation. The sun doesn’t shine all of the time -night- and sometimes when it IS shining, it’s cloudy and raining, which reduces the amount of power generated. And let’s not include winter when the days are shorter and the irradiance is less. Then there’s wind power. The wind doesn’t blow all of the time, nor does it blow consistently at the speeds for optimal electrical power generation.
On to her point, in an oblique fashion. Baseload power plants typically refuel during the spring and/or fall, because those are the times when power usage is at its lowest. It’s not hot enough for A/C for most people and it’s not cold enough to turn on the heater. Also, there’s a fair amount of daylight, so people are outside more and use less power. Now pick the single best day during the spring or fall, when there’s nary a cloud in the sky anywhere in the country and there’s constant 10-25 mph breeze blowing. Couple that with the single lowest power usage day in the entire year and you might be able to generate 80% of the grid’s power from renewables. Just so we’re clear, Germany includes the burning of wood as a renewable power source. Also, they’re building lots of coal plants to “supplement” all of the solar and wind plants they’re building. I wonder why that is? ::cough:: In any event, Germany generates around 19% of it’s power from renewable, or did so a year ago. And this after flushing metric tons of cash down the toilet. Is the process a complete failure? No, but it’s pretty damned close. Low power generation, much higher costs and I’m betting a higher CO2 output from all of the new coal plants.
For the record, France’s decision to start abandoning nuclear power is, to put it bluntly, batshit crazy. They have no real natural resources of their own and if they think they can replace the grid with solar and wind, they are sadly mistaken. Unless, of course, they expect 50%-90% of the population to die off over the next couple of decades.
Costs-benefits analysis – learn them, love them, use them. Do the environmental zealots even know what a cost-benefit analysis is? Apparently not.
“For the record, France’s decision to start abandoning nuclear power is, to put it bluntly, batshit crazy. ”
That’s a shame. Liberals are always telling us how wonderful things are in Francistan- the prime minister’s mistress sleeps in the same bed as his wife, they only work 27 hours a day with 18 weeks paid vacation and so on. el Presidente O’bimbo was just gassing on the subject today. So, I ask, why don’t we get 85%
of our power from nuclear like the French? Except looks like they don’t anymore.
Liberals love cost-benefit analysis, if it costs you and benefits them.