From Dr. Benny Peiser at The GWPF
Network Agency Calls For Suspension Of Emission Laws For Old Coal Plants
Last winter, on several occasions, Germany escaped only just large-scale power outages. Next winter the risk of large blackouts is even greater. The culprit for the looming crisis is the single most important instrument of German energy policy: the “Renewable Energy Law.” The economic cost of a wide-scale blackout are measured in billions of Euros per day. The most important test of energy policy is now the stability of power – so far only the cost of the green energy transition has been focused upon. Because the federal government does not have the guts to start an overdue and fundamental debate about the usefulness of a 12-year-old, now totally outdated, “launch aid” called EEG, it now threatens to over-steer, with the green energy transition ending up in a crash. Fasten your seat belts. –Daniel Wetzel, Die Welt, 10 May 2012
Old coal power plants need to stay in operation or Germany’s power grid faces collapse. That is the warning of Germany’s national grid agency. Because the danger of blackouts is growing as a result of the shut-down of six nuclear power plants last year, the Federal Network Agency is proposing to suspend legal emission limits for plants. Old power stations, which are due to be shut down due to their high environmental impact, should continue to operate. “Closures of more conventional power plants are currently not feasible in Germany,” it says literally in the grid agency’s report: “Given the present and future tense situation, it is necessary to suspend closures due to the emissions reduction law.” –D. Wetzel und D. Siems, Die Welt, 10 May 2012
The German Bundesnetzagentur (Federal Network Agency) issued a press release warning that the national power grid is in serious trouble and that something needs to be done urgently. Germany’s once impeccably stable world-class power grid has been transformed and is today just one step away from being a developing-world laughing stock. This has all been accomplished in just a few short years – thanks to the country’s reckless and uncontrolled rush to renewable energies, wind and sun, all spurred on by a blind environmental movement and hysteria with respect to nuclear power. –P Gosslin, NoTricksZone, 11 May 2012
Winfried Kretschmann (Green Party), the prime minister of the state of Baden Wuerttemberg, is urging Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) to encourage the construction of new gas-fired power plants. Especially in southern Germany energy security is at risk, according to Kretschmann. –Nikolai Fichtner,Financial Times Deutschland, 3 May 2012,
Global-warming-related catastrophes are increasingly hitting vulnerable populations around the world, with one species in particular danger: the electricity ratepayer. Denmark, an early adopter of the global-warming mania, now requires its households to pay the developed world’s highest power prices — about 40¢ a kilowatt hour, or three to four times what North Americans pay today. Germany, whose powerhouse economy gave green developers a blank cheque, is a close second, followed by other politically correct nations such as Belgium, the headquarters of the EU, and distressed nations such as Spain. The result is chaos to the economic well-being of the EU nations. Even in rock-solid Germany, up to 15% of the populace is now believed to be in “fuel poverty.” Some 600,000 low-income Germans are now being cut off by their power companies annually, a number expected to increase as a never-ending stream of global-warming projects in the pipeline wallops customers. In the U.K., which has laboured under the most politically correct climate leadership in the world, some 12 million people are already in fuel poverty, 900,000 of them in wind-infested Scotland alone, and the U.K. has now entered a double-dip recession. –Lawrence Solomon, Financial Post, 12 May 2012
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You know, there is only one flaw in Liberal Fantasy politics, and Liberal Fantasy science – Reality.
Now if they could only do away with that troublesome thing called Reality, the world would be a wonderful place….
😉
Predictably, this was all predicted many years ago – 2004, to be precise. But still the Liberal Fantasists dream on….
WUWT – Renewable energy – our downfall?
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/05/25/renewable-energy-–-our-downfall/
For a power source to be defined as alternative, it must not work.
Germany seems to be a great nation for following an idea, in this case alternative energy, to its logical conclusion without letting any ameleiorating policies get in the way of said logical conclusion.
Penrose says “The big question there, as in Germany, is whether the people will realize who is really to blame and change their voting choices accordingly. ”
Unfortunately I live in California and very sadly, the answer is a definite NO when it comes to the majority of people realizing and changing their voting accordingly. We already had the chance to nix the AB32 global warming regs at the ballot box last year and it was solidly voted down. There are so many clueless liberal sheep in this state that they will all be blaming “big oil” and “big coal” and the evil utility companies for the high cost of intermittent energy. RIght now there will be two mulit-billion dollar referendums on the ballot this fall to raise taxes, both sales and income and they both have a chance of passing. The voters already also gave the state the ability to pass a budget with a simple majority, thus negating the need for even one republican vote on the budget.
I suspect that what’s going on in Tombstone AZ has less to do with ecology and more to do with Obama’s revenge against their governor.
You see global warming was misrepresented. They forgot to say that, if the predicted disasters did not happen naturally, they would make the disasters happen anyhow.
However, instead of the poor in undeveloped countries suffering from (non-existent) climate problems, which they knew would not happen, it’s the poor of developed countries, and all their citizens for that matter, who suffer the destruction created by the global warming scam and the UN’s Agenda 21 world destruction/domination scheme. They have to create a permanent world recession to persuade the world’s countries to allow them to “save” the world.
Of course, the UN would have to impose Draconian limitations on all wealth creation and prosperity to prevent effective rebellion. The biggest thorn in the UN’s plan is the fact that the US has an armed citizenry, which a one-world government cannot allow or tolerate. There’s good reason that Hillary is laboring to impose the UN’s Small Arms Treaty, which would require registry of all privately owned small arms. Why on Earth would they need that information, if it was not for, at some time, going after all weapons. (They claim it’s to control illegal weapon shipments. I fail to see how our weapons have anything to do with illegal arms.)
>>>John W. Garrett says: May 12, 2012 at 11:42 am
>>One of my favorite quotations:
>> http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/newsarticle.aspx?id=28907
>>>Putin suggests Germans replace nuclear with firewood
>>01 December 2010
Thats what I like about Russians. As a people they are completely bonkers, but they sure do live in a real, plain-speaking world.
There are no niceties or political correctness in Russia; if you want the salt passed, you say “дайте мне соль” – “GIVE ME THE SALT” ….. 😉
The numbers have been there for all to see since the beginning of “Green madness”. California won’t be far behind as the far sighted “canary in the U.S. Green Energy mine” it has insisted on becoming. Its currently proposed massive tax increase and escalating utility rates are only the beginning as money and jobs walk away from The Golden State. In the meantime, how about a $100 billion bullet train to nowhere?
This video comes to mind: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOOs8MaR1YM
1. Allan MacRae says:
May 12, 2012 at 2:33 pm
“Kyoto focuses primarily on reducing CO2, a relatively harmless gas, and does nothing to control real air pollution like NOx, SO2, and particulates, or serious pollutants in water and soil'”
Actually, CO2 is essential for plants, which release oxygen, and thus essential for all who live on this world.
After the Japan earthquake last year, our power went off for three days. Living in the cold and dark was no fun, but bearable. The real issue was that without power we had no water. At home we were OK because I had filled the bath for drinking water, and I could collect snow melt to flush the dunnies. It would be interesting to see the effect of a 3 day blackout and no water on a major city. Sewage systems need water to operate. It’s not going to be pleasant.
It’s always darkest before it goes completely black.
Keep marching towards the cliff. Green lemmings believe they can fly.
Len says: May 12, 2012 at 5:28 pm
Allan MacRae says:
May 12, 2012 at 2:33 pm
“Kyoto focuses primarily on reducing CO2, a relatively harmless gas, and does nothing to control real air pollution like NOx, SO2, and particulates, or serious pollutants in water and soil’”
Len: Actually, CO2 is essential for plants, which release oxygen, and thus essential for all who live on this world.
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Thanks Len – we knew this in 2002; in fact we knew this in 1952 – something to do with photosynthesis – look up Chlorophyll gum and toothpaste. 🙂
But we were talking about real pollution versus alleged very-scary “CO2 pollution”.
How is your predictive record? Ours is pretty good.
ChE says:
May 12, 2012 at 9:28 am
An earthquake happens in Japan. All the nuke plants shut down in Germany. Now they need to buy more gas from Russia.
Huh?
They’ve been brainwashed that nuclear is EVIL for 40 years sans cesse, including all the people in the media and in politics. Green electricity costs nothing and is limitless (once you install a few trillion windmills and plaster the landscape solid with PV panels). That’s three generations solid. Merkel seized the opportunity to finish the No Nukes policy – if there are a few problems, it will be others’ peoples fault.
Unfortunately, it will take more than a few medium-sized blackouts to bring the Germans to their senses: anything short of at least 2 solid weeks for at least 25-30 million people will be blamed on evil power companies sabotaging the Revolution (so let’s nationalize them!). And even if the Green Idiocracy collapses, those who back it now will never see anything wrong with it – like the Nazi stooges (extinct by now) or the Communists after them (still alive and kicking, thank you very much).
Right; the Precautionary Principle should say, “avoid mitigation at all costs” — it’s deadly dangerous and very high probability. Instead, the PP is applied to mostly beneficial and very low probability warming. Human stupidity, as Einstein said, is truly unlimited.
Wording note:
. (You can only “enumerate” items or events.)
Anything is possible says: @ur momisugly May 12, 2012 at 1:31 pm
I wonder if governments have paused to consider the possible social consequences of imposing black-outs upon certain sections of the population.
If they imagine that everyone is going to sit peaceably at home, playing Scrabble by candlelight while waiting patiently for the lights to come back on, methinks they’re in for a rude awakening.
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They have certainly considered it and have already set the legal frame work in place to deal with it at least here in the USA. (I have not followed what the similar policies might be in Europe)
#1 Repeal of Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, a law preventing deployment of US military troops within the USA. Now thanks to the John Warner Defense Authorization Act (Oct 17, 2006) “Use of the Armed Forces in major public emergencies” is allowed.
#2 <The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), signed into law by President Obama, will authorize the U.S. military to conduct law enforcement actions on American soil." The NDAA adds the option to imprison citizens indefinitely without due process, thereby selectively suspended habeus corpus. Forbes Article and analysis by a lawyer link
#3 The Patriot Act. ‘Nuf said.
#4 Declaring a “War on Terror” is not just a catchy phrase. It has legal ramifications that most citizens are unaware of because it invokes the laws of war. Book: The War on Terror and the Laws of War: A Military Perspective
#5 Febuary 14 2008 Canada and the U.S. have signed an agreement that paves the way for the militaries from either nation to send troops across each other’s borders during an emergency…
Gee, looks like all they need is the “Emergency” they are so busy preparing for. /sarc
Rhoda R says:
May 12, 2012 at 4:36 pm
I suspect that what’s going on in Tombstone AZ has less to do with ecology and more to do with Obama’s revenge against their governor.
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I do not know if these guys are nutters or not but they cite Supreme Court cases. I ran across them while looking for something else and have not had the chance to do any research. Looks like Tombstone needs to delve into the matter. The County Sheriff:The Ultimate Check & Balance
Trying to find a positive aspect, Polish, Czech and French electricity generators are probably salivating at the prospect of being able to sell electricity across the border. But it may not come in time for Germans who could end up burning the furniture to stay warm.
In the Uk, preparations have also been made in the last 20 years. We now have; arrest without suspicion, detention without charge, punishment without trial, armed police, police not tried for
unlawful killings, the police breaking the law as a matter of policy, secret courts, secret evidence
secret witnesses; we’ve lost the right to silence, we’ve lost the presumption of innocence, and so on, and so on.
Re Sleepalot’s comments: as Thomas Jeffrson once said (I think), “…the people do not often lose all of their rights at one time, but rather through gradual usurpations…..”.
All they need to do is have something serious happen like they are left with no power for 1 week. Pretty much there wont be much of a govt left after a week..
2% of household currently with no power is a tragedy but a whole country out of power is a riot waiting to happen.
_Jim says:
May 12, 2012 at 12:04 pm
James Sexton says on May 12, 2012 at 8:58 am
…
A properly maintained grid to ensure quality of service must have strategically placed equipment on the grid such as capacitors, regulators, and re-closures (switches) and the like. Wire size is a huge consideration …
You’re getting awfully close to just throwing a ‘word salad’ together to support a case; please step lightly and understand what you are penning …
(i.e., do not conflate power factor correction (cap banks) due to motor/inductive loads, protective switching (reclosers: think auto resettable breakers) used to protect individual distribution lines and voltage regulators (auto-step tap transformer and tap changers) used to compensate for a voltage drops for their specific intended purposes)
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And you’re awful close to missing my point by taking my previous comments out of your quote. The sizing and settings of every one of those pieces of equipment are contingent upon distance away from the source and energy available, as well as direction the source is coming from.
Damn bro, if you didn’t understand what I stated, you could have just asked.
Well Allan, if you are satisfied with…CO2 is relativelly innocous… as opposed to vital for life , then I guess you comments make sense. And to suggest looking up introductory terms in plant science is also good I guess. Thank you so much. Enough, I think, and not up to the standards of the forum. Take care.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/01/10/polar-sea-ice-changes-are-having-a-net-cooling-effect-on-the-climate/#comment-72001
Simply, the wind often does not blow when we need the peak power – so we need a ~same-size conventional power station over the hill, spinning and ready to take over when the wind dies… …the fact that wind power varies as the cube power of the wind speed is a further problem – power variations in the grid due to varying wind speed can cause serious grid upsets, even shutdowns.
Just one such blackout in a cold winter could have devastating results – for a preview, look up a sampling of the mortality stats during the Ontario-Quebec Ice Storm of 1998.
Volume 25-17, September 1, 1999
http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/webarchives/20071225014130/http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/publicat/ccdr-rmtc/99vol25/dr2517ea.html
@__Jim
So, I went back and re-read what I had wrote, because I do allow that sometimes what I stated isn’t all that clear. I find that not to be the case here. I’ll replicate the pertinent part of my comment.
Upon inspection, I see that I didn’t come anywhere near conflating those pieces of equipment. I’d like you to note the different names I used. In my estimation, a 5 y/o could understand these things aren’t used for the same purposes, hence, the different naming conventions. But, just in case you are still unclear as to the specific points I was making, I’ll give you an example. Reclosers come in various sizes and have various curve settings. The sizes would be relational to the source of the energy, that is to say, the size of the reclosures nearest the substation(source, more amps) would be larger than further down the line depending on load. So, when the utility places them and then down the line large amounts of solar energy is intermittently added to the system, the sizing convention and curve settings get all messed up. Regulators(the ones I was referring to) are placed to mostly to correct for voltage drop as the energy gets further away from the source. Again, adding energy intermittently down the line confuses the proper placement of the regulator. Capacitors operate unidirectional. Again, the proper placement is dependent upon amps on the line at that particular location. Do you see how this would effect the mentioned quality of service? Was I clear there or do you need further clarification/elucidation?