Global Warming Endangers Energy Production in the United States and Europe
The energy supplies for the United States and Europe are at risk, thanks to increasing complications attributed to climate change. In an ironic twist of fate, the rising water temperatures and reduced river flow caused by global warming is lowering the energy output of thermoelectric power plants, such as coal-fired power plants, that require constant supplies of water for cooling purposes. In other words, the problem that some of these power plants help create is now impacting their ability to perform.
Climate Change Causing Blackouts
Extreme drops in power generation, blackouts and full or partial shutdowns of thermoelectric power plants are expected to triple over the next 50 years, according to a report in Nature Climate Change.
Reduced flow in rivers and ever increasing water temperatures decrease the cooling capabilities that nuclear and coal-fired power plants have come to rely on. While this study shines a light on the needs for better water conservation methods, it also points out how significant of a weakness thermal cooling is for our existing power grid.
The co-author of the study, Dennis Lettenmaier, a University of Washington professor of civil and environmental engineering, said “this study suggests that our reliance on thermal cooling is something that we’re going to have to revisit.”
In the summer of 2011, the Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant in Alabama had to go offline on more than one occasion because the Tennessee River water was just too hot to provide any cooling capabilities. The study finds this was not an isolated event, in fact the findings predict that energy efficiency or power production in the U.S. will decrease 4 percent to 16 percent and even higher in Europe due to a reduction in cooling water between 2031 and 2060.
Source: Global Warming is Real (http://s.tt/1e5iY)
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Gosh, all this extrapolated to the US and Europe from just one power plant in Tennessee that had to shut down on a hot summer day when the river had lower than usual levels. WUWT previously covered this breathtaking report of the river water temperature “crisis” and shutdown last week.
With facts like that it MUST be real. I’m reminded of this hilarious cartoon circulating the net via waznmentobe.com
I think a bigger threat to power plant shutdowns is environmental excess by the EPA, note there’s more than one power plant being closed, with a nearly 10% energy capacity drop, but somehow, that’s not a crisis to the geniuses at GlobalWarmingIsReal.com.
When the next big heat wave comes, do you think they’ll blame the EPA, or global warming for the blackouts that will surely come when the grid is stretched to capacity?
Best bet is to agree to the closure of them all, with the attached note that this only makes sense if your mad,
close a few extra as well just to be on the safe side, then sit back and watch the fun as yet another civilisation starts to crumble.
regards
The spin will be like this: The power plants were taken off because of “global warming” (nevermind that the emissions reductions we are talking about will be impossible to even measure on a global scale). The blackouts will be caused by the power plants taken offline. Therefore “global warming” is causing the blackouts.
Meanwhile I saw an article today about an electric car that can be used to power your home from the car. This comes about a week after I learned that public “free” EV charging stations will be paid for by special assessment applied to people’s electric bill. So I guess now someone could, in theory, have two electric cars and alternate them to a nearby “free” charging station and power their home (which is disconnected from the grid and the owner is not assessed the charging station tax) provided they used something on the scale of RV style appliances. You could probably power a TV, a laptop and a few curly bulbs from your EV for an evening.
I wonder how long it will be before people are powering their home from a “free” EV charging station.
I’m thinking of doing a study to demonstrate that Climate Change causes brain damage.
Probably a case of mountain from molehill. Unless “global warming” is reliably linked to “climate change” as in drought not part of the many natural cycles of DROUGHT that have existed since time immemorial, this is just more hype and hysteria.
“because the Tennessee River water was just too hot to provide any cooling capabilities.”
??? I think this is a misleading way of trying to say that when the water level in the river was low, the plant was no longer allowed to return heated water to the river.
i.e., it’s not that the water was “too hot” to be useful cooling for a nuclear power plant (silly idea given the heat disparity between any river’s water and what was to be cooled), but that there are environmental issues with the rate and temperature at which water can be returned to a river lowered by drought conditions.
On the one hand, I can’t think that anyone in possession of an average of functioning noodles, could seriously believe this nonsense. Yet on the other hand, primitivisation is a Green objective and they do appear to be making headway don’t they? The increasing cost of electricity is creating a ‘power impoverished unterklasse’. Funnily enough, this apparent reduction in generating capacity conveniently rebalances the supply – demand equation doesn’t it? ie. less people can afford power – less power generated.
No one thought the 21st century would be the political battleground for a ‘variety of political extremists such as extreme environmentalists, extreme bioconservatives, and modern Luddite movements (trying) to block technological advancement based on scare-tactics and unproven “what-if” scenarios’. (Extropy Institute 2004). Somewhere along the line it became politically incorrect to say “NO!”
The ‘precautionary principle’ will be used by the Ministry-of-We-Know-Best (an elite ‘ineptocracy’ – see JoNova) to take the majority back to feudalism unless we relentlessly push back.
“When the next big heat wave comes, do you think they’ll blame the EPA, or global warming for the blackouts that will surely come when the grid is stretched to capacity?”
Actually, I’m pretty sure Obama will blame Bush. 🙂
They’ve got bloody nerve! So when the blackouts come because of ruddy wind power and closed down power stations they’ll blame global warming! They’re setting up ahead so as not to cop the blame for their stupid damn policies and inefficient green power!
I think the power plants that serve the D.C. area (and I notice they aren’t affected) are the culprits. Shutting them down would solve most of our nation’s problems.
The Blackout map is really a forerunner of thinks to come!!!
Imagine an exclusively wind driven power grid! The meteorologists would have a field day, as nighttime photos would show the nation’s weather map all lit meteorologically. Cold Fronts would be brightly lit streaks sweeping across the country and low pressure cells bright swaths of light. High pressure cell centers would be totally dark and Warm Fronts would be festooned with gradually increasing bright areas. Tiny black streaks would pop up following tornado events, as they would destroy all lights in their path.
Weather forecasts would be “light tonight with dimming towards dawn,” and “Use your washing machines early tonight while the lights still burn.”
Getting back to the silliness of the article, I think we need to remove some of these dimmer bulbs from the grid!
This confirms an EPA study finding, that cutting all four legs off frogs makes them stone deaf, so they won’t jump no matter how loudly you yell at them.
North Korea has the biggest climate change problem of all http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/dprk/dprk-dark.htm
Thermal cooling? We rely on thermal cooling? I can’t begin to comprehend this.
The river level was low…wait, I thought the melting ice was gonna flood the planet?
It’s a MIRACLE!!! Praise be the prophet Gore.
“In the summer of 2011, the Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant in Alabama had to go offline on more than one occasion because the Tennessee River water was just too hot to provide any cooling capabilities. “
Not the case. The river could provide plenty of cooling capability, but the “environmental permit” they were operating under said they could warm the river only a certain amount. When nature warmed the river on its own, the plant was forced to run at reduced power. Which doubtless saved the lives of many Alabama rainbow trout.
DesertYote says:
June 14, 2012 at 5:55 pm
I’m thinking of doing a study to demonstrate that Climate Change causes brain damage.
Sadly I fear that the brains you wish to study were already damaged.
Look on the positive side. As the weather gets more severe, the wind speed will rise, producing more electricity from the windmills. Hey, problem solved.
And once again we see the long term effects of those green socialists that pushed the whole scam.
http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/why-enron-wants-global-warming
http://stevengoddard.wordpress.com/2010/12/17/enron-and-bp-invented-the-global-warming-industry/
“Who knew the global electric grid was so fragile that it couldn’t handle such massive temperature increases? /sarc -Anthony”
LOL:
Well once all the coal and nuke power is reduced or shutdown and replaced with ‘Green’ Solar and Windpower. I think you’ll find more blackouts on that satellite map. Especially during the colder Winter months. As was the case in Europe over the recent past winters. Windmills frozen solid, not enough sunlight for the solar panels, etc. 🙂
You can continue to complain about the Obama administration, his EPA, and the zealots in congress that support this economic suicide…….. or you can commit yourself right now to work your butts off until November to defeat as many of these [snip, snip, snippity snipping snip!] socialist democrats in the coming elections!
If not Now, When? If not You, Who?
MtK
Anthony, that satellite image you have at the top is a total fake. I did a thorough debunking of it at the time, unfortunately on a site no longer in existence.
Note that the professed time of this image is 2315 EDT. That would be 2015 PDT, still somewhat light on the West Coast and definitely so in Alaska. Besides which, there is no and has never been an “ISAT Geostar 45”.
The original is from a DMSP nighttime lights of the world image, with a badly Photoshopped triangle of darkness (that did not correspond to the blackout bounds) to make it look like a blackout.
By Matthew Speer
“The energy supplies for the United States and Europe are at risk, thanks to increasing complications attributed to climate change. In an ironic twist of fate……..”
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Is it just me, or is “ironic twist of fate” , just saying the same thing twice ?
Mike McMillan says:
June 14, 2012 at 6:44 pm
of course if you move the thermometer 10-15 feet further away from the outflow then the problem goes away. been there done that.
C
Mike B says:
June 14, 2012 at 6:48 pm
“Look on the positive side. As the weather gets more severe, the wind speed will rise, producing more electricity from the windmills. Hey, problem solved.”
The wind is a fickle mistress:
http://notrickszone.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/EON-wind-supply.gif
It appears the energy future of the US will secure if only we can find a way to harness the hot air emitted in Washington. In the future the US might run on DC.
This newspaper article confirms what others have noted.
http://timesfreepress.com/news/2011/aug/04/river-temperature-forces-plant-to-50-percent/
Environmental regulations prevented the plant from sending more water back to the river, because doing so would have raised the river’s temperature too much under the circumstances.
With an additional cooling tower, there should not be a repeat of this particular problem.
But I guess it’s much better for some purposes to say that the river’s “water was just too hot to provide any cooling capabilities.”