Friday Funny – backup plan for wind power

As we all know, wind power can’t function well as a primary energy generator, the erratic nature of wind means you always need a backup for base load generation. Typically this is from coal, nuclear, or hydroelectric power.

But, Josh thinks he’s found the perfect backup plan for wind power.

Visit his website here

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Joe - the new climate expert
April 12, 2019 6:06 am

Renewable energy does provide 27 jobs for every one job in the fossil fuel electric generation. This is great is great idea to increase renewable energy jobs even higher – full time employment – Best reason ever to expand renewables !!!!!

RHS
Reply to  Joe - the new climate expert
April 12, 2019 7:36 am

Too bad the pay in Renewable energy is significantly less than Fossil Fuel energy. Most laborers in renewables make between 20 – 50k, nearly all on the lower end. Most laborers in fossil fuel make 75 – 90k, fairly well distributed. Personally, I’d rather be on the side making more.

Rick
Reply to  Joe - the new climate expert
April 12, 2019 8:05 am

“Make work” jobs also employ many, but they’re only sustainable when there is an actual need for it. Right now, Green Energy technology isn’t ready for the big time because it is not reliable. When you need enough reliable “traditional” energy sources to back up the windmills and solar panels, what is the point of having them. Please don’t insult my intelligence and tell me it’s to combat climate change.

Bob Cherba
Reply to  Joe - the new climate expert
April 12, 2019 8:26 am

I haven’t figured out if “Joe – the new climate expert” is being sarcastic or not. If he’s serious, then why not create millions and millions of farm jobs for humans, horses and oxen, by eliminated all fossil-fueled farm vehicles. And we could replace trucks with horse-drawn wagons to get the produce to market, etc., etc. I think I’m right when I say most of us lived on farms before 1900. Think of all the (fun) jobs we’d create, and we’d be living closer to “nature,” and probably reduce our lifespan — which would reduce social security and medical costs.

Joe - the new climate expert
Reply to  Bob Cherba
April 12, 2019 9:12 am

Yes – I was being sarcastic

I was also pointing out that the alarmists claim one of the benefits is all the jobs renewable energy provides in contrast to fossil fuel energy.

It also highlights the lack of critical thinking skills of alarmists – 27-1 job ratio demonstrates that renewables are vastly less efficient.

tbruno214@comcast.net
Reply to  Joe - the new climate expert
April 12, 2019 9:51 am

Well, you could connect hundreds of stationary bikes in series and require all people over the government designated weight profile to peddle those extra pounds away while producing electricity. It would create many, many “jobs” along with the creation of an entire new government department to oversee it.

ЯΞ√ΩLUT↑☼N
Reply to  tbruno214@comcast.net
April 12, 2019 5:48 pm

I always said employ greenies and pollies to do the pedalling. So richly deserving.

Reply to  Joe - the new climate expert
April 13, 2019 7:57 am

Yeah, my impression was sarcasm. Sometimes the /sarc tag is needed…..

Erast Van Doren
Reply to  Bob Cherba
April 13, 2019 6:12 am

Strict vegan diet is often associated with strong methane production. And methane is a very bad GHG!

Reply to  Joe - the new climate expert
April 12, 2019 8:50 am

Are you serious? Do you have a source to support your assertion on the 27:1 employment claim?

Green energy will never play more than a bit role in our energy economy. It’s a niche and should the costs come down to be competitive with fossil fuels; I will consider. Since 2006, I have costed out solar for our home in CO (where we get 300+ days of sunshine) and each time the cost for a system has ranged from $21-$24,000 before any tax credit (and that is a without batteries, just grid tied). The DIY system would be about $15,000. To expensive when our electric bill is $110/mo average. Add to that the maintenance, repairs and replacement and the costs and rational cannot be justified. Green energy is wishful thinking and silly to think our economy and lifestyle could be replaced with an energy source which is neither reliable, dependable or dispatchable.

Red94ViperRT10
Reply to  George
April 12, 2019 9:44 am

Didn’t that 27:1 appear in Spain’s renewables post-mortem? Along with the finding that every job created in “the renewables industry” eliminated 4 traditional jobs?

commieBob
Reply to  Joe - the new climate expert
April 12, 2019 9:39 am

There’s jobs and then there’s jobs.

Taking up the policy of a public works program as a solution for unemployment, it was criticized as a plan that took no account of the part that machinery played in modern construction, with a road-making machine instanced as an example. He saw, said Mr. Aberhart, work in progress at an airport and was told that the men were given picks and shovels in order to lengthen the work, to which he replied why not give them spoons and forks instead of picks and shovels if the object was to lengthen out the task. Lethbridge Herald 1935

ThomasJK
Reply to  commieBob
April 12, 2019 11:39 am

Adding “jobs” increases economic costs. It is whatever added output there may be that increases economic prosperity. But then only when and if the added output is greater than the costs that are added by the additional “jobs”.

It is only in the deranged minds of the delusional government swamp rats and economics professors such as Paul Krugman that the benefits of added jobs can be otherwise.

taz1999
Reply to  Joe - the new climate expert
April 12, 2019 1:19 pm

I think to be fully functional the cartoon guy should have a shotgun to shoot raptors and a cross to kill bats…of the vampire kind anyway.

Hugs
Reply to  Joe - the new climate expert
April 13, 2019 10:49 am

Right you are. Galleys employ 27 (or something) times more ‘humen’ than motor ships, but that does not mean we should go back to unmotored to boost the prosperity of oarhumen.

Justin McCarthy
Reply to  Joe - the new climate expert
April 13, 2019 1:42 pm

Seems like a step backwards. As we progress we use less labor to produce food, goods and energy. But, up is down nowadays.

Lancifer
April 12, 2019 6:11 am

Great! More “alternative energy Jobs!

Bryan A
Reply to  Lancifer
April 12, 2019 10:04 am

Alt Energy Jobs or Sceptic Punishment

Hank Mike
April 12, 2019 6:18 am

Or perhaps the new “hard labor”.

Russ Wood
Reply to  Hank Mike
April 12, 2019 7:03 am

Didn’t the old jails have a treadmill? There you are – backup power and “cruel and unusual punishment” for felons! Solving two of UK’s current problems in one swell foop!

Reply to  Russ Wood
April 12, 2019 7:10 am

I think they had endless or loop ladders attached to an overhead pulley system. The pulley ran into the next room where a small factory was, providing it with power. This allowed people in “debtor’s prison” to work off their debts.
Hey. It worked.

Ben of Houston
Reply to  Russ Wood
April 12, 2019 7:12 am

You do realize that a human on a bicycle creates about 100W of power. That’s one standard light bulb per prisoner performing slave labor. That would never break even on even the cost of the wiring.

Spetzer86
Reply to  Ben of Houston
April 12, 2019 7:36 am

If you haven’t seen it, this BBC episode of “Bang Goes the Theory” is fun to watch. Can sufficient bicycles provide power for an average family?

Bruce Cobb
Reply to  Spetzer86
April 12, 2019 8:44 am

Lol. It’s all about guilt with the True Believers, who also happen to be huge hypocrites regarding energy use.

RLu
Reply to  Spetzer86
April 12, 2019 9:08 am

If the cyclists get a ‘living wage’ of $15/h, that’s $150.00/kWh just in net labor costs. Not including the bikes, wiring, maintenance, the building, HR dept., health benefits, taxes, interest payments, depreciation, amortization and hopefully some profit in the end.

Or you can use some compressed rotten algae for $0.10/kWh.

damp
Reply to  Russ Wood
April 12, 2019 9:40 am

“‘The Treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour, then?’ said Scrooge.”

john york
April 12, 2019 6:22 am

Wouldn’t it be easier, on the human, to just get a donkey to drive a horizontal cogged wheel connected to a vertical wheel? Much like a windmill.

Dodgy Geezer
Reply to  john york
April 12, 2019 6:41 am

Surely pink unicorns?

Phillip Bratby
Reply to  john york
April 12, 2019 7:01 am

That would be cruelty to animals. It would be much better to get greens to do something useful for a change.

john york
Reply to  Phillip Bratby
April 12, 2019 7:30 am

Yes. Then they could really prove their dedication to the cause.

oeman50
Reply to  Phillip Bratby
April 12, 2019 9:17 am

I hear Aaanold is available, he just needs to reprise his role in Conan, pushing that bar for the mill.

John F. Hultquist
Reply to  john york
April 12, 2019 7:15 am

The Donkey did something wrong?

wsbriggs
Reply to  john york
April 12, 2019 12:29 pm

Wait a minute, I’ve got it, we’ll take all the able bodied people who need subsidies, put them on stationary bicycles, and let them peddle to replace the missing watts. This is much easier that cranks like Josh drew. We can rotate the shifts so that everyone gets a chance to see live bats flying around as well as eagles who don’t have to dodge the blades that aren’t turning.

Do I need /sarc ?

Alasdair
April 12, 2019 6:29 am

Luv it. Almost too true to be funny.

Bob Hoye
April 12, 2019 6:32 am

Powerful image!

John R Walker
April 12, 2019 6:41 am

What a wind-up…

Reply to  John R Walker
April 12, 2019 9:27 am

He’ll never get it started. 🙂

Red94 ViperRT10
April 12, 2019 6:43 am

What happened to the bicycle pedals? I know it was in Gulliver’s Travels, but of course the Wikipedia synopsis won’t say anything about it. And I can’t speed read fast enough to find it in my text.

Thomas Homer
April 12, 2019 6:45 am

Human powered, humans are mammals, mammals share the same trait as Internal Combustion Engines in consuming oxygen and producing carbon dioxide.

I recall a claim from years ago that a human sawing a tree down with a handsaw creates the same amount of CO2 as a human using a chainsaw to cut down the same size tree.

John Endicott
Reply to  Thomas Homer
April 15, 2019 10:52 am

Humans are a renewable “carbon neutral” power source. Same reason why burning coal is “bad” but burning wood or dung is “good”. Yeah, it’s woolly thinking, but that’s green “logic” for you.

Bob Hoye
April 12, 2019 6:48 am

On the second look I noticed blood on the blades.

ferd berple
April 12, 2019 6:53 am

Working flat out a fit human can produce almost 3 cents worth of electricity (retail residential) per hour.

Working flat out for 132 hours a fit human. Can produce the same amount of energy as 1 gallon of gasoline.

James Beaver
April 12, 2019 6:55 am

This meme needs a better snip from the 1982 “Conan the Barbarian” where Arnold Schwarzenegger is pushing the wheel of pain. This one is too long: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5KYZ74OAak

April 12, 2019 6:57 am

What could go wrong? It’s more or less how people kept their lights on in ‘Soylent Green’

April 12, 2019 7:02 am

Climate slaves. Let’s get AOC to commit to future reparations if her climate crisis proves to have been wrong.

ladylifegrows
Reply to  David Dibbell
April 12, 2019 11:13 am

David, Airhead OC has zero bull* detector and almost no mind to learn anything. If data mattered, your idea might work, but no matter WHAT, you cannot prove her wrong to her own or constituents’ satisfaction.

noaaprogrammer
April 12, 2019 7:05 am

Additionally, the cartoon needs a few dead birds on the ground!

Norman Blanton
Reply to  noaaprogrammer
April 12, 2019 7:33 am

That guy eats them as fast as they fall to keep up his energy,

a very symbiotic relationship.

noaaprogrammer
Reply to  Norman Blanton
April 12, 2019 9:00 pm

That could make him “stork-raven” mad!

shrnfr
April 12, 2019 7:11 am

Interesting style change Josh. Very nicely done.

GoatGuy
April 12, 2019 7:14 am

Rather than echoing the hilarity…

Isn’t it better to actually embrace wind, solar and natural gas — primary and backup — as viable energy sources? I mean our country at least is in what projects out as a 100 year natural gas glut. Maybe more! So much so that we export it in massive cryogenic tanker ships.

Was down in San Antonio (actually Surfside 3 hours away), where the local refinery is installing a 5-rep cryogenic natural gas liquification plant… it is huge. 5 sections, all exactly the same. Impressive. (Was fishing the intercoastal with Cousin, and trawling around in his spiffy salt-boat … so we ‘got’ to trawl right up to the engineering dock!) … the point being …

We hae a lot of gas. So pipe it to where topper / back-fill power can be generated. Since all the electrical transmission (and interface) infrastructure is in place at the wind farms, put a competent generator there. MUCH easier to inject to the grid when the wind ain’t a-blowing. Same for Solar. Competent natural gas generators, on site … using the same transmission-interface electrics.

Just saying,
GoatGuy ✓

Don
Reply to  GoatGuy
April 12, 2019 7:25 am

Since it’s needed anyway as backup, just build the natural gas-powered plant and don’t waste the money on the bird choppers and dust collectors.

J Mac
Reply to  Don
April 12, 2019 9:00 am

+100!

Bruce Cobb
Reply to  GoatGuy
April 12, 2019 7:42 am

Why do you lump NG in with wind and solar? They have nothing to do with one another. NG is a viable energy source, but only if the infrastructure, i.e. the pipelines are in place. But the Climate Numpties are opposed to pipelines. “Keep it in the ground!” they scream. And as far as using NG as a backup for unreliables, no, a thousand times no. If you go to all the trouble and expense, and manage to overcome all the “environmental” objections to a NG pipeline, by god that pipeline needs to run full-throttle 24/7, as do the electric facilities using it. Wind and solar have no business in there, gumming up the works, and making electricity way more expensive.

John D Smith
April 12, 2019 7:15 am

I believe that one of the “agenda 21, agenda 30 “???
documents produced by some UN group, actually states something to the effect that as part of your civic duty, it will be required that you use a stationary bicycle to produce electicity, every day. We only have 10 years to save our planet.

Ed
Reply to  John D Smith
April 12, 2019 8:49 am

I read a fictional book several years ago had same theam
Everyone had to generate so much power every day so as to get your allowance of food
Who runs bartertown ?

MikeH
April 12, 2019 7:18 am

There should be a likeness of OAC behind him with a mega-phone shouting to speed things up, we only have 12 more years to go..
Just a thought..

Editor
April 12, 2019 7:23 am

Thank you, Josh!!! It was tall enough so that I had to scroll down to the “punch line”. Perfect!!

And thank you, Anthony, for posting it. Made me laugh.

Regards,
Bob

Norman Blanton
April 12, 2019 7:34 am

That guy eats them as fast as they fall to keep up his energy,

a very symbiotic relationship.

JohnWho
April 12, 2019 7:43 am

And notice – this machine is operated by a crank!

michael hart
April 12, 2019 7:44 am

It is a surprisingly old job. There is a Hindi phrase to describe it: Punkah wallah.

Reply to  michael hart
April 12, 2019 4:16 pm

12:50

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJELNyOkvJc&list=PLKs-cHjBXszmxFZx-BG7kmlMn9A51OJdj&index=31

Our British 70’s humour. Funnier and less offensive than anything since.

April 12, 2019 7:49 am

I think Josh just discovered one of the many new jobs that AOC will create for those without. I guess those unwilling to work can sit nearby and cheer on the winders while chomping down their free lunch.

Bob Cherba
April 12, 2019 8:28 am

I haven’t figured out if “Joe – the new climate expert” is being sarcastic or not. If he’s serious, then why not create millions and millions of farm jobs for humans, horses and oxen, by eliminated all fossil-fueled farm vehicles. And we could replace trucks with horse-drawn wagons to get the produce to market, etc., etc. I think I’m right when I say most of us lived on farms before 1900. Think of all the (fun) jobs we’d create, and we’d be living closer to “nature,” and probably reduce our lifespan — which would reduce social security and medical costs.

Sparky
April 12, 2019 8:39 am

The “Left’s” ‘high paying Green jobs’,…. next up,… Soylent Green 🍔 required by government fiat to replace ‘Impossible’ (vegan-burgers) at Carl’s Junior since the ‘ingredients’ are more ‘sustainable’ and save on crematory CO2 exhaust. [Just ask Charles Heston via a seance].

Hocus Locus
April 12, 2019 9:07 am

Oooo we have a sunspot. Silly little thing.

kent beuchert
April 12, 2019 9:19 am

With the coming commercialization of molten salt nuclear small modular reactors, any expenditure for wind/solar is the mark of future energy ignorance

Red94ViperRT10
Reply to  kent beuchert
April 12, 2019 9:37 am

With the coming commercialization of molten salt nuclear small modular reactors…”

Why limit ourselves? Fixed it for you.

John Endicott
Reply to  kent beuchert
April 15, 2019 10:48 am

With the coming commercialization of molten salt nuclear small modular reactorsUnicorn fart power, any expenditure for wind/solar is the mark of future energy ignorance

has as much validity as what you wrote. Get back to us when you can show us *just one* in commercial operation so the hype can be compared to reality, until then your “coming soon” shilling sounds just like every other vaporware/snake oil hype that has ever been made.

William Astley
April 12, 2019 11:54 am

The requirement for power storage is only one of the reality ignored items.

The term ‘smart’ grid is code for ignoring the negative costly issues with wind and sun gathering. Such as land to construct the scheme, right away for new power lines, and the energy cost to construct the scheme.

The green thinkers feel that as power lines are run to the existing power sources, that the cost to connect the new wind and sun gathering to the grid should be ignored.

A large wind farm produces as much power as a small city, except that power it is always varying and there are months where the wind farm produces less than 15% of rated output.

Note that wind farms must be located in remote windy places far from where the cities are.

Wind power is distributed power givers (a power giver is different than a power supply). Note the first wind farms are located in the best locations where land is available.

Electrical grids have rules that require power source to be reliable to protect grid stability.

Uninterrupted power is the number one goal of electrical grids. Those rules are thrown out the door for power givers.

A power giver, gives power at the cube of wind speed, so wind power can and does change 30% in less than an hour.

Every time a power giver’s power output changes by more than a single pass natural gas turbine output, a single pass natural gas turbine must be turned on or off. The on/off/on/off/on and long distance power moving reduces grid efficiency by roughly 10% to 15%.

Tom in Florida
April 12, 2019 1:23 pm

MODS
I accidently put my email instead of my name on a comment 4/12 9:51
Please delete that. Thanks.

Hivemind
April 12, 2019 3:48 pm

The blood on the blades is good, but didn’t you forgot the dead bird at the base?

Grimwig
April 13, 2019 1:31 am

Or you could get Carter

The Captain’s name was Carter
By God he was a farter!
When the wind wouldn’t blow
And the ship wouldn’t go,
They asked Carter the farter to start’er

James Bull
April 13, 2019 9:09 am

Reminds me of the sketch on Not the Nine O’clock News where Mel Smith is the Metropolitan Police commissioner sitting in his office turning a handle on his desk, the camera then follows the spindle down under the desk through various gears and linkages to the sign outside the building.
Can’t find the video clip unfortunately.

James Bull