Guest post by Ronald Stein
Founder and Ambassador for Energy & Infrastructure of PTS Advance, headquartered in Irvine, California
When I read the WSJ article “The Best-Laid Energy Plans” about the Government planning and subsidies that were supposedly intended to make America the world’s green-electricity superpower, create millions of jobs, and supercharge the economy, it brings to mind the most terrifying nine words in the English language: ” I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.”
In pursuit of a way to store the daytime intermittent electricity from solar panels, for use when the sun is not shining, the reality is closer to the financial failure at Crescent Dunes, a Nevada solar-energy plant that went gone bust after receiving a $737 million federal loan guarantee. No worries. It’s only taxpayer money,
Crescent Dunes was the first concentrated solar power system that generated solar power by using mirrors or lenses to concentrate a large area of sunlight onto a receiver plant with a central receiver tower and advanced molten salt energy storage technology.
An inconvenient truth is that the sun sets each day, but the Obama Administration’s green planners had an app for that. They decided to invest in the Crescent Dunes facility that would use molten salt to store heat from the sun, produce steam, and generate electricity even at night. Government support would carry the project to sunny success.
Here are all the things that electricity can do for civilization:
· Provide electricity to run the motors of vehicles, heating, air conditioners.
· Provide electricity for lighting
· Provide electricity for electronics
· Provide electricity for the medical infrastructure
Energy storage could revolutionize industries in the next 10 years, but despite the preaching’s about these renewable saviors, it’s becoming obvious that due to their intermittency and unreliability, and their inability to replace any of the chemicals from crude oil that account for the all the products in our daily lives, societies around the world may not be too thrilled about the needed social changes to live on just electricity.
We can be preached to forever about “clean electricity” messages, and bedazzle farmers with the prospects of on-going revenue from renewables, but the extensive mining worldwide for turbine and solar materials, and the decommissioning details, and the social changes that would be necessitated without the thousands of products from those deep earth minerals and fuels, remain the dark side of the unspoken realities of renewables.
Lets’ be clear about what that means. First, it’s not renewable energy, it’s only renewable electricity, and more accurately its only intermittent electricity. Renewables have been the primary driver for residents of Germany, Australia, and California behind the high costs of electricity. Second and most important is, electricity alone is unable to support militaries, aviation, and merchant ships, and all the transportation infrastructure that support commerce around the world.
Everyone knows that electricity is used extensively in residential, commercial, transportation, and the military, to power motors and lite the lights; but it’s the 6,000 products that get manufactured from crude oil that are used to make those motors, lights, and electronics. Noticeable by their absence, from turbines and solar panels, are those crude oil chemicals that renewables are currently incapable of providing.
We’ve had almost 200 years to develop clones or generics to replace the products we get from crude oil such as: medications, electronics, communications, tires, asphalt, fertilizers, military and transportation equipment. The social needs of our materialistic societies are most likely going to remain for all those chemicals that get manufactured out of crude oil, that makes everything that’s part of our daily lifestyles, and for continuous, uninterruptable, and reliable electricity from coal or natural gas generation backup.
Germany tried to step up as a leader on climate change, by phasing out nuclear and fossil fuels, and pioneered a system of subsidies for wind and solar that sparked a global boom in manufacturing those technologies. Today, Germany is failing to meet its climate goals of reducing carbon-dioxide emissions even after spending over $580 billion by 2025 to overhaul its energy systems. Germany’s emissions miss should be a “wake-up call” for governments everywhere.
Power prices in Germany are among the highest in Europe. Today, German households pay almost 50% more for electricity than they did in 2006. Much of that increase in electricity cost is the Renewable Surcharge that has increased over the same period by 770%.
America is taking giant steps toward following Germany’s failed climate goals which should be a wake-up all for governments everywhere, but it appears that America, from California to New York, wants to follow the German failure. Like Germany, America’s renewables are becoming an increasing share in electricity generation, but at a HIGH COST. The emission reduction goals have increased the costs of electricity and transportation fuels and may be very contributory to America’s growing homelessness and poverty populations.
Hopefully, before committing to an all-electric world, we can achieve the technical challenges of discovering a green replacement for the thousands of products based on fossil fuels being provided to every known earth based infrastructure, and society will accept the consequences of altering their lifestyles that will result from less services and more personal input to accommodate losing the advances fossil fuels have afforded them.
Hand the energy economy over to the government in the name of climate change, and there will be countless more Crescent Dunes fiascoes. Alas, brings back again those most terrifying nine words in the English language:” I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.”
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That’s shocking! Save a Watt.I’m bolting for thunder road.
Here in the UK we too have ruinous energy policies. This past week we have been under a winter anticyclone with wind generating 3 to 5 % of electricity, around half that of trusty old coal. Solar was effectively zero.
Meanwhile in Scotland it has emerged an estimated 13.9 million trees have been destroyed to build wind farms. Did someone call wind turbines ‘green’? Then the Green Mafia have the nerve to lecture Brazil on managing its forests. To misquote a certain schoolgirl, “how dare they?”
At least in the US you have fracking while here feeble ministers have caved in to the Green Mafia and banned it.
You forgot to mention that, despite Scottish government claims that these monstrosities would create valuable green jobs, the maintenance contracts seem to be going to the Chinese.
Who are bringing with them a certain viral infection. Ain’t that special?!?!
Simon,
be careful what you wish for — [ ] net electricity production nil, or even negative can emit hard radiation !
https://www.google.com/search?client=ms-android-huawei&sxsrf=ACYBGNR69hHIfrDqLFPokwkd93NnR7Rc4A%3A1580906397610&ei=nbc6XpTrJMvIrgTcoIaYCA&q=positron+radiation+emissions&oq=positron+radiatonemissions&gs_l=mobile-gws-wiz-serp.
/ just kidding ! /
Ian, you make some good points.
On several occasions in the last few days I have passed wind turbines turning slowly in apparently windless conditions.
It might be that there was sufficient breeze to do that but more likely the turbines were being turned by electricity off the grid. The important point being that the electricity the turbines generate is metered but the electricity they use is not.
The 3-5% has to be offset by the turbines usage. I will happily bet that over that period the net production was nil, or even negative.
wahahhaha, this is funny as hell. bill gates, google, and jeff bezos invested in molten salt battery start up malta, and bill gates himself invested in mirror concentrated solar power start up heliogen. it turns out that these 2 start up technology combine could be found at ivanpah/ crescent dune california project which has known failed years ago. bill gates even invested in co2 capturing turned fuel start up, which the funniest thing is you actually can’t turn co2 into fuel. in the end, these guys know shit……..hahahhahaha.
On the risk of repeating myself:
Marokkos Solar Power Plant was erected to supply Europe with cheap, “renewable” energy:
https://www.google.com/search?q=marokko+power+plant+energy+for+Europe&oq=marokko+power+plant+energy+for+Europe+&aqs=chrome.
____________________________________
After erection Marokko doesn’t deliver cheap, “renewable” energy to Europe; Marokkos Solar Power Plant can supply ~20% of Marokkos own energy demand.
~80% of Marokkos energy demand is imported petrol:
https://www.google.com/search?q=marokko+energy+80%25+imported+oil&oq=marokko+energy+80%25+imported+oil&aqs=chrome.
Denial isn’t just a river in Egypt. It’s plainly also the modus operandi of dreamy ‘leadership’ that in the vain attempt to magically make a name for themselves as deliverers of ‘free stuff’ believe they can summarily dismiss what has in fact made their world what it is, including what they presently enjoy from the copious sweat of their ancestors.
Because the wind is blowing at the moment, Ontario generated 2200 MW over the last hour from wind turbines.
While that might sound peachy, there are 46 gas-fired generating sets standing by for when the wind stops.
Who is paying for the capital expenses of those 46 idle plants I wonder? And when the wind stops, who is paying for the capital costs of those wind turbines?
Anyone who wants to see, go to http://www.sygration.com/gendata/today.html
Just a shocking reveal. I have been ranting about this to family and friends for years (more than 10), and generally making myself an outcast. The greenies can’t seem to grasp simple arithmetic and the pols let them get away with it to chase votes.
Plans to build a Molten Salt system in Port Augusta (South Australia) got scrapped last year they could not get finance. Clearly not enough Loydo’s willing to put their own money at risk, they wanted a handout from the government.
“Hopefully,… we can achieve the technical challenges of discovering a green replacement for the thousands of products based on fossil fuels being provided to every known earth based infrastructure,”
Actually, we already can make most if not all of those from carbon + hydrogen – that is the basic components of oil. Sasol has been making many chemicals from coal as the source of carbon. If cost is no object (after all we are saving the world) we can get the carbon from the atmosphere and hydrogen from water (also available from air). Of course this would require nuclear power.
Reference: http://www.sasol.com
Yes, we have the wherewithal to synthesize virtually any organic compound starting from the elements. It just doesn’t make sense economically, however, as you rightly point out the need for energy.
As for possibilities, the carbon and hydrogen from maple syrup could be used to make synthetic rubber for gloves, etc. I’d rather use it to sweeten my pancakes. For the foreseeable future, Extinction Rebellion activists will continue to wear polyester, to use plastic and to have their protest signs printed on fossil fuel derived materials.
Scissor, sweaten your pancakes with maple syrup and your bare hands too. The synthetic rubber gloves are pro bono.
Charles, I’m pleased to see a post that further confirms the disaster that is wind and solar renewables. Is it possible to send this on to Andrew Bolt of Sky News fame? Australia that is.
I think it’s important that the farcical source of power is exposed as the energy and financial failure that it is. But I don’t understand why the many other negative aspects of wind and solar renewables are not discussed. The ecological costs, the risks in regards to solar panels damaged by hail, storm and fire, the fact that recycling of this technology is almost non existent and what there is also presents toxic challenges. The huge amount of additional CO2 to manufacture this technology should also be presented as a negative, given that it’s the premise of the whole CC scam.
I don’t have to remind you about the fires we have been subject to for months now. There must have been solar farms or at the very least rooftop solar systems affected. In more recent times we have had severe hailstorms too, again I can’t believe that solar farms and or rooftop solar systems were not affected. You will not here about this in the MSM.
Now, Victoria is at least one of Australia’s states who have declared that solar panels are PV waste and it’s now illegal to dump them in landfill. They decided this because damaged solar panels present a risk of leaching toxic materials into the the soil and waterways.
Can someone tell me what is happening to the solar panels that have been damaged by fire or storms? Have they tested the soil and waterways for potential contaminants? What of the storm damaged panels that are toxic waste still in situ. What of the damaged panels on the rooftops that feed water tanks for domestic use including drinking water.
I don’t understand why no one is willing to talk about any of these issues.
Megs–“Now, Victoria is at least one of Australia’s states who have declared that solar panels are PV waste and it’s now illegal to dump them in landfill. They decided this because damaged solar panels present a risk of leaching toxic materials into the the soil and waterways. ”
Megs,
Any idea as to where Victoria is dumping them now? Are they shipping them to other parts of Aus. or, to some Asian, or ME nation (the ME is where the Europeans are shipping them) with an “out of sight, out of mind attitude”?
Even Asian nations are not wanting to take the West’s trash anymore.
There was a story awhile back about the Philippines refusing to take any more trash now and, after stripping out the saleable trash, the rest of it was mysteriously disappearing between the Philippines and the country of destination. That is a big ocean out there.
One point, they were being PAID to take trash for recycling, which I always thought should be done in point of origin country. Looking into the whole issue turns out in point of origin countries the environistas and greenunists piled on the law suits, then passed laws, aimed at making recycling and trash incineration so costly they stopped doing it and outsourced. Now the environunists and greenunistas have descended upon Asian nations and are screeching to them that they are getting screwed, so that now they are dumping said trash into the ocean. When asked about all this the environwackjobs and greentards screech that people have to STOP consuming, which is never going to happen. Humans consume, just like every other organism on this planet. People are not going to stop eating, or using energy, or wearing clothing, or building structures, or using vehicles etc etc.
We as a race have got to drive the screeching morons out of all governments, strip all their moronic crap out of our societies and move forward. They ARE the problem, not the solution. Thus endeth the rant.
WE need to figure out a way to make them STOP emitting CO2 promptly. That would solve 90% of the problem.
Earl Jantzi,
How will Norway recycle its wind farms and where deposit the remnants –
https://www.google.com/search?client=ms-android-huawei&sxsrf=ACYBGNQUy7xZkXET-4YnmaCpxvWnMNYllg%3A1580909513529&ei=ycM6XvD0H-KyrgTvhpNI&q=wind+farms+norway&oq=Norwegian+windfarms&gs_l=mobile-gws-wiz-serp.
And how overcome public backflash, concerns about reindeer, ….
https://www.google.com/search?q=norway+refutes+wind+parks&oq=norwa&aqs=chrome.
KcTaz,
There are no renewables recycling plants anywhere in Australia at this point in time. There is one organisation in South Australia that is apparently gearing up to starting one but these plants are on a massive scale, the necessary machinery is huge and ironically, I don’t believe it would ever run on renewable energy. At this stage this organisation is acting as a collection and stockpiling agency, you pay them to collect your panels. They have set up depots in some of the other states but if there are no laws around dumping panels into landfill in these states then that is what is going to happen. It will be costly to have them collected.
We have had severe goofball sized hailstorms in the past few weeks and Australia is one of the top countries in regard to rooftop solar systems. They showed plenty of footage of smashed car windscreens on MSM, I know that solar panels are destroyed by hail too. Those small solar businesses are going to take those damaged panels straight to the tip.
I don’t understand how one or two states can acknowledge that solar panels are too dangerous to dump into landfill because of their toxicity and risk to soil and waterways, yet those same states and indeed the rest of Australia don’t get that people have panels on those rooftops that feed into water tanks.
People also don’t know that there are a number of different types of solar panels and some are worse than others. We don’t send used panels to the ME, and those that do are doing it on the pretext that they are helping those that are disadvantaged, that the panels still have a useful life. In reality it is simply a way for them to cheaply discard their own toxic waste. They are even sending broken panels.
Someone suggested, in today’s newspaper that solar panels are the asbestos of this century. Can you imagine if there was a push to install asbestos into people’s communities, knowing that it wasn’t safe and telling them they don’t have a choice. This is how I’m feeling.
If all the solar panels that are planned and rumored go in, all within 10 kilometers and some as close as 600 meters, there will be 1,700 hectares of solar panels surrounding our historic town of 2,700 people. That equates to two Sydney Airports including runways. We have quite a large airport.
We already have a solar farm of 300 hectares 4 kilometers away from our home. I don’t know if you’ve noticed but I’ve been trying to get Nick Stokes to answer a question about fire risks with solar farms. I’ve asked him five times, seeing he knows so much about fire.
He won’t respond because he knows the answer. We have asked three separate firemen, from different parts of the state how they would put out a fire in a solar farm. All of them, including our own son said “we’d let it burn”. The second in command from our local brigade said that the toxic fumes would be too dangerous. I said, but we live near there, he just gave me an uncomfortable smile. He said that the best method would be to water bomb such a fire. The fact that we are bringing such craft from outside of Australia says that they are few and far between. And sadly three Americans lost their lives helping fight our fires with this method.
There have been three small fires that showed up on our ‘fires near you app’ in the past month. Fortunately they were all brought under control by the local firey brigade. They were all within two kilometers of the local solar farm. The first was started by welding equipment and the second by a campfire that wasn’t extinguished properly and had reignited. We don’t know about the third, it could have been someone flicking a cigarette out the window of a car as it was beside the road.
A year ago we were told that it was imminent that our region was to be declared ‘Fire prone’. We think it could only have been held up so that it didn’t affect the new solar farms going in.
Just like the technology itself, the NSW government has not properly thought through what they are doing. Or they simply don’t care, they are so committed to going green.
“what is happening to the solar panels that have been damaged by fire or storms? Have they tested the soil and waterways for potential contaminants? What of the storm damaged panels that are toxic waste still in situ. What of the damaged panels on the rooftops that feed water tanks for domestic use including drinking water.”
____________________________________
Megs, that gets costly – Elon Musk just burns his PV roofs:
https://www.google.com/search?q=Tesla+PV+roof+panels+burnt&oq=Tesla+PV+roof+panels+burnt+&aqs=chrome.
https://www.google.com/search?client=ms-android-huawei&sxsrf=ACYBGNQYaLKgTKJ7zt0ik2YjppuP4j7Rcg%3A1580909649134&ei=UcQ6XuzvB4StrgTPv4-oCw&q=Elon+musk+burns+solar+panels+tesla+factory&oq=Elon+musk+burns+solar+panels+tesla+factory&gs_l=mobile-gws-wiz-serp.
The only cot effective zero carbon policy – and its by no means cheap and highly inconvenient – is to base everything on nuclear power and synthesise the hydrocarbons needed.
Nuclear power is not intermittent and can be adjusted to match demand, or surplus fed into syntesising plants for hydrocarbons.
Fast response load following is done with pumped storage.
Where batteries don’t work, synthetic fuel is used.
Metals are mostly recycled reducing the need for smelting, and that is done electrically for e.g. titanium and aluminium.
And so on.
This is a rational approach to de-carbonising. Of course it won’t happen because rational people know that there is no need to de-carbonise anyway. They are in it for power and money.
Al Gore says climate change is the equivalent of 9/11. There is ZERO reason we aren’t building nuclear like crazy, except it’s all a LIE. Al Gore just verified this 100%. Absolutely, all the greens want is $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$. There is no climate crisis, just a massive theft of money and graft crisis.
Leo Smith January 25, 2020 at 1:31 am
This is a rational approach to decarbonising.
The next step will be de-calcification;
– humans and other fauna are hydrocarbon units with exo-scelets some have inbuilt sceletons too:
https://www.google.com/search?q=exo+sceletons&oq=exo+sceletons+&aqs=chrome.
Our energy infrastructure is not a given. It is a work in progress. It will continue to evolve just as it has done in the past. This evolution will be driven by innovation and market forces and not by activism. The need for activism exists only for bad ideas that failed the market test. Innovations that succeed in the market for energy make their originators rich and society is likewise enriched in terms of its energy infrastructure and its ability to enhance the quality of life. That activism for failed ideas also requires activism against capitalism is the further evidence of its rejection in the market for energy.
I have always believed that necessity is not the mother of invention, laziness is.
Hans Rosling describes this perfectly in his washing machine Ted Talk.
https://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_the_magic_washing_machine
How about: The necessity to avoid (hard?) work.
Robert Heinlein, The Man Too Lazy To Fail. Should be on the internet somewhere, everything else he wrote is. 😉
+ (large number), sir.
Chaamjamal January 25, 2020 at 2:07 am,
reserved for the rich today. ~10ys after already seen for 99.80 by amazon.
Everything electric goes hand in hand with: Out of sight, out of mind.
As long as the electricity comes out of two small holes in the wall, without any noise or smoke, it does not bother the average Joe how that clean energy is produced and what goes into manufacturing and maintenance of the equipment got generate and transport this magnificent electric energy.
This was nicely pointed out in the above article. On the technical side industrial wind turbines are surrounded with critical issues, as they do not behave like conventional generators.
Take for example one of the last paragraphs from E.ON’s report “Wind Report 2005”:
In this case it is the sudden short voltage drops that have to disconnect any turbine with little mass per kW. The thing is that if the grid gets too week to hold phase lock to the turbine, the turbine will slip out of sync. If a turbine goes out of sync for any reason, it must be disconnected right away and orderly synchronized when grid and turbine are in normal state again. This is the “simple” case for direct coupled turbines, whereas similar but technically different issue exists with the inverter connected turbines.
Meanwhile, progress continues in one new field of energy generation, and note, this is NOT at taxpayer expense:
Report on the Power Output of Liquid Gallium Suncells at Brilliant Light Power
by Randy Booker, Ph.D., Department of Physics, UNC Asheville
January 11, 2020
https://brilliantlightpower.com/pdf/Randy_Booker_Report.pdf
Mills like Rossi has turned “cold fusion” into a mechanism to fleece investors. Mills has been peddling his for almost 30 years, and Rossi pivoted a couple of times but unfortunately they each have also scammed governments for millions.
re: “Mills like Rossi has turned “cold fusion” into a mechanism to ”
You don’t know what you are talking about. On this subject of Mills, you are an idiot.
Can you answer these simple questions:
1) Where did he get his 4 year degree, what was his major, and where did he graduate in his class?
2) What was his post-graduate degree and where did he obtain it?
3) Who did he study under at MIT concurrent with classes he was taking at his post-graduate degree school?
4) What devices did he invent, but were uneconomical to introduce into the market?
You (and several like you) continue to ‘mouth’ a mantra that does NOT reflect well on you OR your ability to read research papers and divine the truth from the crap on the web. So be it. Everyone would do well to closely examine your ‘take’ on all issues given this shortcoming.
You’re funny but not as funny as that joke of a report. The pictures alone reek of Scam just like Rossi using the cheapest of components.
Supposedly, Mills has raised over $90 million through the years and he uses plastic barrels, possibly from the dump, for calorimetry experiments? That’s like Rossi using bathroom and kitchen scales and hardware purchase poor-quality meters for electrical measurements.
A signature of a witness on a 3-day report does not a scientific paper make. If Booker is honest, he is being fooled like so many others.
I’m a chemist and not a physicist but I work in a laboratory organization that has had 5 Nobel laureates, one even served on my thesis committee. But my critique is just my opinion.
I will accept the opinion of others more qualified who have been saying that Mills is a crackpot for years.
“Nobel Laureate physicist Douglas Osheroff of Stanford University has called the hydrino a “crackpot idea,” while American Physical Society spokesman Robert Park includes Mills’ work in the category of “voodoo science.” Park compares attempting to go below the ground state to trying to travel “south of the South Pole.”
You might ‘make some ground’ if you went after the ‘science’ in the many pubs of the experiments performed by Mills and company, but you won’t, you can’t, because to do so would be to admit he has some credibility, and is onto something, and you (and many cohorts) “can’t go there”.
ALL you’ve got is this attitude on the subject due to Pavlovian response training; you see the name Mills and SunCell (inaptly named I think, but whatever) and the ‘drooling’ starts.
What has been the byword here on WUWT? If the labwork and the theory conflict, GO WITH THE LABWORK … you haven’t even LOOKED at the labwork and you’ve got this kneejerk reaction. In a word, that is stupid.
You asked me if I knew anything about gas chromatography before and you provided me with a link to GC experiments by BLP.
I said as a matter of fact I do know something about it. I looked at the BLP results and they are without a doubt sheeeet.
If what this guy is doing is so vastly successful where is it? Why is it not producing abundant, cheap electricity right now? No end of people wiling to throw money into all manner of projects, if this works he would have them lining up to heap their cash upon him.
Here in Germany I pay 0.67 euro cents a kilowatt hour
re: “I pay 0.67 euro cents a kilowatt hour”
Ambiguous figures (to my read); do you mean:
1) 0.67 Euro a kWh (IOW 67 *cents* Euro a kWh)
or
2) 0.67 cents Euro a kWh (IOW .0067 Euro a kWh)?
I haven’t gone through all the comments, but in France the people are up in arms protesting against Macron’s green government. Following the Yellow Vests’ revolt that as triggered by Macron’s cruel fuel-tax increases to offset the high cost of green energy investment, now Macron is trying to offset his failed budgets by squeezing more output from French workers. It’s like squeezing a squeezed lemon. It’s not working. California and the other US green states will one day end up the Macron’s France way. Hopefully voters will realise this before it happens.
I don’t think California will realize our mistakes. When the politicians can just point fingers and blame C02, PG%E, and climate change on their failed policies, they can get away with the lie for a long time.
We are all like the frogs in the pot where the heat is turned up slowly verses all at once .
for a similar article, google:
Conrad Black: What did Canadians do to deserve this government?
Jim, interesting report. Do we know if the effect is scaleable? Is this more than a lab curiosity? What are the component corrosion risks? If there are any power engineers reading, their informed (educated) thoughts would be welcome.
Tony.
Anthony,
After years of work, and following several ‘tangents’ that didn’t scale-up easily this ‘work’, this research is paying dividends … at the risk of drawing ire from TPTB (the powers that be) reading these words (e.g. ristvan) I will list a couple resources where you might begin __your__ due diligence* on this subject:
1) Lecture at Fresno State
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dCzVUnnL00
2) Brett Holverstott’s talk, giving history and back story
http://www.brettholverstott.com/annoucements/2016/12/9/video-of-november-12th-talk
3) Just to whet your appetite for more: “Time Lapsed, 1 Hour Duration Steam Production Run”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jrTuRnVjYg&t=8s
.
.
* I’ve done my due diligence, and can quote you chapter and verse as to why I have come to my conclusions, but your (Y) (and ristvan’s) MMV (mileage may vary).
Jim, I have taken an hour or two to read about Mr Mills’ claims, and his decades long history of failed promises and peculiar pseudo physics.
Sorry, this has all the signs of a scam, to me. As and when we can see a commercially operating prototype, I may change my mind.
Tony.
From the article: “Germany tried to step up as a leader on climate change, by phasing out nuclear”
What a monumental mistake! Probably the dumbest thing you have done, Ms Merkel. Shut down perfectly good reactors because a Tsunami hit Japan! No German nuclear reactor was in danger of being hit by a Tsunami.
Some people have lost their minds over science fiction tales of CO2 catastrophy. Unfortunately, many of these people are the leaders of nations.
The Climategate Charlatans got this snowball rolling down hill. I wonder if they are proud of themselves or not, or are they having second thoughts now that we see the chaos their lies are causing in the world?
They ought to be ashamed of themselves, and if there is Justice, they will be shamed by the world in due time.
“Some people have lost their minds over science fiction tales of CO2 catastrophy. Unfortunately, many of these people are the leaders of nations.”
Their motto is…
“I think that this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody’s part!”
The old Geologist’s motto was “If it isn’t grown, it’s Mined”. The rocky planets like Earth are blessed with a wide variety of minerals that can be used for a near infinite number of applications. Only a weird naturist religion like environmentalism cannot see this.
Governmental support and public-private partnership are another phrases for fascism.
not if you drop a few million into the successful engineering of http://www.brilliantlightpower.com
that’s the real solution to the energy conundrum. Maybe someone can seriously try to reproduce the results of http://www.brilliantlightpower.com
not if you drop a few million into the successful engineering of http://www.brilliantlightpower.com
that’s the real solution to the energy conundrum. Maybe someone can seriously try to reproduce his results.
Uh, just what is the gov’t pouring money into? Are they taking over operation of Crescent Dunes? Are they paying off the guaranteed loan (which hardly counts as pouring money into a project)? Is the US Gov’t helping pay something or other to reduce power bills in Germany (seems unlikely).
Or did I miss something obvious?
Ric,
It seems to me that “Guaranteed Government loans, by definition, means that if the company goes bankrupt, it’s the Gov., i.e., the taxpayer, who pays them off. I could be wrong but what is the point of them if that is not the case? It also means that a project was so risky, no one on the private side would loan the money without a Gov. guarantee.
Feel free to correct me if you think I’m wrong.
“the Government planning and subsidies that were supposedly intended to make America the world’s green-electricity superpower, create millions of jobs, and supercharge the economy”
Keep in mind that this rhetoric was just fodder for true believers and those able to be duped by such lies. The real purpose of billions and billions of dollars of DOE loans/grants and stimulus money was to enrich the friends and supporters of Barack Obama and the Democratic Party, full stop.
Hopefully. That word scuttles the whole house of cards that is “renewable energy”. There is nothing in the foreseeable future that will replace petroleum, or coal, hydro, nuclear and gas. Attempting to drive the human race back into grinding poverty with its accompanying starvation, misery, disease and death over the fantasy of human caused climate change is rank insanity and those pushing it should be treated as the enemies of the human race that they clearly are.
“Crescent Dunes was the first concentrated solar power system….”
Ivanpah was the first one, not Crescent Dunes. Ivanpah was commissioned in 2014, Crescent Dunes was commissioned in 2016
It’s Energy from Weather. It is NOT renewable. It has “free when the weather decides to produce” fuel. This is no different than in the old West when they were herding cattle or running wagon trains where they carried what water they could but when the water ran out, there was plenty of FREE water out there, if they could find it before they died of thirst. Free is worth exactly what you pay for it. Only a fool or a tyrant would want to return to that game of roulette, yet wind believers want exactly that. Dying when one has the technology to live.
Excellent analogy!
I have often asked renewable energy zealots how renewables can power society when they are not even used in the production chain for wind turbines, solar panels etc. Even Musk’s Gigafactory in Nevada, which was specifically located to take advantage of ample solar energy still relies on the grid. And forget about the Gigafactory in Buffalo, NY.
Needless to say, I have never gotten an answer.
If the price of renewables is declining to be competitive with nuclear and fossil fuels, why does Germany have the highest electricity prices in the world? One reason I was given is that German electricity prices are high because of the taxes placed on electricity. Why tout the affordability of renewables if you are going to negate it with taxes?
The renewable energy is so cheap that governments have to subsidize it. In turn, that leads to high prices of electricity.
Whaaaat?
Those taxes are the only thing keeping the windmills and solar panels in existence. Strip the tax money away and they collapse.
Deep State in the Department of Energy. Two views of one solar plant.
The Popular Mechanics view (January 10, 2020):
The $1 Billion Solar Plant Is an Obsolete, Expensive Flop … The Crescent Dunes plant opened outside of Las Vegas in 2015, when its technology was already behind, and the solar boom since then has completely eclipsed it. Now, the closed and abandoned plant is the subject of huge ongoing lawsuits.
https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/a30472835/crescent-dunes-solar-plant/
The Department of Energy view: (website as of January 14, 2020)
In September 2011, the Department of Energy issued a $737 million loan guarantee to finance Crescent Dunes, a 110-MW concentrating solar power (CSP) plant near Tonopah, Nevada. It uses power tower technology that concentrates solar energy to heat molten salt, converting that heat into electricity. Upon completion, Crescent Dunes became the largest molten salt power tower in the world.
https://www.energy.gov/lpo/crescent-dunes
In the private, unofficial WUWT group on Facebook, I posted https://www.facebook.com/groups/wattsupwiththat/permalink/2863072883745536/
Dang, the Crescent Dunes concentrated solar power plant near Tonopah NV appears to be shuttered and power contracts canceled. I don’t have time to write a page for WUWT.
I’ll post some links below.
Here’s recent generation data from the EIA: https://www.eia.gov/opendata/qb.php?category=1810648&sdid=ELEC.PLANT.GEN.57275-SUN-ALL.M
Nevada is considering putting their renewable energy mandate into their constitution. I hope this failure slows that Tom Steyer supported effort. https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/01/another_expensive_solar_scheme_bites_the_dust.html
From May 2018, very good background and its poor record then: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/05/05/the-tower-of-power-falls-short-produces-only-30-of-capacity/
Even Wiki shows it as mothballed!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crescent_Dunes_Solar_Energy_Project
This one has been going the rounds for a while, and it is worth repeating:
What did socialists use before candles?
Electricity.
+10
Look behind the curtain – what is really driving the “renewable” energy mantra?
In my perspective it is not energy at all, it is consumption. Cheaper energy led to so many developments and specifically in the standard of living in this country as well as others. If I spend less on energy to heat, cook, cool and get around, I can do more of that as well as invest “savings” into something I perceive has or will generate more value (value as defined by…..consumables). This is what is not acceptable to those who are core belief Malthusians who believe we live in a collapsing system. And that is why they operate from a basis of fear and can only peddle their visions with fear. It helps helps sustain their belief in their ability to “control” all natural systems as well as further expand their control.
The most amazing aspect to me is that this is in complete contrast to some very simple laws of nature that you can observe.
At the present time, the UK wind turbine “fleet” is providing some 9.5GW, representing 34.9% of the grid load. Gas has dropped from 15GW to 6.5GW (out of an installed capacity of nearly 30GW), nuclear at 7GW.
Wow, they are well and truly screwed, better reverse those numbers, ASAP.
What is amazing is how these facilities can get passed by the EPA with such ease. You can see these facilities on your way from LA to Vegas. They literally turn square miles of delicate ecosystems into seas of black solar panels and mirrors. When you come over mountains and look down into the Mojave desert the solar panels literally look like lakes in a desert. There is an endangered Mojave Tortoise, and the EPA doesn’t seem to care that these giant wastes of money are destroying its habitat. President Trump should look into how these facilities so easily pass the EPA. There clearly is a double standard.
Money in the right hands always insures swift approval. George Soros has plenty of money and apparently the EPA thinks his are the right hands to take it from.
“Germany tried to step up as a leader on climate change, by phasing out nuclear and fossil fuels, and pioneered a system of subsidies for wind and solar that sparked a global boom in manufacturing those technologies. Today, Germany is failing to meet its climate goals of reducing carbon-dioxide emissions even after spending over $580 billion by 2025 to overhaul its energy systems. Germany’s emissions miss should be a “wake-up call” for governments everywhere.
Power prices in Germany are among the highest in Europe. Today, German households pay almost 50% more for electricity than they did in 2006. Much of that increase in electricity cost is the Renewable Surcharge that has increased over the same period by 770%.”
____________________________________
Germany counts homeless people on the streets:
https://www.google.com/search?q=Germany+counts+homeless+people+on+the+streets&oq=Germany+counts+homeless+people+on+the+streets+&aqs=chrome.
Germany counts homeless people on the streets videos:
https://www.google.com/search?q=Germany+counts+homeless+people+on+the+streets+videos&oq=Germany+counts+homeless+people+on+the+streets+videos+&aqs=chrome.
“Germany tried to step up as a leader on climate change, by phasing out nuclear and fossil fuels, and pioneered a system of subsidies for wind and solar that sparked a global boom in manufacturing those technologies. Today, Germany is failing to meet its climate goals of reducing carbon-dioxide emissions even after spending over $580 billion by 2025 to overhaul its energy systems. Germany’s emissions miss should be a “wake-up call” for governments everywhere.
Power prices in Germany are among the highest in Europe. Today, German households pay almost 50% more for electricity than they did in 2006. Much of that increase in electricity cost is the Renewable Surcharge that has increased over the same period by 770%.”
____________________________________
Germany counts homeless people on the streets:
https://www.google.com/search?q=Germany+counts+homeless+people+on+the+streets&oq=Germany+counts+homeless+people+on+the+streets+&aqs=chrome.
Germany counts homeless people on the streets videos:
https://www.google.com/search?q=Germany+counts+homeless+people+on+the+streets+videos&oq=Germany+counts+homeless+people+on+the+streets+videos+&aqs=chrome.
Alas, brings back again those most terrifying words in the English language:” I’m from the government, and here I am. So God will help me.”