There a several major power grids around the world that have “greened” themselves to teetering on the brink of collapse, such as California and South Australia, the UK, and soon to be followed by New York State.
There is a post about the UK.
Seeing a stories, such as this the last few days:
Britain’s National Grid issues warning for electricity system tightness on Friday
By Reuters Staff
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s National Grid issued an electricity margin notice (EMN) for 4.00-7.00 p.m. (1600-1900 GMT) on Friday, asking generators if they can make more power available.
The grid operator said there is a system margin shortfall of 1157 megawatts compared with the amount it would like to be available.
https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-electricity/britains-national-grid-issues-warning-for-electricity-system-tightness-on-friday-idUSKBN29D0SF
Or social media posts:
Of course there’s still articles like this:
UK energy supply heading for greenest year on record, says National Grid
Ben Chapman 30/12/2020
The UK’s energy supply is heading for its greenest year ever as record-breaking wind power generation helped to cut emissions, data from National Grid shows.
The amount of carbon emissions produced for each unit of electricity – the carbon intensity – plunged 60 per cent between 2013 and 2019 as new renewable capacity has come online while coal-fired power stations have been decommissioned.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/uk-energy-supply-heading-for-greenest-year-on-record-says-national-grid/ar-BB1ck68S
This is a request for our British readers.
Enlighten the readers across the pond.
Has the weather been unusual?
Is much worse expected to come?
How likely is it that the current steps being taken will prevent blackouts?
How much worse is it likely to get in the next year, three, or five?
For all overseas readers, here’s a link to the British Met Office – rainfall and temperature records for every month going back over 100 years:
https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/research/climate/maps-and-data/uk-temperature-rainfall-and-sunshine-time-series
Look at all the data – where’s the dangerous change in the weather?
I’m 72 years old, and I’ve lived here in England for all of those years. Have our weather patterns changed in any way that’s out of the ordinary? No. Hot summers, cool summers, warmer winters, cold winters, rainy summers, dry summers, and so on.
Yet our government believes all the scary stories – gas boiler sales to be stopped, the sale of cars with internal combustion engines to be banned, and heavy reliance on wind and solar power planned.
All this concerns me far more than all the climate change junk we’re endlessly bombarded with.
In this country as in any, if energy supplies and heating aren’t secure in winter, we’re in big trouble – that’s the real danger – our gullible politicians, certain climate ‘experts’ and the green brigade – not climate change.
Agreed. There is certainly nothing exceptional about current weather.
As to what is going to happen, I freely admit to not knowing, just like everyone else.
But there certainly are a bunch of people making new laws/restrictions, and promulgating new laws/restrictions which will have adverse consequences for the majority of the population. People who cannot afford to shrug-off increases in the cost of heating, cost of transport, and, errr, everything else which depends on the cost of energy. For the uninitiated, that last category includes everything.
For many years now, and for many people in London, the cost and inconvenience of personal transport by car has meant that you simply just don’t/can’t. The UK government now intends to legally formalize this for most people in the country. New internal combustion engine vehicles banned from 2030. They don’t actually know what consequences this will have for non-wealthy people, and they don’t care either.
Michael: we mustn’t forget the diesel car fiasco either – once such engines were deemed by the British government to be the saviours of the planet, so ‘eco‘, but now condemned – after so many people spent a lot of their hard-earned money buying them!
NO wind? Then the wind turbines need some “Londonderry Air”:
“Oh Danny Boy, the turbines they are stalling,
The wind has dropped, the breezes they have died,
The lights are dim, the voltage it is falling,
It’s getting dark, and also cold outside.
But why rely on fickle windy weather,
Or solar power, ‘neath Britain’s cloudy sky?
When nuclear power is really so much better,
A constant source the weather can’t deny.
From house to house, the candles have been lighted
It’s getting dark, but people need to see.
From hill to hill, the skyline has been blighted,
By turbines built with generous subsidy.
And bio-fools are planted in the meadows,
And coppiced woods now occupy the fields,
And farm machines have grubbed up all the hedgerows,
To maximise the disappointing yields.
To satisfy our carbon obligations,
We shall adorn the windswept British shore,
With offshore wind and wave-power installations,
And tidal schemes with barrages galore.
Despite the cost of offshore generation,
Compared with what it really truly saves,
For we can say to each and every nation,
“Once more at last, Britannia rules the waves”.
But Danny boy, the bills, the bills, are rising,
Despite the claims that Sun and wind are free,
And furthermore, demand for constant lighting,
Is met with flickering intermittency.
So “carbon free” means nuclear generation,
To light our homes, our factories, and our schools,
And as they watch with scornful realisation,
The nations cry, “Britannia waives the rules!” “