From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT
By Paul Homewood
h/t Ben Vorlich
You could not make it up!
A wind farm in Germany is being dismantled to expand the Garzweiler lignite mine. One of eight turbines installed at the location in 2001 has already been removed. Nevertheless, the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia said it would phase out coal by 2030, as did RWE, the company that owns the mine.
Wind turbines near the Garzweiler open pit mine in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, run by German energy giant RWE, is being removed to make way for more lignite exploitation.
The turbines were in operation since 2001, and government subsidies have expired. Energiekontor and wpd, which is also active in the Balkans, operate the wind farm.
On a more serious level though, the story reports that the development of the lignite reserves has led to the forced relocation of many villages:
Am I the only one to feel insulted by the BBC, Committee on Climate Change , Ambrose Evans-Pritchard and the rest of the green mafia, who constantly tell us that Britain is lagging behind the rest of the world in fighting climate change?
The coaled hard facts of climate…
LOL!
This is …..change that makes we warm inside….
The article says the windmills were installed in 2001, so I gather they were at end-of-life.
Since they are being removed to expand a coal mine, we can’t say, “Well, they died doing what they love”.
I think the idea is to replace like for like, not dig a coal mine.
Subsidy Mining is done…Coal mining to begin again
If they have been there for 21 years they must be at or near the end of their lives anyway.
According to Wind Europe 38 GW of Europe’s onshore wind capacity will reach the end of its normal operational life of 20 years by 2025 with 14,000 wind turbine blades to be decommissioned by the same date. These will virtually all go to landfill sites to be buried.
“Wind Farm in Germany is Being Dismantled to Expand Coal Mine”
The full story is not being told here
“Rebuilding the turbines to make way for the expanding mine was part of the original agreement that allowed the windfarm to be constructed in 2001, he added, and not a result of a recent change of German energy policy.”
The 8 turbines had reached the end of their permitted period.
No, the turbines had not reached the end of their permitted period, they had reached the end of their subsidised period. Very different!
“windfarms in Germany are no longer eligible for subsidies after 20 years in operation” – https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/26/german-windfarm-coalmine-keyenberg-turbines-climate
And at 20 years old, they would be falling apart anyway and ready for landfill.
Permits and subsidies aside, a 20 year life is an assertion without merit. Only when the cost of maintenance exceeds cost of new plus demolition, installation and maintenance, could this be true. But there are lots of much older electrical generating equipment out there.
Portland General Electric operates hydroelectric Station B in Oregon City that was built in 1895. My 1965 Triumph 500 runs like a top after upgrading to an electronic ignition.
“No, the turbines had not reached the end of their permitted period”
From the same source
“A spokesperson for Energiekontor, which built and runs the rest of the windfarm, said a time limit to its operational permit meant it expected to have to dismantle the five remaining turbines by the end of 2023.”
“A spokesperson for Energiekontor, which built and runs the rest of the windfarm, said a time limit to its operational permit meant it expected to have to dismantle the five remaining turbines by the end of 2023.”
Is this a case of MRDA(Mandy Rice-Davis applies)
Surely the thing to do would be to replace like with like. When your car goes to the great parking lot in the sky you don’t replace it with an HGV (A Semi?). If wind generated is so cheap to produced, cheapest known to man I understand, and eneergy prices so high why bother opening a coal mine when wind turbines are so much better
Don’t interfere with Nick’s nitpicking. He’s desperate to highlight any irrelevant point to distract from the obvious glaring irony of expanding a filthy brown coal mine instead of replacing the bird choppers that provide the cheapest power generation evah.
If your car wasn’t a very good one, would you not look for something different when it wore out?
You don’t replace a beatup car with a new boat unless your lifestyle has changed so dramatically you would have had to replace the car regardless of age.
Love the reference to MRDA. Most apt.
Nitpick on your nitpick they probably would have run them to 2023 EXECPT
They were subsidy mining and now they will coal mine.
So…basically you’re stating that a low density energy source that can only operate as long as subsidies apply (20 years) before being retired and can’t produce useful energy under summer or winter blocking high conditions (too little wind) is preferable for today’s modern society over a generation source that is capable of operation 24/7/365 regardless of weather conditions and has a byproduct that greens the Biosphere and makes plants more water efficient
No, Nick is right. It is ironic that a wind farm is being replaced by an expanded coal mine. However, the article misleading implies the reason. The wind farm was already scheduled for retirement.
Give people credit for reading carefully. Details matter.
Still, since wind and solar are so cheap (free energy!), why isn’t the coal mine being shutdown so a a new wind farm can be built instead?
Give the commenters criticizing Nick’s attempt to obfuscate credit for thinking carefully.
The article’s point is: the wind farm isn’t being rebuilt. It is being replaced with coal.
First, I can’t be sure that a company that has been mining subsidies is going to admit that is their MO. Large corporations can lie just as easily as governments; I’d take their explanations with a mine of salt.
Second, the wind didn’t wear out at that location. nor did the tower base and tower; it was just the turbine and blades.
Third, there are other machines with turbines and blades–airplanes. If the aircraft is still economically viable, when they are at end of life what happens?–they are rebuilt and the aircraft goes back into service. Both trucks and cars also can have their engines rebuilt or changed if the rest of the vehicle is still economically viable.
I think we have to realize the simple truth here; the site didn’t become any less viable for wind generation than it was in 2001, it became uneconomic compared to mining the coal that is under it, especially facing the winter that it looks like Germany is up against. I’ll lay bets that behind the closed doors of the boardroom, the expiry of the subsidy was paramount in the decision–no matter what the company says to the rest of the world.
They definitely reached the end of their USEFUL period about 20 years ago
How convenient. 8 years of poor effort and inefficiency. Remove that solidified sunshine post haste to warm the shivering masses.
At least they have to remove the massive concrete foundations as well
Tired of being continually mistaken for Glen Campbell? 😉
Depends on his taste in music.
Or who he looks like…. Maybe he is sick and tired of being mistaken for Glenn Close…. JUST KIDDING.
Like a Rhinestone Plowboy, riden out on a Deere with a star spangled Hoe in tow
😄 “… getting cards and letters from people I don’t even know…. an waffles comin’ over the phone.”
Listen. When the only place you heard that song was on the school bus radio on your way to elementary school in the morning …… little kids don’t know anything about “offers” — just waffles — “just some weird thing hippies think” is what my little mind reasoned. Heh. 🙂
Now now Janice, I listened to Glen a while back.
I’ll be 60 in 2 weeksbut you didn’t read that here.🎈 Happy Birthday! (a little early) 🎈
If 60 (it really is just a number) is troublesome, try this. Travel into the future and say to yourself, “I will be 90 in 2 weeks. 60 sort of doesn’t sound like much…. 🙂
You were just a little kid listening to GC for the first time, too — explains the lyrics scamble. 😄
Not a scramble
Like a Rhinestone Cowboy riding out on a horse in a star spangled rodeo.
Simply rewritten with alternate lyrics
Rhinestone Plowboy
Well!
Okay, then!
You get an A for creativity.
Ohhh, yer jist a young feller, ain’t cha?
Just gotta–It was a Wine-Stoned Plowboy.
So that makes the stupidity acceptable?
Had the UK exploited our shale gas when if was first discovered we would by now coming to Germany’s rescue with clean, low carbon energy and the CO2 footprint of the UK + EU would be lower.
Not one of your more intelligent posts, Mr Stokes.
JF
It’s always about the sophistry with old Nick. Intelligence wasted on a quasi-religious political agenda. Having no shame helps immensely.
Read the UK report they lose ~3% capacity each year
20 x 3 =
Not quite as bad as you imply, after 20 years output is about 60% of original, but working on 40% annual output at new it takes you down to 25%ish
Is that 3% straight, or 3% compounded.
Straight would go like this: 100, 97, 94, 91, 88, 85 etc.
Compounded:100, 97, 94.09, 91.27, 88.53, 85.87 etc.
Not a big difference in the first few years, but it builds up over time.
ah yeah the subsidies ran out you meant, right?
so 8 new moneyspinners to go and make some other places lives hellish
and a tidy pot of gold for present coal sales and foreseeable 4 or so years or more until they realize they NEED to pay in rubles and use russian gas again
too funny
I’d pay in Rubles…just let me fire up my printing press
From your link:
“Since windfarms in Germany are no longer eligible for subsidies after 20 years in operation, the park would probably have been “repowered” with new technology or wound down even if it were not for the nearby mine.”
If the media could harness the spin they generate about “renewables” they wouldn’t need actual wind turbines.
The media is actually a net drain on energy. I think it has something to do with the creation of hot air requiring more energy than is generated by spinning the Freddy Krueger bird blades.
And what I just said has as much scientific validity as the nonsense that Nick/Griff spew in their full time job for George Soros monitoring comment boards to proliferate disinformation.
Well, we do have the hot air coming from the WH.
Turn on the radio or the TV and pay to be indoctrinated, patronised and dumbed down
The BBC is delighted that fracking is banned again
I am hoping the caveat in the fracking ban gets used at some point “unless scientifically shown not to do harm “ (something along those lines anyway)
Chuckle
Banned until we prove a negative. What a huge concession! Dishy Rishi is no extremist, there’s the proof. He follows The Science ™ wherever it leads him.
It would be “scientifically” proving a negative, so I guess that negates any logical concerns.
Dishy Rishi is a weak reactive PM. No wonder the vested interests are happy to see him in place, he’ll do nothing to upset the globalist investors currently strip-mining the UK to line their own pockets. It’s interesting to note just how badly the main parties are out of touch with their own party membership let alone the general public, Tory membership has started to decline after Sunak’s election and will likely increase as the stupidity of his actions take hold. The Lib Dems have lost over 27% of their membership and Labour over 100,000 of theirs – there is widespread disillusionment across the board with the career politicians in Westminster.
We are in an age of political dross, that’s for sure. You would hope that with such chaos in government there would be a realistic alternative in opposition, but there isn’t.
Being that the Conservatives have perennially been accused of ensuring the Party’s welfare at the expense of the public, one can only hope that Rishi’s stock can only rise from the parlous condition of the Conservative party at the moment.
They know this is potentially the end of the line for the oldest remaining political party in the UK. You can be certain they will not go down without a fight and the only way of restoring enough credibility to not become unelectable ever again is to address the immediate concerns of the public i.e. illegal immigration, energy cost’s, inflation, the NHS and the cost of living crisis.
It won’t be good enough to maintain the status quo, the Tories are dead in the water to the Labour party on that basis as it is.
The Tories must roll the dice, which Liz Truss did, and many conservatives agreed with her, but she was clumsy and ideological. They won’t make that mistake again.
Sunak has only two options. Bomb the party entirely by doing nothing, or next to nothing; or do something to ensure they at least have a chance to compete at the January 2024 general election.
In other words, 15 months to turn the ship around. He can’t do that without being bold, and judging by the performance of the Democrats under Biden, the globalist’s won’t be keen on having Kier Starmer as PM any time soon.
The Tory membership were willing Liz Truss to roll the dice – the MP’s want Rishi Sunak’s status quo. The globalists may not want Starmer but it’s going to be difficult to stop with Sunak as leader – that’s if the ‘revolving door’ politics doesn’t bring up someone else to replace him next year. It’s a complete mess, either by default or design but it isn’t going to sort itself out soon – frankly the UK really does need a viable alternative right now but I don’t see that happening soon either.
Liz and Kwarting were clumsy. The reduction from 45% to 40% meant nothing in financial terms but a huge amount in perception of equality.
The two year energy price cap was far too ambitious, Hunt has actually done the right thing reducing it to 6 months as it can always be extended and no one can accuse him of committing the country to £200bn of spending. That’s what killed Liz and Kwarting.
She had the right ambitions but the wrong strategy and had no political or social support. It wasn’t the ambition it was the execution that was fatal.
They should apy the same standard to wi d – then they can document the bird carcasses and stop building any more wind mills immediately.
We can only hope that Sunak is playing the longer game. Reinstate the moratorium then wait and see what happens this winter. If there are blackouts and public opinion grows for fracking he’s liable to increase his popularity by designating it ‘in the national interest’ and circumvent local planning.
The planning process is the biggest hurdle, it can take decades to get something like this approved but if the public clamour is enough, it can be done by direct government intervention.
Sunak’s only game is survival at any cost – he saw what happened with Truss so he’s not going anywhere near that ticking bomb. He’s more likely to try begging for gas from anywhere else overseas than risk another rebellion at home. I’m wondering if adopting tactics of the greens might work – find an organisation (GWPF?) who could challenge the moratorium in the High Court ‘in the national interest’ and maybe, just maybe, force the governments hand?
Ha, ha, ha!
What’s the German word for ‘Schadenfreude’?
Lignite.
Braunkohle
The abbreviation is ROFLOL.
Schadenfroid?
Schaden-Fraud
Wank3rz
It isn’t their misfortune we’re revelling in but rather the irony of their initial idiocy
The English word is epicaricacy
Well, at least some one is being reasonable about solving the eminent energy problem facing Europe…
But the level of CO2 in the atmosphere doesn’t matter
Much less the practically zero level of methane.
It matters a lot to plants. More is better.
21 years =EOL anyway no subsidies anymore(amazed they lasted that long really) so yeah coals going to sell for a high price and make far more cash and energy than the shredders ever did
always follow the money
We don’t know how well they were working or how often they were down for maintenance. They could have just been spinning via grid power to mine the subsidy.
Agreed. Does anyone know:
What % of these 20 YO bird choppers were still working?
What the output of each, and the average unit, was at any given wind speed, i.e. had the generation capacity fro MPH wind decreased over the 20 years?
What the annual maintenance cost has been for each individual unit and the average cost per unit for every year of operation?
This is the type of “research” that should be done and required under any renewable licensing agreement.
So a fully paid for “investment” would be scrapped due to the end of subsidies that, according to griff don’t exist? How could that make economic sense unless the “investment” was worthless without the subsidy?
The Associated Press (AP) is very confused (so, what else is new?). These two headlined reports appear on their home page this morning:
(AP) Europe’s energy crisis raises firewood prices, theft fears
By VANESSA GERA, DAVID McHUGH and AUREL OBREJA
https://apnews.com/article/technology-business-germany-weather-923a058f06c8a679f982824b5a337108?utm_source=homepage&utm_medium=TopNews&utm_campaign=position_03
(AP) Global crises can speed up move to clean energy
By SIBI ARASU
https://apnews.com/article/trending-news-europe-business-climate-and-environment-4b167388026fff33b6846664554a3f58?utm_source=homepage&utm_medium=TopNews&utm_campaign=position_04
Not only are certain German companies duping the general public but there are German companies who are involved in activities that are defrauding third world countries. Here is an example from one of the strongest African economies where the supply of electricity is in a woeful mess:
Former acting Eskom (South African electricity public utility) chief executive officer Matshela Koko has been arrested in connection with a multibillion-rand tender awarded to German conglomerate Asea Brown Boveri (ABB) at Kusile Power Station.
. . . . .
ABB was awarded the R2-billion (€110 million) contract after the work was descoped from Siemens, which was awarded the contract originally, due to the alleged non-performance of one of its subcontractors that threatened to delay the project.
https://www.news24.com/news24/investigations/eskom-arrests-inside-the-r2bn-kusile-contract-that-led-to-arrests-of-matshela-koko-wife-and-stepdaughter-20221027
And “they”, i.e. the Germans, wanted to devastate an ancient forest for ……a wind farm?
They might still if there’s COAL underneath it
I wonder why?
https://anero.id/energy/wind-energy/2022/august
Reality bites.
Has more to do with subsidies being run out and, probably, less production of energy from windmills compared to actual coal fired electrical plants.
Also, the threat of an icy winter possibility during which the blades will stop turning due to icing up.
Just sayin’.
Point 1. The subsidy for the wind turbine has expired. So, they were not economic without the subsidies.
Point 2. It will be interesting to see how much effort is required to remove the blades, nacelle, tower, and even more interesting the removal of the foundation.
The Pakini Nui Wind Farm on the big island of Hawaii was dismantled but looking at satellite images of the site appears that the foundations are still in the ground.
I have nothing to say.
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