Essay by Eric Worrall
h/t cedarsand: “… at this time of year, we don’t have any solar power … Over the last couple of days, the wind has dropped off dramatically. …”
How did Alberta wind up facing blackouts in the extreme cold? A Q and A with AESO
…
Author of the article:
Jonny Wakefield
Published Jan 14, 2024We hit the demand peak on Thursday and it looked like we were going to be fine, there was no indication that we were going to be in a situation where we might have to shed load like we did last night. Suddenly 48 hours later, there’s warnings of potential brownouts and blackouts. I’m wondering how we got from a fairly stable situation on Thursday to what we experienced last night and might experience again this evening?
With the extreme cold, we are seeing very, very high demand. We set an all-time record Thursday night, 12,384 megawatts. The key difference — and there’s never one single factor that puts us into a grid alert — it’s the extreme cold, we’ve had reduced imports and very little wind. And of course, when we get into the peak period from 4-7 p.m., at this time of year, we don’t have any solar power. So on Thursday, we were in a bit better situation, because we had strong wind, we had 1,200 megawatts approximately throughout the peak period from four to seven. So that really made a difference. Over the last couple of days, the wind has dropped off dramatically. We’ve also had a couple of natural gas plants, one is offline, and one is operating at reduced capacity.
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Read more: https://edmontonjournal.com/news/local-news/how-did-alberta-wind-up-facing-blackouts-in-the-cold
State politicians were quick to point the main weak link was renewable energy.
Premiers pan green-energy plans as cold weather strains Alberta’s electricity grid
Rob Drinkwater
Published Jan. 15, 2024 3:47 p.m. AESTEDMONTON –
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“Right now, wind is generating almost no power. When renewables are unreliable, as they are now, natural gas plants must increase capacity to keep Albertans safe,” Alberta Premier Danielle Smith posted on social media Friday, shortly after the province’s grid operator issued an appeal for consumers to conserve electricity to protect the system.
A day later, following a second grid alert that warned of potential rotating blackouts, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe posted that surplus power it was sending Alberta’s way was coming from natural gas and coal-fired power plants.
“The ones the Trudeau government is telling us to shut down (which we won’t),” Moe said on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
…
Read more: https://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/premiers-pan-green-energy-plans-as-cold-weather-strains-alberta-s-electricity-grid-1.6725876
Wake up Canada. No amount of renewable capacity can save you, when wind and solar both fail at the same time. The only reason the Alberta grid clung to life during the wind fail is coal and gas power, from Alberta and Saskatchewan – power plants which the Federal Government is pressuring Saskatchewan to close.
Those who continue to support Prime Minister Trudeau’s reckless crusade against reliable energy, the blood of your friends and neighbours will be on your hands.
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Let ém have it, Eric! Canada is energy rich, but determined to make a retrograde cultural advance. Maybe Trudeau wants to go to buffalo chips as the back-up?
I believe Trudeau is a political parasite on the kindness of the Canadian people, but maybe that’s just me. There is no doubt in my mind Trudeau’s energy policy recklessness massively contributed to this emergency.
Just checked the ERCOT website, and wind is providing a measly 7.1% of demand whereas Nat gas is supplying 66.2%, coal 17.4% and nuclear 7.0% … solar is 0.6% at the moment 8:15 CDT).
Good info Jim, but what % of total nameplate capacity is wind providing? Same for solar? That will paint a more clear picture.
I just got up and coffee is brewing, so not ready to start searching yet.
Last Updated: Jan 15, 2024 10:29 CT
CURRENT GENERATION
MONTHLY CAPACITY
Solar
7,632 MW(10.1%)
19,441 MW
Wind
4,123 MW(5.5%)
38,367 MW
Hydro
19 MW(0.0%)
575 MW
Power Storage
274 MW(0.4%)
4,940 MW
Other
106 MW(0.1%)
174 MW
Natural Gas
45,252 MW(60.1%)
67,739 MW
Coal and Lignite
12,815 MW(17.0%)
14,713 MW
Nuclear
5,122 MW(6.8%)
5,268 MW
Previous Day| Real-Time| Current Day
Thanks Mason. Sorry for my failure to respond sooner, we are planning on crossing the country pulling a 5th wheel to do our part to create CO2 and help the plants of the world grow better.
Solar
7,632 MW(10.1%)
19,441 MW
SO 40% capacity + – And NO ability to provide MORE and that output will drop to ZERO as night falls!!
Wind
4,123 MW(5.5%)
38,367 MW
SO 10.7% capacity + – And NO ability to provide MORE
Hydro
19 MW(0.0%)
575 MW
SO 3.3% capacity + – AND the ability to provide MORE, But apparently ERCOT has good reason to not use this resource. I would say because the MAIN use of the stored water is irrigation, and the water does not need to flow for that purpose NOW.
Power Storage
274 MW(0.4%)
4,940 MW
SO 5% capacity + – I will not claim more or less output because this is a static “capacity” that cannot “generate” any electricity.
Other
106 MW(0.1%)
174 MW
SO 60.9% capacity + – ??
Natural Gas
45,252 MW(60.1%)
67,739 MW
SO 66.8% capacity + – AND the ability to provide MORE
Coal and Lignite
12,815 MW(17.0%)
14,713 MW
SO 87% capacity + – AND the ability to provide MORE
Nuclear
5,122 MW(6.8%)
5,268 MW
SO 97.2% capacity + – But no ability to provide MORE, because 98%!
This what I wanted, I am often not very clear on what I ask, according to THE Wife, LOL.
re: “but what % of total nameplate capacity is wind providing?”
I see Mason provided that info.
Also, the 2nd column in this graphic shows the (presumed) nameplate capacity (for planning, comparison) purposes:
I have noticed on ERCOT that presumed nameplate capacity varies from season to season for wind and solar, so I assume it is not really nameplate capacity but some derivation of that due to inherent limitations. It isn’t explained how they get that number.
I think that it is the maximum you can get from that panel (for example) based on the insolation available as installed. Of course that varies. I think it is more honest than saying “I have a 1 kW rated panel” when the sun is at 20 deg from the horizon. This requires a clear form of thinking:
Example:
1 kW rating under ideal conditions.
0.7 kW rated at this time of year
0.5 kW actually delivered on this partly cloudy day
Assume an output of 5 hrs per day on an annual basis at full capacity for planning purposes. They are simply not worth it if there is a grid connection available. In a large % of Canada there isn’t, so it has a place (an expensive one).
You may be right for solar, I simply don’t know enough about it. But wind shows the biggest variation, in ways that don’t make sense. Like lower “capacity” in the summer and higher in the winter. Isn’t it the same wind turbine? Capacity is different from anticipated yield.
Assuming an average is what created the mess.
The only valid method of evaluation is to look at the time run variation over a number of years. The most valid assumption is zero output. That aligns with the reality that the guaranteed output at any specific time is ZERO with 100% probability for any solar system at midnight with latitude between 67S to 67N.
Wind and solar without storage is like hydro without water. A ridiculous concept. An expensive farce that could only fool politicians and their sheep.
I like that concept.
A hydro project placed where the runoff is great enough to run the generators at 15% annual capacity (annual capacity being based wet season and projected to year-around rainfall). Guaranteed payments & subsidies, similar to solar & wind.
Believe it or not, locally we actually have an operating micro-hydropower project on an irrigation ditch. The ditch only operates 6 months per year, generates 3.3mw and costs $25 million funded by fed grants(free money) so payback did not have to be justified.
I (vaguely) remember construction staking for a couple 8′ +/- pipes in Bend, 40 years ago.
A simple retrofit at that going rate, $8,000/kW (at 50%), ought to be able to get somebody a few million in management fees.
Juniper Ridge, 2016 when spending on green projects got up to the extremely-stupid level. Lots of solar has been built in the area which is probably under a foot of snow since Saturday. I should go confirm that but the BIOdiesel in my pickup has jelled due to low temps. Life in a Green New World.
I didn’t know anything about that one. Their website says changing to pipe from ditch saved 19.6 cfs. (2 billion gallons per six months … makes it sound like a lot. What they don’t say is that the water didn’t just disappear, it perked and surfaced downstream (where is the first downstream deep gorge … Eagle Crest area?)
Anyway, this would have been an easy one to get the grant people hot. Joint benefits & project collaboration between entities (fish, water, ag, and green crap). Even today.
Do you have anything similar to these AESO tables and graphs readily available for ERCOT?
http://ets.aeso.ca/ets_web/ip/Market/Reports/CSDReportServlet
https://energyminuteabpowergeneration.streamlit.app/
Brent, take a quick gander at the info, plots and graphs here and see if that’s satisfactory.
https://www.ercot.com/gridmktinfo/dashboards
The intermittence of wind and solar in these extremes have always been known. Like Texas, they went low bid on the natural gas to electric infrastructure, from sand face to custody transfer, to generation. They can either gird up these processes for intermittent use or for base use. I.e., the current situation isn’t working. The choice has to do with costs, Co2 generation rate, speed of resource depletion, the acceptance of the Trumpian YUGE external costs of communizing asset retirements, coal worker pensions and medical benefits onto the rest of the populace..
You didn’t mention train worker pensions. Or all the other special treatment of select groups of Americans in the tax code. It ALL should end.
The choice has to do with costs of subsidies and tax credits, Co2 generation rate due to government carbon tax schemes,
There, provided some clarification to your typical inane post.
“The choice has to do with costs, Co2 generation rate, speed of resource depletion,” blah blah blah…
This is energy rationing, in a province with abundant energy.
Next on the list is food.
These are the intended consequences of the green agenda.
CO2 reduction, not so much
It’s weird that the CO2 graph shows a slight bend due to the early 90s recession (iirc) but nothing re: the covid shutdowns.
Ironically, that’s when Mt. Pinatubo blew the lid…
My theory is it’s from upwelled cool and CO2 deficient sea water. Of course all sinks and sources add up.
Another irony were all of the burning oil wells during the Gulf War. Between that and Pinatubo you would think there would have been a small spike in CO2 around that time.
Correlation is always a tricky devil.
2020 had 6 percent less CO2 emitted from humans than normal because of COVID.
Mr. Big says:”The choice has to do with costs…”.
Nope. The fundamental choice was to believe a lie (CO2 causes warming) or not. All bad choices start there.
Yep.
It’s like when asked for directions how to get to a desired destination, the Irish are wont to say –
“If gettin’ to [destination] I was wantin’, I wouldn’t be leavin’ from here”
That isn’t the whole of it. If additional CO2 in the atmosphere does cause warming, is the little bit of warming that (perhaps) has been caused by additional CO2 worth any more attention than as a curiosity?
Yes, there is no evidence CO2 is causing any changes in Earth’s weather even if it does cause slight warming, and the magnitude of that initial warming is still unknown to this day.
Negative feedbacks may neutralize any additional warming CO2 might have caused and climate alarmists cannot rule that out.
There is no discernable effect from CO2 on the Earth’s weather or climate. Nothing unprecedented is going on, despite the claims of climate alarmists. Their claims are just that: Claims. Anybody can make a claim, whether it is based on anything factual or not.
There is no evidence, even after all these years, showing CO2 is anything other than a benign gas, essential for life on Earth.
Therefore, there is no reason to destroy our economies and societies by trying to reduce CO2 production. It is not necessary. Producing CO2 produces prosperity, not destruction.
You forgot to mention T. Boone Pickens, who pushed for the wind with nat gas backup scheme and conveniently did not live to see how it has all played out. Nor did you mention the Obama era prohibition on gas powered compressors on gas pipelines, in favor of electric powered compressor motors. Both have done their fair share to render the Texas grid less than optimal under less than optimal weather conditions.
And yet people like you and your ilk are driving us headlong into the abyss.
Why?
The CBC version of the situation.
If they hooked up the “spin” in this article to an electrical generator, our problems would be solved!
“how difficult the energy transition is going to be”
You are going to transition whether you like it or not. Shut up and eat your bugs.
“just because other markets in the U.S. and Canada can make this switch to largely renewable systems without risking grid reliability”
Just because other markets aren’t facing collapse right now, obviously they can make the switch without risking grid reliability.
“not all additional capacity is created equal, especially on the Prairies”
Somehow wind and solar plants are more reliable elsewhere, in spite of the laws of physics.
“wind power, solar power and trade isn’t going to get you through a really cold, dark night in Alberta”
They’re perfectly fine in the rest of the world, though.
“Albertans can continue to help by reducing power and conserving electricity”
Stop charging the electric vehicle we told you to buy. Eat your bugs. By candlelight.
“We need a small drop in demand”
In 2024 we cannot provide you as much electricity as you need. At any price.
When the AEMA warning came over my cellphone, I went around the house…couldn’t turn off the furnace fans due to -37 outside, furnace and stove are natural gas fired, my hot tub heater is hydronic run on natural gas as a result of past excessive electricity bills, the circ pump was already down to 36 Watts for the night on its speed control, electric oven was off, turned off outdoor lights and gate lights, all already changed to LED, turned off a few indoor lights also LED. There just wasn’t much cutback available….might have reduced current by 2 or 3 amps….
Out of 12500 MW usage, the call for voluntary cutbacks resulted in only 200 MW of cuts, about 1.6%, not exactly stellar, although the media made a big deal out of it.
The low hanging fruit for household power saving has already been done by most homeowners. I think the federal government’s “required” further reductions are either not available or incur exponentially increasing costs out of your pocket…..
https://livewirecalgary.com/2024/01/14/big-drop-in-alberta-power-demand-after-saturday-emergency-alert/
PS…my solar panels weren’t producing anything in the dark…
For many decades, the EPA has required that mainline (and many field) gas compressors be electric. (This is true in Texas, not sure about elsewhere.) When electricity fails (due to weather, unavailability of renewables), then huge volumes of gas can’t flow. It’s my opinion that this greatly contributed to what happened in Texas two years ago, but ERCOT does not want to blame renewables.
Unreliable is the new resilient.
war is peace
First chuckle of my day (-:
Gas of life is gas of death.
Didn’t that come in under Obama??
So how is it decades??
If I am ignorant on the time frame of the mandatory transition to electric compressors, can you enlighten me with a link or two?
Thank you in advance.
Drake
Pressure to go E was in 2010, according to:
Electrified Compressors and the Great Texas Blackout (a threat to grid reliability everywhere) – Master Resource
Barack Obama’s tenure as president began with his first inauguration on January 20, 2009.
So NOT DECADES as claimed.
“… required that mainline (and many field) gas compressors be electric.”
Prior they used gas to keep warm and operating. I think I read that; so when the power went they failed.
Another case of government telling engineers how to do things.
What was the rationale behind demanding that they go electric? There must have been a theoretical, if faulty, justification.
Burning natural gas to power/heat the natural gas pumps produces CO2.
Electric pumps don’t produce CO2.
That is the way the climate alarmists look at things. Any CO2 source they can stop, is a good thing to them. And that’s as far as they go with the thought process.
They don’t consider what a danger electric pumps can be to an electrical grid that is under extreme pressure from the weather, when the elctricity goes out and the pumps can no longer function. Then the natural gas goes out and the whole grid is in danger. And if the whole grid goes down, it might be a while (weeks or longer) before it comes back up. A lot of people will suffer, but that’s someone else’s job as far as the people who dreamed up this stupidity are concerned.
I think I heard that Texas was going to go back to using natural gas to power the pumps, but am not sure about that. That would be the thing to do as a means of securing the supply and the electrical grid.
It was the EPA, no rational thought required.
I can understand them adding in electric pumps to greenwash/take advantage of wind/solar electricity generation when no one else wants it – but why did they remove the original gas driven pumps or put in backup generators????
Anything that burns gas emits CO2. We can’t have that now, can we? Unless it is little heaters in wind turbines.
‘Pray’… But that’s no way to operate a grid. Get the ‘feds’ OUT of the way of doing what you need, to survive.
Canada needs more nuclear power, and perhaps several oil refineries for crude oil.
What about a change in leadership?
Public opinion polls are showing that Justatwit is the most loathed Canadian Prime Minister since the advent of public opinion polls. Because the two parties governing are destined to lose very badly the next election, they are hanging on desperately hoping for a miracle to alter public support. The NDP are despised as much as the Liberals.
It’s become so bad that none of the Liberal cabinet ministers including Justatwit have dared to appear in public for at least the last six months. Justatwit tried to do a public appearance and give a speech in Belleville last July. He was greeted by an infuriated mob.
None of them appear in public now.
So, things are looking up in Canada!
Yes, at some point, people are going to realize they have been served very poorly by the current leadeship.
Throw the Bums Out!
What ‘Leadership’? I thought Trudope was ‘in charge’.
A change in leadership is what is needed in Canada.
Climate change alarmists are destructive of everything around them.
Don’t vote for such people because their delusional thinking is detrimental to society.
I’m surprised that the socialists running the country haven’t clued into the fact that the Alberta crude should be refined and turned into products before leaving the province – they are giving away high paying jobs, income tax and screwing up the balance of payments.
Video tip – Why NOBODY will build EV charging stations | MGUY Australia
Yes, there are many knowledgeable voices explaining in detail why EVs can’t be the “one size fits all” personal transport solution.
But ideologues never take heed of facts & rationality.
“With the extreme cold, we are seeing very, very high demand”
And not even close to net zero!
This is the third time in 4 years this has happened in the midwest and plains states. Just how unusual is it? I just don’t remember power crunch problems like this before.
The problem is the climate change zealots keep closing conventional power plants and replacing them with unreliable windmills.
There were several warning put out some months ago from the Southwest Power Pool saying there was a danger of brownouts and blackouts in the future because over two percent of conventional power generation in the SPP had been retired last year.
And this is going on in all the grids around the nation.
Windmills are putting our electrical grids in great danger and that means they are putting all of us in great danger. Just think if your electricity suddently stopped right now this minute and no hope of getting it back. Millions of people would be in survival mode and it would be indescribably horrible for everyone involved.
Climate Change Alarmists are leading us all down this self-destructive path. Pushback is required to avert disaster.
Live by the renewable sword – die by the renewable sword….
I wonder what damage Rachel Notley introduced in her NDP reign from 2015 to 2019. She wanted 30% renewables by 2030. The only time Alberta wasn’t conservative.
_____________________________________________________________
“…which the Federal Government is pressuring Saskatchewan to close.”
Back in the day, planned obsolescence was regarded as a problem that was detrimental to a robust economy. Today it seems to be planned insanity.
By the way that photo of Trudeau is perfect.
By the way that photo of Trudeau is perfect…
…ly showing that he must be a son of Fidel..
He has the face you want to smack the s**t out of. Particularly when you consider that this energy policy misery is being done deliberately.
Be honest – he has great hair.
Most heating in Canada is natural gas (the gov’t pushed it for decades because of Canada’s massive natural gas reserves), but Trudeau has been pushing heat-pumps and providing subsidies as part of his warmunist agenda.
So we now have the pleasure of being at risk of running out of intermittent-wind-and-solar in both the summer AND winter.
Places with heat pumps in Canada will also require a supplemental source of heat. I do not mean the built-in resistance heaters usually part of the systems installed in many places. I mean something like a modern wood stove — with a catalytic burner. I also have land, trees, chainsaw, splitters, and good health enough to provide the firewood.
This week, in central Washington State, the temperature has been below freezing much of the time. Lowest was -17°F. (~ minus 30°C). A power outage for over a couple of hours would have been dangerous. It has been much colder in most of Canada.
“I also have land, trees, chainsaw, splitters, and good health enough to provide the firewood.”
Ditto here, slightly East of you. Blessed at 88!
Heat pumps in the Canadian climate is a rotflmao joke – they are not completely suitable in the US or UK, how can they possibly work in Canada without digging an expensive deep hole?
This is how the polar vortex in the lower stratosphere works now.
At least it’s warmed up to -4F at my house, and the mountains are getting tons of snow.
https://www.eldora.com/the-mountain/webcams/snow-stake-cam
It’s got colder where I am in the UK. Just answered the door to some guy selling something or other and was flippin’ freezing after a few seconds. Thankfully not too much humidity today so no snow (yet).
“ how the polar vortex . . . . works“
I see a colorful image of a space-alien who had too much CH3CH2OH.
What it is doing, I can’t tell. What “work” it is doing, I can’t say.
A bit of an explanation would be helpful. 🙂
Let’s supply one since there is something lost in translation, and Ireneusz never provides any explanation.
Winter situation in NH: there is cold air to the north and warmer to the south. The boundary at the surface is the polar front, and above this is, more or less, the polar vortex. Potential energy would be lowered if the cold air would flow south along the surface and displace warm air upward and northward. There are factors which tend to prevent this.
The shrunken high polar/subpolar atmosphere has a pressure gradient north and upper tropospheric air would tend to head north, but the polar vortex and its associated coriolis acceleration (or force if you wish) counteracts this (it’s a thermal wind). This is not a very stable situation. When a thermal wind has a momentary lull, or breaks into smaller scale flows, this complex mechanical stability is interrupted. Now there are opportunities for the pent-up cold air to break out and head south — i.e. cold air punches south of the polar front and warm air heads north.
I think what Ireneusz is promoting is that the form of the polar vortex is a very good guide to the totality of this mechanical system of not very stable separate air. It portends cold air outbreaks. It would be nice to know the timing of the whole breakdown of stability — i.e. the evolution of this mess.
Sounds right. Perhaps time to hear from Javier re. his Winter Gatekeeper hypothesis.
https://earth.nullschool.net/#2024/01/15/1700Z/wind/isobaric/500hPa/overlay=temp/orthographic=-65.50,69.47,288
https://earth.nullschool.net/#2024/01/15/1700Z/wind/isobaric/70hPa/orthographic=-65.50,69.47,288
That is a good view of things.
Forecast
https://earth.nullschool.net/#2024/01/19/0300Z/wind/isobaric/70hPa/orthographic=-112.10,63.26,502
Is that Trudope’s face?
That’s cool. A vortex for Western Europe and another for North America. To modernize an old saying: There are no atheists in a fox hole except for Warmanists.
More of the same and with actual blackouts should turn the electoral tide in Canada. It’s not a place you can do without energy in the winter.
Canada has lost the plot
“”Canada has revealed the horror of assisted dying
Poor and disabled people are being encouraged to choose death instead of ‘burdening’ the state.””
https://www.spiked-online.com/2024/01/15/canada-has-revealed-the-horror-of-assisted-dying/
Next up, the mentally ill. But will that include climate anxiety? Most probably
Thin edge of the wedge – when auto-death was approved for the extreme cases everyone knew that pretty soon suicide booths will be made available.
Oh no, not the mentally ill! The FAA wants to hire them for jobs in the US. Air traffic control, TSA, who knows what else?
Next up will be climate skeptics if Trudeau gets his way!
When renewables are unreliable, as they
are nowalways are.I suspect that most people in the province have wood burning backup for heat. Hopefully that will prevent death by freezing, but what will they do without the internet…maybe they will have to actually read in their spare time .
Wrong. Only 61% of Alberta residential buildings are single detached houses. The remainder are apartment buildings and retirement homes.
There are no fireplaces in apartment buildings.
I was going to suggest the same -awesome you had the stats to back it up.
Alberta isn’t some frontier outpost – it would be very comparable to Texas. Somebody from Alberta or Texas please correct me if I’m wrong.
Yes, most of us don’t live in log cabins.
I even have running water and TV in my cave.
Just guessing but I be some do have fireplaces. I have seen them in apartments in Wokeachusetts. They probably aren’t efficient- more a token thing.
Probably those “fake” ones run by electricity with pretty fire-like lighting.
That is the woke alternative to a real fireplace.
Many now use natural gas- but almost look like a real wood fire. I have a fake electric one. When visitors come by I say, “see my nice new fireplace- I’m burning some fine oak and maple”. They stare at it for awhile before they get the joke.
In my apartment in Texas, I can’t even burn candles. There’s a fire alarm on my balcony to make sure I don’t use a charcoal grill or a generator. The owners also own apartments in California, so I’m not sure my lease’s rules are any better than California’s.
The Pan-Canadian Assessment Program gives Alberta along with Ontario the highest rankings in Canada for reading and science scores. Just in case you were implying us cabin-inhabiting, tree-burning, moose-riding hicks don’t read that much.
Doug, I read a lot, including on the internet, like right now. Right?
We have modern conveniences.
4th Grid alert just issued this morning!
Will this actually wake people up enough?
Will normal people even know ?
https://www.windconcerns.com/albertas-government-must-thwart-disaster/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=albertas_government_must_thwart_disaster&utm_term=2024-01-15
Please read this article and check out the rest of the site….especially the interview with Dr. Mariana Alves-Pereira.
NO, they need to greatly suffer before their lazy brains fires up to realize they are in danger due to bad government they casually voted in.
I have no sympathy for lazy ass voters who doesn’t pay attention beyond their “smart” phone or a computer game they live on.
I know I am being snotty but what is their excuse for being a blackout away from freezing to death, huh!
The ship is turning, the timing of this event was perfectly fit for purpose as we come to the end of the 6 month renewables approvals moratorium.
Stay tuned, this is exactly what was needed.
When the liberal party of Canada and their grovelling sidekick the NDP are on life support, my fondest wish is that it be powered by “renewable” energy.
I am amazed how much like his father Justin Trudeau looks at the age of 52.
That solid full head of black hair and chubby face, a real chip of the old block.
That may have some influence on his political reasoning, like father like son. The desire to impoverish the people despite its energy rich good fortune requires a special kind of bitter hate.
Perhaps like his father, maybe he imagines the Russians will come along and support his ongoing socialist nightmare……?
re: “I am amazed how much like his father Justin Trudeau looks at the age of 52.”
Surely you mean, Fidel?
Ya, Pierre was bald and had a different nose.
Here’s the youngest shot of Fuddleduddle I could find attached.
Ahem, did that need to be spelled out?
It’s also important to know that the materials of construction (steel, carbon fibre) become unusable below -30C, so when this temperature threshold is reached the wind turbines shut down. On Thursday night at Pincher Creek, AB where a large wind turbine installation scars the landscape the wind was at 14km/h, which could have been used to generate some electricity had it been warmer than -30C.
In our northern latitudes we face a double-whammy – low winds during big high-pressure domes, and accompanying severe cold forcing shutdowns.
I sometimes also remind my woke friends that the turbine shafts and bearings are huge and require specialty lubricants to function; I ask them if we end fossil fuels, do we re-harvest whales to get our oils and lubricants the “old school” way?
The response: blank stares.
There’s no point trying to go further and explain where everything else petroleum comes from and is used for at that point – I doubt many of them were taught about the history of whaling and the amazing array of products derived from whales that petroleum replaced.
Alberta had a socialist government for the very first time two election cycles ago. That was the “window of opportunity” to slag Alberta with “Gang Green” electric powerlessness.
Yes, that is how it happened.
Change coming now
How a nation that is almost entirely north of the 49th parallel could be hoodwinked into building ANY Unreliable Solar still somehow escapes me! Did someone convince them that the panels could produce power from the Northern Lights!?
It is as if a dinner party of adults was crashed by a group of teenage hooligans who proceeded to have a food fight and change the music to something quite edgy! Rather than throw them out on their collective @ur momisugly$$e$, the adults decided to politely play along and hope that the crashers would eventually leave. But throughout history the looters and plunderers rarely ever leave of their own accord. Will the Canadian people ever realize that when someone smiles and asks you to turn around before stabbing you in the back, that that person is not to be trusted with decisions regarding the public good!
Oh, well; at least they don’t have to worry about their elderly and depressed being forcefully pushed to submit to being euthanized by Health Services! Oh, wait! Never mind!
In today’s Washington Post
Where the world warmed the most in Earth’s hottest year
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/interactive/2024/mapping-our-fast-warming-world/?pwapi_token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJyZWFzb24iOiJnaWZ0IiwibmJmIjoxNzA1MjA4NDAwLCJpc3MiOiJzdWJzY3JpcHRpb25zIiwiZXhwIjoxNzA2NTkwNzk5LCJpYXQiOjE3MDUyMDg0MDAsImp0aSI6ImE3MDg4NmUxLThkMTUtNGViNS05OTUwLWU3YzczOWVkNDJmOSIsInVybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lndhc2hpbmd0b25wb3N0LmNvbS9jbGltYXRlLWVudmlyb25tZW50L2ludGVyYWN0aXZlLzIwMjQvbWFwcGluZy1vdXItZmFzdC13YXJtaW5nLXdvcmxkLyJ9.wkub5PLzb_bnbhyHl_dhyxe5e4-csj8KktWvXi8nZ74&itid=gfta
The link is long as it was sent to me my by nephew- using that link should allow you to get into the article since he subscribes and they let subscribers send out the link. The following is the beginning of this article.
By the way, having read twice a great biography of George Washington- it’s a travesty that this newspaper gets to use his name. People said of him that he was “first in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen”.
With a huge great thing like that, usually that came out of an email,…..
Paste it into the address bar then look for the Question Mark (?)
99 times out of 100, you can delete everything after the ? mark
hence:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/interactive/2024/mapping-our-fast-warming-world/
But- it won’t work- because it’ll allow you to see only the beginning of the article- then you’d have to log on. With the long link, you can see it all. The long link was meant to bypass the log on- as a feature for subscribers to give to others.
“places that have warmed so fast that the climate is already testing the limits of human infrastructure and the ability of the natural world to cope.”
And that was after pointing out that nothing big would happen going from 1.45 to 1.5, oh but it’s the end if we reach 2 – they really are fanatics that have lost the ability to think!
To Zeke it is just one big almighty CON-JOB.
That is his expertise… Dodgy Bros personified.
Makes it easy though…
… you see his name, you KNOW it is a scam.
How about the Boston Globe? I’m sure they get climate science right…
Washington Post? Berkeley?
Millions died of famine during the Little Ice Age which ended in the late 1800s. 1.5C warmer than that isn’t saying much.
About 4.6 million people die each year due to cold-related causes compared to about 500,000 that die from heat-related causes.
The cold air causes our blood vessels to constrict to conserve heat, which causes our blood pressure to increase causing many more strokes and heart attacks in the cooler months.
One only has to look at the U.S. to see something is wrong with this. The USCRN shows little to no warming for going on 20 years. Yet this animation shows drastic temps in the U.S..