For all the billions poured into it, wind power remains a steampunk technology that is not ready for prime time.
Via the Daily Telegraph (November 7):
Dull, grey weather over the past week has been caused by high air pressure, or an anticyclone, which has trapped a layer of moisture near to the earth’s surface, causing low cloud to descend across the UK.
This low cloud has brought mist and fog and is unlikely to lift until next week, meaning that Britons are facing a prolonged period of dull weather.
At the same time, sunshine cannot break through the cloud, while fronts of rain are blocked by the high pressure.
Reading that makes me feel nostalgic for old Blighty. Mist, fog, dull weather, yes! Sunshine is for lizards.
There’s no great drama about this magnificently named phenomenon (which happens on a regular basis in Northern Europe between October and February), although it has attracted another name. As I noted in a post in December 2022 and in a Capital Letter in November 2023 (note the season in which both were written), the Germans have a fine compound noun for it: Dunkelflaute (“dark lull” or “dark doldrums.”)
Well, there should be no drama about it. Such periods of gloom can last a while, but they don’t do any harm other than leave some locals feeling glum. But there is something else about them worth mentioning: Wind levels fall. A few years ago, anticyclonic gloom was of no great significance. A sign of technological advance is (generally) not having to worry too much about the weather.
That’s now changing. Northern Europe’s keen participants in the “race” to net zero are switching to renewables such as solar and wind. In that case, extended periods in which the light is dim and, even more so, the wind is down are . . . not helpful.
Back in 2022, I noted that on Sunday, December 11, of that year, wind had provided a massive 3.8 percent of all the electricity generated in the U.K. — 0.1 percentage points more than much reviled coal (the U.K. has now shut down all its remaining coal-fired power stations amid much self-congratulation). Solar came in at 0.6 percent, but not much would be expected in the northern winter anyway. Natural gas provided 62.1 percent.
However, as Britain continues its energy “transition” at a pace that only the lemmings of legend could envy, surely that dismal 3.8 percent would be a thing of the past.
Surely.
The Daily Telegraph:
On Tuesday, [anticyclonic gloom] meant wind farms were only able to meet 3-4 per cent of the UK’s electricity demand during the morning and evening peaks, with gas-fired plants instead fired up to meet around 60 per cent of demand.
Oh.
To be fair, peak demand is not the same as total demand, but even so. These numbers are a reminder that installed capacity is not the same as the amount of electricity that is actually generated. The more traditional sources of power are abandoned, the more that will matter. A forest of wind turbines may look imposing, but if their blades are not turning, it doesn’t matter how many turbines there are.
Meanwhile, the lunacy of the Conservative government’s climate fundamentalism (particularly under Johnson and May) has been turned up to 11 — no, 111 — under the new Labour government, which has put Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, a figure better suited to a psychiatric ward than government office, in charge of the transition. How’s it going?
The Daily Telegraph:
Millions more households could be asked to regularly switch off light and appliances under Ed Miliband’s plan for a clean power grid by 2030, an official review has found.
The Energy Secretary has been told that the Government’s pledge to rely on wind and solar farms for most of Britain’s power needs is technically achievable but will entail a “Herculean effort” on every front.
Advice published by the National Energy System Operator (Neso) said a quadrupling of so-called flexibility is needed in order to ensure the grid can operate without the use of fossil fuels.
In practice, this means convincing larger numbers of households and businesses to voluntarily cut their electricity consumption during low-wind periods or times when the grid is otherwise constrained – either through higher prices or by paying them incentives…
As a good central planner, Miliband is undeterred. Omelette, eggs, etc.
Britain’s green suicide is well under way.
Donald Trump is not, to put it mildly, a fan of wind energy, and two of the leading wind-energy shares, those of Vestas and Ørsted, have taken a hit in the wake of his election. But those are hardly the first blows (sorry) their shareholders have received. These two exemplary ESG stocks (both Danish companies) have known better days. In January 2021, at the peak of the green bubble, the Vestas share price went over DKK 300; the stock now trades at half that. A few days later, Ørsted passed DKK 1,350. It now trades at a little over DKK 400. ESG, older readers may remember, was sold as a way of reducing portfolio risk.
But surely energy storage will sort this all out? Not yet, anyway. For all the billions poured into it, wind power remains a steampunk technology (without the aesthetic appeal) that is not ready for prime time. And the economics of a very high reliance on its intermittency (the wind’s not always blowing) would be nightmarish (someone has to pay to run the traditional, reliable power stations needed for backup).
Meanwhile, via the Financial Times:
Plans by Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta to build an AI data centre in the US that runs on nuclear power were thwarted in part because a rare species of bee was discovered on land earmarked for the project, according to people familiar with the matter.
Bees.
(Bees, incidentally, are generally doing just fine these days),
Biden’s green/climate legacy is going to be a nightmare for the new administration to sort out, both financially and practically. If I had to guess, the first crisis will revolve around the auto sector, but this country’s power supply won’t be too far behind.