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Angus McFarlane's avatar

Jaime

What is worse is that the power produced is proportional to the cube of the wind speed. Therefore, a 20% decrease in wind speed reduces the power output by 50%.

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Jaime Jessop's avatar

Yes, you're right, when the wind drops it's not even a linear decrease in power generation, it's exponential. Which means of course that any gas backup must also increase exponentially to plug the gap. That has got to be very expensive.

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Francis Turner's avatar

Holger forgets the word Schadenfreude, which is what some of us in saner parts of the world experience as we look at the mess "Green" energy has made of the European economy and the politicians pushing it

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Liz's avatar

Merry dunkleflaute to you too. Gas cooker, ( lesson learned years ago) woodburner stove, supplied from our hedgerows, and a generator and candles.as backup

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Rafe Champion's avatar

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A RED ALERT!

NET ZERO STATES SLEEPWALKING INTO DANGER

The wind drought trap

Due to the failure to take account of severe wind droughts many grids are sleepwalking into a “wind drought trap” where they will be in crisis on windless nights.

How did it happen?

The trap is set in as subsidised and mandated wind and solar power DISPLACE conventional fuels although they can’t REPLACE them.

https://www.flickerpower.com/index.php/search/categories/renewables/21-7-intermittent-solar-and-wind-power-can-displace-coal-but-cannot-replace-it

Approaching the tipping point

https://newcatallaxy.blog/2023/07/11/approaching-the-tipping-point/

The trap closes

When the displacement of conventional power reaches a “tipping point” the grid is in a “red zone” where windless nights are potentially lethal.

Britain and Germany have passed that point, and they survive precariously on imports and deindustrialization to reduce demand. Australia is on the cusp and ANOTHER DEMOCRAT TERM IN THE WHITE HOUSE WOULD HAVE TRAPPED THE US IN THE RED ZONE.

The treason of the meteorologists

The meteorological offices of the world never issued wind drought warnings even though meteorologists know that high pressure systems cause low wind periods. So the Dunkelflautes came as a surprise in Europe in 2021 although mariners and millers must have experienced them for centuries.

https://www.flickerpower.com/images/The_endless_wind_drought_crippling_renewables___The_Spectator_Australia.pdf

The World Meteorological Organization must have known about wind droughts because the first Assessment report of the IPCC recommended a survey of the wind resources of the world to assess the prospects for large-scale wind power. That would have been led by the WMO.

The WMO was a first mover in the climate scare in the UN and in the establishment of the IPCC. All the met offices have been hyperactive in supporting the scare by tampering with temperature records and attributing extreme weather events to climate change.

One of the aims articulated by early climate alarmists in the UN was to wreck the capitalist economies of the west (to save the planet.) That can happen when wind and solar displace fossil fuels to the point where wind droughts become an existential threat to the power supply.

Britain and Germany illustrate the process.

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Dougie 4's avatar

I'm not sure gemutlich has actually made its way into the English language. Perhaps he's thinking of gesundheit.

But when the lights go out and my Tesla Powerwall automatically kicks in, I'll definitely be feeling schadenfreude.

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Havakuk's avatar

Happy Christmas Jaime — praying for better political and meteorological weather in 2025!

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EK MtnTime's avatar

Merry Christmas to you and yours!! I’m praying we wake up on January 1 and discover all this insanity was a horrible dream! 🙏🏻🎄🥳

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Roger Caiazza's avatar

The only positive thing is that the weather pattern is progressing and not stagnating in Europe and here in the US. If the dark doldrum pattern were to stall for days the results would be catastrophic.

Merry Christmas. Hopefully in 2025 reality will catch up to the transition dreams and common sense will wake up.

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