Green Energy Luddites Are Turning The Clock Back 100 Years On National Grid Infrastructures
jaimejessop.substack.com
A recent series of posts at Judith Curry’s Climate Etc. blog has examined the Australian renewable energy transition. Here is Part 3. https://judithcurry.com/2023/03/14/australian-renewable-energy-transition-part-3/ It’s well worth reading. It’s a fact that a stable, reliable, modern electricity grid requires mechanical inertia which up until the point where we became obsessed with ‘Green’ energy, was provided by the large moving flywheels of gas turbines and coal fired power stations. Solar and wind power provide no inertia to the grid. So, if you’re expanding the use of renewables and closing down fossil fuel power stations, then you are reducing the total amount of inertia available, which is essential for grid stability, i.e. maintaining the frequency of current measured in Hertz within very narrow and strict limits, right across the grid. Large variations in frequency can cause generators to trip, resulting in widespread blackouts.
I live in Luddite country- looking forward to a version of Pol Pots year zero and the death of science. Our energy minister Bowen needs an IQ test and a psych assessment. Yesterday he was saying we can’t have nuclear energy because we don’t have a nuclear industry or expertise. We’ve had a nuclear reactor in Lucas Heights since 1956 for nuclear medicine. Then the Marxist leader of Victoria has commissioned an offshore wind farm using public money,and sold it to a Danish investment company. He has spent enormous amounts on green energy, won’t allow gas production and doesn’t have even one solar panel on his house. The hypocrisy of these green energy zealots knows no bounds.
Massive amounts of new renewable energy capacity and the need to reduce CO2 emissions are impacting the use of coal power and prompting a renewed interest in nuclear energy. At the same time, nearly half of all power globally today is still produced from coal and nuclear. Our customers are balancing the challenge of lowering CO2 and providing affordable, reliable power.
I approve. Australia already produces most of its electricity from coal, and is commited to invest in GB Roll-Royce nuclear steam turbines for its submarines. Stop messing about with inadequate, unreliable Chinese wind turbines and pv panels.
GE is just profiting from stupid humans as any company would.
Where I grew up in to 70's there was a huge manmade lake that stretched some 40 miles long. The lake was created entirely by pumping water uphill from a large river some 100' below the lake level. It was all the rage and considered a "battery" of sorts as there were two giant turbines that could be fed from dropping the lake level when power requirements were high. Once the math was calculated with expenses not just from the pumping but all of the other maintenance required it was an absurd idea. Good premise but $$$ didn't work then and it doesn't work now.
Nukes are really the only thing that makes sense....
I live in Luddite country- looking forward to a version of Pol Pots year zero and the death of science. Our energy minister Bowen needs an IQ test and a psych assessment. Yesterday he was saying we can’t have nuclear energy because we don’t have a nuclear industry or expertise. We’ve had a nuclear reactor in Lucas Heights since 1956 for nuclear medicine. Then the Marxist leader of Victoria has commissioned an offshore wind farm using public money,and sold it to a Danish investment company. He has spent enormous amounts on green energy, won’t allow gas production and doesn’t have even one solar panel on his house. The hypocrisy of these green energy zealots knows no bounds.
"as part of our renewable steam power portfolio"
Steam? Renewable? Our up-to-the-minute tech invented by James Watt and George Westinghouse, with a timely assist by Nikola Tesla.
With GE now a Franco-American partnership, could this be brand positioning for green nuclear?
Added 1 day later....
Turns out that it is coal and nuclear:
https://www.ge.com/steam-power
Massive amounts of new renewable energy capacity and the need to reduce CO2 emissions are impacting the use of coal power and prompting a renewed interest in nuclear energy. At the same time, nearly half of all power globally today is still produced from coal and nuclear. Our customers are balancing the challenge of lowering CO2 and providing affordable, reliable power.
I approve. Australia already produces most of its electricity from coal, and is commited to invest in GB Roll-Royce nuclear steam turbines for its submarines. Stop messing about with inadequate, unreliable Chinese wind turbines and pv panels.
GE is just profiting from stupid humans as any company would.
Where I grew up in to 70's there was a huge manmade lake that stretched some 40 miles long. The lake was created entirely by pumping water uphill from a large river some 100' below the lake level. It was all the rage and considered a "battery" of sorts as there were two giant turbines that could be fed from dropping the lake level when power requirements were high. Once the math was calculated with expenses not just from the pumping but all of the other maintenance required it was an absurd idea. Good premise but $$$ didn't work then and it doesn't work now.
Nukes are really the only thing that makes sense....