You can’t make this up. It’s reached 30C in Britain because well, it’s summer. It’s also become quite humid because well, Britain is a small island surrounded by sea, with a moist, temperate climate. It’s not a dry desert, so when it warms up in summer, we quite often get humid air and thunderstorms. Hot and humid make for being uncomfortable, so people turn to fans and air conditioners to keep cool, which increases electricity demand. The Telegraph
Ok, you got me on "Punkah wallah"...I had to Google it and it was indeed a very apt comment on your future there in Britain.
WE face the same nonsense her in the USA in Florida especially. Some years we don't need to turn on the heat, well my mom would tap her thermostat if it dipped below 75 F but if you are young and healthy you won't need heat. She kept her entire house toasty.
The first year I lived in Florida I did not know what I wanted to do so took a year off. Bought a 40 foot boat and lived off shore. Sea breeze and all that and anchored out you could always catch a breeze.
The coolness of the boat canceled the slight discomfort of the sweaty humid heat. I did not know that I wanted to live on a boat until I moved to Florida. I guess it was closer to 18 months onboard and then I got bored and traded her for an airplane.
So I believe that most of us will adjust to no air conditioning especially if our rulers, who believe we "will eat bugs" as our protein source and "be happy" will cancel most of what we call modern civilization. Well, for us not for them.
If they can say no to air conditioning they can say no to beef, and it looks like my favorite grass fed butter "Kerrygold Pure Irish Butter" will soon be rationed as I read THEY are going to cull 200,000 Irish dairy cows. I may have to buy another refrigerator and hoard enough for me and mine until I get the "farm" sorted.
We live in amazing times. Grass fed beef from Ireland, Bison from Colorado, calves liver from New Zealand for us health nuts and affordable energy available to even the poor.
Back to your essay, first they came for the air conditioning and no one "spoke up". Then they came for the heat and we all froze in our beds... Are they trying to cull us too?
I live south of the 30th parallel and it will be fine here, but start north and soon you arrive in the Great White North where it freezes every winter, hard-cold-freeze-the-ground 24 inches deep winters.
If you have an axe and can find a tree you can soon have a fire, matches, don't forget matches. You may need other hardware to defend your fire from greedy cold neighbors but that is another story for another time.
I grew up in Ohio very near Lake Erie which froze sold almost every year, we drove cars on it, and I was a skinny little kid when my parents would take us swimming in the summer. That lake never warmed up, they would make us get out of the water when our lips turned blue from the cold.
My grandmother came to live with us when she got older and I noticed that she kept her bedroom 10 degrees warmer than the rest of the house. Each zone had its own thermostat and I kept mine mostly off so it was 20 or 30 degrees colder in my room.
Older people and small children need a comfort zone and it will be very difficult to maintain that in the future.
Some of us will survive. Perhaps those who read Winston Churchill's words; never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty..."
It's been too hot to sleep in the house for the last week so I've been sleeping in the motorhome parked in the garden, which cools down quickly at night and where I can open all the windows and the skylight to get a through-draught. For most of the winter (and spring) the house was uncomfortably cold. In fact it was so cold in the north-facing kitchen that we had to move the fridge-freezer out for a couple of months! we have an 18th century stone farmhouse which will never be 'energy efficient' no matter how much is spent on insulation and 'eco-friendly' heating.
We all will have to prepare for the coming dystopia as best we can. Normalcy bias will prevent many from adjusting because "things will get better again, they always have".
Always enjoy reading your take on events in the world...
Even here in Scotland, semiconductor solar PV panels lose something like 20% of their output on hotter days so it must be a lot worse in hot countries.
We also have a lot of those whirry things that deface our hilltops. I believe that they too have to be turned off in times of low demand so that they don't melt the grid. (All that spare wind energy would have to go somewhere) .
This global bandwagon will continue to roll until it becomes a catastrophe for us. Most people are still in denial about the post Covid excess mortality.
A further pitfall of overreliance on solar and wind is grid overload on a sunny, breezy summer day when demand is low, e.g. on a Sunday. I’m not sure if solar electricity can be constrained like wind.
This all sounds like a bullshit excuse for failing to properly plan electrical demand.
It makes me laugh that the UK is too hot and humid for solar and need coal to step in to save the day. In Australia, the excuse is that it’s too hot for coal and gas so we need more renewables to step up save the day during a heat wave. Same bullshit excuse but the other way around. In both cases it’s failure to plan for the inevitable.
That article is absurd, suggesting that wind and solar power are better in the heat and can take over from fossil fuel generators. In renewables dominated South Australia, the reality is this:
1. They still have to rely almost 100% on gas generation at times when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing.
2. When the sun is shining and the wind is blowing, renewables penetration approaches 100% and minimum demand drops to near zero at midday because so many homes have solar panels fitted, but they STILL have to instruct synchronous generators to operate or continue to operate (in order to maintain grid stability), which must be incredibly expensive and wasteful.
3. The long term ‘solution’ to this problem is to build more synchronous condensers, but they still need the generators to supply electricity when renewables aren’t working.
Jun 13, 2023·edited Jun 13, 2023Liked by Jaime Jessop
I tried to quickly find the most ridiculous example I could, when you mentioned it was too hot for solar in the UK. When Australians hear you guys complaining about the heat it makes us laugh, no offense intended.
I know it’s absurd but most people believe things like the linked article and think more renewables will save the day.
Your example of SA is a good one they had to keep a “spinning reserve” fired up before the synchronous condensers for frequency control even when there was abundant solar and wind. They also had a whopping great big fossil fuel (diesel/gas) powered genset on standby. Not sure if the genset is still there or if they still need the spinning reserve since they commissioned the synchronous condensers but I think they still do.
I’ve got nothing against renewables but they are intermittent and there has to be backup in place for the inevitable days when the sun don’t shine and the wind don’t blow. Nothing wrong with that as long as they’re properly integrated into the grid. So far it’s been relatively easy, they’ve just been tacked renewables onto the grid but the hard part will come if/when they try to phase out gas & coal which makes up about 75% of the supply on a peak day that doesn’t favor renewables. They can cheer all they like about “renewable penetration” of 68.7% on a sunny and windy day but on the worst case days there still has to be something else to provide 75% of the peak capacity on a worst case day. Batteries aren’t going to cut it, pumped hydro might put a dent in it. Massive overbuild of renewables and transmission inter-connectors could maybe do it. Nuclear would do it. I can’t see any of those things happening anytime in the near future here in Australia without massive investment even if it is possible.
Thanks for the SA AEMO link. I’ll have a look at it when i get a chance it’s been a long time since I looked at the SA situation.
The real existential danger to mankind (and the planet) is the exponential growth of government power. An abrogation of our duty to see to our best interests, given away to actors too ugly for the theater and too stupid for a real job.
That, coupled with a perverse and complicit media, happy to regurgitate manipulative lies and a populace addicted to consumption, bread and circuses is the only anthropogenic (not climate) change we are struggling with.
The climate change hoax is nothing more than a strawman used to win a pointless argument.
Ok, you got me on "Punkah wallah"...I had to Google it and it was indeed a very apt comment on your future there in Britain.
WE face the same nonsense her in the USA in Florida especially. Some years we don't need to turn on the heat, well my mom would tap her thermostat if it dipped below 75 F but if you are young and healthy you won't need heat. She kept her entire house toasty.
The first year I lived in Florida I did not know what I wanted to do so took a year off. Bought a 40 foot boat and lived off shore. Sea breeze and all that and anchored out you could always catch a breeze.
The coolness of the boat canceled the slight discomfort of the sweaty humid heat. I did not know that I wanted to live on a boat until I moved to Florida. I guess it was closer to 18 months onboard and then I got bored and traded her for an airplane.
So I believe that most of us will adjust to no air conditioning especially if our rulers, who believe we "will eat bugs" as our protein source and "be happy" will cancel most of what we call modern civilization. Well, for us not for them.
If they can say no to air conditioning they can say no to beef, and it looks like my favorite grass fed butter "Kerrygold Pure Irish Butter" will soon be rationed as I read THEY are going to cull 200,000 Irish dairy cows. I may have to buy another refrigerator and hoard enough for me and mine until I get the "farm" sorted.
We live in amazing times. Grass fed beef from Ireland, Bison from Colorado, calves liver from New Zealand for us health nuts and affordable energy available to even the poor.
Back to your essay, first they came for the air conditioning and no one "spoke up". Then they came for the heat and we all froze in our beds... Are they trying to cull us too?
I live south of the 30th parallel and it will be fine here, but start north and soon you arrive in the Great White North where it freezes every winter, hard-cold-freeze-the-ground 24 inches deep winters.
If you have an axe and can find a tree you can soon have a fire, matches, don't forget matches. You may need other hardware to defend your fire from greedy cold neighbors but that is another story for another time.
I grew up in Ohio very near Lake Erie which froze sold almost every year, we drove cars on it, and I was a skinny little kid when my parents would take us swimming in the summer. That lake never warmed up, they would make us get out of the water when our lips turned blue from the cold.
My grandmother came to live with us when she got older and I noticed that she kept her bedroom 10 degrees warmer than the rest of the house. Each zone had its own thermostat and I kept mine mostly off so it was 20 or 30 degrees colder in my room.
Older people and small children need a comfort zone and it will be very difficult to maintain that in the future.
Some of us will survive. Perhaps those who read Winston Churchill's words; never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty..."
Never.
It's been too hot to sleep in the house for the last week so I've been sleeping in the motorhome parked in the garden, which cools down quickly at night and where I can open all the windows and the skylight to get a through-draught. For most of the winter (and spring) the house was uncomfortably cold. In fact it was so cold in the north-facing kitchen that we had to move the fridge-freezer out for a couple of months! we have an 18th century stone farmhouse which will never be 'energy efficient' no matter how much is spent on insulation and 'eco-friendly' heating.
We all will have to prepare for the coming dystopia as best we can. Normalcy bias will prevent many from adjusting because "things will get better again, they always have".
Always enjoy reading your take on events in the world...
Don't worry, the globopsychohomopedos will just dim the sun and all will be well. 🙄
Even here in Scotland, semiconductor solar PV panels lose something like 20% of their output on hotter days so it must be a lot worse in hot countries.
We also have a lot of those whirry things that deface our hilltops. I believe that they too have to be turned off in times of low demand so that they don't melt the grid. (All that spare wind energy would have to go somewhere) .
This global bandwagon will continue to roll until it becomes a catastrophe for us. Most people are still in denial about the post Covid excess mortality.
Buckle up folks, it's going to be a rough ride.
A further pitfall of overreliance on solar and wind is grid overload on a sunny, breezy summer day when demand is low, e.g. on a Sunday. I’m not sure if solar electricity can be constrained like wind.
So their solution to global warming is systems which are inefficient when it gets hot!??
This all sounds like a bullshit excuse for failing to properly plan electrical demand.
It makes me laugh that the UK is too hot and humid for solar and need coal to step in to save the day. In Australia, the excuse is that it’s too hot for coal and gas so we need more renewables to step up save the day during a heat wave. Same bullshit excuse but the other way around. In both cases it’s failure to plan for the inevitable.
https://australiainstitute.org.au/post/why-cant-gas-and-coal-hack-it-in-the-heat/
That article is absurd, suggesting that wind and solar power are better in the heat and can take over from fossil fuel generators. In renewables dominated South Australia, the reality is this:
1. They still have to rely almost 100% on gas generation at times when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing.
2. When the sun is shining and the wind is blowing, renewables penetration approaches 100% and minimum demand drops to near zero at midday because so many homes have solar panels fitted, but they STILL have to instruct synchronous generators to operate or continue to operate (in order to maintain grid stability), which must be incredibly expensive and wasteful.
3. The long term ‘solution’ to this problem is to build more synchronous condensers, but they still need the generators to supply electricity when renewables aren’t working.
chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://aemo.com.au/-/media/files/electricity/nem/planning_and_forecasting/sa_advisory/2020/2020-south-australian-electricity-report.pdf?la=en
I tried to quickly find the most ridiculous example I could, when you mentioned it was too hot for solar in the UK. When Australians hear you guys complaining about the heat it makes us laugh, no offense intended.
I know it’s absurd but most people believe things like the linked article and think more renewables will save the day.
Your example of SA is a good one they had to keep a “spinning reserve” fired up before the synchronous condensers for frequency control even when there was abundant solar and wind. They also had a whopping great big fossil fuel (diesel/gas) powered genset on standby. Not sure if the genset is still there or if they still need the spinning reserve since they commissioned the synchronous condensers but I think they still do.
I’ve got nothing against renewables but they are intermittent and there has to be backup in place for the inevitable days when the sun don’t shine and the wind don’t blow. Nothing wrong with that as long as they’re properly integrated into the grid. So far it’s been relatively easy, they’ve just been tacked renewables onto the grid but the hard part will come if/when they try to phase out gas & coal which makes up about 75% of the supply on a peak day that doesn’t favor renewables. They can cheer all they like about “renewable penetration” of 68.7% on a sunny and windy day but on the worst case days there still has to be something else to provide 75% of the peak capacity on a worst case day. Batteries aren’t going to cut it, pumped hydro might put a dent in it. Massive overbuild of renewables and transmission inter-connectors could maybe do it. Nuclear would do it. I can’t see any of those things happening anytime in the near future here in Australia without massive investment even if it is possible.
Thanks for the SA AEMO link. I’ll have a look at it when i get a chance it’s been a long time since I looked at the SA situation.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5tVQ6aSxr34
Apt metaphor...
LOL
Good luck.
The real existential danger to mankind (and the planet) is the exponential growth of government power. An abrogation of our duty to see to our best interests, given away to actors too ugly for the theater and too stupid for a real job.
That, coupled with a perverse and complicit media, happy to regurgitate manipulative lies and a populace addicted to consumption, bread and circuses is the only anthropogenic (not climate) change we are struggling with.
The climate change hoax is nothing more than a strawman used to win a pointless argument.
And still you don't believe that planes are releasing chemicals that are affecting the climate. Amazing.
That's not amazing. It's entirely consistent with the lack of evidence.
Too hot for solar. Not windy enough for the huge towers with fins.
Common sense is second place to the religion of war on carbon. Aren’t we carbon? Candles blankets
Good news is the Earth is cooling which will help in muggy humidity hear of summer.
Bill gates plans to block out the sun.
Green energy is a good idea, why not use what has worked before, call the whole big climate crisis exactly what it is another power control fabricated
Lie. Walk carefully using only green energy. Stop breathing your hurting Mother Earth.
Another pandemic of the climate. Well England
Good luck.