The green road to blackouts

August 31, 2020 By Viv Forbes

California leads the way to electricity blackouts, closely followed by South Australia. They both created this problem by taxing, banning, delaying, or demolishing reliable coal, nuclear, gas or hydro generators while subsidizing and promoting unreliable electricity from the sickly green twins -- solar and wind. All supposed to solve a global warming crisis that exists only in academic computer models. Energy policy should be driven by proven reliability, efficiency, and cost, not by green politics. Wind and solar will always be prone to blackouts for three reasons.

First, they are intermittent, producing zero power when winds drops or sunlight fails.

Second, green energy is dilute so the collection area must be huge. Both solar panels and wind turbines are old technologies and now close to collecting the maximum energy from a given land area of wind and sun, so limited technology gains are possible. Wind turbines generate nothing from gentle breezes and must shut down in gales. To collect more energy the green twins must collect from greater areas using a widespread scatter of panels and towers connected by a fragile network of roads and transmission lines. This flimsy system is far more susceptible to damage from cyclones, hail, and the like than a big, well-built, centrally located, well-maintained traditional power station with strong walls, a roof, and lightning protection. Green energy also requires far more investment in transmission lines and interconnectors, and the energy transmission losses are greater.

Third, green energy is like a virus in a distribution network..........To Read More...