Germany's wind power chaos should be a warning to the UK (and the U.S. and other Western nations)

www.telegraph.co.uk ^ | 09/12/12 | Christopher Booker

[Wisconsinlady]

In fact, a mighty battle is now developing in Germany between green fantasists and practical realists. Because renewable energy must by law have priority in supplying the grid, the owners of conventional power stations, finding they have to run plants unprofitably, are so angry that they are threatening to close many of them down. The government response, astonishingly, has been to propose a new law forcing them to continue running their plants at a loss.

[TurboZamboni]

[American in Israel]

Like your tagline.

Looting the future to bribe the present...

[American in Israel]

The more a country depends on such sources of energy, the more there will arise – as Germany is discovering – two massive technical problems. One is that it becomes incredibly difficult to maintain a consistent supply of power to the grid, when that wildly fluctuating renewable output has to be balanced by input from conventional power stations. The other is that, to keep that back-up constantly available can require fossil-fuel power plants to run much of the time very inefficiently and expensively (incidentally chucking out so much more “carbon” than normal that it negates any supposed CO2 savings from the wind).

[ridesthemiles]

6 A: Melt them down & build more Navy ships.

[chimera]

There are lots of them abandoned out there. They look like hell, just piles of rusting junk:

These are in CA. There are others on Hawaii, near South Point. Totally uneconomical, even in one of the windiest places around.

Unlike the nuclear industry, there are no laws that mandate that wind farm owners clean up their abandoned sites. It never ceases to amaze me that the environmentalist wackos continually hammer the nuclear industry about it's "waste", when it is the one industry that plans ahead and saves money to deal with it's facilities when they are finally retired. It is the only industry that is required to manage it's waste in a responsible manner, yet they are continually berated for it. Time to "shrug".

[okie01]

The fact that no wind farm outlives its federal subsidy is living proof that "Green energy" is just another scheme designed to take advantage of federal taxpayers.

At the same time, "Green energy" is just one more distortion in the free market created by government intervention. And we pay for that, too, in higher energy bills.

If ever there was an argument for greater accountability from our politicians -- and the bureaucratic monster that is "our government" -- it is "Green Energy".

[xrmusn]

There are lots of them abandoned out there. They look like hell, just piles of rusting junk
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
A picture is worth a thousand words.

Kind of reminiscent of CA in late 50’s/early 60’s with the ‘one armed’ oil wells visible for miles - the other most ‘memorable’ pic stuck in my head is of the area of Secaucus NJ back in late 50’s....real dreary looking, if memory (swiftly failing) is correct. Oh, yes, and the smell of the rotting pig shite...Maybe that is why the Muzzies didn’t hang around NYC/NJ ‘back in the day’????

[ProtectOurFreedom]

All surface mining operations have to post bonds for site reclamation after mining is completed. That started around 1970. It is amazing that the enviro kooks who go bonkers over the sight of a SINGLE offshore rig in the ocean embrace these monstrosities. Consistency is not one of their strong suits.

[chimera]

At the same time, "Green energy" is just one more distortion in the free market created by government intervention. And we pay for that, too, in higher energy bills.

It is the only energy source I know of that is mandated by law that people have to buy. After all the controversy about Obamacare's mandate to purchase, well, "Green Energy" has that beat. I know of no similar laws that say that utilities must purchase power from nuclear plants, or coal plants, or gas-burning plants. Those have to compete in the marketplace. "Green energy" is the only one that gets exempted from competition. And there's a reason for that. It's because it can't compete. Without legal mandates to purchase and outrageous tax breaks that no other industry gets, it goes under.

[okie01]

Without legal mandates to purchase and outrageous tax breaks that no other industry gets, [Green energy] goes under.

And what is the reason for this kind of government coercion?

I can think of only two:

1. Corruption -- rewarding cronies with taxpayer money for investing in and producing so-called "Green energy".

2. Stupidity -- believing that "green energy" is a good thing because, otherwise, we are all doomed by the AGW Hoax.

Accordingly, a Congressman who votes for subsidies and mandates for "green energy" is, by definition, either a crook or a dolt.