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Juice: Why Wind and Solar Make Our Power Grid Less Reliable https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNS7Qojr1JQ John Stossel 920K subscribers 18936 views Mar 5, 2024 Politicians and activists tell how “renewable" energy will save us from the climate “crisis.” They don’t tell us about the real costs of green power.

The Department of Energy announced more than $350 million for rural renewable energy projects from the bipartisan infrastructure law funds Tuesday. On a call with reporters, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said the $366 million would be allocated across 17 projects in 20 states and 30 tribal nations. Twelve of the projects are on tribal lands, according to Granholm. “These projects showcase rural and remote communities [and] innovative approaches to clean energy deployment. They span technologies, they are replicable, they’re scalable, and they include everything from building micro grids for community health centers so they never lose power for lifesaving equipment,...

France is looking to lean more heavily on nuclear power, having apparently realized that a civilized and productive nation cannot reliably run off so-called renewable energy. The French government will consider legislation in early February that would eliminate renewable power objectives within France's energy code, including targets for reducing energy consumption by way of renovating buildings. France24 indicated that the legislation sets no explicit targets for building renewable capacity. Instead of mucking around with objectives for renewables, the legislation would have France embrace "the sustainable choice of using nuclear energy as a competitive and carbon-free" source of power. To this...

JUAZEIRO, Brazil—Weighing more than 100 pounds, big cats have long reigned over this hot and semi-arid region of Brazil, developing tougher paws for the scorched earth and reaching speeds of 50 miles an hour to bring down wild boar and deer. But nothing could have prepared for them the 150-foot blades now slicing up the deep blue sky above them. Jaguars and pumas are facing extinction in the Caatinga, Brazil’s northeastern shrublands, as Europe and China pour investment into wind farms, puncturing the land with vast turbines that are scaring the animals away from the region’s scant water sources. Particularly...

Wholesale electricity prices from some producers could rise 64 percent in order to cover inflation and the higher-than-anticipated costs that are becoming apparent in New York’s shift to renewable energy, according to a leading state agency. “The impact of implementing ACE (Alliance for Clean Energy) NY’s requested relief … would be an increase in weighted average strike (base) prices of 64 percent,” reads part of the comments from the New York State Energy Research and Development Agency, which sets contracts for electricity sales by solar and wind developers. That strike price represents what is essentially a baseline wholesale cost paid...

New problems undermine the country’s old playbook as manufacturing powerhouse.. Europe’s largest nation and its main growth engine has become the biggest drag on its economy. ... In past economic crises, Germany could rely on its factories to pull it out of any recession by tapping the world’s insatiable demand for made-in-Germany products. But a mixture of short-term and structural problems means this is no longer the case. ... A sharp rise in energy prices last year made producing goods more expensive. And with inflation and interest rates up around the world, foreign consumers can’t always afford the higher price...

Siemens Energy announced Thursday that it will be undergoing a technical review after it was found that up to 30% of its wind turbines could have faulty components, according to statements made by the company. Siemens Energy, an international energy company that seeks to “decarbonize global energy systems,” announced that it is withdrawing its profit guidance for the year after subsidiary Siemens Gamesa found that there was a “substantial increase in failure rates of wind turbine components.” The company believes that between 15% and 30% of its installed fleets are suffering from component failures, Jochen Eickholt, CEO of Siemens Gamesa,...

The blight on the landscape of abandoned and decommissioned wind turbines stimulated Colorado's U.S. Reps. Ken Buck, Doug Lamborn and Harriet Hageman, Wyoming, to introduce the Production Tax Credit Reform Act. According to a press release, the bill amends the Internal Revenue Code to require energy companies remove decommissioned wind turbines from leased land as a condition of receiving federal tax credits. Currently energy companies are not obligated to remove wind turbines from leased land once they are decommissioned, putting the onus on landowners — typically farmers and ranchers — to remove the turbines. According to the United States Geological...

If a bill banning the use of fossil fuels in the creation of green energy projects were to become law, it would be the end of renewable energy. There’s no feasible way to manufacture and transport wind turbines, solar panels and electric vehicles without fossil fuels. New York state Sen. George Borrello, R-Wyoming County, has introduced a bill to require that all wind turbines, solar collectors and infrastructure for producing green energy be manufactured and constructed without the use of fossil fuels. His bill would also apply to the manufacture and distribution of electric vehicles. If the bill were to...

Inflicting heavy fines on developers of a project billed as supplying clean, renewable energy, a federal jury has awarded a couple in southwest Georgia $135.5 million after runoff from “Lumpkin Solar” severely polluted waters and soils on their rural property. According to a lawsuit filed by Shaun and Amie Harris, Lumpkin Solar’s developers – after clearing about 1,000 acres of timberland, farmland, and land previously used for hunting and fishing – failed to install adequate measures for erosion and sediment control. “The result is what one would expect – when it rained, pollution poured downhill and downstream onto the neighbors’...

Jon Reisman, Professor of Economics & Public Policy Emeritus at the University of Maine, devoted Power Line reader, and self-described “Statler and Waldorf Intern,” passes along this update of the Beach Boys classic tune everyone will recognize from the opening line: California’s Grid With apologies to Brian Wilson, Mike Love and Greta Thunberg Well, East Coast grids are hip I really dig wind mills they wear And the Southern grid, with the way they spin They knock me out when I’m down there The Midwest solar panels really make you feel all right And the Northern grid, when the wind...

PJM Interconnection sounds the latest alarm that fossil-fuel plants are shutting down without adequate replacement power. The political class yawns. ... The warnings keep coming that the force-fed energy transition to renewable fuels is destabilizing the U.S. electric grid, but is anyone in government paying attention? ... The PJM report forecasts power supply and demand through 2030 across the 13 eastern states in its territory covering 65 million people. ... Fossil-fuel power plants are retiring much faster than renewable sources are getting developed, which could lead to energy “imbalances.” That’s a delicate way of saying that you can expect shortages...

Vermont is one of the nation’s most environmentally friendly states. But two years ago, the backers of a local wind-energy farm shelved the project after intense public opposition. An initiative supporter noted how the controversy reflected rising hostility to wind power. Whereas a decade ago, ambitious developers had planned a dozen renewable-energy projects in Vermont, by 2020, most had either folded or failed to win regulatory approval. “This is truly a sad state of affairs for Vermont,” the CEO of a green-energy firm said, while pointing out that the state has mandated that 75 percent of its power should come...

A battery storage system in the UK has begun delivery of reactive power services to the grid in what has been claimed as a world first contract of its kind. Developer-investor Zenobe Energy also said that its 100MW/107MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) in Capenhurst, Chester, is currently the largest battery project directly connected to the transmission grid anywhere in Europe... The BESS will reduce the amount of curtailment of renewable energy, particularly wind, in the Mersey region of north-west England where it is located, as well as reducing the amount of gas-fired generation needed to balance the supply and...

At a White House press briefing on Monday, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm was asked by Yahoo News to weigh in on the sharp rise in renewable energy projects in Republican-led states like Texas since the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act. According to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, Texas is poised to overtake California in terms of solar power capacity, and aggressively pursued the construction of new wind, solar and battery storage projects in the second half of 2022. “With respect to Texas, what an opportunity for every state to be able to produce clean energy. And, in...

Brighton, N.Y. — It's a sustainable energy showdown in Brighton. Town Supervisor Bill Moehle said the town is suing so-called renewable energy company Source Power, which he said cost 10,000 Brighton customers more than $1 million in just six months. "In June of this year, June of 2022, without warning, we were notified that Source was unilaterally terminating their contract and discontinuing providing electricity to Brighton customer as of June 15, 2022," Moehle said. The town began a two-year contract with Source in December 2020, according to Moehle. The company claimed it supplied renewable energy, locking customers in at paying...

Ever since M. King Hubbert in the 1950s convinced a lot of people with his "peak oil" theory that production would collapse and we'd eventually exhaust our crude supplies, the clock has been running. And running. And it will continue to run for some time, as technology and new discoveries show that there's still an ocean of oil under our feet.Engineering and Technology Magazine reported this week that BP — the company that once wanted to be known as "Beyond Petroleum" rather than "British Petroleum" — is saying "the world is no longer at risk of running out of resources.""Thanks...

The discovery and exploitation of crude oil have literally transformed the world beyond all recognition.This was such a great discovery, that our modern world is literally fuelled by it.If the crude oil supply was to suddenly dry up, could we survive?Crude oil is one of the most important resources we have ever discovered. Oil and the many products made from it have literally and figuratively transformed the world beyond all recognition. However, as we are constantly reminded, crude oil is not in infinite supply. After all, it took millions of years to "brew". RelatedWhat Would Happen If the World Ran...

Despite all the renewable-energy investments and installations, actual global greenhouse gas emissions keep increasing. That’s largely due to economic growth: While renewable energy supplies have expanded in recent years, world energy usage has ballooned even more – with the difference being supplied by fossil fuels. The more the world economy grows, the harder it is for additions of renewable energy to turn the tide by actually replacing energy from fossil fuels, rather than just adding to it. The notion of voluntarily reining in economic growth in order to minimize climate change and make it easier to replace fossil fuels is...

California has banned the sale of internal combustion cars and light trucks beginning in 2035, natural-gas furnaces from 2030, and small gas engines starting in 2024. The state’s newest green plan is to install 5,000 megawatts (MW) of offshore wind by 2030 and 25,000 MW by 2045. That’s an average of 1,400 MW of new offshore wind yearly for the next 18 years—the equivalent of erecting one 14 MW turbine every four days for the next 23 years. Unfortunately, this is a fantasy so wild that even Don Quixote would blush—one that lawmakers should abandon if they’re serious about finding...