Green Energy and Stupid Politicians make our society vulnerable

The western world is in decline.  Voters chose decline by voting for childish, unintelligent people who do not understand the implications of their decisions because they do not understand anything.  There is no better example of this than green energy.

On the surface, green energy sounds like a good idea.  Who could say no to free energy?  The problem is that it is not free.  It isn’t even cheap.  The more “free energy” you have tied into your grid the higher your power bills go.

This is caused by how large intermittent power sources (I.E. wind and solar) affect the electrical grid.  I am by no means an expert in electrical grids but I can guarantee you I know infinitely more about electrical grids than any of the morons who push the green energy scam. About 15 years ago the company I worked for asked me to work with the Alberta Electrical System Operator (AESO) to electrify a major facility.  That is when I learned how the grid is operated and managed.

Grids are in some respects very delicate.  Electricity can’t be stored so the grid operator must carefully manage how much power is being used with how much power generating stations deliver onto the grid.  They must also manage the quality of the power that is fed onto the grid.  That was the problem with my facility.  The large electrical pumps during an emergency shut down had enough momentum to start generating power which would back feed onto the grid at the wrong frequency.  It would make the grid locally unstable and could lead to a blackout of that part of the grid.

The AESO was very concern about this because grid stability is their whole reason for existing.  We put in place engineering controls to prevent this and the AESO allowed the facility to be connected.  I am certain the AESO must be pulling their hair out over brain dead politicians connecting more and more “green” energy to the system because green energy causes them the same problems as my facility on a much larger scale.

The problem with green energy is that the wind does not always blow and the sun does not always shine.  When the wind stops blowing or clouds cover the sun the power loss is immediate.  The system operator must scramble to replace that power somehow before the grid browns out or even collapses.  The only way this can be done is with backup natural gas and diesel fired generators.  This is because large base load power generators like coal, nuclear, and hydro cannot change as quickly as the wind or the sun.  You need something that can be started quickly and then stopped just as quickly when the sun comes back or the wind picks up.

Most people don’t realize it, and by most people I mean brain dead politicians, but every new wind or solar installation must be accompanied by new backup generation.  Of course no one wants to spend the money for backup generation unless they get paid to sit on standby.  This means the consumer must pay for someone to not generate power.

Paying for power that never gets generated is what make “free” solar and wind energy so damned expensive.  Politicians make this situation even worse by also paying for power that the solar and wind installation do not produce.  To entice new green energy projects many jurisdictions pay the generator on the name plate capacity rather than the power they actually produce.  The difference is huge.  On average wind turbines only produce 20% of the rated capacity so for every KWhr of power produced consumers pay for another 4 that are never produced.

Solar panels are even worse.  They can’t produce power for half the day and hit their peak capacity at mid-day when the power is not needed.  Power consumption peaks every day in the morning when people wake and then later in the evening when everyone gets home from work.  Solar produces almost no power during the high peak times.

Anyone who understands how power is generated and how grids operate will tell you that tying solar and wind into a grid is a bad idea that will increase consumer costs.  The only way to make that situation worse is to buy the useless and unnecessary equipment form a geopolitical enemy.

Engineers have discovered ‘kill switches’ embedded in Chinese-manufactured parts on American solar farms, raising fears Beijing could manipulate supplies or ‘physically destroy’ grids across the US, UK and Europe.

China gets saluted as a green energy superpower because they build most of the wind turbines and solar panels.  They don’t use them but they are happy to sell them to their enemies.  It is highly profitable and doesn’t just make power expensive and unreliable.  China can control the electrical grids of their enemies by building back doors into the software.

We truly are governed by morons.  They don’t just make thing worse, they make things dangerous.  Canadians are celebrating that they have just elected such an “accomplished” Prime Minister.  Accomplished in what?  Mark Carney knows how to print too much money and dodge taxes.  Does anyone think he knows a damn thing about how power is generated and transmitted?

If you want to save your country stop electing bankers and lawyers.  These people have no useful knowledge or skills.  Start electing people who know how things work.