Only When It’s Hot

Weather

To the surprise of absolutely nobody with a brain, it turns out that so-called “green” energy sources are a complete fuck-up in cold regions, e.g. Minnesoduh, as seen during the most recent polar vortex storm of 2019.

Many [Socialists], including U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and several presidential candidates, support a Green New Deal, which would phase out the use of all coal, natural gas, and oil and replace them with green energy. Proving just how wrongheaded those policies are, solar and wind power performed very poorly during the storm while coal, natural gas, and nuclear power helped keep the lights and heat on for the vast majority of people.
Just how bad was green energy’s performance during the storm? In an area stretching from Minnesota to Iowa, wind turbines went from supplying about half of the electricity one day to providing less than 3 percent the next. What caused this dramatic swing in energy output? Most turbines automatically shut down once temperatures reach -20 degrees. Even worse, not only did the turbines stop producing power, but they also consumed power for heat to avoid damage. Solar energy production also collapsed. Due to snow cover, Xcel Energy’s solar panels only produced eight to ten percent of their potential output. [emphasis added]

Here’s my suggestion.  Limit all this Green energy production to Africa, where (unlike Oklahoma), the sun shines every single day and the wind, when it does blow, blows mostly in a hot climate.  Of course, with the African continent’s legendary record of equipment maintenance and security (Cliff Notes:  never happens), the wind turbines will soon fall over and the solar panels will be stolen.

Or we could just consign all this Green bullshit (and its proponents like AOC and Al Gore) to the Dumpster Of Historical Failures, and get back to dealing with reality instead of wasting our time on unicorn ranching.

7 comments

  1. I just happen to live in Minne-So-Duh. During the last gasp of the recent “Polar Vortex” (or as we used to call it in our hardier days, “winter”), I just happened to be out of town for work. During that time I stumbled across a video on YouTube from an outfit called Friends of Science. The video was titled “Myths of Renewable Energy” (and you can all find it for yourselves because I’m not sure if WordPress or our Gallant Host want us to post links in the comments). Among the many irrefutable facts in the 45 minute presentation was this: in the US, solar power is a net energy loser north of the 35th Parallel. If you live north of Memphis, Oklahoma City, Santa Fe, Flagstaff, etc. (basically Interstate 40), you will never generate more energy with your solar panel than was used in its creation. And it’s not some Big Conspiracy of the Establishment, as comforting as that idea would be. It’s physics. Simply put, over its projected 25-year lifespan, there aren’t enough photons hitting the panel to create enough electricity (“photo-voltaic”, get it?) to balance out the energy of making the panel in China at a facility powered by coal, shipping it across the ocean on a vessel burning copious amounts of fuel oil, and installing it on your roof. And it just struck me as I wrote this waaaaaay too long comment: the curvature of the earth is what causes the diminishing of photons as you travel away from the equator, so advocating for widespread solar power to be a viable energy source is a desire for the earth to be flat.

    1. Remember Dave, a lot of them think the Earth IS flat…

      LFTR nuclear reactors will be the next Big Thing in energy production, I think.

        2. LFTR is/are melty salt reactors.

          PS:
          re:
          Equipment maintenance by black Africans == “Cliff Notes: never happens”
          Perfect. Perfect. Perfect.

          Unless, of course, the ‘equipment’ is girly-bits. In that case, maintenance includes broken bottles and rusty soup cans.

  2. Albertosaurus’s Iron Rule Of Alternative Energy: It makes economic sense only where and when you don’t have to subsidize it.

    1. That pretty much goes for everything. But as the recent cold snap in the DPRM (Democratic Peoples’ Republic Of Minnesota) proved, “alternative energy” is just that: an alternative to energy.

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