Clearly the wind drought is being caused by climate change, leaving us no alternative but to build more windmills to stop climate change and get the wind blowing again… think’I’m ready to run for office?
Check out Stor-En (disclaimer--I've crowd-fund-invested in it). They manufacture Vanadium batteries (no Li, just regular iron-related metal), last for years. They are installing trial models in numerous locations in USA.
Go Deep Green. Whatever solution is proposed should be self-sufficient and cost-effective. Let the market system work to provide solutions that respect God's creation and the humans to whom He gave responsibility and authority and ability to steward it. Switching from whale oil to petroleum did not require government fiats. (Decentralized power systems are available and being developed.)
Questions have to be asked about the failure of the meteorologist to issue wind drought warnings which could and should have averted the connection of subsidised intermittent energy to the grid.
Meteorologists are the official custodians of weather records around the world but the customary metric for wind resources is the average wind velocity which of course hides both the low and the high points, each of which are unsuitable for power generation from wind turbines. The official meteorologists are still not reporting low wind periods in the way that they report every other kind of extreme weather.
Wind droughts had a low profile after the Doldrums in sub-tropical latitudes ceased to be a concern when steamers replaced ships under sail. “In the doldrums” nowadays usually refers to a low mood, verging on depression.
Even the prolonged European Dunkelflautes (still and dark periods) did not arouse attention until they precipitated the crisis in the power supply in 2021 when the cost of power in Britain and Germany surged, even before the war in Ukraine aggravated the situation.
An entry for Dunkelflautes only appeared in Wikipedia in October 2020 although mariners at sea must have known them from time immemorial and millers on land must have experienced them for centuries, not to mention the windmills pumping water in the Low Countries. H G Wells wrote in a 1901 book on industrial progress that windmills were not suitable for pumping water from coal mines because “a gang might sit at a pithead for a month, whistling for a gale.”
Some people were aware of wind droughts a hundred years ago and it remains to be seen how the meteorologists explain their silence on the matter. As for offshore wind developments, perhaps those who approve such projects should read Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”. Is the death of coal fired generation analgous to the fate of the albatross?
Australians led the world in wind-watching
Over a decade ago Anton Lang and the Paul Miskelly team clearly identified the danger of wind droughts in Australia, but their work escaped the attention of the responsible authorities and is still virtually unknown.
They used the AEMO records of continuous wind power generation to decisively refute the view that Australia has superb wind resources which had been accepted in official circles, based on the average wind speeds reported by the local Bureau of Meteorology and the conclusions of numerous academic studies.
Paul Miskelly started his project in 2005 and it took shape after the Market Operator set up the data base that Andrew Miskelly made available to the public at Aneroid Energy. Tom Quirk was a collaborator and they had support from some engineers.
Lang was an electrician in the Air Force in 2008 when he first started to report his observations on a private blog. His reports are still appearing regularly and there are now several thousand posts on various aspects of the performance of the wind fleet and the other sources of power as well. This is a remarkable achievement and it must be one of the most sustained, singlehanded, unfunded projects on record.
Wind droughts happen all over the world and they are a fatal impediment to the net zero program.
Given the failure of the official meteorologists to issue warnings, there is a need for two high-level inquires. One should aim to discover why the officials never warned the public or the responsible authorities about the fatal threat to the power supply. Was it incompetence, negligence or something else? That inquiry should be replicated in all the countries with official meteorological offices and its should extend to the World Meteorological Organizer that was a foundation member of the climate alarmists club.
The other inquiry in Australia would aim to identify the agencies that failed to conduct due diligence on the wind supply before wind and solar power were allowed to connect to the grid. Imagine building the infrastructure for a massive irrigation project without an exhaustive study of the water supply, including all the available rainfall records.
In the absence of due diligence, tens of billions of dollars have been added to the national debt to allow subsidised and mandated intermittent energy to contaminate the grid. This has become one of the most costly policy blunders in peacetime. In return for the expense we have got less reliable and more expensive energy, causing domestic hardship and a great deal of unrecorded deindustrialisation. At the same time there has been massive environmental damage and division in regional communities. In short, there has been a colossal negative return with an enormous threat to the Nation’s security and prosperity.
Thanks for the comprehensive comment. Yes, average wind speeds are not very relevant - as you say, it's more helpful to know the highs and the lows - no power at wind speed under 6-8mph, and shut down with no power on wind speeds over about 55mph. I did read the Ancient Mariner by Coleridge, ("water, water, everywhere, and not a drop to drink") and also enjoyed your overview of the history of sailing and windmills. I've always enjoyed historical novels about the naval battles and ships of the line in the 1800s.
GHE theory fails because of two erroneous assumptions: 1. near Earth space is cold & w/o GHE would become 255 K, -18 C, ball of ice & 2. radiating as a 16 C BB the surface produces “extra” GHE energy aka radiative forcing (nee caloric).
Both
Are
Just
Flat
Wrong
!!!
Without the atmosphere, water vapor and its 30% albedo Earth would become much like the Moon, a barren rock, hot^3 400 K on the lit side, cold^3 100 K on the dark.
“TFK_bams09” GHE heat balance graphic & its legion of clones uses bad math and badder physics. 63 W/m^2 appears twice (once from Sun & second from a BB calculation) violating both LoT 1 and GAAP. 396 W/m^2 upwelling is a BB calc for a 16 C surface for denominator of the emissivity ratio, 63/396=0.16, “extra” & not real. 333 W/m^2 “back” radiating from cold to warm violates LoT 1 & 2. Remove 396/333/63 GHE loop from the graphic and the solar balance still works.
Kinetic heat transfer processes of the contiguous atmospheric molecules (60%) render a terrestrial BB (requires 100%) impossible as demonstrated by experiment, the gold standard of classical science.
Since both GHE & CAGW climate “science” are indefensible rubbish alarmists must resort to fear mongering, lies, lawsuits, censorship and violence.
Clearly the wind drought is being caused by climate change, leaving us no alternative but to build more windmills to stop climate change and get the wind blowing again… think’I’m ready to run for office?
Ha Ha - good one
I'm sure no one would ever accuse your premise as circular reasoning...
Check out Stor-En (disclaimer--I've crowd-fund-invested in it). They manufacture Vanadium batteries (no Li, just regular iron-related metal), last for years. They are installing trial models in numerous locations in USA.
Thanks - I've heard of Stor-En and Vanadium batteries but can't remember the details - will take another look.
Go Deep Green. Whatever solution is proposed should be self-sufficient and cost-effective. Let the market system work to provide solutions that respect God's creation and the humans to whom He gave responsibility and authority and ability to steward it. Switching from whale oil to petroleum did not require government fiats. (Decentralized power systems are available and being developed.)
THE SILENCE OF THE METEOROLOGISTS
Questions have to be asked about the failure of the meteorologist to issue wind drought warnings which could and should have averted the connection of subsidised intermittent energy to the grid.
Meteorologists are the official custodians of weather records around the world but the customary metric for wind resources is the average wind velocity which of course hides both the low and the high points, each of which are unsuitable for power generation from wind turbines. The official meteorologists are still not reporting low wind periods in the way that they report every other kind of extreme weather.
Wind droughts had a low profile after the Doldrums in sub-tropical latitudes ceased to be a concern when steamers replaced ships under sail. “In the doldrums” nowadays usually refers to a low mood, verging on depression.
Even the prolonged European Dunkelflautes (still and dark periods) did not arouse attention until they precipitated the crisis in the power supply in 2021 when the cost of power in Britain and Germany surged, even before the war in Ukraine aggravated the situation.
The spectre of power failure is haunting Europe! https://www.flickerpower.com/images/The_endless_wind_drought_crippling_renewables___The_Spectator_Australia.pdf
An entry for Dunkelflautes only appeared in Wikipedia in October 2020 although mariners at sea must have known them from time immemorial and millers on land must have experienced them for centuries, not to mention the windmills pumping water in the Low Countries. H G Wells wrote in a 1901 book on industrial progress that windmills were not suitable for pumping water from coal mines because “a gang might sit at a pithead for a month, whistling for a gale.”
Some people were aware of wind droughts a hundred years ago and it remains to be seen how the meteorologists explain their silence on the matter. As for offshore wind developments, perhaps those who approve such projects should read Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”. Is the death of coal fired generation analgous to the fate of the albatross?
Australians led the world in wind-watching
Over a decade ago Anton Lang and the Paul Miskelly team clearly identified the danger of wind droughts in Australia, but their work escaped the attention of the responsible authorities and is still virtually unknown.
They used the AEMO records of continuous wind power generation to decisively refute the view that Australia has superb wind resources which had been accepted in official circles, based on the average wind speeds reported by the local Bureau of Meteorology and the conclusions of numerous academic studies.
Paul Miskelly started his project in 2005 and it took shape after the Market Operator set up the data base that Andrew Miskelly made available to the public at Aneroid Energy. Tom Quirk was a collaborator and they had support from some engineers.
The landmark paper appeared in 2012 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1260/0958-305x.23.8.1233
Lang was an electrician in the Air Force in 2008 when he first started to report his observations on a private blog. His reports are still appearing regularly and there are now several thousand posts on various aspects of the performance of the wind fleet and the other sources of power as well. This is a remarkable achievement and it must be one of the most sustained, singlehanded, unfunded projects on record.
https://papundits.wordpress.com/?s=OzWindPowerGenerationTFO
ITS ALL OVER FOR WIND AND SOLAR ON THE GRID
Wind droughts happen all over the world and they are a fatal impediment to the net zero program.
Given the failure of the official meteorologists to issue warnings, there is a need for two high-level inquires. One should aim to discover why the officials never warned the public or the responsible authorities about the fatal threat to the power supply. Was it incompetence, negligence or something else? That inquiry should be replicated in all the countries with official meteorological offices and its should extend to the World Meteorological Organizer that was a foundation member of the climate alarmists club.
The other inquiry in Australia would aim to identify the agencies that failed to conduct due diligence on the wind supply before wind and solar power were allowed to connect to the grid. Imagine building the infrastructure for a massive irrigation project without an exhaustive study of the water supply, including all the available rainfall records.
In the absence of due diligence, tens of billions of dollars have been added to the national debt to allow subsidised and mandated intermittent energy to contaminate the grid. This has become one of the most costly policy blunders in peacetime. In return for the expense we have got less reliable and more expensive energy, causing domestic hardship and a great deal of unrecorded deindustrialisation. At the same time there has been massive environmental damage and division in regional communities. In short, there has been a colossal negative return with an enormous threat to the Nation’s security and prosperity.
Now what?
And there is more! https://www.flickerpower.com/index.php/search/categories/general/the-energy-crisis-how-we-got-here-and-how-to-move-on
Thanks for the comprehensive comment. Yes, average wind speeds are not very relevant - as you say, it's more helpful to know the highs and the lows - no power at wind speed under 6-8mph, and shut down with no power on wind speeds over about 55mph. I did read the Ancient Mariner by Coleridge, ("water, water, everywhere, and not a drop to drink") and also enjoyed your overview of the history of sailing and windmills. I've always enjoyed historical novels about the naval battles and ships of the line in the 1800s.
GHE theory fails because of two erroneous assumptions: 1. near Earth space is cold & w/o GHE would become 255 K, -18 C, ball of ice & 2. radiating as a 16 C BB the surface produces “extra” GHE energy aka radiative forcing (nee caloric).
Both
Are
Just
Flat
Wrong
!!!
Without the atmosphere, water vapor and its 30% albedo Earth would become much like the Moon, a barren rock, hot^3 400 K on the lit side, cold^3 100 K on the dark.
“TFK_bams09” GHE heat balance graphic & its legion of clones uses bad math and badder physics. 63 W/m^2 appears twice (once from Sun & second from a BB calculation) violating both LoT 1 and GAAP. 396 W/m^2 upwelling is a BB calc for a 16 C surface for denominator of the emissivity ratio, 63/396=0.16, “extra” & not real. 333 W/m^2 “back” radiating from cold to warm violates LoT 1 & 2. Remove 396/333/63 GHE loop from the graphic and the solar balance still works.
Kinetic heat transfer processes of the contiguous atmospheric molecules (60%) render a terrestrial BB (requires 100%) impossible as demonstrated by experiment, the gold standard of classical science.
Since both GHE & CAGW climate “science” are indefensible rubbish alarmists must resort to fear mongering, lies, lawsuits, censorship and violence.