New calculations for Germany, France and Great Britain show that so-called “renewable energy” accounts for “weather-dependent” power plants producing underground. The current numbers make it clear why it’s downright insane to actually bet on it.
If you operate a conventional power plant (eg powered by natural gas, coal or uranium), the nominal output is an order of magnitude that you can use as a guide. By regulating the energy supply, not only is it possible to effectively adjust the power output to demand, but it is also no problem to work at high power for a long time. As long as there is an adequate supply of energy sources, there is no operational restriction except for maintenance work. In the case of “renewables”, in particular wind and solar power plants, the situation is very different.
Wind power plants supply electricity only when the wind blows within a certain speed range. Without wind there is no electricity and in the event of a storm the systems also shut down. It is similar to solar energy. There is no sun at night, so electricity is not produced. Then normal weather (cloudy, rain, snow…) also affects the performance of solar panels.
A recent English-language report examines the efficiency of wind and solar power plants in Germany, France and Great Britain, based on official data. The consequences for the period from the beginning of July 2022 to the end of June 2023 are dire. The three countries alone have a combined capacity of 89.5 gigawatts (GW) of onshore wind power plants and an output of 19.4GW. This corresponds to a productivity of 21.7 percent. With an installed capacity of 20.1 GW, offshore wind power plants in Germany and Great Britain (there are none in France) provide 6.9 GW and thus 34.4 percent of nominal generation. Things are looking pretty bad for solar power plants. 97.4GW were installed, but only 9.8GW was delivered. This corresponds to a nominal productivity of 10.1 per cent. Taken together, these power plants in the three countries achieve a combined productivity of 17.4 percent.
To explain the whole thing as simply as possible, so that green politicians can understand itFor example, if a country has an annual electricity demand of 100GW based on the underground productivity of wind and solar power plants, at least 600GW (possibly more) of capacity needs to be installed to meet the demand even in lean times. Will be However, if there is no compatible backup from conventional power plants, massive blackouts are to be expected on dark, windless winter days.
Using German figures for the period from the report, the following also emerges: 50GW of electricity was produced as a result of 167GW of installed generation capacity. Overall productivity of about 30 percent. What is particularly interesting is that the (now defunct) nuclear power plants accounted for only 1.7 percent of the total installed power plant capacity, but they produced 4.5 percent of electricity. The proportion of coal-fired power plants is also very positive at 3.9 percent to 9.9 percent, as is the case for gas-fired power plants from 4.2 percent to 10.7 percent. And why that? Because they have to work more or less continuously to compensate for the missing supply from wind and solar power plants.
But regardless of these truly catastrophic numbers, politicians are pushing for the expansion of wind and solar power plants to meet general climate craziness. You are setting yourself up for an energy policy impasse that will not only make the electricity supply in the country completely unreliable, but also cause electricity prices to skyrocket. Is this what people want?
