Großbritannien zahlt 1 Milliarde Pfund, um eine Rekordmenge an Windenergie zu verschwenden
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-12-02/uk-is-paying-1-billion-to-waste-a-record-amount-of-wind-power?cmpid=socialflow-twitter-business&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=socialflow-organic&utm_source=twitter&utm_content=business
Von SojournerInThisVale
18 Comments
I can’t see the full article and I’m not paying for it, but surely there’s no actual cost to turning off a wind farm whilst the energy isn’t needed. The theoretical loss in energy not created is zero. Storing that power would of course be beneficial but has a cost to it too. Theres no easy way to say this but that is just a cause of using nature for power.
Of course everything I just said could be completely wrong on the basis that I can’t read the article anyway
EDIT: thanks all.
TLDR: yet more crap infrastructure in the UK, and they think the country will be fully electric including the automotive industry. Laughable.
Long story short, our grid is crap and unable to cope when wind energy is very high. Which is a problem in itself however the bigger problem is that the grid cannot effectively distribute electricity. It’s not just a case of wind overproducing compared to demand, it’s that our grid is so old and outdated we cannot move electricity to where it’s needed.
So for example, there are areas of cumbria that aren’t able to benefit from wind energy produced off the coast of Yorkshire. Despite geographically being closer than other areas that it can be distributed to.
This means that even when wind could meet our entire demand (and be exported) we can’t because the grid can’t handle it. Thus we waste potential green energy (and money). But also we still need to run gas plants for the areas where wind can’t reach. So we pay even more.
The above is a simplified explanation. But ultimately Power infrastructure needs to be rapidly deployed, and should be automatically given development consent orders to remove planning bureaucracy.
Meanwhile in Portugal:
> From 31 October to 6 November, renewable energy production exceeded the country’s electricity needs for 149 hours straight, setting a new record.
> For 131 hours from 31 October 2023, renewable energy exceeded the needs of the entire National Electric System – including requirements for pumping at hydroelectric reservoirs. This feat was achieved **without resorting to conventional thermal power generation sources**, like Natural Gas Combined Cycle Plants.
> And between 1 November and 5 November, there were 95 consecutive hours in which renewable production was greater than consumption, without the need for Natural Gas Combined Cycle Plants and Portugal was able to **export electricity to Spain**.
https://www.euronews.com/green/2023/11/09/portugal-sets-important-new-renewable-energy-record-as-production-outstrips-demand
Of course they are not yet fully renewables based, but at least they can use what they generate and export the excess.
This issue should correct itself when the network is expanded (NIMBYs permitting re pilons) and when electric cars are more used and are able to store a lot of this wasted energy.
However we are talking ten years from now…so whether there is much point in rolling out more wind power until then is questionable
Sounds like a great place to put offshore crypto farms
I’ve heard proposals about how power hungry Bitcoin mining(I know) can be part of the solution here. I wonder if there’s any validity in it?
This country is only good at stealing from other countries lol
Well this is all entirely predictable. In other news, the UK has the world’s highest energy prices…
Mine Bitcoin with the excess energy… It’s not quite a store of energy, but mining can be used to transform excess energy when there is oversupply into a store of value.
That Bitcoin could then be sold and used to pay off national debt for example.
It’s not wasted. It is in the accounts of a few people
Article doesn’t mention National Grid’s pretty massive transmission grid investment programme, or the potential of storage.
The problem I have with these ventures.
What about reforestation and not building on flood plains to decrease flood rates?
What part of tarmac in large parts of the country side and sticking up Energy turbines and battery storage, which are built using mined ores like Lithium and still use oil is considered ‘Green’?
It’s another show, don’t tell situation, ‘look how green it is, but let’s ignore the pollution used to create and power it is 5x the lifetime of an already running standard power plant’.
It’s not a problem because that pollution is in another country…..
Still on the globe though isn’t it?
Basically we’ve neglected spending money on various infrastructure for years and now this is another area where it’s coming home to roost.
I don’t understand.
Our power grid was privatised in 1990. It should be really really good, shouldn’t it?
If we could only persuade companies with high energy demands to build in areas where the power is generated by selling them cheap power.
That’s when Octopus energy tells you the electric is free and to switch everything on. Last weekend i heated my entire house using fan heaters for nothing. Ran the tumble dryer and a dehumidifier.
I thin kthey get fined if you don’t use the electricity.
Our grid is designed to take energy from where it is generated consistently using fossil fuels to where it is consumed.
It is not designed to balance large changes in output due to wind‘s unreliability and then transfer it over long distances. These grid upgrades (£3tn of them) are another hidden cost of net zero.
Tory failure to invest strikes again. Glad we can generate so much electricity from it, but let’s get it going to places. I know in Scotland they invested in infrastructure heavily.