Wind Power Falls to Almost Zero as Miliband Prepares to Cut Gas Further
Britain’s wind power generation is set to plummet to almost zero this week as Ed Miliband presses ahead with plans to cut dependency on gas and increase the nation’s reliance on intermittent renewable energy. The Telegraph has more.
Much of the U.K. has seen zero hours of sunshine this month, and the first part of this week will see already-light winds hit fresh lows in many areas, according to Met Office forecasters.
The dark and windless weather comes as Sir Keir Starmer and Mr. Miliband, the Energy Secretary, fly to the UN climate talks in Baku, Azerbaijan, to pledge massive cuts in U.K. greenhouse gas emissions.
They are expected to pledge to cut CO2 emissions by 240m tonnes, or 60% of their 2022 levels, by 2035.
They will also confirm plans to “decarbonise” the U.K. electricity system by 2030, by ending the use of the U.K.’s 32 main gas-fired power stations.
Sir Keir’s speech, expected on Tuesday, coincides with a record ‘dunkelflaute‘ spell of low winds and sunshine that have already slashed output from renewables.
Wind speeds are expected to fall again this week, making gas more essential than ever to keep the lights on.
“Many of our weather stations have recorded zero sunshine so far this month,” said a Met Office forecaster. It’s very unusual.”
Worth reading in full.
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INSANITY!
Ruinables.
Unsustainables.
Subsidy farms.
My thought exactly. Insane. Miliband is insane.
I am currently in the process of having solar panels and a back-up battery system installed specifically to give me some independence from what I see as an increasingly unreliable grid supply. Gone are my concerns about visual impact of solar panels and pay back periods, now there is a good practical reason for them.
Add to this the likely increases in electricity prices and the fact that my local council is one of those who has done a deal with an installer to provide this at discounted cost, and it has become a no brainer.
I think, however, that I will pass on heat pumps although depending on my experience with solar I might just install an electric powered CH boiler if my gas one packs in.
Interesting. What capacity battery are you thinking of? And are you at all concerned about a large EV-class battery (if it is that big) inside your home? I realise that it’s far less likely to be involved in a crash in your home than in an EV! Will the installation be auto-switch if the mains supply goes out or an alternative circuit to manually plug appliances/lights into?
I have a (lead-acid) battery-backed circuit just for the gas boiler and fridge which I test occasionally and which should provide a day’s supply to run them. As I said, I test that it works but I’ve never run it for a long duration test. The battery is maintained at near full charge with a diddy solar panel on the shed roof. If it gets used and depleted we’ll recharge it from the mains when the power comes back
We also have a camping gas cooker and wood burner and quite like candles so we have plenty of those. We won’t shiver in the dark unlike some. Of course, if it’s longer than a day then we’ll be in the same boat as everyone else.
See Purpleone’s reply re battery technology (LiFePO4). It is a small unit, roughly 2ft x 1ft x 6in and I am trying a 5kWh unit to start as it can be upgraded easily if needed.
Same here – looking at a 30kwh battery. Lithium iron phosphate have much lower risk of fire than the lithium ion used in phones, scooters etc (question below).
also looking at a log burner – ideally with a back boiler, though that gets complex pretty quick…. May just use for heat backup
My battery/ies only store 7.2 kWh. 3 x 200 Ah @ 12v.
That doesn’t help much when there is no sunlight at all for weeks at a time as the article mentions. You’ll have electricity only when there is an abundance of solar, but there won’t be any shortages then anyway. Seems a bit pointless.
The battery is the key word here I’d imagine. I’ve thought about getting some sort of energy storage along with solar too.
Solar on your roof and a battery is an entirely different thing altogether from solar going into the grid. You will have to do your own sums ofcourse about the payback time, but depending on your age it might not be worth the trouble.
Using solar for the grid though is silly in a country like the UK and battery storage is not currently available and would actually cost 20 times more than the energy itself.
They still generate power, just not as much. My point is that I am looking for continuity of supply when the grid goes off which has nothing to do with cloud levels and more to do with lack of wind.
The grid – here in the UK – is most likely to “go off” in Winter when there is high demand to which intermittent wind power cannot respond, not least because typically an anticyclone settles over this part of the World bringing with it little or no air movement hence no wind power.
In Winter we get low light levels for short periods.
Anyone here reliant on solar for continuity of supply during blackouts, I think will be disappointed.
It is actually very fragile in the summer when demand is low and the level of unreliables is high and inertial generation low. A sudden loss of wind power could bring the grid down.
Be aware that you won’t be able to use the energy stored your battery in a power cut. Unless it is isolated from the grid at significabtly more expense.
Many hybrid inverters now have a backup power connection, or allow full supply backup. Many older grid tied solar inverters didn’t however, and would stop all supply if the grid dropped – for good reason, to protect power line workers. Inverters are not that expensive in the scheme of things, so worth reviewing and replacing if off-grid backup is required (island mode is the correct term I believe)
Will that be enough to charge your EV? Just asking
Interesting how many DS readers are already going down the off-grid route, presumably those of us who live rurally? Log burners and a winter’s supply of wood [hidden from view..], large battery, firepit, barbecue and pizza oven [all wood fired], petrol generator which could handle a week or more of topping up fridges etc, LED lights, and a cupboard full of candles. Even got a pitchfork in case the natives get restless… 🙂
In my experience it’s always been a bit of a rural thing generally – certainly where I’ve lived in the sticks… get a few feet of snow and you need to have a plan – not something your average townie needs to worry about
In my part of the world, we had a scheme where the power generated by the local crematorium was used to heat the local swimming pool. How much power would we generate from the climate change warriors I wonder!
Battle-cry of the Milliedlek: Decarbonise! Decarbonise! Decarbonise!
In this regard, he’s exactly has flexible and creative as the BBC original.
Miliband is a cretinous squirming UN/WEF Parasite. —–But the rest of the Political Class are maybe not so extreme but they are all in on this eco Socialist scam. Remember it was a so called Conservative (Teresa May) tha gave us the Net Zero Amendment back in 2019
I walk down the street and there are people shivering asking me for a few coppers and they look genuinely desperate. Children with no food. I love how they know all of this and yet insist on rubbing your nose in it even further. These are the dicks that you voted for. Enjoy your harvest time your time of plenty. You blamed it all on the chavs and the single mothers and the disabled and you are getting the same treatment now.
You enjoyed your Jeremy Kyle self-congratulatory masturbation and you didn’t even see that this was aimed at you. You thought you were a cut above because you might own a few houses or shops. Now you understand. You are just as contemptible as the disabled person or single mother. You will be shown no less mercy. They laugh at you and the few assets that you accumulated like a good boy.
Makes you wonder why Cadent is replacing all the gas pipes at considerable expense and inconvenience
Some of the old pipework replacement has been done to reduce leakage, and also to introduce the possibility of mixing hydrogen with methane. H will get through any gap. Whether the idea of encouraging the use of hydrogen with all the related expenses is compatible with the abolition of gas fired boilers, I’ll stick on the wall.
Sabotage. Wilful destruction of our energy supply putting our lives and livelihoods at risk.
We need to prosecute our politicians for criminal negligence.
The creator God is laughing at Miliband as we all are.
While they close the efficient combined cycle gas fired power stations, they are actually building less efficient open cycle gas stations. They have rebranded them “rapid response gas power stations”.
New rapid response gas power station approved in Bedfordshire – Drax Global
Laughing all the way to the bank (like they do with their subsidies to burn North American trees in a power station that was originally designed to burn coal).
Meanwhile, the government are proposing a ban on new gas boilers, and a ban on new petrol and diesel cars, in just a few years.
The result of all this is very clearly going to be regular power cuts. People will therefore turn to domestic diesel generators, and our transformation to a third world country will be complete.
Of course diesel generators will make even open cycle gas power stations look efficient.
I remember, in rural Wales, we were dependant on candles, gas and gennies. Then in 1964 the area got mains electricity. Wonderful (apart from occasional power cuts)!
I guess we’re going back to those days.