Wind Power Down To 3% In Past Week
By Paul Homewood
It won’t have escaped your attention that the weather has been dry,sunny and settled during the past week As a result, wind power has been negligible, averaging 1.01GW, or 3% of total demand:
Effectively this means that wind farms are only running at about 5% of their capacity.
Meanwhile, gas has provided 53.7%, with another 3.5% from coal.
The situation has been similar in Germany, with wind power nearly drying up for four days, and over the week averaging only 9% of total generation.
Their grid was only kept going with coal and gas, 41% and 12% respectively.
Germany does have more solar capacity, which contributed 16% of the total, but this is only really useful for about three hours a day, around noon, rather than early morning or evening when demand peaks.
http://energodock.com/germany/electricity-generation
It is also worth pointing out that in the middle of winter solar power only supplied 2% of total generation:
As with the UK, electricity only accounts for a small proportion of total energy consumption, about a sixth.
In terms of primary energy consumption, wind only makes up 8%, with solar another 4%.
https://ourworldindata.org/energy/country/germany?country=~DEU
It is abundantly clear that we cannot rely on importing power from Europe in our Net Zero future, as they will be as badly off as us.
Comments are closed.
NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
But,But we will be the Saudi Arabia of wind ,says the useless Pig dictator so dont worry !!!
We don’t have dictators in the UK.
No we just have a uniparty. Two cheeks of the same arse. No actual choice.
And we most certainly don’t have democracy.
This is March – month of equinoctial gales – not the Christmas nor the midsummer high . What is going on? Did I hear the BBC making a story about this?
At 10:00 am yesterday our 27GW was generating just 0.15GW, i.e. 0.5% capacity factor
Its been noticeable all week that import availability is reduced as a result of this. Even the Norway i/c which was run up to close to full capacity a few weeks back has been running at 50% of its rating and they’ve dropped back export flows to N.Europe as well as reservoir levels continue to drop. Gas is taking up the slack again but its only sustainable at this level if an LNG carrier rocks up every 4-5 days. We are also exporting gas to Europe as well which is highly unusual presumably in attempt to reduce demand from Russia. Its very evident that the last few coal plants MUST be retained for the foreseeable future although whether they have much life left in them given the owners have been expecting them to be pulled from the system may make that impossible.
Still see that nothing less that system collapse is going to get people to wake up and really challenge the politicians about what is really happening although even BoJos Energy Security paper is being pushed back on a weekly basis. Im sure he would rather see a Ukraine ceasefire so some sense of normality returns so they can avoid having to confront this.
I suggest that it might be a good thing that these monuments to government folly are all standing almost stationary, advertising their uselessness to everyone. You don’t need to come here to get the actual numbers, it is obvious even to non sceptics that the things aren’t working.
Would that you were right, Stonyground, but surely you know that “there are none so blind as those who will not see” and its famous Yorkshire follow-up, “and none as thick as them as wants to be!”
They work just fine. The cash goes to the ‘right’ people. Generating power is not the plan.
Don’t forget that slow turning wind turbines are likely consuming power, not generating it.
As the vast majority of conservative, labour, liberal or SNP politicians will tell you, the problem with the current dearth of ‘renewable’ weather dependent energy sources can only be solved by vastly increasing our reliance on even more weather dependent energy sources. And there, ladies and gents, lies the incontrovertible proof that the lunatics have well and truly taken over the asylum.
All huffing and puffing to keep the wind going?
Unless national grid managers are clueless they must know heavy reliance on renewables can’t possibly work all the time, or even most of the time. But who wants to be the bringer of bad news to their ultimate bosses, the government?
National Grid (with Ofgem in its pocket) gets income from every tiny generator via cables and controls, hardly surprising that they push the “green” agenda.
No gas or coal for the masses. Only cold in the winter and heat in the summer. They’re walking it backwards. And we’ll still have to pay for…nothing??
“averaging 1.01GW, or 3% of total demand”: demand for what?
Recently, during the period of strong winds, turbines provided about 40% of the electricity for a couple of days: then 3%.
What happens when there is no longer sufficent back up because those providers have been forced out of business.
This mess is the result of over 20 years of EU and UK energy policy by bureaucrats and politicians who have been deliberately destroying our electricity systems. Either that or it is 20 years of collective stupidity and ignorance. Take your pick. It is truly amazing that power experts have been totally ignored for over 20 years – and they are still being ignored by the government as the impending disaster gets nearer by the day.
” This mess is the result of over 20 years of EU and UK energy policy by bureaucrats and politicians who have been deliberately destroying our electricity systems ”
It’s nearer 40 years, including the failure to build coal-fired power stations after DRAX (early 1980s) and the failure to build PWR nuclear power stations after Sizewell B (mid-1990s)
Latest renewable nonsense…
England faces being carpeted with solar panels in net zero push
The proposals –which are likely to focus heavily on the South of England, where solar radiation is higher – risk sparking a wave of public resistance and are already concerning Tory MPs.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/03/29/england-faces-carpeted-solar-panels-net-zero-push/
. . .
They would be of little use in winter when power demand is highest, but could be handy at midday in summer if the weather’s nice 🙄
Solar farms now come with batteries, not for long term storage, but for the highly lucrative grid stability business. Big Green perpetuates the myth that batteries can be used to overcome the intermittency problem with renewables.
Boris’s Buffoons just don’t get it. No matter how many Gigawatts of wind powered electricity is installed, if the wind does not blow, none of them produce electricity. Time he and his motley crew started thinking for themselves instead of letting “Carrie Antoinette” dictate energy policy
And today there is the announcement of a plan to have local energy costs relating to the generation available nearby. I guess they had to get this out before Friday or else nobody would think they were serious.
Those of us with many decades on the scoreboard will recall that this is how much of the generation used to be. Those around London will recall Wandsworth, Battersea, Croydon, Lots Road underground, Bankside. Battersea is coming to the end of redevelopment, Lots Road in progress, Bankside an art gallery, Croydon two chimneys with IKEA colours on them, Wandsworth I know not. But with the wind insanity, the generation is miles from where any great amount of people live or work.
This article may interest you. If only we had the foresight to keep these sorts of things open.
https://web.archive.org/web/20150401144846/https://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/01/us-britain-electricity-oil-kemp-idUSKBN0MR2B520150401
Thanks for the interesting link Mr Sanders.
The City of London Corporation – as of tomorrow my former employer – is working to relocate all of the London markets, which even though bar Smithfield are all outside the City the corporation still run, to a site by the river near Dartford. This used to be a gas fuelled power station that has closed down.
Paul Homewood, you are indispensable! Thanks so much!