The Murderous Nature of Alternative Energy

“There is no Such Thing as a 

Wealthy Society with a Weak Electrical Grid.”

[This post is updated and bumped to the top]

February's electrical catastrophe in Texas, caused by a combination of the failure of wind energy and human error, is serving as a wakeup call that our grid is weakening by the month as more and more wind energy is installed. 

Snow and single digits in Wichita,
February, 2021

From September 8th's Wall Street Journal,

Blackouts are deadly and create costly drags on the economy. Bad policies and lack of oversight contributed to the February blackouts in Texas. The final tally: about $200 billion in damage and some 700 people dead from hypothermia, carbon monoxide poisoning and other causes. In California—a state that is hemorrhaging residents—blackouts have become a near-daily event. 

Generac says in a recent investor presentation that power outage severity is “increasing significantly.” Between 2000 and 2020, the number of what the Energy Department calls “major electric disturbances and unusual occurrences” jumped 13-fold.

Of course, Generac is the company that makes most of our nation's home generators and uninterrupted power supply (UPS) units. They report skyrocketing sales. 

Later, the WSJ article goes on to state,

Three things are weakening the grid. One is the rush to add renewable energy sources such as wind and solar, which depend on amenable weather to function. Second, over the past few years, numerous coal and nuclear plants that provide baseload power and help keep the grid stable have closed. Third, regional transmission organizations such as Ercot in Texas and Caiso in California are mismanaging the system. They are not providing enough incentives to ensure reliability such as providing payments to generators that have on-site fuel storage.

Renewable energy promoters don’t want to admit that wind and solar are undermining the grid. But the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, a nonprofit trade group, said in a report last month that “changing resource mix” is the most urgent challenge for reliability. The group says America’s electric generation capacity “is increasingly characterized as one that is sensitive to extreme, widespread, and long duration temperatures as well as wind and solar droughts.” [emphasis mine]

I wish to provide one last excerpt from the article (which I urge you to read in its entirety; just click on the maroon link, above),

In addition, activists are demanding more reliance on renewables and “electrifying everything,” including industry and transportation. Yet the grid is struggling even under existing loads. 

Trying to electrify everything would be a disaster, especially for low-income consumers. Poor folks tend to live in homes that aren’t as efficient or sturdy as those occupied by the wealthy. They are more likely to suffer, or even die, during blackouts or extreme weather. They can’t afford generators or backup battery systems...

A retired vice president of a major electric utility posted this on LinkedIn during the February disaster.

[addition the evening of Sept. 13]

If you have any doubt that wind energy is a disaster, take a look at this reporting from this evening.

As in Texas in February, there is no doubt people will perish in Europe this winter due to energy unavailability and/or high cost. For the latter, look at the prices on the graph below. Wind energy is causing an inexorable increase in the cost of electricity in Europe and the United States. The poor suffer the most.

End of addition

The reason Big Climate hates nuclear is perverse: with nuclear, we don't need windmills and solar. When they are aren't acting against the interests of 99% of the population (reliable, affordable energy), they engage in "magical thinking" -- that, regardless of the laws of physics pertaining to electrical generation and meteorology (that winds are usually calm when it is extremely hot and extremely cold), -- somehow all of this will work out okay. If we continue to install wind energy, it certainly will not. 

It is incredible to me that politicians and bureaucrats seem to believe they push a button and the sun will come out or that wind speeds will be between 6 and 26 mph (wind turbines must be shut down when there is too much wind). What are we supposed to do on a day with record cold, calm winds, and thick overcast?? 

Another problem with solar and wind is that they rely on slave labor from China. That is both immoral and dangerous to our national security. It is the moral equivalent to have imported parts made by the occupants of Auschwitz.

The United States needs an immediate moratorium on further installation of wind and solar and it needs a crash program to install nuclear. We already have the templates: the identical nuclear power plants at Wolf Creek and Callaway have hummed along for 30+ years without a hiccup. Now that we have transmission lines in the middle of nowhere (photo above) thanks to wind energy, nuclear plants can be located in remote areas, as well.

Last month's report from the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concedes that global warming is less dangerous than first thought. The extreme effects thought possible twenty years ago (The Day After Tomorrow) won't happen. While it is possible the warmer climate that, worldwide, brings us record food supplies and prosperity (the latter measured before COVID) added some to the flooding associated with Hurricane Ida, the other aspects of storms are improving. 

Did you know there are locations where hydroelectric energy were approved but stopped by politicians like Governor Jerry Brown? Given the severe drought conditions in the Golden State, I have no doubt they wish they had that water storage now, not to mention the electricity they would have produced.

[Warren] Buffet told an audience in Omaha, Nebraska recently. "For example, on wind energy, we get a tax credit if we build a lot of wind farms. That's the only reason to build them. They don't make sense without the tax credit."

Of course, I have been focusing on the adverse effects on humans caused by alternative energy. I haven't mentioned all of the endangered birds killed by wind turbines. 

Conclusion: After a rough first eight months, the best thing President Biden could do would be to stop the tax credits and other federal support for alternative energy and ramp up hydro and nuclear as quickly as possible. If he will not change course, then the Republicans need to grow a political spine and get this done.