Home truths about wind and solar power

Large claims about the benefits of the net zero program are not backed by cost/benefit studies while the costs of major projects regularly blow out by factors up to ten in the case of Snowy2.0 and the Orana Far West Renewable Energy Zone.

The benefits are hard to find unless you count the jobs created in the public sector and subsidised industries.

Why wind won't work: The ABC of intermittent energy

ABC is not an acronym, just three things that everyone needs to know.

A: The grid must receive a continuous input to match demand, minute by minute.

B: The continuity of wind and solar input is broken at night when there is no sun and little or no wind.

C: Storage at the scale required to bridge the gaps is not feasible or affordable with current technology.

A chain is only as strong as the weakest link, and the supply of electricity is only as good as the weakest point of supply. In a grid loaded with RE, nights with little or no wind are the weak links.

We are told that Australia has marvellous wind resources, presumably based on average wind velocities, without considering the low points (the weakest links.)

The official meteorologists in the BOM did not issue wind drought warnings and the wind farmers apparently did not check the reliability of the wind supply. That is quite unlike the practice of dirt farmers who will very carefully check the reliability of the water supply including long term rainfall records.

Over a decade ago, Paul Miskelly and Anton Lang, working independently, used the AEMO records of wind power generation to discover prolonged periods, up to three days and nights, with very little generation across south-eastern Australia (the NEM.) Miskelly warned that the system would need 100% backup from a fleet of fast-acting gas turbines.

I would build more modern coal plant and save gas for domestic and industrial use.

Their work on wind droughts was discussed on Jo Nova's blog, The Energy Realists of Australia took it up and passed on the word to politicians and journalists, apparently to no effect.