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What is the point of these bl**dy contraptions?


Harnser

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What is the point in these bl**dy contraptions? Apart from making a lot of money for their operators, while the electricity customer gets large increases in their electricity costs.

I wonder if it works that way in France?

"Wind farms have been paid to refrain from producing up to half of the electricity they are capable of generating, according to research that led MPs to warn that "inappropriate" decisions on wind power were "forcing excess costs onto consumers".

An analysis found that, in 2020, three large wind farms in Scotland were paid a total of £24.5 million to fail to produce about half of their potential output.

Researchers said the "constraint payments", which are ultimately added to consumer bills, were being fuelled by a high concentration of onshore wind farms in Scotland often leaving the electricity grid unable to cope on windy days.

In one case, £7.7 million in "constraint payments"  handed to the operator of a 23-turbine scheme in Scotland in 2020 led to the wind farm deliberately failing to produce 51 per cent of its potential output. In another, SSE, the operator of the 33-turbine Strathy North wind farm in the Highlands, was paid £5.9 million to avoid producing 48 per cent of its capacity.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/02/19/wind-farms-paid-not-generate-half-potential-electricity/

 

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15 hours ago, Harnser said:

What is the point in these bl**dy contraptions? Apart from making a lot of money for their operators, while the electricity customer gets large increases in their electricity costs.

I wonder if it works that way in France?

"Wind farms have been paid to refrain from producing up to half of the electricity they are capable of generating, according to research that led MPs to warn that "inappropriate" decisions on wind power were "forcing excess costs onto consumers".

An analysis found that, in 2020, three large wind farms in Scotland were paid a total of £24.5 million to fail to produce about half of their potential output.

Researchers said the "constraint payments", which are ultimately added to consumer bills, were being fuelled by a high concentration of onshore wind farms in Scotland often leaving the electricity grid unable to cope on windy days.

In one case, £7.7 million in "constraint payments"  handed to the operator of a 23-turbine scheme in Scotland in 2020 led to the wind farm deliberately failing to produce 51 per cent of its potential output. In another, SSE, the operator of the 33-turbine Strathy North wind farm in the Highlands, was paid £5.9 million to avoid producing 48 per cent of its capacity.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/02/19/wind-farms-paid-not-generate-half-potential-electricity/

 

It has been going on for many years and it should be scandalous but it really comes down to the 'green' agenda again and what the public want!!! The public want 'green' electricity and of course the politicians pander to that but without detailing the cost. I believe there is a gradual awareness regarding as to where electricity is (or will be) coming from and its cost. Electric cars, heat pumps and just about anything else all run on electricity; just one problem; Where does it all come from? More and more information is becoming available regarding the pollution produced by 'all things' electric and probably more pertinent, the cost! Windmills being a case in point. In another post Nuclear has already been discussed but for me Nuclear is the only answer to sustainable  electricity, expensive though it is. Maybe 'all things' electric' will arrive one day but I wouldn't mind betting that it won't be via windmills and photoelectric cells or any of the other crackpot schemes!

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I was involved in our last village here in France over the installation of a methane electricity power plant.  It used mostly cow and pig manure, old biscuits and stomachs  of animals from the local abattoir.  One of its constraints was that it ran 24/24, 7/7, 365/365 to get the best price of electricity from the state.  We were told that other "green" non-constant power producers were a problem for the grid in managing them.  If you have a power station you know how much it is producing.  When the wind drops or a cloud covers the sun, then the green power drops and you have to top it up from somewhere else, which is not easy to manage.

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4 hours ago, Teapot1 said:

Don't blame a technology for the miss-management by the human part of the equation.

UK currently running on 50% wind power, 15% nuclear, 15% gas + others making up the difference.

Whether you like it or not decarbonisation of energy is happening. 

I notice that you didn't quote the power generation source %ages for when the wind speed is close to zero!

Whether you like it or not, "decarbonisation" is a green activist's fairy tale.

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Sorry I thought I made it clear on a previous post, the national grid.

Don't blame a technology for the miss-management by the human part of the equation.

UK currently running on 50% wind power, 15% nuclear, 15% gas + others making up the difference.

Whether you like it or not decarbonisation of energy is happening. 

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15 hours ago, Teapot1 said:

45% wind, 17% nuclear, 12% gas this morning, source National Grid

I thought I had made it clear that whatever power figure the windmills make, there is an equivalent base load generator fleet running in the background on light load, burning fuel, keeping hot,  to take up the load when the wind craps out.

Part of the decarbonsation my a*se!

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I think you'll find that is how You started the topic, in the UK ......

I can't comment wheather French turbines are sighted in the best places for electricity generation but you can't condemn a technology that consistently produces clean non polluting, low emission power.

54% wind power this morning.

Screenshot_20220227-062839.png

Edited by Teapot1
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  • 3 weeks later...

It would be really nice of someone to post similar info about France don't you think?

The thread was kicked off about UK, all I did was post actual readings to show wind does work as do other green renewables. Plenty of wind turbines across France, how well are they doing and other renewables?

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1 hour ago, Teapot1 said:

It would be really nice of someone to post similar info about France don't you think?

The thread was kicked off about UK, all I did was post actual readings to show wind does work as do other green renewables. Plenty of wind turbines across France, how well are they doing and other renewables?

The previous pot of yours crowing about how much free electricity the windmills are making is in doubt.

They are currently making 1.07 GW not 86 GW

https://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/

The same website has the information about France.

The aeolians francais are making 1.56 GW

The nukes plus hydro are making 45.32  GW

https://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/france/

Windmills - useless contraptions.

 

 

 

 

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