From KlimaNachrichten

By KlimaNachrichten Editor

Readers of this blog already knew it on 17.12. 2024.Dark doldrums are anything but a myth, even if people like Claudia Kemfert express themselves quite differently about it. She considered the dark doldrums to be scandalous and claimed that there were enough storage facilities.

Well, dark doldrums are commonplace, we have shown it on the basis of data in the article. They are not a scandal either, how could something natural be a scandal?

The German Weather Service has now followed up with an analysis that comes to the same conclusion as we did here before. There have always been these phases and there is no tendency to foresee that they will become more or less. So much for the myth of dark doldrums.

In the first half of November 2024, a phase of low wind speeds occurred in Germany, resulting in a phase of low electricity generation from wind energy. This was particularly pronounced on 6.11.2024, which was also characterized by below-average irradiation conditions. Due to the effects on the energy market, the low-wind phase was often discussed in the media and discussed under the keyword “dark doldrums”.

Earlier studies by the German Weather Service have already shown that the risk of such a situation exists especially when there is a general weather situation “High Central Europe”. This general weather situation was also present on the windless days at the beginning of November. Consistent with the earlier investigations, the situation also occurred in this “High Central Europe” that there were above-average wind conditions in other regions of Europe – especially in parts of Scandinavia – which was also visible in the region’s electricity generation data.

Due to the clear effects on electricity generation, the question arises as to whether there is a discernible tendency to change the occurrence of these weather patterns in the context of advancing climate change. For the general weather situation “High Central Europe”, however, the evaluations for the past decades show neither an increase in the number of days nor the maximum duration in the winter half-year. 

Rather, a scandal is the downplaying of the fact that the electricity system in Europe is so sensitive that it can reach prices from almost 1,000 euros MWh to almost zero within a few days. And it is also scandalous that German neighboring countries are seriously thinking about no longer supplying us with electricity in such times, because they are being swept up in the price maelstrom.

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The third unit of the Flamanville nuclear power plant has gone into operation.

The reactor is to deliver 1600 megawatts from the summer. The German anti-nuclear scene never tires of mentioning the long construction period and the costs. Unfortunately, it is forgotten that such reliable sources of electricity are urgently needed when there is no wind, or the sun is not shining in Germany.
So, we should be grateful to the French, the opposite is happening.
By the way, the electricity from Flamanville has a huge difference to former German electricity from nuclear energy: it does not clog the grids. The French are somehow better at that than the Germans.