{"id":190840,"date":"2022-03-09T09:52:55","date_gmt":"2022-03-09T08:52:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=190840"},"modified":"2022-03-09T09:52:56","modified_gmt":"2022-03-09T08:52:56","slug":"europes-insatiable-demand-for-gas-driven-by-total-wind-power-output-collapses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=190840","title":{"rendered":"Europe\u2019s Insatiable Demand for Gas Driven by Total Wind Power Output Collapses"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gas producers love wind power because of its hopeless intermittency, which drives demand for gas and raises prices across the board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No better example has been Europe\u2019s months-long wind drought, when wind power output was little more than pitiful and the demand for gas, accordingly, went through the roof.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Craig Mackinlay explains the relationship below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Green energy cannot save us<\/strong>
The Critic
Craig Mackinlay
10 February 2022<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amid the furore surrounding \u201cbirthdaycakegate\u201d, \u201ccheeseandwinegate\u201d and \u201cproseccogate\u201d, which could still derail the premiership of Boris Johnson, the risks in Ukraine are looming large and the certainty of a cost of living crisis lies dead ahead. The government must deal with it. To restore trust with the wider public and the new voters who, perhaps for the first time voted Conservative in 2019, Boris Johnson has to show that he is the one with the solutions to the problems Britain is facing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While inflation is soaring across the board, rising fastest of all is the cost of energy. Energy is an area where the Government has intervened repeatedly to exacerbate this crisis. It would take extreme propaganda to blame free markets and low taxes when we have had extensive state planning, high taxes, subsidies and misleading claims about the costs of renewables. Only by solving the energy crisis can the government\u2019s economic agenda be revived, not least given the state of out pandemic finances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have heard this crisis shows we need to move more quickly away from gas (though habitually from people who would have said this whatever else was happening in the world). That may be a solution for decades ahead once technology evolves, but the problem we have is now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Natural gas is used by the overwhelming majority to heat their homes, and it is the dominant single power source providing electricity to the National Grid. By sharply reducing domestic production and storage way ahead of the marginal reduction in our gas use<\/a>, we have simply paved the way to increased imports and inadvertently assisted in the financing of Putin\u2019s war machine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This attitude also displays a certain complacency. Are people facing eye-watering bill increases supposed to wait until we have an economy that isn\u2019t overwhelmingly powered by fossil fuels?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Far from protecting us from price rises, the present obsession with renewables has made the current crisis much worse. If you look at when wind and natural gas are supplying power to the grid, you see that when wind conditions are poor, gas ramps up to make up the difference. This winter, the predictable coincidence of both poor wind conditions and high natural gas prices has caught us out time and again. Wind has offered next-to-no protection. It is neither kind nor responsible politics to leave the most vulnerable the least well-protected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The determination to push through Net Zero policies without adequate consideration of their implications could do even more damage to the Government than Partygate. Thankfully, there are solutions to our energy woes staring us right in the face. And they\u2019re real, unlike the hysterical conspiracy theories<\/a> supporters of the government\u2019s ruinously costly energy policies tend to spout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oxford energy professor Dieter Helm was commissioned by the Government to do a \u201cCost of Energy Review\u201d, published in 2017. In it, he attacked successive governments for ignoring the problem of intermittency and creating a complex web of overlapping policy interventions that led to bloated costs. He offered solutions such as the creation of \u201cEquivalent Firm Power\u201d auctions, that would have given renewable generators a strong incentive to invest in back-up and storage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Helm\u2019s recommendations were shouted down by the industries that had most to lose from their implementation. The proposals would have brought an end to the high prices being charged for network services and forced renewable generators to manage the grid instability that they were responsible for. Regrettably, the Government were unable to recognise these vested interests for what they were, and ignored their own report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As my colleagues and I made clear in our letter to The Sunday Telegraph<\/a>, consumers will need urgent relief from spiralling prices. Relief from VAT and from the cost of environmental levies, which now make up close to 25 per cent of electricity bills, will cushion the blow, but we have to deal with the market fundamentals to get bills down for good else face impoverished families and the final closure of remaining high energy intensive industries as production, jobs and the positive tax-take simply relocates abroad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We must be able to use our own natural gas supplies, which are right under our feet as well as out to sea. Using our own gas will bring investment, jobs, a good helping of taxes and reduce emissions compared to imported gas, which often comes with geopolitical strings attached. To say that we ought not to try because it might not make that much of a difference to prices is utterly defeatist, neglecting the experience of the USA. It\u2019s for businesses to experiment in the marketplace and not for the government to arbitrarily cancel industries and manage prices based on a hunch that may prove to be wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The electricity market must be reformed, unravelling the unnecessary complexity of many layers of intervention, and bringing market forces to bear on prices. It is only by properly incentivising the provision of reliable power that we can hope to meet the changing energy needs of the future at an affordable price while maintaining security of supply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Historically Conservatives at heart understood these principles well \u2014 that cheaper energy benefits the economy at every level. Or we did. But today\u2019s Government seems unable to look beyond the green groupthink that pervades Whitehall. Getting this government back on track is going to require reliable power: we\u2019re a long way from that..
The Critic<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Affordable energy offender and his accomplices.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

via STOP THESE THINGS<\/mark><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

March 9, 2022,\u00a0by\u00a0stopthesethings<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nEurope\u2019s Insatiable Demand for Gas Driven by Total Wind Power Output Collapses<\/a>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gas producers love wind power because of its hopeless intermittency, which drives demand for gas and raises prices across the board. No better example has been Europe\u2019s months-long wind drought, when wind power output was little more than pitiful and the demand for gas, accordingly, went through the roof. Craig Mackinlay explains the relationship below. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-190840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","has-post-thumbnail","fallback-thumbnail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-NE4","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":253423,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=253423","url_meta":{"origin":190840,"position":0},"title":"European Energy Suffering, Now Hydro and Nuclear","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"17\/04\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Last year, Europe was on the brink of an energy breakdown\u00a0as Russian gas flows dried up and most of Europe doubled down on renewable energy.","rel":"","context":"In \"hydropower\"","block_context":{"text":"hydropower","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=hydropower"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/0eat-or-heat-image-1400x700-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C600&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/0eat-or-heat-image-1400x700-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C600&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/0eat-or-heat-image-1400x700-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C600&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/0eat-or-heat-image-1400x700-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C600&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/0eat-or-heat-image-1400x700-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C600&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":235570,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=235570","url_meta":{"origin":190840,"position":1},"title":"UK will be scrambling for gas when the wind doesn\u2019t blow, warns expert","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"22\/12\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"The UK will be scrambling for highly expensive gas imports to meet its energy needs this winter to stave off blackouts whenever the wind doesn\u2019t blow, warned a leading energy expert.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/image-692.png?fit=1200%2C1026&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/image-692.png?fit=1200%2C1026&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/image-692.png?fit=1200%2C1026&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/image-692.png?fit=1200%2C1026&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/image-692.png?fit=1200%2C1026&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":418074,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=418074","url_meta":{"origin":190840,"position":2},"title":"Europe\u2019s \u2018Green\u2019 Emperor Is Naked and Cold","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"21\/12\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Europe stands as the self-proclaimed cathedral of the \u201cgreen\u201d transition. Bureaucrats in Brussels and politicians in Berlin have spent decades lecturing the world on the moral necessity to abandon hydrocarbons. 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