{"id":278195,"date":"2023-09-11T10:20:41","date_gmt":"2023-09-11T08:20:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=278195"},"modified":"2023-09-11T10:21:51","modified_gmt":"2023-09-11T08:21:51","slug":"electricity-from-wind-isnt-cheap-and-it-never-will-be","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=278195","title":{"rendered":"Electricity from wind isn\u2019t cheap and it never will\u00a0be"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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

From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Paul Homewood<\/p>\n\n\n\n

h\/t Ian Cunningham<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the Telegraph:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The MPs who have forced Rishi Sunak into a <\/em>U-turn on onshore wind power<\/em><\/a> love to repeat the favourite slogan of the wind industry: \u201cwind is cheap\u201d. \u201cCheap, clean, secure,\u201d says Sir Alok Sharma. \u201cCheap,\u201d cheeps Ed Miliband.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It conceals the truth. Electricity from wind <\/em>is not cheap and never will be<\/em><\/a>. The latest auction of rights to build offshore wind farms failed to attract any bids, despite offering higher subsidised prices. That alone indicates that wind is not cheap or getting cheaper.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the real reason for the lack of interest in the auction is that, for the first time, bidders are not free to walk away from their bids when it suits them. In the past, they could put in low offers, boast about them being cheap, then take the higher market price later. The Government has at last called their bluff, so they are having to admit that electricity prices need to be higher to make wind farms pay.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The <\/em>cost of subsidising wind<\/em><\/a> is vast. Then add the cost of getting the power from remote wind farms to where people live. And the cost of balancing the grid and backing wind up with gas plants for the times when the wind drops. And the cost of paying wind farms to reduce output on windy days when the grid can\u2019t take it.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If wind power is so cheap, how come energy bills have risen in step with the amount of installed wind power? Says the energy expert John Constable: \u201cWe had a huge amount of wind\u2026 and it not only did absolutely nothing to protect against the recent gas crisis: it actually made it worse, because the UK\u2019s security of supply now hangs by the single thread of gas, as the sole thermodynamically competent fuel in the system, coal being near absent and nuclear a small fraction.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yet <\/em>the wind industry<\/em><\/a> is complaining that today\u2019s high electricity prices are not high enough, and without more subsidies they will stop building: \u201cThe race to the bottom on strike prices incentivised by the current auction process is at odds with the reality of project costs and investment needs, jeopardising deployment targets,\u201d said RenewableUK recently. How does that square with claims it is cheap?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The wind industry\u2019s capital costs were very high before the Ukraine crisis, and now, like everybody else\u2019s, are shooting up still further: the cost of steel, concrete, carbon fibre, copper and all the other ingredients of a wind turbine have risen sharply. Operating costs are rising. Inevitably, <\/em>the energy generated by wind is expensive<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, as Constable suggests, wind itself is thermodynamically inferior. Consequently, it takes a huge machine \u2013 the building of which requires a lot of energy \u2013 to extract a small amount of electricity from randomly fluctuating, low-density wind, which bloweth as and when it listeth. By contrast, in a nuclear plant, it takes a small machine to produce a flood of energy from a dense, \u201cthermodynamically competent\u201d energy source, and on demand.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The man and woman in the street understand this intuitively. Politicians not at all. Here is a simple analogy to help them. Electricity, like coffee, is only any good if you can buy it when you feel like it. If I set up a chain of coffee shops and sell coffee no better than Costa\u2019s, but I make hundreds of excess cups one morning and none at all the next, from a facility that towers hundreds of feet into the sky, ruins views, slaughters birdlife and requires government subsidies, I suspect the customer would prefer Costa. But in our benighted electricity market, you are forced to buy my coffee except on the days when I produce none, when you are allowed to go to Costa \u2013 which has put its prices up to compensate for my existence.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, no, wind power is not cheap or secure. Nor is it clean. The mining of minerals and pouring of concrete that is required for a wind farm have a huge pollution impact and a massive carbon footprint. Voters know wind farms are a futile gesture and they will now punish the Tories accordingly.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/news\/2023\/09\/10\/electricity-from-wind-isnt-cheap-and-it-never-will-be\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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

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

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So, no, wind power is not cheap or secure. Nor is it clean. The mining of minerals and pouring of concrete that is required for a wind farm have a huge pollution impact and a massive carbon footprint. Voters know wind farms are a futile gesture and they will now punish the Tories accordingly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":278198,"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_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},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691818076,691818656,691822491,691822489,691822490,691820014],"class_list":{"0":"post-278195","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-co2","9":"tag-electricity","10":"tag-expensive-wind","11":"tag-not-cheap","12":"tag-not-clean","13":"tag-wind-power-costs","15":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/0skynews-offshore-wind-turbine_6277996-1.jpg?fit=1600%2C900&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1an1","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":261609,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=261609","url_meta":{"origin":278195,"position":0},"title":"Electricity Prices \u2013 vs. \u2013 Wind\u00a0Penetration","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"11\/06\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"As we all know by now, wind is the cheapest form of electricity. There are many proofs of this \u2013 as an example, three years ago, the Good News Network was telling us how wind farms were soon even going to be paying negative subsidies.","rel":"","context":"In \"electricity prices\"","block_context":{"text":"electricity prices","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=electricity-prices"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/014-222-dd_Home_1772x1417.jpg?fit=1200%2C1063&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/014-222-dd_Home_1772x1417.jpg?fit=1200%2C1063&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/014-222-dd_Home_1772x1417.jpg?fit=1200%2C1063&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/014-222-dd_Home_1772x1417.jpg?fit=1200%2C1063&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/014-222-dd_Home_1772x1417.jpg?fit=1200%2C1063&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":231874,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=231874","url_meta":{"origin":278195,"position":1},"title":"Busting The Big Lie: Vesta\u2019s CEO Admits Wind Power Ain\u2019t Cheap & Never Will Be","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"01\/12\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"As big lies go, the claim that wind power is cheap was a whopper that was bound to come a cropper. What wasn\u2019t expected is that one of the world\u2019s biggest profiteers from the great wind power fraud, Danish turbine maker Vestas would be the one to lift the lid.","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-3.png?fit=1200%2C893&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/image-3.png?fit=1200%2C893&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/image-3.png?fit=1200%2C893&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/image-3.png?fit=1200%2C893&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/image-3.png?fit=1200%2C893&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":264134,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=264134","url_meta":{"origin":278195,"position":2},"title":"No Accounting For True Cost of Wind Industry\u2019s Environmental\u00a0Havoc","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"27\/06\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"There\u2019s nothing even vaguely \u2018clean\u2019 or \u2018green\u2019 about wind power. An industry built on lies and running on subsidies can\u2019t produce power as and when we need it, but is a master at producing environmental havoc at a global scale.","rel":"","context":"In \"Climate change\"","block_context":{"text":"Climate change","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=climate-change"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/00data63828716-aef3ba.jpg?fit=1200%2C899&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/00data63828716-aef3ba.jpg?fit=1200%2C899&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/00data63828716-aef3ba.jpg?fit=1200%2C899&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/00data63828716-aef3ba.jpg?fit=1200%2C899&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/00data63828716-aef3ba.jpg?fit=1200%2C899&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":421823,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=421823","url_meta":{"origin":278195,"position":3},"title":"Conservative Environment Network Want More\u00a0Renewables","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"17\/01\/2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Following Kemi Badenoch\u2019s pledge to abolish Net Zero, I questioned whether the wets in her party would let her get away with it. 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\u2013 who could guarantee to supply power on the chilly, windless evening of 29 November shot up briefly to about \u00a31,100 per megawatt-hour (MWh), more than ten times the normal rate.","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-33.png?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/image-33.png?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/image-33.png?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/image-33.png?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/image-33.png?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/121246920"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=278195"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278195\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":278202,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278195\/revisions\/278202"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/278198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=278195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=278195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=278195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}