Solar - An Undependable Energy Source Saved By Coal Powered Electric Generation, Again
Posted by freedomforall 3 years, 10 months ago to Technology
"Saturday week ago in Queensland was cold enough to break records. Brisbane “only” made it up to 17.9C (64F). It hasn’t been that cold there in May for 40 years. At the same time a band of cloud covered the populated slice of the state.
The cloud cover meant all the large solar “farms” in Queensland — with a total rated capacity of 1.7GW — produced only 79MW as an aggregate average daily output.
Sunshine State forgets its own branding on Saturday 23rd May 2020
Averaged across the 24 hours in the day yesterday, average aggregate output across all of the Large Solar plant in QLD was a very meagre 79MW only:
1a) Dividing this by an aggregate 1,664MW installed capacity* across the Large Solar plant in QLD this represents a capacity factor the day of just 4.7%
Not surprisingly the same clouds that ruined the large solar farms also wrecked the rooftop solar."
"Queenslanders used 17% more electricity that day than the Saturday a week earlier. It was cold (for Queenslanders) so power use went up at the same time as clouds cut the states main generator.
Coal was, of course, what saved Queensland." (See attached chart)
The cloud cover meant all the large solar “farms” in Queensland — with a total rated capacity of 1.7GW — produced only 79MW as an aggregate average daily output.
Sunshine State forgets its own branding on Saturday 23rd May 2020
Averaged across the 24 hours in the day yesterday, average aggregate output across all of the Large Solar plant in QLD was a very meagre 79MW only:
1a) Dividing this by an aggregate 1,664MW installed capacity* across the Large Solar plant in QLD this represents a capacity factor the day of just 4.7%
Not surprisingly the same clouds that ruined the large solar farms also wrecked the rooftop solar."
"Queenslanders used 17% more electricity that day than the Saturday a week earlier. It was cold (for Queenslanders) so power use went up at the same time as clouds cut the states main generator.
Coal was, of course, what saved Queensland." (See attached chart)
A weak and unreliable electricity generation system degrades state and national energy systems, undermines the national economy, and thence institutions and sovereignty.
There are other issues here, such as coal, coal powered generation, emission control, and the economic life of power stations. These are technical matters.
At the heart of the matter are questions, do we want:
-electrical power or do we want to shiver in the dark?
-to use our vast resource of local energy or buy ineffective windmills from China with money we don't have?
Well, most Australians are convinced that Obama was God's gift to mankind although Obama (allied with many other wealthy statists in positions of power in the West) tried to destroy the coal fed power of the world that keeps the lights on.
America has been buying overpriced gadgets from China with money we don't have for a generation and look at the result.
C'mon, Australia, follow Obama, the Bush(s), and the Clinton's lead and destroy your economy. Join the serfs of the Western world.
they want renewable (unreliable) power generation,
there has to be back up from reliable sources, that is coal/oil/gas.
But they cannot even listen, so proper power stations are dismantled or blown up, so when the wind is slow, on cloudless days, and nights, the solar power is zero, chaos.
Big profit for owners of diesel generators which are designated as 'honorary' renewables.
That scenario combined with overcast days that don't want to be windy.
Oh, what's a Dumbocrat environmentalist to do?
I also see home solar as virtue signalling.
Virtue Signaling (verb): A toddler's way of mouthing variants of "I Care" and "I'm better than you."
What's more -- the power production graphs are disingenuous ... if you were to "zoom in" on the actual data, you would see that solar power oscillates on a daily basis (no power at night) -- and that would bring into focus the fact that solar has known phases where it is impotent.
Queensland has relatively new coal stations and masses of top quality coal.
Two years ago there was a scheme similar to rhfinle's suggestion. It proposed using wind and solar (the renewable unreliables) to pump water up as part of an enlargement of the big Snowy Hydro Scheme. On paper a candidate for proper analysis. I got hold of the feasibility study, there was one chapter withheld (commercial in confidence or some such), the financial analysis. It has never been released, the only reason has to be that it is nowhere near break-even.
The obvious candidate, building a new coal station is not politically acceptable. So instead there are unreliables backed up with diesel.