Germany Will Need 1,000 Wind Turbines To Replace This Workhorse Nuke Plant:
Replacing Grohnde will not likely come from gas generation since so much gas generation is being intentionally lost. Instead, it will likely come from building several thousand new wind turbines at a cost of at least $12 billion, not including back-up capacity which is likely to come from brown coal.
European utilities have been calling for capacity payments to avoid shutdown of too much thermal generation and causing an upheaval in grid reliability and energy security, but proposals for a capacity market were rejected just last year in 2015. According to Germany’s Bundesverband der Energie- und Wasserwirtschaft, more than half of Germany’s planned power plants are at risk because of government policies on renewables.
So even though Grohnde is the little reactor that could, its life will be cut short before it reaches its peak. And only for political reasons, not even the arbitrary economic pressure that is closing the new gas plants.
On the other hand, Germany has lots of brown coal, and is buying electricity from surrounding nations at elevated prices when it needs grid stability.
So not to worry.
If only Germany could do something to make their natural-gas plants more profitable.
No problem … Germany will just do what they have always done … Generate “clean”, “green” energy in THEIR backyard … and just import the nuclear power they need (when the wind stops blowing) from France. Just use nuclear power transmitted from someone else’s backyard. It’s just like sending all our manufacturing to China, where there are -0- REAL environmental regulations. Pollute THEIR backyards so we can get cheap cell phones ! God Bless globalization ! Giving the “greens” all they want … while pretending “their” lifestyles are “clean” … delusional IDIOTS !
Like decommissioning clean coal plants before their life’s end.? Rachel are you listening
It’s okay they are decommissioning a wind farm in pincher creek which is past its expected life but not down and out. Problem, doesn’t make money or sense in the windy part of the country
Now now, remember all those fatal German nuclear accidents. Who wants a nuclear accident? That’s not worth the risk, so we must adopt the precautionary principle with infinitely higher costs and pollution. How else could we save the planet?
Phillip’s plan for Alberta as stated last November is presented below. They ARE apparently rethinking some of its downfalls…maybe.
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2/3s of coal’s 44,000 GWhr (2014) will be replaced by wind
Therefore, need 30,000 GWhr from wind
Close to 12,000 MW of new wind generation capacity to get that
PLUS 2,000 MW new gas plants … the other third of lost coal
PLUS we will need (what??) ~ 2,000 MW extra gas generation to back up … OR MUCH MORE
Based on 2 MW each for the new turbines
There will be about 6,000 MORE wind turbines by 2030 … fewer if 3-MW turbines are used
Today, there are 941 turbines in Alberta (~1,463MW)..gives you some idea of what she wants. (Utter insanity!)
THE COST?
Turbines cost ~$2 million/MW
$24 billion for wind farms
$10 billion new transmission (??)
3.5 billion for gas plants (other 1/3 of lost coal)
$3.5 billion for gas back up … OR MUCH MORE
Some think we will need MUCH more
An estimated $12 billion for coal buy outs
~ $50 BILLION !! … or more
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Eco fascist who can’t do math or accept facts and reality.
The NDs are trying to sign up as much subsidized wind power as possible (mainly with TransAlta who own half of the wind projects in Alberta) before the next election. Yes, irrevocable contracts can be broken..but at a cost of BILLIONS.
May 2019 can’t come fast enough.
CAS
What will the Germans replace the dead birds with …. when the insects no long have a natural predator …. good-bye crops … hello famine.
What is wrong with Red Rachel? You cannot replace any electrical source with intermittent sources like wind or solar. Demand does not come when the sun shines or the wind blows. I would not be upset if some dams were built on the Peace, Athabasca, and North Saskatchewan and may on the Slave. Even 40 foot dams on the Peace could power the Northern half of Alberta. Some of the coal plants are brand new with 50 years of life left.
You have NO IDEA … the amount of Schadenfreude I would derive from a good old fashioned FAMINE for the “green” German twits. How sad :(… they wouldn’t be able to buy “locally-sourced” produce. Awwwww …
Reminds me of pre-WWII Germany where within Germany, all appeared to be well but the Nazi tank crews were being secretly trained in Russia for their intrusions throughout Europe. Why ANY nation would follow this nonsense is beyond me.
They could employ all those misbegotten “immigrants” by having them run in squirrel cages. There’s enough of them available to power the entire country.
The headline in Forbes is not correct. You cannot replace Grohnde, or any other nuclear plant with 1000 wind turbines. Typical capacity factors for wind are about 20%. Grohnde ran at a lifetime average of 90%. That means each MW of its generating capacity produce 4 1/2 times as much actual electricity as wind generation ever does. 1000 turbines isn’t enough; they will need at least 5000 MW of wind PLUS the required backup generation for when the wind doesn’t blow. All told, that’s a lot of generating capacity sitting around not doing very much.
And that’s only one reactor. Germany has eight more, all to be retired in 2021. And all of them produce at pretty much the same prodigious rate as Grohnde does.
CAS above is right in quantifying the problem. Now once upon a time, Alberta had other options. Bruce Power offered to build using its own capital a nuclear plant of two reactors in Alberta producing about half the amount of power required. Being CANDUs, most of the components would have been Canadian, unlike the wind turbines which will be supplied from foreign countries. And several thousands of years of fuel supply sit next door in Saskatchewan.
In its infinite wisdom, the Stelmach government said ‘no’.
PV solar is as dirty or perhaps even dirtier than the oil sands. It’s not economically feasible to produce PV solar components in North America. The labor costs in North America are prohibitively expensive and North American environmental regulations which keep our air, water and land from being heavily polluted don’t exist in Asia, so nearly all of the PV production is over there where they can pollute and keep their production costs low. The electricity to run their PV solar factories comes from dirty coal and the factories dump pollution into the environment. The same goes for their wind turbines. The amount of environmental destruction and toxic pollution from PV solar and wind turbine production in China far exceeds the damage caused by the oil sands operations.
Some people seem to believe toxic pollution is OK as long as it happens somewhere else.
Slightly related:
Kate….who owns that quote on your page about those in favour of carbon tax should get doctor assisted suicide to save the planet?
What with their insane energy policy and suicidal migration policy, it is clear that Germany has lost its mark.
What with their insane energy policy and suicidal migration policy, it is clear that Germany has lost its mark.
Robert, I’ve said it before and it’s worth saying again: Germany has a history of bad collective decision-making.
Glo-Bull Warming is the biggest fraud ever perpetrated in human history.
CO2 is not a pollutant and is necessary for photosynthesis which gives the atmosphere life sustaining oxygen.
Oil, coal and natural gas are organic.
To those fervent believers in the Cult of Glo-Bull Warming do your part to reduce atmospheric CO2……….just stop exhaling.
The trouble is, CAS, when you confront the eco-weenies with facts, they’ll counter said facts with only emotion, such as “well, the Conservatives didn’t do anything”, or “It’s the right thing to do”.
Happens to me all the time. Pile fact upon fact, show them how the IPCC, NASA, Suzuki/Gore/Mann et al have hoodwinked everyone and suddenly they say “I don’t want to talk about this anymore”.
The First Church of Climatology is the new State religion. God help us……..
As the Germans go….so does Ontario.
Collective HIVE insanity….the real question is WHO Truly Benefits financially and to whom do they owe their allegiance to.??
In this country its the Liberal Party (and their financial supporters), and in Alberta it will be NDP buddies…. Classic COMMUNISM…those at the top pulling very cent they can to enrich their personal lives at the expense of all of us.
Just another MONEY moving SCAM.
We are desperately in need of an ARMED REVOLUTION and once started, I think a guillotine or two would become useful…NO.?