Here It Comes, the GND – Again
Currently, in the UK, there are 7 million people whose needs for electricity and heat have outstripped their ability to pay their utility bills. Currently, average amount owed to utilities is 706 pounds for electricity and 605 pounds for heating gas.
https://www.thegwpf.com/600000-britons-have-fallen-into-fuel-poverty-during-covid-pandemic/
While this is partly related to the pandemic and the UK’s Boris Johnson’s inept governance of the UK as its Prime Minister, thanks to his ecohippie girlfriend pushing him in the direction of Da Stupid, these people who are unable to pay their utility bills should be getting governmental help but are not. This is inexcusable. We do, in this country, have plans in some states to help out people who are out of work and can’t pay their utility bills, but that is at the state and local level, not the federal government – as it should be. Boris’s nanny state is destroying much of what made the UK a good place to live and visit.
And here in the good ol’ US of A, Joe da Biden wants to put all electrical utilities on wind and solar, both of which have proven to be completely unreliable. Just ask people in Germany about this, thanks to Angela Merkel’s undoing a sound utility system and replacing it with wind and solar, which has to be replaced. She is now having to negotiate importing electricity from other countries.
And We the People will have to put up with it. Right? Right. https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/12/20/bidens-energy-plans-are-expensive-and-dangerous/
While coal-fired plants do produce emissions, the current crop of coal-fired plants in this country use scrubbers in the stacks to clean up the emissions before they hit the atmosphere. The fly ash that is left over from coal-fired power production is used in construction, whether it is buildings or highways. Yes, there is a use for that stuff. It is not just drek, as noted here: https://www.thebalancesmb.com/fly-ash-applications-844761
How may the nonsense going on in the UK affect us? Well, so far, I have not had to miss even a single payment on either of my electric or gas utility bills, nor do I expect that to happen very soon. But if the rates are increased drastically that will make it difficult for many people, including you and me, to even afford electricity, never mind heat and hot water.
Furthermore, because these two green (wind and solar) utilities are completely unreliable in fractious weather, outages are not uncommon. And those outages around here always seem to come in the middle of winter, when you need the utilities the most. This is what is going on now in the UK, and in Europe, and has been for several years.
While the WUWT article indicates that the goal date of 2035 is really not tenable, take a look at your electric bill and find out what is the real source of your electric supply. The storage banks to supply entire communities with reliable electricity, especially in the winter, have to encompass not just a few family farms, but rather entire cities like New York City and Chicago and Boston and their outlying areas such as suburbs and highways.
This is all supposed to be in the pursuit of “clean air” and less pollution, but I can’t see that it has done anything in either Europe or the UK other than leave people cold in the winter and in the dark when they need lights the most – at night.
But this is why I have kept my great-grandmother’s two 19th century kerosene lamps: when the power goes out, I still have a means of keeping the lights on. I may buy more, just in case. I have an older stove that is one I can light with kitchen matches, if the power goes out. This is because in stoves with convection ovens, if the electricity goes out, the gas valves will NOT open. My stove is not encumbered that way.
The proven fact, both in Europe and the UK, as well as here in the USA, is that wind turbines kill of necessary pest predators, meaning birds and bats. If you know anything about bats at all, you know that they live on flying insects that they catch while on the wing. The same is true of those bug-eating birds, going after insect pests that destroy crops and carry diseases, as well as rodents and other destructive, disease-carrying critters. The Audubon Society’s last census of dead predator birds and bats in the western solar fields alone came to an amount over 3,500,000 birds and bats that are necessary to keep disease-carrying animals under control.
It’s more likely than not that this proposal mostly yak-yak-yakkity-yak from Biden, but you never know. The funding to do something like this is extremely costly and it does not take place overnight. So this is a warning more than anything else about this plan by Joey Biteme Biden, which may or may not meet fruition in his lifetime. He indicates he’ll have it all in place by 2035. Let’s hope he’s long gone sooner.
Civilization was fun while it lasted, wasn’t it?
Category: "Teh Stoopid", 2020 Election, Darwin Awards, General Whackos, I hate hippies
This asshat, Uncle Joe…
Wants our government, using forced redistribution done by people with guns, to ‘build’ 500k charging stations, thereby throwing EVEN MORE TAXPAYER MONEY at that FARCE that is Tesla Motors.
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/biden-introduces-climate-team-promises-500000-new-ev-charging-stations
Add to that, I got an ad on screwyoutube from these nice folxses,
https://www.transportationandclimate.org
“Notably, the study finds that the TCI program would reduce racial inequality in exposure to air pollution, and that communities that have historically endured the most pollution will also benefit the most.”
I don’t know what that means but using this as a lens, well, smells like shite:
“Transportation and Climate Initiative (TCI) jurisdictions already have many programs aligned with sustainable community objectives, with a variety of approaches and legal frameworks. Some of these may serve as models for other states in the region, while others suggest opportunities for cooperation among the TCI states.”
Now, I’m no Inflight Missile Surgeon but it sounds like they want these ‘sustainable community objectives’ to be a modern day plantation which will all be taxpayer subsidized, in order to limit the liberty of the tax donkeys while ensuring no one can get away from their machine.
My state has an awful track record of mass transport mishaps: CTfastrack, the Amtrak NE corridor, HOV lanes, etc. Given the current economic situation, the ‘pandemic’, correct fuel and energy prices, why now? Why focus on forcing people into smaller boxes? Why remove the ability for people to move freely?
Its not about the Climate, its about control.
^Given the economic situation, the ‘pandemic’, current fuel and energy prices, why now? Why focus on forcing people into smaller boxes? Why remove the ability for people to move freely?
Still relearning editing on the Mac. Don’t judge me!
“We’re from the government, we’ve come to help you.”
Which is it?
If I read some of Biden’s dumbfoundingly inept comments that are being published here and there, including recorded phone call comments, it appears to be all talk and no action. It’s the “pat on the back” kind of thing he’s looking for.
I don’t doubt that he’s about two steps shy of dementia, but this looks like a play for “love me” from him to get the approval of the Greenbeaners. And unfortunately, Sanders and AOC are going to press their GND agenda as hard as they can, so Gullible Joe will probably do whatever he’s told to do. That’s the real concenr in my corner.
BOHICA
(and again and again and again until the (D)ictators are overcome…)
BODHISATTVA
https://youtu.be/7Jc6kF0yQAU
Dammit, -beans!
“Just ask people in Germany about this”
Germany uses 50 cycle power. That means transformers require larger
dia. wire for the windings. Motors and generators included.
Generators in wind mills included. Also the DC to DC converters and
the DC to AC inverters in windfarms. The substation.
Everything about wind and solar in Germany is more expensive
because of the metric system. Thank god we stuck with 60 cycle.
To be frank, what I know about that subject’s technical stuff is slim, but I do know that it’s not reliable and is destructive of wildlife.
I don’t know what the objection is to building new nuke reactors.
Now I have to start keeping a record of every outage of electricity.
Most of the rest of the world uses 50Hz line frequency and 220V line voltage. Both reduce the amount of power lost during distribution and use, thus increasing the overall efficiency of the electrical power generation and distribution system. The higher line voltage of 220V reduces power lost due to distribution line resistance, while the lower line frequency of 50Hz reduces both hysteresis and eddy current losses in AC motors.
https://www.motioncontroltips.com/hysteresis-loss/
Both the 50HZ and 60HZ line frequency standards appear to have developed more-or-less as compromise frequencies in the late 1800s/early 1900s – they were high enough to avoid AC light flicker while low enough to be efficient. See the Wikipedia article on “utility frequencies” if you’re interested in the details.
Aircraft use 400 cycle power mainly because
of weight issues. The weight issue between
50 and 60 cycle power is not as significant but
you can use 50 cycle transformers at 60 cycles.
You cannot howvever use 60 cycle transformers on
50 cycle power unless so labeled.
Used to be a big deal with transformer power
supplys in TV’s and stereo equipment but most
everything has gone to switching supplys now.
The old kitchen clocks with syncronous motors
kept perfect time. In Germany they would run
10 minutes late every hour.
But the trains ran on time!
True – but for aircraft, mass and aerodynamics are generally king; overall fuel efficiency is virtually always secondary, and is in any case also directly impacted by aircraft mass. It’s also usually fairly easy to get rid of waste heat in an aircraft, particularly at altitude. (smile)
In contrast, overall efficiency (which requires minimizing losses) is extremely important for the terrestrial power grid.
I pulled some empty 20lb propane tanks from my towns scrap metal recycle point. Now we have eleven (11) full tanks in my garage. Heat and cooking for over week if needed.
I keep 8 of them in the shed along with a “Big Buddy” heater
that can be safely used indoors. About 18K Btu on high.
There is about 75K Btu in a twenty pounder.
Good idea to keep some spare “O” rings on hand also.
And the price was right.
I’m more interested in listening to the Wind by the Jesters on Winley, 1960 than wind farms, wind mills and the wind blowing out of these A-Hole politicians mouths/assholes.
here ya go
https://youtu.be/0t-UtnNrDBA?t=1
Thanks Beans, and if I remember, you put that up awhile ago. I love the intro and the bridge of the song and can hit the high notes in the intro but my voice for a lead is baritone. Some of those Jester/Paragon songs have mostly first and second tenor leads with the female voice up in falsetto or first tenor if the lead is second tenor or baritone. You put up a few of the songs I mentioned so I take it your a real 1950’s ‘DOO WOPPER”
There is a deep bass voice in there occasionaly singing “yeah”.
I’m more of a DNB fan but loved the doo wop of the fifties.
Then Jimi Hendrix came of age.
Not to drop names Jeff but my best friend since the 70’s
is the brother of Scott Billington of Rounder Records.
We had access to his enormous (even by then) collection
and would listen to it when he was at work and not home.
May drop by to share a little whiskey with him this week.
And spin up some blues.
The wife and I usually take a drive once or twice a month, depending on the weather. We go past the giant wind farm over by Alma and St. Louis, Michigan watch the turbines not spin. The westerly winds off of Lake Michigan don’t get that far into the middle of the mitten, plus the geniuses that built the wind farm put it in the western edge of the Saginaw valley, not a lot of wind gets down there.
But, it’s inspiring to see all of those turbines not spinning.
The thing that gets me is how many of them sit static when there is wind because there’s too much wind. At least solar doesn’t stop working if it gets too sunny.
It’s Michigan, we don’t get a lot of sun in the months that aren’t April, May, June, July and August. Which probably means that Whitmer is set to turn a couple of state parks into solar farms, to go along with the wind farms.
There is a large windfarm about one mile from me.
I can sit here and watch them not spin all day long.
Especially on Sundays when they are off line all day
for maintenance while the wind blows.
Very flexible schedule eh?
And it all goes to..wait for it….NYC where the ten
year contracts at 24 cents per kwh were signed.
Dedicated 40 mile private transmission line to reach
the New England grid. Then transferred to the NY iso grid.
The “wheeling” charges alone are 1/3 of the per kwh cost.
The entire industry is a fraud with the real money being
made up front during construction. Then run it at a loss
and sign up for more government contracts to dimantle it.
After ten years the scam will have been exposed and we
will start building nuke plants like we should have long ago.
By then all the leftists will be dead and the
greenies will have frozen in the dark.
Hey, do NOT toy with me, Beans. You’re saying I will outlive them. That gives me hope and I don’t know how much hope I can handle all at once.