Essay by Eric Worrall
First printed JoNova; The Categorical claims a billion kilos per yr is being paid to British wind turbine operators who’ve been requested to disconnect from the grid in periods of low demand, when no one can use their electrical energy.
Britain losing ‘thousands and thousands a day’ in vitality as wind farms informed to show off whereas payments soar
The UK has been squandering an estimated £1billion a yr in vitality because the Nationwide Grid’s infrastructure can not deal with the volumes of unpolluted energy at present being produced
By ANTONY ASHKENAZ
10:01, Solar, Nov 6, 2022…
Chatting with Categorical.co.uk, Andy Willis, the CEO of Kona Power, warned that the UK has been spending thousands and thousands of kilos a day to ask wind farms to cease producing electrical energy.
He stated that this phenomenon, referred to as an vitality constraint fee, signifies that “there’s mainly occasions of the day when it’s so windy that {the electrical} infrastructure can’t accommodate the quantity of wind that these wind farms are producing.
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He stated: “During the last couple of years, [the amount spent] has been about £1billion kilos a yr, and that’s value caveating by saying fairly a sophisticated calculation. It’s not simply the price of paying wind farms to show off, but it surely’s additionally the price of paying the gas-fired energy station to activate someplace.”
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To unravel this disaster, the UK must construct extra large-scale battery storage websites, which assist harness renewable electrical energy, which is 9 occasions cheaper than pure fuel below present costs.
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Batteries are impossibly costly, so we’re extra prone to see a flock of flying pigs than enough funding in batteries to make a big distinction to the renewable “constraint fee” drawback.
There was some discuss the British Authorities was going to cap payouts to inexperienced vitality suppliers below Prime Minister Liz Truss, although I don’t know whether or not Prime Minister Rishi Sunak intends to proceed the hassle to curb inexperienced excesses. Liz Truss was changed by Rishi Sunak after simply 50 days in workplace.
The rational factor to do can be to halt the growth of wind and photo voltaic vitality till an answer is discovered. But when British politicians have been behaving rationally about renewable vitality, this drawback would by no means have arisen within the first place.
I think this uncontrolled money haemorrhage will proceed till the patron ache turns into insufferable, and Britain is pressured to embrace the “Spanish answer” – an abrupt finish to the beneficial therapy of renewable vitality suppliers.
