…to tell you the wind isn’t blowing. The inherent defect of wind turbines is that they produce no electricity when the wind isn’t blowing (or when it is blowing too hard, but that is a less serious problem). That is what they are experiencing in the U.K. right now:
Wind power has collapsed to less than 1pc of Britain’s electricity supply as some of the stillest weather in years hits the UK and Europe.
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Near-zero wind speeds and low temperatures have left the UK dependent on France, Norway, Belgium and Denmark to keep the lights on through much of today, with the countries collectively supplying more than 10pc of the UK’s electricity through undersea cables.
Britain is also firing up natural gas plants to avert a disaster. This chart shows the current total collapse of wind energy:
If you can’t keep electricity flowing, people will die. Which means that every country has to assure itself of access to dispatchable (i.e., reliable) power sufficient to meet minimum needs. Wind and solar can never fit that description, and therefore will always be expensive and essentially irrelevant add-ons.
Happily, the United States is moving away from energy irrationality:
It follows Tuesday’s attack on wind farms by Donald Trump, who halted developments in US waters and called the turbines “inefficient, ugly and a threat to wildlife”.
All true. On Monday, President Trump signed several executive orders relating to energy. They are fantastic. The principal ones are Declaring a National Energy Emergency and Unleashing American Energy. It is hard to overstate how positive these orders are. At some point, executive actions will run into legislative mandates, and it will be necessary for Congress to act to put Green dreams to bed, once and for all. But for now, the orders will have a major positive impact and, perhaps equally important, signal a radical change in direction that will benefit every American.
Yesterday, we recorded an American Experiment Podcast that focused exclusively on Trump’s energy orders. I participated, along with Sarah Montalbano, an American Experiment Policy Fellow specializing in energy, and Debra Struhsacker, one of the top mining experts in the world.
Podcasts have been coming thick and fast, and it may be a few days before we release this one. For now, I will simply note this: the definition of “energy” and “energy resources” in the President’s declaration of a national emergency includes “critical minerals.” This is unprecedented; to understand why it is so important, check out this report.
And here’s the kicker: the definition of energy in the Order includes “crude oil, natural gas, lease condensates, natural gas liquids, refined petroleum products, uranium, coal, biofuels, geothermal heat, the kinetic movement of flowing water, and critical minerals,” but it does not include wind or solar. Truly, a brighter new day is dawning!
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