Western Europe’s wind drought has them scrambling for fossil fuels, like their lives depend upon it, and it’s as if they didn’t see it coming! Who would ever have thought that the wind might stop blowing for extended spells?
The almost dystopian panic brings to mind George Miller’s post-Apocalypse action-thriller, Mad Max 2.
Mel Gibson’s Max Rockatansky – aka the Road Warrior – is an ex-cop, outcast and loner who had been roaming the wastelands for years, until he stumbles upon the desert compound and refuge of a clan of misfits and renegades (the Settlers), defending themselves against a marauding mob of cutthroats, led by the evil Lord Humungus (the Marauders).
Max manages to enter the compound and escape Humungus and his band of vicious thugs, for a time.
Max is already alive to the fact that the compound houses a petrol refinery and also, apparently, holds fuel in reserve – a rarity in a fossil-fuel-starved post-apocalyptic world – when he decides to join forces with the refinery’s owners and operators (the Settlers). From there, the plotline twists and turns around Max’s attempt to obtain a healthy supply of fuel for his gas-guzzling Ford V8 GT Falcon (the Interceptor) in exchange for feats of adrenaline-fuelled derring-do aimed at trucking the Settler’s fuel reserves North and to safety. Nail-biting stuff, to be sure.
As to plot inconsistencies, one thing has always struck STT about a world in which fuel is so scarce that people will readily kill and die for it: why is every vehicle driven by Humungus and his Marauders (and Max’s Interceptor for that matter) a stonking great V8, most with nitrous oxide and supercharging, to boot, chewing up petrol like there was no tomorrow? If fuel really was in such short supply, surely a Toyota Corolla would have been a better bet?
Sticking with the Road Warrior theme, here’s an interview with NSW One Nation Leader, Mark Latham.
Europe facing ‘energy wreckage’: Mark Latham
Sky News
Mark Latham
18 October 2021
NSW One Nation Leader Mark Latham says Europe is currently “like a scene from a Mad Max movie” where the scavengers are “desperately trying to get hold of fossil fuels”.
It comes as Prime Minister Scott Morrison is set to travel to Glasgow to attend the COP26 Climate Change Conference.
“The only benefit of going to Europe would be to see the energy wreckage,” Mr Latham told Sky News host Alan Jones.
“I hope Scott Morrison gets a full understanding of how disastrous renewable energy policies have been in Europe.”
Sky News
Alan Jones: Well let’s go to Mark Latham for a much-needed dose of common sense. Mark, good evening and thank you for your time. I am sure people are bored with all this net-zero / carbon dioxide emissions stuff but how could our government of Australia, a fossil fuel superpower, be wasting its time going to Glasgow to argue that it should be dismantled?
Mark Latham: Well Alan, the only benefit of going to Europe would be to see the energy wreckage on that continent and I hope that Scott Morrison gets a full understanding of how disastrous renewable energy policies have been in Europe. Europe now is like a scene from a Mad Max movie where the scavengers are desperately trying to get hold of fossil fuels to power themselves up.
A country like Germany, which had 30% nuclear power, got rid of it. They desperately want that to come back for baseload power. Every part of Europe was told by the climate change do-gooders to get rid of coal-fired power stations – they went down that pathway and now they are scrambling to reverse those decisions and get reliable power into their system because internationally, the situation is, that in the COVID-recovery, and Europe has got ahead of Australia at this stage, but in the COVID recovery, they are desperately trying to open up their economy, power-up their economy, keep the lights on and grow their businesses. But in the COVID period before they disinvested in fossil fuels, in Europe and beyond, a 40% reduction in fossil fuel energy creation over the last six years. So they are now finding the consequences of those policies.
Sky News
STOP THESE THINGS 
Supposedly there would be only 7 days a year in which offshore wind turbines would produce less than 10 per cent of their potential electricity output, and it was expected this shortfall could be overcome with gas-fired generation.
In 2016 there were as many as 78 low wind days. So far this year, there have already been 65 such days, and gas is in short supply. Why? Because they reduced their purchases and ran down their storage. It wasn’t that Russia cut supply at all, according to Merkel they delivered all that was ordered; and even Norway delivered 9% less than the previous year.
On top of this both countries were trying to shutdown both coal and nuclear generation which explains why those 2 countries have an energy crisis.
And if you think 10% was low
2018 21 days below 5% capacity
2019 9 days below 5% capacity
2020 10 days below 5% capacity
2021 21 days (so far) below 5% capacity
And all this was foreseen in 2010 by Derek Birkett, a retired electrical engineer who wrote “When will the lights go out?.
Also by Vladimir Putin who asked what the Germans would use when they shut down their nuclear plants. He suggested wood from Siberia but saw the advantage (to Russia) of a new gas pipeline (Nord Stream2) to Germany. It is expected to come on stream in January.