Economic Nonsense: Why Grid-Scale Battery Storage of Wind & Solar Power Can Never Work

At the recent Glasgow climate gabfest, plenty of hot air was dedicated to the mythical notion of grid-scale battery storage of wind and solar. It's true that renewable energy storage is setting the world on fire. But not as wind and solar acolytes might have hoped (see above and below). When giant lithium-ion batteries aren’t exploding in … Continue reading Economic Nonsense: Why Grid-Scale Battery Storage of Wind & Solar Power Can Never Work

No Solution to Wind Power’s Hopeless Intermittency: Cost Kills Big Battery Myth

The big wind drought in Europe has acolytes ranting about giant batteries saving the day. It’s a typical but delusional response to wind power’s hopeless intermittency. True enough, at the margins, it is possible to store electricity. But, the cost of doing so on any kind of scale is simply out of this world. Then … Continue reading No Solution to Wind Power’s Hopeless Intermittency: Cost Kills Big Battery Myth

Daily Disaster: Blackouts Only Reward For California’s Wind & Solar Nightmare

If insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results, then California’s a clear candidate for the asylum. Over the last 20 years, its maniacal wind and solar obsession has cost Californians dearly: they suffer America’s highest power prices and, when the mercury soars, are lucky to get any power, at all. Energy … Continue reading Daily Disaster: Blackouts Only Reward For California’s Wind & Solar Nightmare

The Big Battery Myth: Why Battery Storage Can’t Save Intermittent Wind & Solar

For almost a century, electricity generation and distribution were treated as a tightly integrated system: it was designed and built as one, and is meant to operate as designed. However, the chaotic delivery of wind and solar have all but trashed the electricity generation and delivery system, as we know it. Germany, California and South … Continue reading The Big Battery Myth: Why Battery Storage Can’t Save Intermittent Wind & Solar

Big Battery Bunkum: Why Grid-Scale Storage of Renewable Energy Will Never Work

Banishing our good friends, logic and reason is essential to the notion of an ‘inevitable transition’ to an all wind and sun powered future. Ignorance of simple maths, the laws of physics, economics and meteorology helps, too. Which explains why the naïve and gullible are merrily swallowing the story that we’re just a few mega-batteries … Continue reading Big Battery Bunkum: Why Grid-Scale Storage of Renewable Energy Will Never Work

Power Deficit: Wind Power’s Hopeless Intermittency Leaves Germans Scrambling For Reliable Generation

What seemed like a good idea at the time, has turned into an unmitigated disaster. Germany threw more at wind and solar than any other country on earth; its government has done everything in its power to make it work. It’s still at it. Except there’s a couple of things that it can never control: … Continue reading Power Deficit: Wind Power’s Hopeless Intermittency Leaves Germans Scrambling For Reliable Generation

Overhyped: Europe’s Largest RE Battery Can Power Britain For 60 Seconds When Wind Power Fails

The hyperbole that greets the announcement of another giant battery is like the toxic plume they give off when they explode in flames. And, as we recently reported, that’s an increasingly likely occurrence: Giant Batteries Bomb: Renewable Energy Storage Systems Literally Setting The World On Fire At a loss to deal with the hopeless and chaotic … Continue reading Overhyped: Europe’s Largest RE Battery Can Power Britain For 60 Seconds When Wind Power Fails

The Power Hunger Games: Why Intermittent Wind & Solar Can Never Power the Planet

The prospect of a 100% renewable energy future is 100% pure, unadulterated myth. Placard waving teens fretting about the weather in 30 years’ time might demand it, but logic, physics, meteorology and economics will forever conspire against an all wind and sun powered future. And the idea that a transition to wind and solar is … Continue reading The Power Hunger Games: Why Intermittent Wind & Solar Can Never Power the Planet

Fractions & Fantasy: Grid Scale Battery Storage Completely Insignificant

For almost a century, electricity generation and distribution were treated as a tightly integrated system: it was designed and built as one, and is meant to operate as designed. However, the chaotic delivery of wind and solar have all but trashed the electricity generation and delivery system, as we know it. Germany and South Australia … Continue reading Fractions & Fantasy: Grid Scale Battery Storage Completely Insignificant

Solar Subsidies: Can Create an ‘Industry’, But Can’t Make the Sun Shine

The reason for the chaotic delivery of wind and solar is hardly a mystery: sunset and/or calm weather have been with us, forever. Ah, comes the retort from RE zealots, ‘why, batteries will fix it’. Except, to get battery storage at anything like the scale necessary would involve colossal cost and, of course, even more … Continue reading Solar Subsidies: Can Create an ‘Industry’, But Can’t Make the Sun Shine