This week, Keir Starmer and Donald Trump met at the US President’s golf resort in Turnberry, Scotland. During the televised discussion, a squirming Starmer was put in his place several times by the President’s forthright comments on a number of subjects, including the closure of North Sea oil and gas operations and free speech. Most notably, Trump called wind power a "scam", which was no longer welcome in the USA. Like a scene from The Office, it was as uncomfortable to watch as it must have been for Starmer, who, in the face of the onslaught, looked for all the world like a David Brent figure. Struggling to explain his own position without inducing extreme cringe, but at the same time as signalling his lack of confidence, the PM made clear his inability to understand the criticism in any seriousness.
Trump’s comments that wind farms are ugly, environmentally destructive and expensive need little rehearsal. These are the criticisms of wind power that have been made by critics for the two decades that the UK has been subsidising them. In the 2000s, the claim was that these seemingly nascent technologies needed a 'kickstart' to bring them to the maturity of conventional energy technologies. Yet decades on, as has been reported here recently, the latest auction for renewable energy contracts shows that the costs are, as predicted decades ago, still rising, as are energy bills.
At some point, the argument for boosting renewable energy shifted. Investors merely needed to be given 'confidence'
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This week across the site:
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The wind and solar fantasy will collapse like a punctured balloon when people realise how often there is next to no RE in the grid at breakfast and dinnertime.
This is the dashboard for the power supply in Great Britain. It is a live display so it changes frequently.
https://grid.iamkate.com/
At midnight wind and sun provided 26% of demand and at 9am it was 30%.
The lights are kept on by deindustrialization which reduces demand, and power from overseas. No amount of extra windmills will help when there is next to no wind during the wind droughts (Dunkelflautes.)
If the authorities had taken account of wind droughts, quite likely no windmills would be attached to the grid
Trillions of dollars have been spent around the world rolling out unreliable energy generators and in return we have more expensive and less reliable power with catastrophic environmental impacts.
The elephant in the net zero room is the wind droughts or dunkelflautes that Australian investigators documented over a decade ago.
https://rafechampion.substack.com/p/the-late-discovery-of-wind-droughts
Dirt farmers are alert to the threat of rain droughts, but the wind farmers never checked the reliability of the wind supply to become aware of wind droughts, wind lulls, known… Read more »
‘Russia and China emerged (or re-emerged) as superpowers alongside the USA’
Or not really….
Putin and Russia are to Xi and China as Starmer and Britain are to President Trump and the U.S.A.
Starmer’s face was hilarious, and have you noticed his odd hand gestures? That’s because he’s been coached. A brain dead WEF drone.
He’s certainly no poker player, that’s for sure!
The harvest of wind farms is subsidies – money plundered from taxpayers.
Starmer looked like a little boy trying hard not to poo in his pants…
😀😀😀
Perfect.
The best bit was when Trump called out Sir Knife Crime and just to show how unpleasant this little creep is he has been wailing that what Donald said about him was ‘waycist’.
And not succeeding.
…..whilst sat on a skewer….
So far this week we’ve had 3 power outages over here in Ireland, one for 3hrs and two more for 4hrs, in one week! These were not breakdowns, they were ‘controlled demand reduction’ (rationing in short)
Ireland is in a serious mess with its energy security and is working harder to cover it up than to solve the problem
Heed this example of a very dodgy future that is awaiting the west
Our grid is current sending yours 1.48GW which is probably a fair chunk of your current demand, but that is not because we have a surplus – it comes out of the at present 20% of demand we are currently importing from France and others. France alone is sending us more than all our domestic windmills are generating.
11:45am Wednesday 30 July… UK grid demand – 32.4GW: Wind – 1.87GW (5.82%), solar – 6.57GW (20.44%), gas – 8.13GW (25.30%), nuclear – 4.12GW (12.82%), Euro interconnectors – 7.4GW ~ 5%.
0.47GW going to Ireland.
Thqn goodness for solar or we would be in trouble. Let’s hope the sun keeps shining.
Yeah the U.K. is known for its consistent sunshine, especially at night
Precisely.
Solar is a big part of the problem! In Winter it does virtually nothing. Your numbers are wrong BTW, Our nuclear is 12% at 4.12GW but the Interconnectors are 5% at 7.4GW. Maths is not your strong subject I suppose!
Ps: power has just gone off AGAIN this morning from 10am until 5pm!
So are you saying you don’t think you can run a first world economy with daily power rationing? 😉
mad isn’t it – someone needs to tell the politicians…
It is perhaps PFI for the twenty-first century. AI tells us:
Thank you. Brilliant resumé.
Indeed.
Verhofstadt’s incredulity, as cheerleader in chief for the EU, merely illustrates the extent of self important delusion a career of no opposition, free lunches and 5* hotels can induce.
The gravy train is just a small aspect of it.
My reading of history is that major shifts in policy only come with new people as the incumbents are too wedded to their policies.
The problem the EU has is that there is no real mechanism for changing the people. They all come from the same pool of technocrat bureaucrats all of whom.are wedded to the current policies.
You can at.least see a route to change in the UK, with Reform, maybe, if the blob let’s them. Big if.
And clearly new.leadership in the US is trying to change course there.
But its hard to see how it happens in the EU.
Frexit? Exitaly/Ituscita? Deutschlausfahrt? Polskuciec?
Neighbours here in France want Frexit…
I have friends in Spain, Italy and France and they were all jealous when the UK held its Brexit referendum. I am convinced that if a ‘free’ referendum were to be held throughout the EU the result would shock the political ‘elite’ to the core.
I don’t think it would shock them at all – they would expect it – that’s why they will move heaven and earth to ensure it doesn’t happen.
Because it is not a country.
Watching Trump humiliate Two-Tier wasn’t uncomfortable. It was pure joy. He was right about tax, immigration and farming, as well as the windmills/Net Zero SCAM.
Dear God
So far this year, you’ve taken my favourite writer, Frederick Forsyth; my favourite actor, Gene Hackman; and now my favourite singer, Ozzy Osborne.
Can I please remind you that my favourite politician is Keir Starmer?
Nah, I want him kept alive as long as possible. Wearing a facemask, living in Palestine, and getting monthly jabs in both arms.
Before he gets chucked off a roof eh M A k?
we can only hope