Pretty sad when you build your foundation on a source of energy that is not reliable.
“South Australia, the world’s renewable energy crash test dummy, has just encountered a new problem; “climate” has caused their wind power to collapse.”
From Australia’s ABC News:
Lack of wind blows out South Australia power costs
12:00AM July 4, 2017
MATT CHAMBERS
Resources reporterThe slowest wind conditions on record in some places of South Australia have slashed east coast wind generation in the June quarter, pushing up electricity prices, cutting wind farm profits and spurring concerns about future energy market planning.
The trend, spurred by unusually high pressure systems in the Great Australian Bight that are becoming more prevalent as the globe warms, is forecast to continue in July and August, the weather bureau says.
The so-called wind drought has meant National Electricity Market wind generation in the June quarter, the first quarter after this year’s closure of the Hazelwood brown coal-fired power station, was its lowest in five years, despite rapid growth in the number of wind turbines.
…
Darren Ray, a senior climatologist at the Bureau of Meteorology, said the low winds had been caused by a high pressure system over the Bight.
While this had eased, and wind had picked up, it was expected to return.
“Modelling of weather patterns is keeping the high pressure systems a bit stronger than average, with lower than average winds, over July and August,” he said, adding it was probably not going to be as extreme as June.
Global warming was making the high pressure systems more common.
“There is a long-term trend linking it (high pressure systems in the Bight) to climate change,” Mr Ray said.
“The tropics expand as the planet warms and that sees high pressure systems staying throughout the south longer than they used to.”
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