UK Dumps Climate Madhouse Project To Harvest Sun And Wind Energy In The Sahara

 

 

It comes as little surprise that yet another grandiose techno-utopian vision has ended not with a triumphant march toward Net Zero, but with a flick of the off-switch. Last week, Britain’s energy secretary quietly announced that the government “has pulled the plug on a £24 billion plan to bring Moroccan wind and solar power to Britain via the world’s longest subsea electricity cable, citing concerns over security and costs” . In other words, after years of hype, headline-grabbing simulations and talk of “reliable clean power for 19 hours a day,” the reality of risk and expense finally intruded—and the dream of Sahara sun for all has been consigned to the scrapheap.

The scheme, championed by Xlinks and backed by big-name investors from Abu Dhabi’s Taqa to TotalEnergies, was unveiled in 2022 with a headline price tag of £16 billion. By the time official talks fizzled, project costs had ballooned to between £22 billion and £24 billion—and the fixed, subsidised price for UK consumers had climbed from a promising £48/MWh in 2012 terms to a sobering £70-80/MWh, on par with Hinkley Point C’s notorious £92.50/MWh deal from a decade ago . It was a textbook illustration of how techno-optimism meets political reality: grand ambitions crashing headlong into the twin walls of finance and geopolitics.

Perhaps the most telling line came when officials admitted this “first-of-a-kind mega project” carried “a high level of inherent, cumulative risk, delivery, operational, and security.” In plainer terms, nobody quite trusted a 3,800-mile subsea cable stretching from the Sahara to Devon to keep the lights on—or to fend off hostile actors, accidental damage or simple technical failure . For all the talk of homegrown power, the reality was a foreign-built supergrid running through disputed waters, vulnerable to every storm, saboteur or bureaucratic blunder.

And yet just a few years ago, this venture was presented as the ultimate win-win: millions of desert acres covered in solar panels and wind turbines, exporting 3.6 GW of “reliable” energy to 7 million homes and displacing imported gas.

The initial delivery method proposed in this projects for energy collected in Morocco to be delivered to homes and businesses in UK was by undersea cable but this was found to be unfeasible in avery imaginable way, cost, technical difficuty, security, politics etc. and an alteenative proposal to transport the cuurent via the national grids of France and Spain put forward.

How many of you spotted that yes,  this is the same Spain where only a few weeks ago the entire 70% solar/wind supplied grid  shut down due to power overload which because a surge of current flowing into the grid as both wind and solar generators experiences perfect conditions simultaneously while insufficient grid inertia destsbilised frequency? Spain's high capacity undersea Moroccan Inreconnector could do nothing to save the situation.

(Note: the problem isn’t lack of supply, it’s lack of inertia only available from spinning generation. Since this means the majority of supply must be spinning generation, the alleged aim of wind/solar – battling the evil devil Siotu – cannot be achieved and its expense not warranted.)

And spread that frequency failure to part of southern France via an interconnector causing power cuts there, to the evident delight of the French. Are interconnectors une bonne idée? L’ on y pense.

Long distance interconnectors are usually DC and can provide no inertia. The French/Spain one is short distance AC which is why Spain was able to export its frequency chaos.

Without mostly spinning generation, grids are inherently unstable and at constant risk of failure from frequency instability which can be caused by a variety of factors.This is why for all the hysterical claims of the UK's green lobby that on a breezy, sunny day, renewables are generating up to 70% of our electricity is such a joke. In order to provide the necessary inertia to smooth out sudded fluctuations in current that are a feature of ;gren' technologies, we have to keep gas power stations running twenty four hours a  day and pay the operators to let the otput go down to earth.

Spain exports to France and France exports to England – but this is not dispatchsble. It is heavily dependent on whether Spain and France have spare capacity available on demand. It overlooks the other energy self-harming Country Germany which relies heavily on France and Norway when dunkelflautes are about… often in Winter. Norway is threatening to restrict supplies via interconnector as extra-territorial demand is forcing prices up to – unhappy – Norwegian consumers. France meanwhile is faced with replacing its fleet of aged 59 nuclear reactors, of which recently 26 were out if action for repair/maintenance a few months ago and France had no spare juice, struggling to,meet its own requirements.

Oh – and then there’s energy loss. The further electricity travels the less comes out the other end. So by the time it arrives in England, consumersd might get might get enoough juice on \ winter's morning to boil a small kettle for a cup of tea. So long was they don't switch on the low wattage light at the same time.

But back to the sheer wrong - headedness of the Sahara project. 

Consider that you can’t build stable turbines or panels on shifting sands and that the sands of the Sahara Run an average depth of 500′ then consider the deepest “Moving Dunes” can be 1000′ deep, you will need some gargantuan turbine masts and deeply excavated turbine footings (down to bedrock) to place turbines “Just anywhere” in the Sahara. Same for Solar Panels, their bases would also need to be set deep to “Not be Disturbed” by Saharan shifting sands. 

As as some readers will know the Sahara is not all sand dunes,it would be equally difficult to put wind turbines or solar farms on Gravel plains or salt flats either. The gravel would still need to be excavated to a stable surface and the salt would prove corrosive to panel supports. So that leaves the rocky Mesa areas and I’m not sure how much of a problem the stone might pose as foundation footing installations.

And on top of all that, the first desert sand storm would knock out every solar panel caught in its pash. Sand blasted panels become opaque and thus the light is diffused before it hits the photo - voltaic cells. 

There is an kind of joy to be obtained from witnessing this particular techno-dream deflate. It reminds us that even the most elaborate green schemes are only as sound as their financial footings and, adherednce ti the laws of physics and geopolitical practicalities. When those are not taken into account, the utopian narrative gives way to something far more earthy: the simple recognition that expensive, complex, and foreign-dependent projects rarely survive contact with reality.

FROM THE ARCHIVE: 

 

 

 

Official Advice - Prepare For Blackouts This Winter

Drax Power Station in North Yorkshire. (Getty via Zero Hedge) 

 The UK government is putting plans together for days of organised blackouts this winter, in what they call a "reasonable worst-case scenario" for energy shortages, according to reports in manstream media. Naturally they are blaming this on the embargo on importing gas from Russia but in reality Britain has never imported any more than a small amout of its gas from Russia. The real reason politicians and energy company CEOs are panicking is entirely due to their obession with obtaining all our energy from intermittent sources like wind and sunshine. The logic is so simple even a retard coiuld follow it (but not highly qualified and highly paid 'climate scientists' it seems,) on days when the wind does not blow a wind turbine generates no current and for on average 12 hours a day (more in summer, less in winter,) solar panels generate nothing.

Thanks to the elite's infantile devotion to Sain Greta Thunberg, The Madonna of Stockholm, the new chourch of Net Zero Cult has warped its members brains.

Households and businesses could be subjected to planned power outages if cold temperatures combine with reduced imports from Europe. No mention of the dismal underperformance of the massively hyped 'green transition' of course to mention it would only draw attention to how little electricity we get from oue massive investment in useless wind turbines and solar farms.Asccording to Bloomberg UK.

the government has an emergency plan for a shortfall of around a sixth of peak energy demand, which could see supplies turned off for four days in January.

Bombarded with requests to comfirm of deny this, the department for business, energy and industrial strategy has so far declimed to comment. Hmmmm

This new reveelation regarding how the true severity of the crisis comes amid turmoil in energy markets after Russia reduced gas flows to Europe in response to sanctions following its invasion of Ukraine in February.

The Nord Stream 1 pipeline that brings Russian gas to Europe is currently running at 20% of its maximum capacity.

While the UK imports very little of its gas from Russia, the reduction is putting vast pressure on supplies across Europe including from Norway where the UK sources roughly a third of its gas. The irony here is that like Norway, Britain has plenty of gas in its North Sea gas fields but many wells have been decommissioned as both Labour and Conservative governments have put virtue signalling ahead ofenergy security and the interests of British taxpayers, preferring to pander to the weirdie - beardies of the United Nations International Panel on Climate Change, the aforementioned Greta Thunberg and the increasingly hysterical screeching coming from the unwashed crusties of Exstinktion Rebellion

The energy crisis has led to a forecast that fuel bills will reach £4,266 a year from next January.

Analysts Cornwall Insight forecast that average household bills will reach £3,582 per year for the average household from October, up from £1,971 today, and then rise further to £4,266 from January and £4,427 from next April.

Earlier this year, the government refused to promise there would not be power cuts this winter, after reports it was considering plans to ration electricity.

A Number 10 spokesperson said: "I think you would expect government to look at a range of scenarios to ensure plans are robust, no matter how unlikely they are to pass. Neither the government or National Grid expect power cuts this winter.

"You will know that we are in a fortunate position, we are not dependent on Russian energy imports and have one of the most reliable and diverse energy systems."

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen is pressuring member states to reduce natural gas consumption by at least 15% until spring in order to deal with reduced Russian supplies. She said: “Russia is blackmailing us. Russia is using energy as a weapon. And therefore in any event, whether a partial major cutoff of Russian gas or a total cutoff of Russian gas, Europe needs to be ready.” Strangely the de facto leader of the 27 member EU failed to mention that the community's reliance on Russia, ever a potentially hostile power, has emerged because the EU pressured member states to reduce dependence on coal and gas either locally produced or imported from friendly nations and nuclear generation plants sited in their own terittory for power.

The dire predictions of further energy price increases have increased pressure on Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, the competitors in the race to be announced as the new Conservative Party leader and prime minister on 5 September.

Both have been attacked over the vagueness of their proposals to tackle the UK's current cost of living crisis.

 

 

MORE posts on Net Zero - The Idealogues Attack On Civilisation, bowse this catalogue of our posts on the disastrous 'net zero' policy promoted by the United Nations and the World Economic Forum. The pseudoscientific theory that Carbon Dioxide emitted by hunan activities is alone responsible for climate change and the consequent shift to obtaining electrical energy from unreliable, intermittent, 'sustainable' sources is causing the collapse of the global economy.

UK Households Are Paying Wind Turbine Owners To Not Generate Electricity
On another near windless day here in the United Kingdom, Boggart Blog came across a very interesting piece if news. According to figures published by the business and management consultancy LCP, british taxpayers have been paying operators of wind turbines farms for the time their windmills were NOT generating electricity increased to record levels last year ...

Net Zero Is A Dangerous Fantasy, But Scientists Believe In Fairies It Seems
With oil and gas prices rocketing and the highly propted sustainable energy sources performing way befow expectations the energy crisis currently gripping Europe (with worse to come as food shortages start to bite, polticians still seem more intent on pandering to the green lobby and chasing the dream of a fossil fuel free world rather securing the energy and food supplies needed by the people they serve.

New UN Report on Climate Change – Nothing New, Nothing True
The latest United Nations (“UN”) Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (“IPCC”) report, published this week, once again, in scaremongering tone and the language of the panic stricken, claims that the planet is in peril (we are facing climate disaster, the clock is at one minute to midnight, we must take urgent action to destroy civilisation if we are to save the planet, the usual over - dramatised guff designed to spread fear and panic,) basically the same claim as they have been making at least twice a month for the past 20 years.

We need energy security – not Net Zero
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has prompted a major rethink in the West. We have suddenly found ourselves vulnerable not just to rising prices in oil and gas, but also to inflation in other commodities – such as food and fertiliser. Of all these problems, the security of our energy supply has most exercised minds.

Net Zero Gone With The Wind - Boris Johnson Plans Seven New Nuclear Plants And Shelves Wind Expansion
Reports in mainstream media suggest Boris Johnson has done a U turn on his recently announced massive expansion of wind powered generating capacity. Sources in Westminster claim Boris has shelved his masterplan for a giant, floating wind farm in The North Sea and the government will reconsider plans to double or even treble the number of wind turbines in the countryside and approve plans for up to seven new nuclear reactors instead.

Climate Change Research Paper Censored by The British Hydrological Society For Telling The Truth
The Daily Sceptic today published an article by retired research scientist James Dent, whose specialist field was hydrology and meteorology. Mr. Dent was involved in research projects aiemd at understanding the factors influencing climate, and their effects on environments, [ ... ] he was the World Meteorology Organisation Chief Technical Advisor to the Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre in Bangladesh, a low lying nation especially prone to flooding ....

Freak Weather Around The World Begs Questions
With Britain and other parts of northern Europe basking in unseasonably warm temperatures which are forecast to last for a few days, while parts of the USA gring to a halt under a blanket of snow dumped by freak storms are, accoring to climate scarmongers, a signal that irreversible warming had arrived, it is perhaps timely for a hot topic from ten years ago, geoengineering came under the microscope again. This report from Global Intel Hub seems a good way to kick off the debate. ... Continue reading >>>

Latest Bill Gates Insanity: Injecting Sulfur Into the Atmosphere Will Cause EnvironmentalDisaster
A study published in November by the University of Pennsylvania exposes the insanity of projects such as spraying particles of sulphur compounds into the stratosphere, self - anointed vaccime messiah Bill Gates' latest scheme to “save” the planet with "geoengineering" According to the mathematical modellers Gates pays hansomely to provide him with "scientific" data to persuade politicians to spend taxpayers money on projects run by companies his "charitable foundation" has invested in. Far from saving the planet this latest idiocy is actually destroying environments. Continue reading >>>

We Told You So - Government-funded Report Confirms World’s Largest offshore Wind Farm is UnprofitableA report commissioned by the Norwegian government has contradicted Boris Johnson’s recent claim that offshore wind costs have fallen by 70% in a decade. The report also blows a huge hole in Johnson's grandiose pledges to the COP26 conference that offshore wind power would propel Britain to its net - zero target for Carbon Dioxide emissions well before 2050, the target set by the climate conference for achieving that target.
Continue reading >>>

Climate: The Science, The Lies, The Malfeasance and The Deep State
Climate change hoax COLLAPSES as new science finds human activity has virtually zero impact on global temperatures We have previously highlighted this report from Finland which exposes the great flaw in "the science" of global warming. The link at the end of this extract takes you to a much more complete account of the research project which, not for the first time debunks the fake science on which the politically - motivate climate change scare.
Continue reading >>>

Green dreams of Heat Pumps Continue reading >>>
When Boris Johnson revealed the UK Government plans for achieving 'net zero' carbon emissions by 2050 it emerged the much teased clean, green replacement for gas boilers as our main source of domestic heating is to be heat pumps. The Daily Stirrer counters the pseudo-scientific bollocks and reveals this 'new technology has been around for a hundred years.

Governments' obsession with climate pseudoscience over economically and social viable solutions is leading to disaster
The government's current obsession with pursuing the target of net zero carbon emissions in order to claim the UK leads the world in green wankery is more to do with virtue signalling that governing, but with the complicity of mainstream media, particularly The BBC, climate scaremongering is providing a convenient diversion from this governments abject failure to address and of the very real economic and social problems facing us.

UK Households Are Paying Wind Turbine Owners To Not Generate Electricity
On another near windless day here in the United Kingdom, Boggart Blog came across a very interesting piece if news. According to figures published by the business and management consultancy LCP, british taxpayers have been paying operators of wind turbines farms for the time their windmills were NOT generating electricity increased to record levels last year ...

A Mostly Wind- & Solar-Powered US Economy Is A Dangerous Fantasy
When President Biden and other advocates of wind and solar generation speak, they appear to believe that the challenge posed is just a matter of currently having too much fossil fuel generation and not enough wind and solar; and therefore, accomplishing the transition to "net zero" will be a simple matter of building sufficient wind and solar facilities and having those facilities replace the current ones that use the fossil fuels.

"Revolution Has Begun": 75,000 Brits Plan To Stop Paying Power Bills In Protest At Energy Rip Off
Resistance is growing to spiralling domestic energy costs in Britain as more than 75,000 irritated people in the UK have pledged not to pay their electricity bill this fall when prices jump again. 

If the government & energy companies refuse to act then ordinary people will! Together we can enforce a fair price and affordable energy for all," tweeted "Don't Pay UK," an anonymous group spearheading the effort to have more than one million Brits boycott paying their power bill by Oct. 1.

Is Russia Selling Its Oil To The World Through An Obscure Egyptian Port?
As this blog predicted when NATO and EU member states shot themselves in the foot by reacting to Russia's invasion of Ukraine with sanctions that prevented Russia from selling oil, gas and vital raw materials to the countries that needed them most, the NATO and EU member states, the Russians have had no problems finding alternative customers for their gas and oil and no problem getting oil into the world's commodity markets through the back door.

UK Households Are Paying Wind Turbine Owners To Not Generate Electricity
On another near windless day here in the United Kingdom, Boggart Blog came across a very interesting piece if news. According to figures published by the business and management consultancy LCP, british taxpayers have been paying operators of wind turbines farms for the time their windmills were NOT generating electricity increased to record levels last year ...

"Our Country Is Facing The Biggest Crisis The Crisis We Ever Had": German Employers' Association Warns Over Russian Gas Cut
With the Nord Stream 1 pipeline closed for maintenance, with the possibility that President Putin will not allow it to reopen at the end of the scheduled 10 days downtime in retaliation for the EU's continued support or Ukraine in their conflict with Russia, Germany is facing an unprecedented crisis that could erase the prosperity Germans have grown accustomed to, warned Rainer Dulger, head of the Confederation of German Employers’ Associations.

Net Zero Is A Dangerous Fantasy, But Scientists Believe In Fairies It Seems
With oil and gas prices rocketing and the highly propted sustainable energy sources performing way befow expectations the energy crisis currently gripping Europe (with worse to come as food shortages start to bite, polticians still seem more intent on pandering to the green lobby and chasing the dream of a fossil fuel free world rather securing the energy and food supplies needed by the people they serve.

A Mostly Wind- & Solar-Powered US Economy Is A Dangerous Fantasy
When President Biden and other advocates of wind and solar generation speak, they appear to believe that the challenge posed is just a matter of currently having too much fossil fuel generation and not enough wind and solar; and therefore, accomplishing the transition to "net zero" will be a simple matter of building sufficient wind and solar facilities and having those facilities replace the current ones that use the fossil fuels.

Europe's biggest economy would suffer a 6.5pc contraction if Russian energy is suspended, experts warn 
Even though the sanctions already imposed on Russia in respondse to the invasion of Ukraine are hitting the nations that imposed then harder that their intended target, the EU is preparing to committ economic suicide in an orgy of virtue signalling ...

[ Climate change ] ... [ Energy Green Dreams ] ... [ Wind Turbine Truth ] ... [ Climate Lies ] ... [ Net Zero omnibus ]

EXPLORE:
[Daily Stirrer] ... [ Our Page on on Substack ]... [Boggart Aboad] ... [ Ian Thorpe at Quora ] ... [ Greenteeth Home ] ... [ Greenteeth on Minds.com ] ... [ Here Come The Russians ] ... [ Latest Posts ]