australia-wind-energy-production-sa-28-sep-16

Waar klimaatsceptici cum critici van hernieuwbare energie (wind en zon) reeds jarenlang voor hebben gewaarschuwd is nu werkelijkheid geworden: een landelijke stroomuitval met alle desastreuze gevolgen van dien. Deze vond woensdagnacht plaats in Zuid-Australië. De autoriteiten waren vaag over de ware oorzaak daarvan. Maar volgens tegenstanders van windenergie was deze primair te wijten aan de totale uitval van windenergie als gevolg van hevige storm.

Onder de titel, ‘South Australia pays the price for heavy reliance on renewable energy’, rapporteert Brian Robins in de ‘Sidney Morning Herald’:

Hard on the heels of a “near miss” in July when it narrowly averted widespread blackouts, South Australia was warned on Wednesday night to prepare for an extended loss of electricity in the wake of wild weather.

Described as a once in a 50-year storm, the statewide disruption prompted power companies to warn that users of medical equipment should prepare to use back-ups, and mobile phone users to conserve batteries. …

In an unprecedented development, the state was cut-off from the national electricity network, the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) said “resulting in a state-wide power outage in South Australia”. As a result, the entire electricity market in the state had been suspended as it sought to work with electricity transmission company ElectraNet “to identify and understand the severity of the fault, as well as determine a power restoration time”. …

The extensive disruption follows the narrow avoidance of widespread blackouts in South Australia in July. At that time, the state government brought pressure to bear on a local power company for an idled power station to be restarted to avoid potential disruptions, following a lack of electricity generated from wind and solar sources at a time when it was unable to “import” sufficient supply from Victoria.

But Wednesday’s event will trigger renewed debate over the state’s heavy reliance on renewable energy which has forced the closure of uncompetitive power stations, putting the electricity network in South Australia under stress.

Earlier this week, the Grattan Institute warned that South Australia’s high reliance on renewable energy sources left it exposed to disruptions. It pointed to the fact that while the renewable energy target had encouraged the development of wind and solar generation, it had the potential to undermine supply security at a reasonable price, because it forced the closure of inefficient power stations without encouraging the construction of the necessary new generation supply sources.

That threat followed a warning of rising power outages due to the pressure to close coal and gas-fired power stations as Australia tried to meet its global carbon reduction commitment given in the the United Nations climate conference in Paris late last year. …

Lees verder hier.

Naar aanleiding van deze black-out is er een felle discussie in Australië losgebarsten of deze nu al dan niet dient te worden toegeschreven aan het relatief grote aandeel windenergie in de stroomvoorziening van Zuid-Australië. ‘The Guardian’ was er als de kippen bij om de rol van windenergie te bagatelliseren. Zie hier. Maar de website ‘Stop these things’ is van oordeel dat windenergie de stabiliteit van het elektriciteitsnet heeft aangetast en kwetsbaarder heeft gemaakt voor storing.

Citaat:

Another Statewide Blackout: South Australia’s Wind Power Disaster Continues

Thanks to its ludicrous attempt to run on sunshine and breezes, South Australia has just experienced yet another Statewide blackout. SA’s vapid Premier, Jay Weatherill and what passes for media in this Country ran straight to the periphery, blaming everything except the bleeding obvious ….

STT’s SA operatives tell us the blackout occurred during a blustery spring storm (heavy rain, lightning and surging, gusty wind). The power supply went down across the entire State at precisely the same time (a little after 3:30pm). It took more than 5 hours to restore power to a few parts of the State, and many regions remained powerless for much longer than that.

True it was that lines were damaged in the mid-North around Port Augusta, but that doesn’t explain why the whole State’s supply went down. Grids are designed with a level of redundancy, and to avoid complete collapses by isolating damaged sections, in order to keep the balance up and running.

For those truly interested in the cause, what appears in the graph above … gives a clue as to the culprit.

Lees verder hier.

Zou zoiets ook hier kunnen gebeuren? Naarmate het aandeel van intermitterende energie (wind en zon) in de stroomproductie toeneemt, en naarmate meer kolencentrales worden gesloten, neemt de kans daarop toe. Duitsland met zijn Energiewende lijkt de beste kandidaat voor een grote black-out. De fluctuaties in de Duitse stroomvoorziening planten zich voort in die van de buurlanden. In het ergste geval worden deze ook meegesleurd in de ineenstorting van de stroomvoorziening.

Voorkomen is beter dan genezen. De oplossing is eenvoudig, leidt tot matiging van de stroomprijzen, stabiliseert het elektriciteitsnet, voorkomt het vertrek van de energie-intensieve industrie uit Nederland, beperkt energiearmoede en bespaart tientallen miljarden. Stop de uitbreiding van wind- en zonne-energie!

Voor mijn eerdere bijdragen over klimaat en aanverwante zaken zie hierhier, hier, hier en hier.