Authored by Richard Trzupek via The Epoch Times,
According to the official, widely reported story, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) shut down substantial portions of its electric transmission system in northern California as a precautionary measure.
Citing high wind speeds they described as “historic,” the utility claims that if they didn’t turn off the grid, wind-caused damage to their infrastructure could start more wildfires in the area.
Perhaps that’s true. Perhaps. This tale presumes that the folks who designed and maintain PG&E’s transmission system are unaware of or ignored the need to design it to withstand severe weather events, and that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) allowed the utility to do so.
Ignorance and incompetence happens, to be sure, but there’s much about this story that doesn’t smell right—and it’s disappointing that most journalists and elected officials are apparently accepting it without question.
Take, for example, this statement from a Fox News story about the Kincade Fires: “A PG&E meteorologist said it’s ‘likely that many trees will fall, branches will break,’ which could damage utility infrastructure and start a fire.”
Did you ever notice how utilities cut wide swaths of trees away when transmission lines pass through forests? There’s a reason for that: When trees fall and branches break the grid can still function.
So, if badly designed and poorly maintained infrastructure is not the reason PG&E cut power to millions of Californians, what might have prompted them to do so? Could it be that PG&E’s heavy reliance on renewable energy means they don’t have the power to send when an “historic” weather event occurs?
Wind Speed Limits
The two most popular forms of renewable energy come with operating limitations. With solar power the constraint is obvious: the availability of sunlight. One does not generate solar power at night and energy generation drops off with increasing degrees of cloud cover during the day.
The main operating constraint of wind power is, of course, wind speed. At the low end of the scale, you need about a 6 or 7 mph wind to get a turbine moving. This is called the “cut-in speed.” To generate maximum power, about a 30 mph wind is typically required. But, if the wind speed is too high, the wind turbine will shut down. This is called the “cut-out speed,” and it’s about 55 mph for most modern wind turbines.
It may seem odd that wind turbines have a cut-out speed, but there’s a very good reason for it. Each wind turbine rotor is connected to an electric generator housed in the turbine nacelle. The connection is made through a gearbox that is sized to turn the generator at the precise speed required to produce 60 Hertz AC power.
The blades of the wind turbine are airfoils, just like the wings of an airplane. Adjusting the pitch (angle) of the blades allows the rotor to maintain constant speed, which in turn allows the generator to maintain the constant speed it needs to safely deliver power to the grid. However, there’s a limit to blade pitch adjustment. When the wind is blowing so hard that pitch adjustment is no longer possible, the turbine shuts down. That’s the cut-out speed.
Now consider how California’s power generation profile has changed. According to Energy Information Administration data, the state generated 74.3 percent of its electricity from traditional sources—fossil fuels and nuclear—in 2001. Hydroelectric, geothermal, and biomass-generated power accounted for most of the remaining 25.7 percent, with wind and solar providing only 1.98 percent of the total.
By 2018, the state’s renewable portfolio had jumped to 43.8 percent of total generation, with wind and solar now accounting for 17.9 percent of total generation. That’s a lot of power to depend on from inherently unreliable sources.
Thus, it would not be at all surprising to learn that PG&E didn’t stop delivering power out of fear of starting fires, but because it knew it wouldn’t have power to deliver once high winds shut down all those wind turbines.
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Incompetence personified.
Just curious – where is all the electricity for all those electric cars they want going to come from?
They can create wind farms that are powered by diesel generators that are placed under ground. Then, claim startling success with wind energy generation. And the Teslas zoom on…..
Solar and wind power…duh.
Diesel generators connected to the chargers. Karl Denninger has posted pics of them.
The entire idea of global warming as well as electric cars is all about reducing your freedoms and getting the next generation used to living in “habitat zones” while allowing the elites to enjoy the entire globe. Plenty of movies out there show this concept where people are told outside their bubble is death and life in their bubble is great. The Truman Story comes to mind.
Prof- we have recently installed a signifigant solar array, our roof is laid out for excellent insolation, and we opted for stand alone, i.e. not connected to utillity.
When the right Electric Vehicle comes to market, I will be on it like a fat kid on a candy bar, and have been investigating building my own for years.
I percieved an increase in my freedom quotient by doing so. Not to say what you are Proposing for the masses is inaccurate but just to highlight an alternative possibility.
Solar and wind are a self sufficient Americans dream come true.
What source of potential energy is unleashed to make those solar panels and wind turbines? Certainly not solar panels and wind turbines, because the equation won’t balance.
Yeah, I dont care if they used coal to build them, they are mine now, and i can do whatever the fuck i want with em.
What energy source is used to maintain them when they go on the fritz (parts and service)? Not trying to be a dick…just demonstrating that things are far more complex and interwoven than at first glance.
Not an expert, but I thought solar and wind were both loss leaders. Doesn’t a solar panel generally break even at about the same time it’s reached the end of its service life? And aren’t wind turbines even worse on the EROI? I have wind turbines where I live and they are off much of the time.
I love petroleum, problem is my access to it is extremely limited and a host of undesirables have positioned themselves between us.
They are going to tax the ever living shit out of you for having off grid power. It is already being proposed.
Taxed? Shit man, I’ve heard there are some places attempting to ban people from going off-grid. Is it true? I don’t know, but I wouldn’t be surprised.
AOC – yes, that is also true, because if too many people go off grid, they lose tax dollars and they lose the revenue needed to fund the infrastructure. So in the end, they will charge you whether you use the service or not, especially if there are wires in the area. If the wires pass your property, they will charge you – hey! We provide access to the network, so pay up!
It is a dead certainty.
That is prognostication, I am keenly aware of my tax liability, and there is none now, this is the last year for the big Fed Rebate, so actually you are buying them for me. Thank You!!
Otto – it is gonna happen. Tax may not be the right word – if you have access to the line, but choose not to use them, you will still have to pay. Count on it.
Already being done in Spain.
carousel!
Well-publicized plans from the UN hiding in plain sight. The Satanic Luciferians must warn or tell the victim what they plan to do……well they have. Be Warned!
http://www.intellectualconservative.com/agenda-21-soon-to-become-the-2030-agenda/
That is opportunity knocking.
Prime power diesel 8kW generator and 110+ gallon fuel tank, on a trailer, so you can actually charge and drive your legally mandated EV.
Shouldn’t add more than about $20k to the price of the (already expensive) EV. Be a nice backup for your home during the increasingly common California power outages, too.
This is catabolic collapse in action.
And all of this is done out of ignorance in the pursuit of zero CO2 emissions. When CO2 is PLANT FOOD idiots!
A technology invented in the US over 50 years ago and proven to work for several years of testing was shut down and never implemented.
The Chinese are implementing this form of safe nuclear energy generation. The Indians are implementing this form of safe nuclear energy generation.
Other countries are testing the technology but the law prevents it from being tested in the US except for minuscule power output that doesn’t provide the proper test bed for utility scale power.
NASA is running out of plutonium to power spacecraft that will venture too far from the sun to use solar energy. The medical field is running out of certain isotopes for diagnostics and treatment options, all due to the law. The US is squandering its lead in this technology – the molten salt reactor. This proven type of reactor will provide solutions for these issues while consuming the nuclear waste currently sitting in spent fuel ponds.
Look up LFTR (liquid fluoride thorium reactor) or MSR and get an education on what’s possible if the dipshits in DC would get out of the way. There’s enough Thorium to power the entire US for 100 years already mined and sitting in barrels buried in the Nevada desert.
Miniature reactors of this type could power communities. No need for the massive grid that hasn’t been maintained properly for decades.
Because traitors run the nation ? and there is not enough profit for the right people, and cheap power for the masses ?
Not in our lifetime.
You’re partly right and hopefully partly wrong.
Alvin Weinberg invented both the light water reactor and the molten salt reactor. He spent the later part of his life campaigning against the light water reactor because he knew it was an accident waiting to happen. He was right.
The vast majority of all reactors world wide are light water with a containment building – you know, the one that blew up in Fukushima. The molten salt reactor has no containment building because it doesn’t need one. It operated at near atmospheric pressure. I won’t go through all the inherent safety features an MSR offers, but you can get that info by looking up Kirk Sorensen on YouTube.
The reason for the light water focus was because it would produce plutonium that the military wanted and the MSR wouldn’t; the physics for the MSR is inherently anti proliferation, so the military killed it.
Major US corporations became the nuclear fuel suppliers and the entire world followed the US lead. Now we have corporations with no incentive to change out the technology, at least not unless they are forced to via the market. Once the Thorium fuel cycle has a steady supplier anywhere in the world, the rush for Thorium MSR/LFTR reactors is going to explode.
Why you may ask. Simple – who ever has the cheapest and most reliable source of energy wins. Forget oil, forget natural gas, forget coal, forget wind, at least for industrial purposes. Absolutely nothing is going to beat Thorium on cost.
If the US wants to compete, it will have to go to a Thorium cycle like it or not.
Nothing will replace internal combustion in transportation. That is unless you are going to put a reactor into a car….
Fuel cells produce electricity and have been around for quite some time. They prefer pure hydrogen fuel and that has been the primary factor limiting its acceptance. They exhaust water vapor.
Recently, an Englishman announced and got backing for a device that consumes aluminum in an electrolyte to produce electricity. It was announced as an Aluminum / Air battery.
These cells have a considerable energy density and combined with high efficiency motors can easily power all common highway capable vehicles.
For reference, the giant mining trucks with tires taller than a person use an electric motor on each wheel powered by a central diesel generator. Replace that diesel generator with an appropriately sized fuel cell and the motors won’t know the difference.
ICE vehicles are today’s capable machines, but electric motors and various forms of storage or generation capacity are rapidly eating into their market share. In ten years time, I doubt you’ll be able to purchase a new ICE vehicle.
BTW – the original need that led to the development of the Molten Salt Reactor concept was to power an airplane.
“They prefer pure hydrogen fuel and that has been the primary factor limiting its acceptance.”
Has anyone invented a tank capable of containing hydrogen without significant loss over time?
It’s an incomprehensibly shitty fuel choice for that reason alone.
I read that someone invented a material, a metal, I believe, that absorbs Hydrogen the way water absorbs ammonia gas. Tremendous quantities of hydrogen could occupy a relatively small space. I never followed up on it so have no idea if it’s true or to what extent it’s true. I suspect the problem there is how to get the material to release its hold on the hydrogen.
My objection to using hydrogen as a fuel is that it’s not a primary fuel. One has to expend more energy to produce the hydrogen than the hydrogen is capable of supplying. The volatility of the gas is well known as is the problem of pressurizing the smallest molecule in existence.
If one could use solar energy to produce the hydrogen via electrolysis, for example, then I’d lower my objection. Hydrogen can be produced in significant quantities via a nuclear process and that is also a reasonable way of obtaining the gas. Using fossil fuels to do it is insane.
https://4thgeneration.energy/thorium-vs-molten-salt-reactor/
Although true, your link provides a bit of a misconception. The original MSRE experiment was specifically designed around Thorium fuel because it needs a neutron source to act as the spark plug to get the chain reaction going. Something aboard an aircraft needs to be extremely safe and compact, so more energetic Uranium didn’t make sense.
Remove the neutron source and the reactor quiesces gracefully. The neutron source would typically be a tiny amount of fissionable Uranium readily available from spent fuel rods. Once a chain reaction is initiated, the reactor supplies its own neutron source that’s regulated with control instrumentation.
To separate the MSR from Thorium although possible, is a misuse of the tech. The Indians have a bastardized version of the MSR in test and IMHO, it’s overly complex and went out of its way just to be different as I can’t see any advantages to their design.
Molten Salt Reactor is a general category that can and is being applied to different designs. The one I see with the most potential and easiest development is the LFTR version as envisioned by Kirk Sorensen and his FLIBE Energy company.
i just threw that up there when the salt reactors were brought up above,and i also remembered someone here in the past discussing thorium reactors–
i know nothing about them but was trying to generate some discussion–
tks 4 replying–
I’m not an expert, but I thought molten salt was worse due to its inherent corrosive nature. I remember visiting EBR-1 on a trip out to Idaho once. I think the tour guide or the literature mentioned that exact issue and the light water reactor was an improvement over the molten salt system. Also, isn’t contamination much higher than with a boiled water reactor? I guess the research has advanced farther than where it was in the 1950s.
On a related note, I have a buddy who used to build space batteries used on mars rovers and in satellites. The technology is pretty cool, but unfortunately it can be a decade between jobs.
You’re correct in identifying the metallurgical requirements to withstand the corrosive environment as a significant issue. The folks at Oak Ridge managed to do it, but they knew their choice wasn’t optimum for long term exposure.
Today, several material have been identified as possible long term capable candidates to contain the reaction heat as well as chemical and nuclear assault. That’s what testing is for and is what isn’t being done in the US because the law limits the testing environment.
The Chinese are definitely in the lead and soon the world will be purchasing Chinese reactors instead of US versions. Maybe the genius in the oval office will prohibit the importation of the best tech so the US can slip further down the rankings while keeping energy costs high to support the oil majors.
Good job, been waiting for someone to bring up thorium other than Denninger.
Now if those walking talking hemorrhoids collectively known as Congress would simply get out of the way, we could make some progress.
It’s all a liability issue , wind damage to high tension wires sparked a fire and the state sponsored or encouraged law suits for damage from the fire started .
Maintenance , design are other factors that probably come into play . Perhaps a program of smart grid technology upgrades are in order funded by taxing those electric cars . Surely the green Tesla owners would jump right on board with that !
Instead of free charging stations now slide your debit card the way you would to buy fuel .
Or they could just bury the damn lines.
Burying 500V distribution lines is possible at a reasonable cost. Burying 345,000 V transmission lines is not. Air is a reasonable insulator, earth is not.
What the author is proposing – I doubt it. PG&E would catch more hell for having the forested areas insufficiently pruned than for making the public aware of an inherent problem with getting electricity from wind turbines.
These libtards will never admit they are wrong
Because Gaia is their goddess and Climatology is their religion.
https://www.thedailysheeple.com/goat-herd-credited-with-saving-reagan-presidential-library-from-wildfire-in-california/
Several cities in southern California have been hiring goats to provide fuel abatement for years now. It’s relatively cheap and environmentally friendly.
Alternative energy sources are plentiful, reliable, and cost effective….and while I’m at it if you like your doctor and insurance you can keep them and Arctic ice will be gone in the summer of 2015. Send money to the DNC.
What better way to accelerate the country turning blue than by convincing many Californians to flee that shithole? All they are doing with these blackouts is shaking the tree.
As for the CA fires, I am with Mark’s position.
I think the blackouts are intended to create a crisis that will force the California governor and legislature to act. But, their actions won’t be to actually help the people, instead their actions will help PG&E. The new reality in California is that because PG&E is being held liable for the wildfires, they will continue to be sued out of existence. So, under these circumstances, why not create a crisis so that the public will demand that the government do something? This will cause the voters to demand that elected officials develop a plan to indemnify PG&E somehow. Perhaps a public buyout of PG&E so that as a government entity liability for any future wildfires will be limited? This will be touted as a “win-win” situation. The people won’t suffer through intentional blackouts, elected officials will get votes, and PG&E stockholders will receive large checks while being let off the hook for investing in a company that is facing substantial financial liabilities and a failing infrastructure.
And the best part, more money to be fleeced from the public and more State involvment.
This is the old European socialism model. The utilities are routinely purchased from private ownership, after years or decades of near-zero maintenance, for some large multiple of their actual worth.
The government then does all the ‘deferred maintenance’ at public expense, and sells the utility back to the private owners for some small fraction of its actual value.
The cycle then repeats.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mlr3ZLSfN0c
Here’s a trailer to the documentary he made about this:
https://vimeo.com/369733688
annuit coeptis novus ordo seclorum
We have lived in Northern California for almost 40 years, next to the National Forest. We have a beautiful homestead. There was NO WIND in the foothills for miles and miles around. Electric went down the first time on Oct. 9. It finally got windy on the night of the 27 Oct through to the 28th. We had power outages for about 10 or 11 days total. Lost count. CA is a big state -1000 miles long with various climate zones. Up farther north from where we live, the terrain and the Diablo winds are more common. Down south in LA – about 700 miles from here are the Santa Ana Winds. But in between, from Santa Cruz county to all the way up to Nevada County – NO WIND. Not even a breeze and we had our power shut off. AT&T ran out of juice and had to set up generators to keep our land lines up. Many people had no cell service either. Now, due the the electric going on and off a few times between “events” our internet and landlines are now all messes up and not going to get back to normal until Nov. 6 – so they say. We are thinking of moving to Maine. I can handle snow better than I can CA government and black out!
I believe their excuse. California is a shithole and they’re going Atlas Shrugged now as the incompetence and corruption causes cascading failures. PGE apparently didn’t keep up with maintenance and improvements and the results are now obvious for all to see. I remember over 10 years ago when california was talking about rolling blackouts so industry would be able to maintain production.