orangeblood wrote:TeamPlayersBlue wrote:
Europe in general does, and the use of wind power lowers this cost. The point is, they are able to run them in climates worse than what we see in Texas. There's no question about the profitability and cost effectiveness of wind power. They wouldn't use it if it wasn't.
I find it very unlikely that maintaining a farm of wind turbines costs more to maintain than a large thermal plant. I dont have specifics, but i find that unlikely. Having thermal as a backup as needed would still be efficient in many scenarios, it's just erratic based on the weather.
Look at the chart you posted, wind power fell just as much as it did in this past winter storm as it did many other times. So what is so different about the behavior for wind power? As stated before, they expected little wind energy during this crisis ahead of time.
You sure about the cost effectiveness of wind in Europe ?? Because there is no empirical evidence to back that assertion up....Europe has some of the most expensive electricity pricing on the planet. As far as cheap energy goes, Europe has failed in that regard!!!
Just look at the 2020 numbers below...Do you think it's a coincidence that the 5 cheapest providers of electricity on the planet have some of the highest uses of Coal/Natural Gas ?? At least to date, renewables can't even come close to competing with Fossil Fuels from a cost perspective.
Country Average price in cents/kWh
Germany .39
Denmark .32
Japan .29
Australia .26
UK .26
Spain .23
France .22
South Africa .15
Brazil .14
USA .14
Canada .11
Russia .06
Nigeria .06
China .08
India .08
Qatar .03
You're spinning my words. I said it LOWERS the cost of energy. All of those countries near the top, mostly European IMPORT their energy supplies from other countries. This is why their energy costs are so high. They import much of their product from Russia at a steep price.
Also, allllll of the countries with low energy costs produce the energy themselves. This is why it's so cheap. Has absolutely nothing to do with the type of energy. Qatar I believe has the largest amount of nat gas reserves in the world.
Energy is so expensive in Europe that many of them have the ability to run solar to lower costs. That's bananas for countries at such a high latitude and with the type of weather they have.