I wonder how long it will take for green washed Wales to wake-up to the reality of intermittent unreliable renewables which they seek to smother beautiful rural Wales with, swallow their pride and do what is best for the people of Wales as Scotland has allegedly done and now the Dutch province of Utrecht is in the process of doing.
I have included information about Scotland’s alleged about face after the article by Stop These Things.
Europe’s wind and solar ‘transition’ continues to unravel, with the Dutch the latest to ditch the pitch to so-called ‘renewables’. Small (geographically) and industrious, the Dutch have always managed to punch well above their weight, dominating seafaring trade through history and, these days, producing a staggeringly large proportion of the foodstuffs that are consumed around the globe.
But, like most of their European neighbours, the Netherlands has squandered billions of subsidies on chaotically intermittent wind and solar, with little to show for it – other than ruined landscapes and unliveable homes.
Now the hard cold reality of sunshine and/or weather-dependent power generation is starting to bite. Various provinces simply can’t keep the lights on, and have called timeout on the grand ‘transition’ to sunshine and breezes.
When the sun sets and/or calm weather sets in, it’ll be good old gas (an apparently not-so-evil fossil fuel) powering Dutch homes, businesses and industries around-the-clock, as Carl Deconinck explains below.
Dutch province of Utrecht returns to fossil fuel as power-grid faces meltdown Brussels Signal Carl Deconinck 25 April 2024
The Dutch province of Utrecht announced it will switch back to fossil fuel to relieve the overworked electricity grid, as the road to net-zero in the Netherlands hits some major obstacles.
The outgoing Dutch Climate Minister Rob Jetten, leader of the Democrats 66 (D66) party, along with local grid operators, announced a set of measures to fight the power-grid overload in Utrecht province. It is expected to be the first of many regions in the country that will have to take action to avoid future problems.
To maintain electricity provision to the public and businesses in Utrecht, there will be a switch back to gas. At moments of peak demand, the local Government will deploy gas generators.
Smart charging stations will be switched off during peak times but the regional authorities and grid operators are working on an exemption option for owners of electric vehicles to top-up their batteries if they need to.
Instead of fully-electric heat-pumps, hybrid heat-pumps are being promoted. These hybrid models can be connected to boiler-heating systems and are less demanding on the electricity grid.
The Dutch public service broadcaster nos reported that the projected shortage equals the needs of 125,000 homes in Utrecht.
Huib van Essen of the Utrecht Provincial Executive said the measures would “have a significant impact on reducing the overload on the power grid”, adding that the use of gas-plants was “unfortunately necessary” for this.
Without implementing appropriate measures, the province is forecast to experience frequent electricity blackouts, which would jeopardise the construction of new housing and industrial complexes, nos said.
Utrecht is the first province to opt to return to fossil fuels but other areas and provinces, in particular Flevopolder and Gelderland, are also said to be working on similar measures.
Without nationwide measures being implemented, nos reported that approximately 1.5 million people in the Netherlands could be subject to power outages until 2030.
Other issues would include the malfunction of electrical devices and lighting.
The problems for households and small consumers come on top of long-standing issues for the Dutch industrial sector, which is consuming electricity at much higher rates than previously.
Waiting times for new or upgraded connections, necessary for businesses to enhance their sustainability efforts, are also on the rise.
The shift back to fossil fuels in the Netherlands follows a decision by the Scottish Government to abandon its flagship target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 75 per cent by 2030.
It said it had an “unwavering commitment” to achieve net zero by 2045 but on April 18 called the targets for 2030 “out of reach”.
Scotland’s leadership was one of the first in the world to declare a “climate emergency”, in 2019. Brussels Signal
The following is a reposting of the original article about Scotland’s change of net zero police as published by the BBC on April 17, 2024.
Scotland was aiming to cut emissions by 75% by the end of the decade Image source: PA Media
By Kevin Keane
BBC Scotland's environment correspondent
The Scottish government is to ditch its flagship target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 75% by 2030.
The final goal of reaching "net-zero" by 2045 will remain, but BBC Scotland News understands the government's annual climate targets could also go.
Ministers have missed eight of the last 12 annual targets and have been told that reaching the 75% milestone by the end of the decade is unachievable.
A statement is expected at Holyrood on Thursday afternoon.
The Climate Change Committee (CCC) - which provides independent advice to ministers - warned back in 2022 that Scotland had lost its lead over the rest of the UK in tackling the issue.
Last year ministers failed to publish a plan it promised - required under the act - detailing how they were going to meet the targets.
Then in March of this year the CCC said for the first time that the 2030 target was unreachable.
Former first minister Nicola Sturgeon saw her SNP administration as world leaders on climate change when the targets were introduced in 2019, often asserting that Scotland had the "most stretching targets in the world."
Hers [sic] was the first government in the world to declare a climate emergency and Glasgow hosted the COP26 climate summit in 2021, yet environmentalists believe the emergency response never came.
So scrapping the targets will be seen as an embarrassing retreat for the SNP and the Scottish Greens, their partners in the Scottish government.
Scotland's emissions reduction target for 2030 was tougher than for the UK as a whole, which was for a reduction of 68% by the same date.
Where did the targets come from?
There was a febrile atmosphere around back in 2019 when the Scottish Parliament passed its landmark legislation to speed up the rate of decarbonisation
It was the height of the school climate strikes and just a few days earlier thousands had taken to the streets in support of Greta Thunberg's calls for more action.
Image caption: Nicola Sturgeon - pictured here with Greta Thunberg and climate activist Vanessa Nakate - portrayed her government as being climate leaders at COP26 in Glasgow • IMAGE SOURCE,PA MEDIA
At Holyrood, parties were trying to outbid each other on how quickly the country could go, eventually settling on a pace far beyond what experts had planned for.
The Scottish Greens - who are now in government with the SNP - proposed aiming to cut emissions by a whopping 80% compared with the baseline year of 1990.
But parliament settled on 75% - still 5% more than recommended - and the Climate Change Bill was agreed by all parties except the Greens, who abstained.
One former minister told me there was a "lack of realism" at the time.
I posted your substack (thanks) around Facebook, and shared it elsewhere with this comment.
Examine the substack, and my Thoughts: It has been my view for some time that without question climate change is real and also without question we are not approaching the problem properly. I do not think wind and our current way of capturing the Sun with solar panels makes much sense. I observe the Future in my mind's eye, and I see arrays of shattered solar panels unreclaimed, and as in the novel Doggerland (which was set in/on The North Sea) acres of moribund windmills, their turbines broken, their wires dangling, untended to, and unremoved or repaired by the socialism for the rich folks who backed this approach to solving climate change. Remember when asked, If Al Gore was a prophet Richard Branson said 'it depends what kind of profit you're speaking of.' That sums it up in my mind, inadequate and maybe a scam, in that big bucks are being made from government contributions without coming near to solving the problem. We need and have needed a new Manhattan project to find a real source of energy for the world and not the band-aid solutions, of wind a solar.
I need to emphasize, does anyone think that these wind companies once they fail, or once the turbines and windmills wear out in 20 to 25 years, that corporate America is going to pay to remove them from the landscape, or the seabed.
It's very clear that the majority of animals from the herds of modern moron slaves (MMS) of the Western Plantations are fully engaged in this lunacy. We Today have the FACTS and PROOF (thanks to OPERATION COVIDIUS) that the herds of MMS are so easily fooled that [I]one can only laugh if we Think that we'll do anything against the SRF & Billionaires DESIRES and ACTIONS.
I posted your substack (thanks) around Facebook, and shared it elsewhere with this comment.
Examine the substack, and my Thoughts: It has been my view for some time that without question climate change is real and also without question we are not approaching the problem properly. I do not think wind and our current way of capturing the Sun with solar panels makes much sense. I observe the Future in my mind's eye, and I see arrays of shattered solar panels unreclaimed, and as in the novel Doggerland (which was set in/on The North Sea) acres of moribund windmills, their turbines broken, their wires dangling, untended to, and unremoved or repaired by the socialism for the rich folks who backed this approach to solving climate change. Remember when asked, If Al Gore was a prophet Richard Branson said 'it depends what kind of profit you're speaking of.' That sums it up in my mind, inadequate and maybe a scam, in that big bucks are being made from government contributions without coming near to solving the problem. We need and have needed a new Manhattan project to find a real source of energy for the world and not the band-aid solutions, of wind a solar.
I need to emphasize, does anyone think that these wind companies once they fail, or once the turbines and windmills wear out in 20 to 25 years, that corporate America is going to pay to remove them from the landscape, or the seabed.
It's very clear that the majority of animals from the herds of modern moron slaves (MMS) of the Western Plantations are fully engaged in this lunacy. We Today have the FACTS and PROOF (thanks to OPERATION COVIDIUS) that the herds of MMS are so easily fooled that [I]one can only laugh if we Think that we'll do anything against the SRF & Billionaires DESIRES and ACTIONS.