UK shows a disaster waits for Australia in its race for clean energy

The sheer practical day-to-day impossibility of moving to wind and solar as the basis for our electricity grid was captured in one day’s experience in the UK last week.

Wind turbines off the coast of Liverpool, England. Picture: Getty Images

The sheer practical day-to-day – verging on the every day – impossibility of moving to wind and solar as the basis for our electricity grid was captured in one day’s experience in the UK last week.

I would say “I have seen the future – in the UK – and it doesn’t work”, except for one huge difference between what the UK does have and we won’t in the crazy-stupid Albanese-Bandt-Bowen future.

That one difference makes the chaotic hotch-potch of power generation – sort-of – ‘work’ in the UK, at extraordinary expensive, and by breaking the golden rule of the climate cult: massive continued, baseload use of CO2-emitting gas.

The UK has enough gas power stations to generate anywhere between 50 per cent and even up to 90 per cent of its power needs – depending on whether the ’wind is blowing or the sun is shining’.

Oh yes, and for the moment, also the wicked nuclear stations that can generate between 12 and 16 per cent, and no less than eight extension cords into Europe that can also garner 12-16 per cent of its peak needs.

We are going to have none of those three to draw on – apart from a pathetic little bit of gas.

We’ll just have batteries, for those cloudy windless days, and of course nights; along with supply management formerly known as brownouts and blackouts.

Yes, the UK does have massive wind installation. On a good, windy, day it can get ’12 Liddells’ – as much as 17,000MW – from wind.

Indeed, on a windy and sunny day, it could get that 17,000MW plus up to another 5000MW from – largely off-grid rooftop – solar.

Sounds great? Then let me then take you to 3am one morning last week, when the sun certainly wasn’t shining but the wind also wasn’t blowing.

The UK was getting zip, zero, obviously nothing, from solar; but also barely 1000MW from its entire wind network; effectively zero as well.

So-called capacity 22,000MW; actual generation just 1000MW.

Now, yes, at 3am demand was at a minimum, but it was still around 24,000MW. So where was the UK getting the other 23,000MW from?

Over 4000MW was coming from nuclear and over 2000MW from the extension cords. The vast majority, nearly 16,000MW, was gas.

That in itself shows the utter lunacy, the sheer non-functionality, of the energy future that the ‘mad, bad and, unfortunately, we have to know’ trio of Albanese, Bandt and Bowen are speeding us towards.

But, think further about the sheer day-to-day lunacy and impossibility.

It’s 3am. Demand is ‘only’’ 24,000MW.

But as surely as day follows night, the UK grid operators know demand is going to leap around 8000MW from around 7am as the day gets underway; and that it could go yet another 6000MW higher through the day.

What do they do?

Do they ‘assume’’ – pray – that it’s not a cloudy day? That the wind will start blowing?

That those ‘experts’ who claim to be able to predict the weather 100 years into the future, will for once get the next day’s weather half-right?

Or do they crank up more gas stations, the further 6000MW they have? And also, cough, cough, the 2000MW they can still get from the really wicked coal generators?

Well, come breakfast time the wind still wasn’t blowing; and the sun was only beginning to dribble through – so they did both and doubled what they’d been getting from Europe.

Think about it: we will have none of those options. Just batteries, to last long enough to make the toast – and then?

More fundamentally, are even the UK options any way to run a power grid: trying to fit everything around the vagaries of wind and solar?

And having to do it, every day; indeed every hour?

Insanity.