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Rafe Champion's avatar

Recognition of wind droughts, wind lulls, or Dunkelflautes, could have averted one of the worst public policy blunders on record, maybe even the worst ever. Trillions of dollars have been spent worldwide on wind and solar power to get more expensive and less reliable energy with massive damage to forests and farmlands.

Mariners and millers would have known about them for centuries, at least at the local level. https://www.flickerpower.com/images/The_endless_wind_drought_crippling_renewables___The_Spectator_Australia.pdf

Independent Australian investigators documented the impact of wind droughts on the electricity supply over a decade ago but nobody in officialdom took any notice, at home or abroad.

https://rafechampion.substack.com/p/the-late-discovery-of-wind-droughts

Dirt farmers are alert to the threat of rain droughts, how come the wind farmers never checked the reliability of the wind supply to become aware of wind droughts?

https://open.substack.com/pub/rafechampion/p/we-have-to-talk-about-wind-droughts

Wind droughts become an existential threat to thousands or tens of thousands of people when the wind drought trap closes on a windless night during extreme weather conditions coinciding with outages of conventional power. See Texas Februry 2021.

https://www.flickerpower.com/index.php/search/categories/general/escaping-the-wind-drought-trap

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Ed Ireland's avatar

Yes, Rafe. It is not like dunkelflautes are something new. Yet, Germany and now Texas are relying on wind that is well known to stop blowing at certain times of the day and year. It can only be explained as mass psychosis, also referred to as mass psychogenic illness or collective delusion. I always appreciate your comments, Rafe. Ed

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Julius's avatar

Having visited in the summer, I can agree that the temps in the summer there are in the mid-1990s! Unless that was a fun typo :-)

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Ed Ireland's avatar

Julius, that was a typo that I missed! Yes, the mid-1990s would be hot indeed. Thanks for pointing it out. I fixed it. I appreciate your sharp eye, Julius. Ed

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Ed Ireland's avatar

How did those projects get approved? Are you saying that there is hope for New York State? Ed

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Kilovar 1959's avatar

They are in process, here are links to the cases

https://opsb.ohio.gov/cases/25-0188-el-bgn

https://opsb.ohio.gov/cases/25-302-el-bgn

And looks like a peaker is in process too

https://opsb.ohio.gov/cases/25-0227-el-bgn

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