Interconnectors: More Green Stupidity?

[GreenIsGood]

According to our friends in the "renewable" energy rackets, large amounts of electrical interconnection between Ireland and the UK are a "no brainer".

Their belief system goes something like this. Ireland has a "world class" wind resource. Therefore she should install huge amounts of wind capacity. When the wind is blowing Ireland can export the excess power to the UK. When it is not blowing, we can generate our own power (using gas) or import power (gas, coal, nuclear) from the UK. A large amount of interconnection (many GW) is essential, apparently.

As a business model, this is pure gombeenomics: guaranteed to lose money. But it is less well known that interconnection also exposes us to massive geophysical risk. Let me explain.




Solar storms bombard the earth with charged particles which cause the earth's magnetic field to fluctuate. From Faraday's law, this induces electrical currents, so-called "ground currents" around the earth.

Normally these are small and harmless currents. However, the installation of a highly conductive grid over large distance changes this. Larger currents are possible, which greatly increases the risk to our grid from solar storms.

Geomagnetically induced current - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Loss of the grid for even a few days could take a massive human and economic toll. The green "no-brainer" policy of extreme interconnection is expensive. But it is also dangerous and stupid.

[Telemachus]

Can you explain this a bit more?

I dont understand how a few wires across the irish sea could lead to disaster.

[bm42]

The best I can make out is that we need local generating capacity as backup rather than relying on other countries.

[Pat Gill]

Perhaps GIG you might educate yourself on the basic fundamentals of HVDC before you get yourself all excited.

And explain how very long distance HVDC lines have been in use for decades with no wet knickers events at all, ever, zero, zilch, not even a tiny dribble.

[Carson]

Can you give a bit more detail behind your reasoning that the interconnector plan is stupid?

You outline the logic behind the interconnector - Ireland exports wind energy to Britain thus becoming potentially a net exporter of energy at some point in the future - but your explanation about solar storms knocking out our grid strikes me as a bit far fetched.

Has this happened to underwater cables anywhere else in the world?

Assuming an engineering solution can be found to prevent an breakdown in supply due to solar activity, do you have any other objections to the plan? You mention higher costs but surely exporting wind rather than importing oil is to Ireland's economic advantage no?

[venusian]

Unfortunately, last winter with all the snow on the ground, there was practically no wind across all of Northern Europe. Totally inefficient wind turbines are horrendously expensive, especially offshore wind, because of the cost of taking the turbines out to sea and installing the structures, 24hour/365 day a year they have to be backed up by fossil fueled power stations.They also use vast amounts of concrete whilst destroying the environment to be installed.

The fact that the wind turbines always have to be backed up by fossil fuel stations also increases the cost of the poor electricity they sometimes produce as well as increasing C02.

Only an idiot, a Green party supporter or a “Labour” career politician like Pat the Pipsqueak Rabid would support useless wind turbines. The most cost-effective technologies are nuclear and gas-fired. Onshore, and especially offshore, wind non-technologies are inordinately expensive just the type of thing that “labour” loves to subsidise with tax payers money!

[Luachara]

We should be building pumped storage facilities the are 80% efficient.

[Pat Gill]

Oh I love ideological discussions.

Wake me up please when someone says something sensible or even something humorous.

[Luachara]

We need to remove subsidies for wind power to ensure they are built only on the most efficient sites.

[daveL]

so the telecom cables under the atlantic ocean must be about to blow the earth in two then