From the YCMTSU files (You cannot make this shit up) – the UK solves the unreliable gaps in electricity production from wind and solar by building a nationwide network of flywheels!

From here:

Ed Miliband reveals plan to prevent net zero blackouts (telegraph.co.uk)

“Giant metal ‘flywheels’ to be installed across Britain to help stabilise electricity grid.”

Got that? Having created the problem of the ned to back up every kWh of electricity from renewables that are at last a dozen times more expensive that hydrocarbon (fossil – not fossil!!!) fuels, the solution is to build a network of giant fly wheels that can be tapped during the annual average 120 hours out of 168 hours a week that wind turbines are idle, or, the  same for the unsunny UK’s solar panels – apparently, the physics works out that these 120 hours a week can be made up with flywheels, drawing on 48 hours of wind/solar – or, rather the surplus fossil fuel energy caused by renewables (that currently make up the shortfalls caused by renewable use) and instead have to run at minimum baseloads when renewables actually perform at their 27% or so “efficiency” – i.e. 2 days out of 7 days a week (48 hours out of 168 hours a week).

Sounds like the Brits have invented something that produces more power than is possible from the generators! Why not power the whole grid permanently with flywheels! Someone will have to explain to me how 48 hours of electricity can be turned into 120 hours!

The flywheels aren’t your ordinary flywheels:

Here’s another source (without the Sign-up requests from the Daily Telegraph).

Electricity Supplies & Storage - No2NuclearPower

“Giant flywheels are to be installed around the UK to minimise the risk of blackouts as the power system goes carbon-free.

Flywheels are energy storage systems that use surplus electricity to accelerate a massive metal “wheel”, thereby turning it into mechanical energy. “

Let’s stop right there – the flywheels “use surplus energy” just what surplus energy are we talking about here? The surplus energy produced that would otherwise tur electricity prices negative (as in Germany, recently?). What happens when there isn’t any surplus energy, like the 120 hours a week, when wind and solar produce nothing!

Why can’t household and industrial prices be reduced at times when the electricity is cheap, rather than seeking to maintain an expensive electricity price all the time? In this way renewables could b used to REDUCE power bills rather than increase them because of their high energy production costs!

“To avoid energy losses, the wheels are kept in a frictionless vacuum. If the grid needs a boost of electrical energy, the spinning disk can be used to generate power via magnetic induction – just as happens in the steam turbines of a traditional power station. “

Interesting. These flywheels will be spinning all the time, in a vacuum, and can be tapped at any time. So, who needs renewable energy – just put the illegal immigrants to work in a giant hamster wheel!

“The flywheels, some weighing hundreds of tonnes and spinning up to thousands of revolutions per minute, will store energy that can then be converted back into electricity within fractions of a second. This is designed to help the grid counter the fluctuations caused by renewables. “

Right, so the problem of renewables producing electricity for just 48 hours out of a 168-hour week, solved by these monstrous flywheels.

“They will be installed at key points around the electricity grid to stabilise the net zero electricity transmission systems and minimise the risk of blackouts. “

Renewables cause blackouts – so these flywheels will solve the problem – just double down on the problem with even more construction that puts giant blots on the “viewscape” and destroys the surrounding environment and ecosystems.

“The plans drawn up by Ed Miliband’s new National Electricity System Operator (NESO) will help to minimise the risk of disruption as the UK increases its reliance on wind and solar farms, the output of which can fluctuate from minute to minute with the weather. “

Oh, another government department – NESO – that would be the nationalisation of a part of the company called “National Grid plc” for 882 million bucks.

UK Government buys National Grid’s electricity system operator for $828m - Power Technology (power-technology.com)

Labour’s motto is becoming ever clearer. “If it’s working, break it and make it more expensive” – rather than “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.

Taxpayers fund the (almost) billion bucks, then fund the flywheels, then pay again with higher electricity prices, whilst their environment is being destroyed (ad farmers thrown off their land?). You would have to be mentally deranged to think this makes sense.

“It follows warnings that the removal of coal, gas and nuclear power stations from the system will leave the grid without the secure steady baseload needed to maintain stability. Grid instability is a known cause of blackouts: more than 1m people across the UK were plunged into darkness in August 2019 during one of the worst power blackouts in more than a decade.

The cause was a small change in grid frequency, caused by lightning hitting cables. Studies show the risk of a repeat will grow with the amount of renewables.

NESO, which was officially launched on Tuesday, said the plan followed 57 “pathfinder” projects around the country to see if flywheel and other technologies could work.

One of the trial projects has been under way in Liverpool, run by Stat kraft, a Norwegian company. It is adjacent to the site of the former coal-fired power station that once supplied much of Merseyside’s electricity. Stat kraft is also behind a similar £20m trial project at Keith, in Moray, Scotland, which also uses flywheels to store energy and stabilise the grid.

Such systems work by replicating the spinning turbines of a traditional power station but without the reliance on fossil fuels or the emissions associated with them.

NESO said the schemes would save consumers money by cutting the need for maintaining backup power stations and importing power from overseas via interconnectors. A spokesman said: “The pathfinders alone are expected to provide consumers with savings of £14.9bn between 2025 and 2035.”

Savings of 15 billion pounds over ten years?  Can’t wait to see how much electricity prices have to go up for that saving to occur and how much more debt will be taken on to pay for the flywheels!

Here’s a link to a detailed discussion of the flywheel technology.

Ultimate guide to flywheel energy storage | AquaSwitch

It has this in its conclusion:

“However, flywheels’ Achilles heel lies in their lack of total energy capacity and discharge time. They simply cannot replace fuels that hold energy within their atomic structure, like hydrogen or fossil fuels, or simply can’t remain locked in a reservoir until needed.”

Somehow, I do not think that Ed Miliband is a scientist who majored in physics or logic or that scientists have discovered how to create energy in a way that flywheels create perpetual motion and energy – maybe ab Einsteinian could weigh in!

Lastly, the UK just shut down its last coal-fired power station.

Moment UK's last coal-fired power station shuts down - BBC News

I wonder if you can still pop down a mine and grab some coal to heat your house – or – if you had a few dozen trees around your house and you cut down one a year, replanted it (so it would be full grown in 24 years), and chopped the tree into firewood for heat - would a man/woman/it from the government come round immediately and tell you, “you are breaking the law”?

Onwards!!!

Please take a (paid or unpaid) subscription or forward this article to those you think might be interested. You can also donate via Ko-fi – any amount from three dollars upwards. Ko-fi donations here:  https://ko-fi.com/peterhalligan