You couldn't make it up...

UKIP candidate for Grimsby: “What do you do when all the renewal energy runs out?”

Does that qualify for a Sarah Palin award?
Does she ever wear lace-up shoes and if so does her mummy tie the laces.

Awww, bless!

It takes a certain kind of [lawyer bait ☺]; but looking at some various things online, it does seem as if Mrs Ayling has precedent for…how shall I say this? Remarks and comments following in the grand UKIP tradition !

We all have moments when things don’t come out of our mouths as they were meant to.

http://www.grimsbytelegraph.co.uk/Victoria-Ayling-Renewables-fad-Grimsby-needs-job/story-26054468-detail/story.html

“She meant, of course, renewable energy subsidies.”

She was quoted later in the article repsponding to the gaffe:

“My point was that we need job security for Great Grimsby and energy security for the country. I think this whole incident has raised an important question about renewables and not only about the subsidies.

“Renewables are not reliable and cannot offer us energy security. If the wind does not blow, or blows too hard we cannot gain power from wind turbines. If it is dark or not sunny enough, then we cannot gain power from solar energy. In fact Germany and Poland are turning back to coal, with the Polish Government applying to the European Commission for state aid to start mining coal again".

We all have moments when things don’t come out of our mouths as they were meant to.

Some people seem to manage to miss the other moments where things come out right…

“She meant, of course, renewable energy subsidies.”

Of course, now the trainer has prompted her, for a short while she will remember that version.

Renewables are not reliable and cannot offer us energy security. If the wind does not blow, or blows too hard we cannot gain power from wind turbines. If it is dark or not sunny enough, then we cannot gain power from solar energy.

Has the world stopped having tides?
Mind you that would only be viable if we had a lot of coastline with large estuaries funnelling into smaller channels like, er, the Bristol channel or that nice pinch point between England and France.

We all have moments when things don’t come out of our mouths as they were meant to.

Certainly, but as a politician you would have thought she would have bothered to learn her spiel before presenting it.

“She meant, of course, renewable energy subsidies.”

Of course, it is easy to change meanings and intentions after the fact… Why, politicians do it all the time! :-p

“Renewables are not reliable and cannot offer us energy security.

One might imagine in that case that something is wrong with the implementation. The old inefficient (but working) light bulbs have been phased out and replaced with s##ty weird slow-start naff-colour RFI-spewing rubbish that consumes less electricity (but is, surprise surprise, far from ecologically friendly) or those projector-bulbs-inside-a-normal-bulb that are about the closest thing to a regular light bulb only with a lifespan a fraction of what a generic 60W could manage. Now the powerful vacuum cleaners have gone (though even I thought upwards of 2kW to suck dirt was taking the piddly). I don’t know about the UK, but over here, towns have to turn most of their lights off after a late hour (11pm?). Shops too. So… Shouldn’t overall electricity consumption be going down as a result of these changes?

If the wind does not blow, or blows too hard we cannot gain power from wind turbines. If it is dark or not sunny enough, then we cannot gain power from solar energy.

Says a woman who lives on an island. As Steve pointed out, we (both UK and France) can make a lot of use of tidal energy. Take a look at the Marémotrice on the Rance up near Dinard, which generates about 240MW. [ http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usine_marémotrice_de_la_Rance ]

The thing is, she is right. You cannot depend upon the wind to always blow or the sun to always shine. That is why you need different types of renewable environmental energy. To work together.
That said, it is a rare day when the éoliens around here aren’t spinning.

In fact Germany and Poland are turning back to coal, with the Polish Government applying to the European Commission for state aid to start mining coal again".

Don’t get your reasons in a muddle here. You will probably find that “complicated” use of environmental generation such as tidal are less favoured because it is always better to pay stockholders than to invest in infrastructure; and likewise Germany and Poland might have realised that it could be cheaper to create a coal plant than to set up however many dozens of wind turbines would create the same effective power generation capacity. I do wonder, of course, why a country with mountains like Germany doesn’t just build a big hydro plant on a mountainous river. The Chinese have one and it makes some scary amount of power – 22,500MW, the same as 18 Hinkley Point reactors. I’m sure it would be possible to extract plenty of power from the tidal movements of the Severn, the Solent, and the Thames (to name just three major rivers in the south). It’s a luxury Poland doesn’t have, but then, I’m sure everybody will think a big hydro plant is a great idea so long as it is in the next town over…
[ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Gorges_Dam – being Chinese, it isn’t without controversy… ]

To be honest, I don’t think we are going to be able to get rid of traditional power. Too much of modern life depends upon reliable electricity. You – yes YOU – are reading this on an electronic device that either charged or is powered right now. You are talking to an internet box that is always on. And… You get the idea. You aren’t out preparing the land for sowing the early spring wheat and reading a book by lantern. Modern life is quite far removed from that. We all require electricity. Even such simple things as shopping depends heavily on it – as I’ve yet to meet a checkout girl capable of reading EAN13, for few things carry price labels these days. Payment? A piece of plastic. Useless without electricity.
In order to provide this, we will need traditional plant. Coal, oil, nuke, or whatever; it can provide a constant and reliable source of energy. Environmental power generation (I detest the phrase “renewables”, in case you hadn’t noticed) has a part to play as well, that when the conditions are correct, they can provide power so that the traditional plant can produce less. Less emissions, less waste. I think the last electricity bill said that France is now using something like 18% environmental with a corresponding reduction in nuclear capacity (which I think now represents something like 75%).

If it is dark or not sunny enough, then we cannot gain power from solar energy.

If they find something to make energy out of rain or fog, it might look more sustainable for them :p

If they find something to make energy out of rain or fog, it might look more sustainable for them :p

Even in Grimsby the fog fails at times :)