Here is a comprehensive article debunking the increasing use of solar energy:
Storm clouds ahead down on the solar farm – The Conservative Woman
There is a lot of good information in there. Time for the government to wake up before it’s too late.
via climate science
January 16, 2022 at 07:06AM
By Paul Homewood
Homeowners and farmers are being threatened with having their land effectively confiscated to make way for solar farms to meet Britain’s net zero target, The Telegraph can disclose.
Energy firm Sunnica has submitted plans to build a 2,792 acre solar farm and energy storage infrastructure on the Suffolk and Cambridgeshire borders.
If the Planning Inspectorate recommends to ministers that the plans should be given the go-ahead later this year, it will be the largest solar farm built in the UK so far, providing power for 100,000 homes.
But MPs and residents living in many of the small villages in the area have decried proposals by Sunnica to use compulsory purchase orders for land on which it needs access and where it cannot reach a negotiated settlement with owners.
This would include significant sections of land under which to lay electricity cables connecting the solar panels and battery storage units to the Burwell National Grid Substation in Cambridgeshire.
It could also see the compulsory purchase of land to create wider roads and access points to allow construction of the huge project, which is equivalent to the size of 2,115 football pitches.
The company stated that it "requires powers of compulsory acquisition to ensure that the scheme can be built, maintained and operated, and so that the Government’s policies in relation to the timely delivery of new generating capacity and achieving ambitious net zero targets are met."
Matt Hancock MP, the former health secretary, who along with Lucy Frazer, a Treasury minister, represents the area earmarked for the development, told The Telegraph: “By attempting to force through unpopular proposals they [Sunnica] damage the case for delivering the renewables we need.
“I support solar developments locally where they are in the right place, with the support of us locally. The way Sunnica has gone about this is completely wrong."
More than a dozen land and property owners are thought to be holding out against Sunnica’s attempt to acquire "an interest" in their land in order to lay cables and gain or improve access to the sites on which the solar farm would be built.
In all these cases Sunnica say "no progress" is being made in negotiations, indicating they may need to move to compulsory purchase.
‘We’ll be sitting next to a ticking time bomb’
Richard Tuke, a landowner who is refusing to allow 800 acres of his land at Freckenham to be used by Sunnica, stated in a consultation document: “Our withdrawal from the scheme does not prevent Sunnica from including our land in their submission to the Inspectorate nor does it stop them from applying for compulsory powers to purchase our land should they choose to do so.
“We have however written the Inspectorate formally telling them that Sunnica are including our land without permission.”
The Campaign for the Protection of Rural England, which supports solar power in brownfield sites, has criticised Sunnica for pursuing its plans through the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIP) regime, saying “this risks squeezing local views and local scrutiny out of the decision-making process”.
It added: “It’s worrying that the applicant is also proposing to apply for Compulsory Purchase Orders where it can’t reach a negotiated settlement with affected landowners.”
Critics have also decried the size of the solar farm on what is open agricultural land and the potential danger of the large lithium-ion battery units needed to store the electricity generated by solar panels before transfer to the National Grid. In recent years similar battery units have been involved in fires and explosions in Britain and abroad.
Critics have also decried the size of the solar farm on what is open agricultural land
Mr Hancock said: "Even the most ardent supporter of renewable energy can see that putting a huge battery farm right next to villages is a bad idea. Those behind this proposal have completely failed to bring the community with them, refused to attend all the key meetings and haven’t even tried to win over local support.”
South Korea saw 23 battery farm fires in just two years and a recent battery fire in Illinois burned for three days, with thousands of residents evacuated. Lithium-ion batteries used in solar farm energy storage systems were deemed an "unacceptable risk" in Arizona after causing two serious fires in 2019.
In Merseyside, one of three battery cabins on a site caught fire and exploded in 2020 and nearby residents were ordered to stay indoors.
Solar farm battery units are not covered by the Control of Major Accident Hazards regulations and are unregulated under UK law.
Professor Wade Allison, emeritus professor of physics at Oxford University, and a panel of experts last year warned that with the potential for huge explosions, fires and clouds of toxic gas, they could devastate towns and villages nearby.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/01/15/land-may-seized-make-way-solar-farms-net-zero-drive/
The solar farm will be 500MW, but on average will only operate at about 60MW. In other words, it is miniscule in energy terms, despite its industrial scale footprint of 2115 football pitches. You would, for instance need 33 of these monstrosities to provide the same amount of power as a 2GW gas power station such as Carrington, (which you would need anyway to provide backup!).
It is hard to comprehend the size when expressed in acres, but one acre = 1/640th of a square mile.
Therefore Sunnica will be over 4 square miles.
The construction alone, which will take three years, will be massively disruptive to locals, and as the article points out the battery storage situated just a mile away from one of the villages is an accident waiting to happen.
There is something drastically wrong with our planning system, if industrial developments like Sunnica can take place in the middle of pristine countryside without locals having any say in the matter.
via NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT
January 16, 2022 at 04:21AM
From the Cliff Mass Weather Blog
Yesterday, around 0400 UTC 15 January (8 PM PST 14 January), there was a massive, explosive eruption near Tonga, in the southern tropical Pacific, about 5642 miles from Seattle (see map).
The volcano was clearly evident in satellite imagery from the massive ash cloud (see below, about 1-h after the eruption)
The explosive eruption created shock waves in the atmosphere (pressure waves) that rapidly propagated away. These waves are evident in some infrared (water vapor channel) imagery as concentric rings (shown below).
The oceanic eruption also pushed away a massive amount of water, which created a tsunami on nearby islands (such as Tonga) and deep water waves that moved away at the speed of a jet plane, reaching the West Coast this morning. This is why some local tsunami warnings went out this AM.
The Pressure Wave Reaches the Northwest
Local barometers indicated a well-defined pressure wave passing over our region around 4:30 AM this morning. Here in Seattle, the University of Washington barometer showed the feature, with an amplitude of roughly 2 hPa (2 mb). The arrow indicates the feature. Very impressive.
So it took about eight hours and 30 minutes to go about 5643 miles–thus a speed around 664 miles per hour. This corresponds to the speed of sound in the upper atmosphere around 30,000 ft. Makes sense.
The water wave moves slower, around 400 mph (and occasionally approaching 500 mph)….so a later arrival was expected. Thus, at Neah Bay, at the entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the water wave arrived around 9 AM (17:00 UTC as shown on the chart), as indicated by the waviness in the water level after that time. The amplitude of the variation is around 2 feet.
If you really want to be impressed, check out the same figure at Monterey, California. Just wow. The amplitude was up to 3-4 feet.
An amazing event and one that shows how interconnected our planet is–both in the air and in the water.
via Watts Up With That?
January 16, 2022 at 04:05AM
The godly retirees laugh at the climate crowd.
The post The view from Mount Olympus appeared first on CFACT.
via CFACT
January 16, 2022 at 03:58AM
Iowa Climate Science Education 
