From the NoTricksZone

By P Gosselin on 30. October 2024

After its politically driven foray into electric vehicles, Volkswagen is facing significant financial challenges…plans to close at least three of its German factories…unprecedented move in the company’s history…. tens of thousands of jobs will be lost!

Anti-auto green party activist, liberal arts college-dropout on the supervisory board! 

The news for VW is real bad, and now the powerful IG Metall engineering and metal workers’ union is already hinting at strikes to prevent the cuts. Additionally, the company is looking to cut more than $4.3 billion in costs

Hat-tip: Aktienmitkopf.

Misguided foray into electric vehicles

But don’t start feeling sorry for VW. The problems are largely self-made by incompetent managers and politicians.

Firstly, the German state of Lower Saxony, where VW is headquartered in Wolfsburg, owns approximately 20% of Volkswagen. Then, secondly, in the late 2010s, VW began its earnest push into electric vehicle production with the introduction of its ID family of electric cars. The increased focus on electric vehicles was largely politically driven by factors like increasingly stringent emissions standards and overly optimistic future demand for electric vehicles.

EV car sales stall, plant closure

However, VW electric vehicle sales have since taken a turn for the worst. EVs aren’t popular in Germany. Their sales in the first half of 2024 were approximately 317,200 units worldwide, lower than the same period in 2023 (321,600 EVs). The future of EV sales now looks bleak: Volkswagen just announced the closure of its Audi Brussels plant in Belgium, which primarily produces electric vehicles. This decision comes due to lower-than-expected demand for electric vehicles and is expected to take effect in February 2025.

Green Party anti-auto activist, college dropout on VW supervisory board!

And if you think VW being owned by a green-leaning state is already problematic for the management of the company, take a look at who sits on the company’s supervisory board: Julia Willie Hamburg, a German politician from Alliance 90/The Greens, Ms. Hamburg also serves as the Deputy Minister-President of Lower Saxony and the State Minister for Education and Culture.

Now let’s look at her qualifications: According to her resume, Ms. Hamburg was educated in Hanover where she studied political science, German philology, and then studied philosophy at the University of Göttingen.

She dropped out of all her studies without a degree. Moreover, she’s an anti-car activist who travels by bicycle. She has neither industrial management experience, financial expertise nor an inkling of automotive engineering. That folks, is one of the top executives at VW. No joke!

So, don’t be surprised if VW gets its clock cleaned by the competition over the next few years.

From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT

By Paul Homewood

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/ckmgmdxg254t

Yes, the flash floods in Spain have been devastating. And, yes they have happened before.

But the BBC weatherman also claims that extreme rainfall events like these are becoming more common:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/ckmgmdxg254t

As usual the BBC do not provide any evidence for such irresponsible claims.

And the rainfall data for Valencia, which was worst hit, provides no such evidence either:

https://climexp.knmi.nl/ecaprcp.cgi?id=someone@somewhere&WMO=237&STATION=VALENCIA&extraargs=

KNMI daily rainfall data shows categorically that extreme rainfall is neither more common or extreme.

According to the Spanish weather agency, rainfall peaked at about 200mm in the area, certainly not unprecedented:

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/spain-valencia-flash-floods-chiva-video-rain-bodies-found-weather-b1190929.html

The BBC say more fell up in the hills at Chiva, but that does not have a long term record, and inevitably rainfall will be much higher as the moist  air rises rapidly over the hills. In other words, chalk and cheese.

Not for the first time, the BBC are using human tragedy to push their increasingly hysterical climate agenda.

Jo Nova’s article, $650 million in renewable energy didn’t save Brisbane from blackout, centers on a critical observation regarding the limitations of renewable energy in protecting urban infrastructure during extreme weather events. Nova’s story note reveals a broader critique about the reliability of renewable energy, the effectiveness of government subsidies, and the often overpromised capacity of green solutions.

According to Jo Nova, a recent storm left Brisbane, Australia, without power, despite significant investment in renewable energy—around $650 million over five years. She emphasizes that this blackout serves as a stark reminder that renewables, which rely heavily on weather conditions, do not offer the reliability needed in crisis scenarios. Nova underscores that during the storm, solar panels were rendered useless, and wind turbines also became non-functional. The renewable infrastructure could not deliver electricity when it was most needed, as stormy weather conditions forced solar and wind production offline​.

The bad news is that when there is no reliable 50Hz baseload supplier of electricity, the solar panel inverters just don’t mesh well with the diesel generators. The frequency of the diesel generators varies slightly as the load changes, and these fluctuations cause issues with solar inverters, which need a stable frequency to synchronize properly.

Hence, in a blackout, the solar panels were not just useless, they were a threat to the system, so people were asked to switch them off:

Nova’s article also touches on what she sees as misplaced priorities in energy policy. She criticizes the Australian government’s allocation of funds to renewable projects while neglecting the necessary upgrades to power grids and the development of reliable backup systems. She argues that without robust energy storage solutions or alternative backup power (like coal or natural gas), heavy reliance on renewables makes cities like Brisbane vulnerable during severe weather events. Essentially, Nova suggests that renewable energy alone is not a sufficient solution to ensure energy security, particularly in emergencies​.

The core message in Nova’s story note is that while renewable energy projects often receive substantial financial support, their real-world performance during high-stress situations—like storms, heatwaves, or cold snaps—remains questionable. Nova uses this incident to caution against over-reliance on renewables without adequate grid resilience planning and backup capacity.

Even with a price tag, our renewables future is already broken

Nick Cater, The Australian

The Silverton Wind Farm and Broken Hill Solar plant were supposed to produce enough electricity to power 117,000 homes. They’re supported by AGL’s 50MWh battery facility at Pinnacles Place, one of the largest in Australia. Yet Broken Hill, population 19,000, has been in a semi-permanent state of blackout since a storm brought down the transmission line connecting the town to the east coast grid.

Some $650m worth of renewable energy investment within a 25km radius of Broken Hill has proved to be dysfunctional. The technical challenges of operating a grid on renewable energy alone appear insurmountable using the current technology.

This example from Brisbane aligns with broader critiques of renewable energy systems worldwide, which often fail to account for their limitations in meeting constant demand, particularly during extreme weather. As policymakers continue to push for aggressive transitions to renewable energy, Nova’s article suggests the need for a more balanced approach that includes investment in grid infrastructure and reliable energy sources that can be activated when renewables falter​.

Nova’s story raises critical questions about energy policy and the realistic capacity of renewables to provide energy security. While her perspective is skeptical of the efficacy of renewables in their current state, it emphasizes the importance of preparing for the unpredictability of weather-dependent energy sources. Her article serves as a reminder that in the rush to achieve net-zero targets, the reliability of power supply, especially during crises, should not be overlooked.

Instead of spending $650 million dollars on solar and wind and a battery, we could have bought two brand new useful diesel generators for every remote town in Australia, and then when transmission towers fall down, they won’t be left in the dark.

H/T tmatsci