For whatever reason we rarely get much in the way of news from the land down under, which is unfortunate, because this story from South Australia last week was a real teachable moment for climate alarmists: when energy is the question, windfarms are not the answer ~

Australian Energy Market Operator report says wind farms were the ultimate cause of blackout, network withstood pylon downings ~

[The hours-long blackout occurred throughout the entire state of South Australia last Wednesday, Oct. 5th]

 
 

While ecos and wind farm proponents tried to blame the blackout on downed powerlines, a detailed report from AEMO shows it was actually wind farms that were the cause […]
 
“The Preliminary Report makes it clear that while the weather was responsible for multiple transmission system faults, the blackout did not occur until after the sudden loss of 315 megawatts of wind output at six separate sites over a six second period.”

Never fear – fossil fuels to the rescue ~

“Gas generation continued through the storm and the transmission line faults as did supply from the interconnector. Importantly, it was also the Torrens Island gas-fired Power Station that was used to re-start the electricity network later that evening.”
 
“When you rely on the weather to generate electricity, and the weather turns bad, then you shouldn’t be surprised when your electricity system in turn cannot cope.” “While renewables may very well have a place in our future energy needs, their uncontrolled rollout, powered by federal and state government subsidies is starting to do Australia damage.”
 
“Demand-limiting kill switches and blackouts are symbols of policy failure. It is not the role of government to favour one energy technology or provider over another. Government should be encouraging competition in a free and open market so that technology and the private sector are free to work out the best energy sources.”

Common sense should tell us what became all too obvious in Australia last week; wind farms are simply not a realiable source of energy.

 
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Related:

The South Australian Blackout — by Terence Cardwell, who worked for 25 years for the Electricity Commission of NSW, commissioning and operating the various power units. A voice of sanity explains what went wrong and why.
 
Australian electrical system operator orders wind farms to cut back production in wake of blackout