For reliable power from renewables you really need to build a super grid, it will be windy or sunny somewhere in the world. Be quite a big undertaking mind.
..and if there were to be a fall out?
For reliable power from renewables you really need to build a super grid, it will be windy or sunny somewhere in the world. Be quite a big undertaking mind.
..and if there were to be a fall out?
Well I can have a stab at that, having been in an analogous situation. There's an old joke about Rover V8 powered Land Rovers - they'll pass anything but a petrol station One answer to the cost of feeding such a beast is to run them on propane, a.k.a. LPG. When I first converted my old Disco, LPG was available locally but it was rather pricey - and I could buy 47kg cylinders and fill up for considerably less, even after paying fuel duty etc. So I was mostly filling at home, and that carried on when the Disco got replaced with the 110.If people had a pipe delivering petrol or diseasel to their homes so they could top their tank up every night how many would need to refill elsewhere, and how often?
Not only that, but in winter the lecky requirements will be somewhat higher. Lights, heater, window demisting, will all take their toll and significantly reduce range/increase charging requirements. At the same time, this is the time of year when lecky demand is highest....coincidentally a period where people will be more inclined to use their car instead of walking/cycling/waiting for a bus?
So wind can "almost always" keep the lights on But actually "almost always" is rather over-stating things a bit - there are quite significant periods when there's insignificant wind across wide areas. I can't remember where I read it now (probably one of the IET journals), but someone did a study and correlated data across Europe and showed significant correlation between calm spells in northern and sourthern Europe - in effect, don't assume that when the wind isn't blowing here, that we can import extra from Europe as they may be in calm as well.It's almost always blowing somewhere, day and night.
This is where the "non-engineers" will do some hand-waving and utter things like "always blowing somewhere" and "just need some storage". The reality as as many of us here understand - you either turn off the lights (the primary function of "smart" meters), or you fire up some backup generation. Of course, what the supporters of wind casually ignore when comparing the headline costs of wind and nuclear is that (in general) nuclear doesn't need nearly 100% of "something else" as well. The cost of keeping all those old coal and gas plants available (but not being used very often) is a hidden cost that needs adding to the cost of those intermittent generators.My question stands - what do we do when there is no wind and no solar?
And use the generated lecky to make methanol to replace petrol/diesel. We already have the infrastructure in place to store/transport/retail thatWe could also invest in a solar scheme in one of the sunniest parts of the world. Saharan Africa, perhaps.
And repeats the usual misdirection that we have a lot (and growing) of low/zero carbon lecky now. That's irrelevant because until we get to the point of having such low/zero carbon generating capacity spare, then adding load to the grid will open the taps on a fossil fuelled power station somewhere. So until we do get to that state, then lecky cars are absolutely not low/zero carbon.Just spoted this article on BBC news, somewhat relevant to current debate. Particularly the question of if we have enough electricity.
Of course, we've absolutely no experience in the last century or two of fallings out between countries - and things look oh so stable right now as well It probably wouldn't take too much of a falling out to destabilise the network - and it could even be a tactic of war to actively do that. Such a network would certainly be a strategic target.With a great many countries interconected it would have to be quite an epic fallout with multiple countries to pose problems, and would be self defeating excercise for all sides.
Well I can have a stab at that, having been in an analogous situation
Of course, we've absolutely no experience in the last century or two of fallings out between countries - and things look oh so stable right now as well It probably wouldn't take too much of a falling out to destabilise the network - and it could even be a tactic of war to actively do that. Such a network would certainly be a strategic target.
I think we are pretty much in agreement. I think most people know that I'm pro nuclear (as part of a sensible mix) - been thrown off a forum for not toeing the "all we need are a few more windmills" lineLike I said earlier I'm happy for some more nuclear reactors to be built, but combined with other generation for a diversified supply (never good to have your eggs all in one basket). Its not going to be cheap ...
Absolutely will we need public facilities, and probably as many as we have now, or more if we don't get EV ranges to increase. The point I was trying to get at is that we won't need them to be the electric energy equivalent of petrol/diseasel filling stations as the numbers of people using them will fall. Your experience says they'll fall by 75%. No matter how unrepresentative you are, your experience illustrates the point.Back then, I'd guess that perhaps 3/4 of my use could be home fill - these days probably a bit more, but I would absolutely need public facilities.
There's a fair bit of work being done on small modular reactors which could change the game completely
Hardknott Pass
but I can imagine a fair bit of opposition to "we're going to put this small reactor on the industrial estate in your town" announcements
That would make scrambling around in breakers' yards more "interesting".How about a small nuclear generator in the car to trickle charge the battery 24 hours a day all year long.
My car has a "300 mile range". More when cruising sensibly on a free-flowing motorway, less when in urban traffic or when hoofing it around ( ).
And a lot less when dragging itself up roads like that - the problem last week was that I'd got about 100-120 miles of realistic range in the tank, and that dropped into the 40's in places as I drove the pass. West to East, if that makes a difference.
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