Discreet EV charging point?

[motorbiking]

from my perspective my primary interest in an EV is performance. Installed solar as an alternative to having the cash rotting in a bank. I'm really not bothered about global warming. As a sailor I like it hot n windy.

Having said that, the idea of putting my PV in to the grid while my EV charges at work, seems sound from a grid demand pov.

 

[John D v2.0]

they go on about being on green tariffs, but it's clear that they don't switch off the house when there's little wind and solar. Ie, they are quite happy to rely on those fossil fuel backup generators while campaigning for no nuclear, no coal, no fracking ...

Being on a green tariff is basically putting more money into green energy. Obviously the bad power is just used by someone else on a given day, but if everyone was on a green tariff, the fossil fuel really would be just for backup.
Remember, there are way more effective ways of getting things done then by example. Most problems you can't solve on your own, what use would one person be? Leadership is more than just setting an example.

 

[SimonH2]

It was at the time - 32.5GW now.
http://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/

Sounds about right - handy site that.

I was going by the yearly graph. I don't know what happened in 2010.

View attachment 122769

The problem there is that the graph has averaged out the peaks - you just can't see the daily variations when showing a whole year in a small graph. In winter, especially a cold spell, demand can peak at something like 60GW - but by the time you averaged over the whole day, it won't show like that on the yearly graph. IIRC the daily peak tends to be around 6pm on a weekday as everyone gets home from work, the telly, cooker, and kettles go on, etc.

Being on a green tariff is basically putting more money into green energy. Obviously the bad power is just used by someone else on a given day, but if everyone was on a green tariff, the fossil fuel really would be just for backup.
Remember, there are way more effective ways of getting things done then by example. Most problems you can't solve on your own, what use would one person be? Leadership is more than just setting an example.

No, a "green tariff" is nothing other than greenwash - seriously, it really is nothing other than greenwash and does not in any way alter the mix of power any user uses. The rules basically mean that all renewables output has to be purchased by the energy companies before they can purchase anything else - so there's no such thing as "spare green capacity" for your "green" supplier to purchase. Not to mention, that there's no filter for "green" electrons at your meter All it means is that you'll pay more for exactly the same thing - while other lecky companies (and their customers) will end up paying a bit less as there'll be a bit less "green" lecky for them to buy before they go onto the rest. But all that is just a matter of where the paperwork trail goes - there's absolutely ZERO difference in what you get through the meter.
Just greenwash to allow the unthinking to fell good while paying more for absolutely no benefit.

 

[motorbiking]

next you'll be saying that my british gas doesn't come from britain.

 

[John D v2.0]

I think I'm ruining the atmosphere on this thread!see you later

 

[ban-all-sheds]

There's a lot of supposition, assumption, cynicism, and failure to look into the future here.

Absolutely how it should be, because that it the only way that governments organise infrastructure provision.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

from my perspective my primary interest in an EV is performance.

As on 0-60?

Installed solar as an alternative to having the cash rotting in a bank.

Spending it on anything is an alternative to having it "rotting in a bank". Why solar PV?

I'm really not bothered about global warming.

Do you know that if I accurately described even 1% of my depth of contempt for you I would be banned for life from this forum.

As a sailor I like it hot n windy.

I hope next time you go out in your boat you drown.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

We'd better get started on tidal barrages then.

What's that I see at Cromarty?

"Take the proposed tidal lagoon in Swansea. It could be built in six years, generate power for 155,000 homes and establish Britain as a world centre for the technology at the core of the project: 16 massive turbines, to be assembled at General Electric’s factory in Stafford, with most of the components made in Britain.

The lagoon project has been designed not only as an energy solution – it also contains a miniature industrial strategy. With a potential market of 940 turbines in the UK alone, the project’s backers have put together plans to make Wales the world-leading venue for training, education and design for this kind of water power.

Predictably, the UK government is still sitting on the idea – despite the fact that its own experts gave it the green light in January. One factor is Britain’s ludicrous commitment to having an energy system subsidised via high consumer prices and its bias in favour of nuclear power stations. A more strategic factor is, again, our absence of industrial or economic strategies."​

See https://www.theguardian.com/comment...t-help-britain-survive-the-rise-of-the-robots for the full article.

 

[securespark]

Cromarty, Forth, Tyne, Dogger....

 

[SimonH2]

"Take the proposed tidal lagoon in Swansea. It could be built in six years, generate power for 155,000 homes ...​

​

I've been to an engineering biased presentation on the project, and it does indeed sound like "a good idea". However, it's 320MW - I assume that's the peak "rating plate" output and the average will be (from memory) around 50-70% of that. The outfit behind it have plans for 6 sites, and I assume other groups will probably follow on if it takes off. So those 6 site (the others being larger, Swansea is the prototype/demonstrator) will generate an average of something like 2GW - with geographic dispersion allowing for overlap so they won't all go offline at the same times.
A single reactor of the type proposed for Sizewell or Moorside is 1.3GW. Moorside has a proposal for 3 of them, so almost 4GW IIRC. And that's "base load, 24hr/day, day in day out" capacity. So the article's suggestion that the government's "bias in favour of nuclear power stations" is a bad thing is being a little deceptive - but for the Guardian, what else would you expect than "magic unicorns and fairy dust" meeting all our lecky needs.
That's not to say I'm in any way against these tidal lagoons - far from it. But they won't solve our lecky needs any more than wind will - but they are a lot better than those ****ing unsightly windmills, especially when it comes to providing power when it's needed rather than when the wind blows.

 

[JohnD]

****ing unsightly windmills

people used to say the same about cooling towers and chimneys.

 

[John D v2.0]

To be fair, the guardian is a"big tent " so if you're going to start quoting the comment is free section, you're going to find a lot of contradictions and outlandish viewpoint. Even George Osborne has graced those pages....

 

[SimonH2]

people used to say the same about cooling towers and chimneys.

But there's a lot less of them !
If I go up the hill and look around, I can see f***ing windmills (onshore and offshore) in all directions. Look south and I can see Heysham nuclear power station - which is very much inconspicuous from any sort of distance - unless you're close to it, it's "just another building" in the distance. Even though it's (AIUI) running at part power due to some problems in a steam circuit, it's still reliably churning out the power day and night, windy or calm. As i read it's Wikipedia page, it's churning out about 2 1/4 GW.
And no cooling towers at Heysham - it's sea water cooled.

 

[EFLImpudence]

The biggest blot on the landscape was the railways - no planning permission; no consultation except outright refusal by some of the landed gentry.
They were just built.
Ruined some of the South Devon coastline.
I believe ten thousand people were just told to go away so that St.Pancras could be built.

But people love them - now.


Surely, wind generators aren't the ugliest things around. Whether they are efficient is another matter.
They can always be removed.