OT - Gridwatch and renewables snark again

David · 2019-01-23T17:27:37+00:00

Just looked and the demand is around 48 GW.3% from wind, Burger Hall from solar.OCGT is firing up at the moment, coal is almost exactly matching nuclear, over 3 GW from "green" biomass.For all the magic thinking spouted in some discussions on the Guardian (sadly, I read this a lot because it seems more balanced than other rags) about "more in-network storage" I can't really see us being independent from fossil fuel for the next couple of decades and if they close the coal burning stations (currently meeting over 12% of demand) the power had got to come from somewhere. Presumably more CCGT power stations and perhaps some nuclear which seems to provide the bulk (currently 67%) of our daily/nightly power.Everything seems to be tending towards the stops at the moment apart from the Irish interconnect which is still exporting. We are importing more from France than we are getting from solar and wind combined.Is there nobody with the power to invest in infrastructure watching these figures? Or is the plan to wait until we have brown outs and then get popular support for masses of emergency spending?Can you power the Internet (consumer end) from a wood burning stove?CheersDave RP.S. the description for OCGT includes the words "seldom used expect from emergencies in the winter". So are we all having a little Winter emergency?

Jan 23, 2019 Last reply: 7 years ago 44 Replies

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Chris Hogg 7 years ago

See

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harry 7 years ago

Most woodburning stoves are very inefficient and polluting. Power stations are an entirely different kettle of fish.

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harry 7 years ago

The last thing you want on a domestic fire is industrial coal.

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Vir Campestris 7 years ago

Burning wood for direct heat: Stove efficiency must be at least 60% under current regs. Rising to 80% by 2022.

Thermal power station: Wiki reckons a CCGT is ~62%.

It's a lot easier to get heat than power.

Andy

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The Natural Philosopher 7 years ago

That 'efficiency' is not the same as true thermnal efficienby tho.

Once its warmed up and been running a few hours...

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