OT Renewabe Energy

[harryagain]

20% of UK energy from renewables.

[Chris Hogg]

Very superficial and hugely misleading! Harry, I'm surprised that with your degree of scepticism, you're taken in by such superficiality!

[Andy Burns]

You already posted that link 3 months ago, it was based on the June Energy Trends data, you may remember that at the time I said

"Wind and hydro generation were up [...] so in effect it boils down to it being a warm, wet, windy quarter"

the September version is out now

From which I quote ...

"Renewable generation fell compared to a year earlier"

"Due to very low wind speeds, generation from both onshore and offshore wind fell, by 16.9 per cent and 22.5 per cent, respectively"

See table 1.2, the seasonally adjusted figures, wind and hydro for the quarter fell by 8.4% compared to the same quarter last year

[bert]

It doesn't matter how much energy you produce form intermittent sources for every kilowatt you have to have another kilowatt of dependable power on standby. Two plants for each kilowatt. In the long term the only green non-intermittent power source is nuclear whose carbon penalty occurs during construction, not operation. So once you've built it you may as well run it 24/7 which renders your intermittent power source surplus to requirements. Oh and for as small[1] fee they can drill a big whole in my back garden and dump the waste down there.

[1] AKA "large".

[Robin]

I agree with the thrust of your comment but want to pre-empt crticism by pointing out that not all hydroelectric schemes are intermittent. (I always felt there was no justice in Norway getting such a massive share of N Sea oil and gas when they already had so much dammed [sic] hydroelectric so barely needed either for electricity generation.)

[John Rumm]

It helps demonstrate the level of financial illiteracy in this area:

" Onshore and offshore wind in particular have been squeezing coal and gas off the grid which will help reduce Britain?s carbon pollution,"

And helps make coal and gas plants not commercially viable. Hence private money will not be keen to build any, and there will be ever grater problems providing the required reserve capacity to take over when the wind stops and its dark.

[Vir Campestris]

I was told recently that NZ have a good system.

When it's windy, they use windmills. When it isn't windy they use hydro

- and the dams are full from when it was windy.

Wouldn't work here of course. We need too much power and don't have enough rainy mountains.

Andy

[Ian Jackson]

In message , harryagain writes

At the moment, I see that Gridwatch says the wind power is 0.93%, pumped is 1.66%, and hydro is 0.51%.

>

[Tim Streater]

Exactly. And it's been that way for the whole month.

Bottom line: the usual ill-informed c*ck from harry.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Yep. NZ is the one country where windmills almost make sense. It would be cheaper to use nukes of course, but they are mad greens in NZ.

[bert]

In message , Robin writes

Unto him that hath shall be given or words to that effect.

[harryagain]

And how much PV is there?

[dennis]

It's too dark to worry about and its only 17:00.

[Ian Jackson]

In message , harryagain writes

It doesn't seem to say. However, at this time of year, I would reckon around precisely 0% between at least 6pm and 7am. Mind you, at the moment, the wind's doing well at 5.71%.

[The Natural Philosopher]

The short answer is no one knows, because 100% of solar power is not connected directly to the grid as a generator by a a high voltage connection with a meter on it

You can get some idea by dividing up all the FITT payments made, but that assumes that the meters that are used to calculate it are accurate, and that it is in fact solar panels and not diesel generators or a neigbours own grid connection supplying the power.

Lets face it a 20% optimistic meter is unlikely to be spotted and would make its owner a lot of money.

There is about 4GW of capacity and that just about shows on gridwatch as a midday 'notch' in te demand figures where it is almost completely useless since all it does is mean that the gas turbines have to spun down and be run up again later in the afternoon, burning yet more gas, to be ready for the 6 O'clock cuppa and 'crossroads' or whatever crap it is people watch.

The average annual contribution is probably about 400 MW.