OT: Scottish tidal power can generate HALF our power requirements

[James Wilkinson Sword]

[alan_m]

2.42 million homes in Scotland.

The 2 turbines provided enough energy to power 2,000 Scottish homes, and during a neap tide. Add a couple more turbines in this almost unique location and maybe enough to supply 5,000 houses or 0.2% of demand.

Hype says 50% - reality says 0.2%, assuming there are no storms to damage or destroy the infrastructure.

[Tim Lamb]

It doesn't hugely inspire confidence that they don't understand spring and neap tides either.

>

[James Wilkinson Sword]

There are four, and they aren't equal.

[James Wilkinson Sword]

Nobody understands Scottish weather.

[alan_m]

Yep, but it makes little difference

Two turbines 2000 homes Four turbines 6000 homes or 0.25% of demand which is a bit short of the

50% claimed.

What happens when the tide doesn't flow? Does the 0.25% figure fall to 0%?

[Tim Streater]

A polite person puts around their long URLs.

When the tide doesn't flow, you get no volts. The standard answer to this is that one builds another elsewhere which will be out of phase.

That is, you build two power stations (or more) to get the output of one.

[James Wilkinson Sword]

If you read more carefully, 50% refers to ALL the tidal power stations. 2000 homes refers to ONE of the tidal power stations.

[JoeJoe]

The author's surname tells you all you need to know...

[spuorgelgoog]

I can't be bothered reading the original website, but it's probably someone confusing MW and MWh.

I.e. the turbines running continuously all year at maximum output would generate enough electrity to power half the houses in Scotland for approximately 20 hours.

Owain

[James Wilkinson Sword]

Anyone with a proper newsreader doesn't need that old shit. The URL should be sent on a single line and not wrapped. No need for brackets.

Here it is sent properly:

And er..... it actually DOES have brackets round it anyway. Look above....

[James Wilkinson Sword]

Spaen? That's not a word. What's your point?

[James Wilkinson Sword]

That would be typical of today's journalists. They don't know anything about the subject they're reporting on.

[alan_m]

Where are all the other Scottish tidal power stations? The article says they exist now!

[alan_m]

The writer just got it wrong, on more than one count. They waited for a neap tide on August 29th to install a new turbine which played no part in the "world record" amount of energy electricity generated by a tidal stream power plant during August.

[James Wilkinson Sword]

Have you ever been to a Scottish beach? We have far too much waves. There should be generators everywhere.

[alan_m]

That's the problem - the sea is not a best environment for generating equipment fitted to the sea bed or floating in the waves.

[James Wilkinson Sword]

After my windsurf fell to pieces on a Scottish beach, I can agree with you there.

Mind you, that's mainly because nobody has invented a sensible way to connect a sail to a board yet.

[harry]

[Bill]

In message , James Wilkinson Sword writes

I want a magic tipper truck. In the article it says

"Like other standard EVs on the market, the E-Dumper will use regenerative braking to offset some power usage. Since this particular unit will be going up and down hills, the electric engine will be able to charge the vehicle as it descends, clocking in at roughly 40 kilowatt-hours per trip.

How does this work? Essentially, energy harvested from the truck's transition down the hill is used when it moves back up. When conditions are optimal, the truck could generate more electricity than it needs to make its ascension. If that?s the case, each truck could become a valuable source of renewable energy. As for how much incline the truck can take itself, it can be a slope of up to 13 percent."