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Live display of CO2 emitted to produce electricity in European countries

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Re: Live display of CO2 emitted to produce electricity in European countries

#51

Post by masklinn »

dantheman wrote: post #32
avar wrote: post #5

Does anyone know of interesting tours you can take of electricity production in Europe or energy infrastructure in general? I'm in The Netherlands, but would be willing to travel for it. A real tour of a nuclear plant would be awesome (i.e. getting to hear / see the reactor), but tours of wind farms / turbines / dams etc. would also be great. Preferably in English.

It would be next to impossible to get access to a commissioned nuclear powerplant and enter containment as a visitor. However, there is a nuclear power plant in vienna that was never used and can be visited: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zwentendorf_Nuclear_Power_Plan... Additionally, many universities have research reactors - they often have tours or a tour can be easily arranged.

> It would be next to impossible to get access to a commissioned nuclear powerplant and enter containment as a visitor.

Pish posh, it's absolutely possible to visit active nuclear plants, usually for free, though you may need a small group (half a dozen or more) depending on the operator.

Re: Live display of CO2 emitted to produce electricity in European countries

#52

Post by zhte415 »

Fascinating to see the potential use, vs. the actual 'right now' capacity viewing this at 3pm GMT.

And also interesting to see the import/export power figures: How one region supports, though nothing like the capacity needed to substitute renewables' variance.

France is really leading consistency of capacity vs. generation with Nuclear.

France also seems to have 4 times hydro capacity of Portugal, which is interesting given Portugal's recent 100% renewables day but inability to use it today.

Why is Norway consuming 22GW but UK only about 40-45GW, and Germand 60-65GW, given the great disparity in population of Norway?

Re: Live display of CO2 emitted to produce electricity in European countries

#53

Post by ptaipale »

avar wrote: post #5

Does anyone know of interesting tours you can take of electricity production in Europe or energy infrastructure in general? I'm in The Netherlands, but would be willing to travel for it. A real tour of a nuclear plant would be awesome (i.e. getting to hear / see the reactor), but tours of wind farms / turbines / dams etc. would also be great. Preferably in English.

In addition to the other ones listed, the Olkiluoto nuclear plant in Finland takes tour groups. You have to book it 2 weeks in advance, and send personal information ahead, and have ID with you, but it is nice.

Web info unfortunately only in Finnish, but guides can handle English of course: http://www.tvo.fi/vierailukeskus

Also the other Finnish nuclear plant in Loviisa (with Soviet-designed PWR reactors) may take visitors but does not organize it on daily basis.

Re: Live display of CO2 emitted to produce electricity in European countries

#55

Post by masklinn »

vndjvjbnvs wrote: post #15

Would be nice to see this displayed relative to population/demand. France looking good but they're paying for that green color.

> France looking good but they're paying for that green color.

French electricity prices to households are below european average and half the German or Danish prices. They're not the lowest in the EU but they're the lowest in Western Europe — unless you include scandinavia and even then they're competitive: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/...

French prices are lower than Belgium's, Denmark's, Germany's, Ireland's, Italy's, Spain's, Luxemburg's (by a hair), the Netherlands's, Austria's, Portugal's and the UK's.

Higher than Finland's or Norway's but lower than Sweden's.

And of course the french nuclear program was never about prices, exportable industry or ecology (though these are nice side-effects, sadly european greens never understood the last one, even now they're pushing the french towards phasing out nuclear), it was about energy independence following the 1973 Oil Crisis, I believe France is one of the few countries (if not the only one) which ignored the 80s oil glut (possibly due to the investment it had made in the 70s) and stayed the course.

Re: Live display of CO2 emitted to produce electricity in European countries

#56

Post by masklinn »

zhte415 wrote: post #52

Fascinating to see the potential use, vs. the actual 'right now' capacity viewing this at 3pm GMT. And also interesting to see the import/export power figures: How one region supports, though nothing like the capacity needed to substitute renewables' variance. France is really leading consistency of capacity vs. generation with Nuclear. France also seems to have 4 times hydro capacity of Portugal, which is interestin…

> Why is Norway consuming 22GW but UK only about 40-45GW, and Germand 60-65GW, given the great disparity in population of Norway?

Electric heating? Lower temperatures? Oslo is currently freezing (below 0C), neither London nor Berlin are.

Re: Live display of CO2 emitted to produce electricity in European countries

#57

Post by enticeing »

flac wrote: post #33
avar wrote: post #5

Does anyone know of interesting tours you can take of electricity production in Europe or energy infrastructure in general? I'm in The Netherlands, but would be willing to travel for it. A real tour of a nuclear plant would be awesome (i.e. getting to hear / see the reactor), but tours of wind farms / turbines / dams etc. would also be great. Preferably in English.

I’ve been to two power plants in the Czech republic: Temelin, nuclear power plan [1]. Pretty nice information center in a historical building with models, plant simulator and a small cinema. Although the most exciting part is visiting the actual power plant site - generators, accompanying infrastructure, going through radiation check point. Not sure if the site visit is publicly available. Lipno, hydro plant [2]. Not…

Near where I live is the Taum Sauk pumped storage plant [1], which actually overtopped in 2005 and flooded the valley below. You can see where the water cleared trees and things [2], and where the reservoir broke [3]. It drained over 3.7 billion liters in 20-30 minutes. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taum_Sauk_Hydroelectric_Power_... [2] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3d/Tscompar... [3] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/76/Taum_Sau...

Re: Live display of CO2 emitted to produce electricity in European countries

#58

Post by noselasd »

andreasley wrote: post #46

I've noticed that Switzerland, using a lot of hydropower, has a worse intensity than I expected. The CO2 numbers for the different types of power generation seem to come from Wikipedia [1], where Hydropower has a median gCO2eq/kWh of 24 and a maximum of 2200 – much worse than coal. This seems to be based on the fact that large areas may be flooded when filling the dam initially, and CO2 from rotting plants is release…

> I've noticed that Switzerland, using a lot of hydropower, has a worse intensity than I expected.

The carbon intensity on the map seems to be for consumed kWh, not produced kWh. The map indicates Switzerland imports a lot of electricity from Austria and Germany which have a much higher carbon intensity.

Re: Live display of CO2 emitted to produce electricity in European countries

#59

Post by ptaipale »

Also interesting to look at the solar power potential map.

Of course, I knew it already: I offered a birthday lunch to wife's relatives today. A nice inn on a hilltop. We went there just after sunrise (11:00 AM) and left just before sunset (1:30 PM). The map kind of showed that.

(Latitude 63°40.8′N)

Re: Live display of CO2 emitted to produce electricity in European countries

#60

Post by agentgt »

Timing of this post is good as I just read an interesting paper on various current vehicles impact on climate change based on electricity + carbon output. I posted it here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13270712

The real meaty quote from the automobile paper is:

> By 2050, only electric vehicles supplied with almost completely carbon-free electric power are expected to meet climate-policy targets.

It would be neat to overlay the two: vehicles and electricity.

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