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A pretty visualisation of the European power grid (2022)

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Re: A pretty visualisation of the European power grid (2022)

#31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

if it wasn't for France having primarily used nuclear power decades ago, Europe as a whole would be in a much much worse state when it comes to CO2 emissions. That makes it abundantly clear that nuclear needs to be a part of the mix when it comes to non-emission generating energy production.

Not sure if that still holds true nowadays with renewable energy and storage having got cheaper and cheaper.

The result speaks for themselves, Germany still hasn't reached France 90s levels of emissions.

Re: A pretty visualisation of the European power grid (2022)

#34

I get irrationally angry when a map is skewed in this way and there is no way to change it. The more you zoom in, the worse the distortion is made to be. Even zooming all the way out does not eliminate the angular distortion. This took actual effort on some programmer's part! Who ever thought that this is a good idea?!? It's like those navigational mini maps (car or computer game) that won't keep north pointing up...…

You can also change the perspective by simultaneously holding the Ctrl key and moving the mouse.

Re: A pretty visualisation of the European power grid (2022)

#35

Meta: for those unfamiliar, 1.21 GW is a reference to the 1985 movie Back to the Future . Clip of the scene in question: * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDuZqYeNiOA * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Back_to_the_Future If you haven't seen it, the entire trilogy is worth checking out: very fun and quite family friendly.

If you are a regular HN reader who is (or was until this post) unfamiliar with Back to the Future, I'd love to know three more random facts about your life. In my world view, you are part of a fascinatingly small group of people.

Re: A pretty visualisation of the European power grid (2022)

#36
post #16

Something I've wondered for a while: if the whole continent is on a synchronized grid, how can countries tell to or from whom they're exporting and importing electricity. I can see how they can measure their total imports or exports by comparing generation to consumption, but how do they figure out which neighbour they're getting electricity from / sending it to?

You don't. You guess based on generation, consumption and where the power lines are hooked up.

Absolutely false. Current flow is metered using current transformers.

full disclosure: I install high voltage switchgear for a living.

Re: A pretty visualisation of the European power grid (2022)

#37

> we can delete most of the emissions of the developed world today by switching heating & car and truck transport to electrical Don't forget the fact that we need batteries to store the power, which is a much more annoying problem.

Heating and transport are the easiest in that regard. Most trucks drive during the day have the driver resting during the night. At night there's little demand, but wind and nuclear continue generating, so from a grid standpoint that's the perfect time to charge all the trucks. Cars can similarly be mostly charged during the night, as that's when they are at home. Heat demand is more variable, but heat is much easier to store than electricity itself. Everyone with a boiler already has a heat store at home. If you make the boiler a bit larger you can configure it to only heat when there's excess electricity (typically the night or at peak solar power around noon). And that's before you start with more efficient heat storage devices, like heating sand instead of water.

All of those solutions require infrastructure investments and smarter grids (likely with real-time pricing to incentivize consumers to use power when there's an excess, and an API so devices like chargers and boilers can act on this information without user input). But they don't require power storage at the grid level.

Re: A pretty visualisation of the European power grid (2022)

#39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure if that still holds true nowadays with renewable energy and storage having got cheaper and cheaper.

The result speaks for themselves, Germany still hasn't reached France 90s levels of emissions.

Energiewende didnt start in 1973, it was first authorized in late 2010.

France's nuclear program was also very, very expensive: https://www.i-sis.org.uk/The_True_Costs_of_French_Nuclear_Po...

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