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Britain today generating 90%+ of electricity from renewables

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Re: Britain today generating 90%+ of electricity from renewables

#111

Post by oskarkk »

piva00 wrote: post #76
idiotsecant wrote: post #9

This is a 'lawyer-worded' headline. I am an enormous fan of renewables, I am an electrical engineer who designs control systems for renewables exclusively. My career depends on renewables. Headlines like this do nobody any favors. The problem with renewables is that you cannot run a grid on renewables alone. Many days will have an abundant oversupply, like the day shown. Many days will not. Consumers are not tolerant…

Isn't pumped hydro severely limited by geography in many places? I'm hoping for some other technology apart from pumped hydro or batteries to be used for capturing surplus renewable energy for later use. It's unfortunate that hydrogen seems to be too complex to handle at these scales, it'd be utopian if it wasn't and the excess of renewables could be transformed into hydrogen for use in turbines instead of nat gas...

> Isn't pumped hydro severely limited by geography in many places?

Scotland seems to be a perfect place for pumped storage. I see that UK has 4 pumped storage stations, 2 in Wales, 2 in Scotland. But Scotland being quite far from most of UK's population may not be ideal if we're talking about supporting the whole country with pumped storage. It would be like 600km to the south of England.

Re: Britain today generating 90%+ of electricity from renewables

#113

Post by bcrosby95 »

bronson wrote: post #100
gentooflux wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is it "people are willing to pay" and not "corporations are brazen enough to charge"? These utilities are necessities and relatively few people have access to cheaper alternatives to them.

Because PG&E is a for-profit company. They are supposed to charge what the market will bear.

Unfortunately since PG&E is a regulated utility it's not that simple.

Re: Britain today generating 90%+ of electricity from renewables

#114

Post by bjourne »

skippyboxedhero wrote: post #81
jordand wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly, and the Tories banned onshore wind, and refused to really invest in offshore wind. We've got the North Sea and its perfect for wind farms we should have had for decades

They didn't refuse to invest in offshore wind. Tories were the ones who started this ball rolling in the mid-2010s by breaknecking the removal of non-renewable energy production without any clear plan. The issue with offshore wind is that it isn't always windy. If you look at modelling with energy system with a high proportion of offshore wind, you need other sources of energy which often isn't factored into the econ…

Last I read the strike price for offshore wind was about half of that for nuclear power (Hinkley Point). In other words the "huge subsidies" aren't going to who you think they are.

Re: Britain today generating 90%+ of electricity from renewables

#115

Post by benrutter »

nickslaughter02 wrote: post #3

> Britain paying highest electricity prices in the world for second year running > Ed Miliband’s net zero targets are facing fresh scrutiny after Britain was found to be paying the highest electricity prices in the developed world. > New data published on Tuesday showed the price paid by UK industry for power was 63pc higher than in France and 27pc higher than in Germany. > Britain is also the second-most expensive c…

This is of course linked to the UKs renewable rollout (and to do with detaips around the UKs energy markets leading to gas dictating the price for noe), but completely misses the fact that the UKs spending isn't just spending but investment.

Will be interesting to see in five years time looks like, we could well see a scenario where the UK has abundant cheap electricity being exported to the rest of Europe. Will be interesting to hear what the sceptics holding some American states fossil fuel based grids up as examples think then.

None of this of couse factors in the fact that fossil fuels cannot be sustained if we want a livable planet. Factoring that in, payimg energy bills three times as high would be a good investment, if it protects the world we depend on, in my book at least.

Re: Britain today generating 90%+ of electricity from renewables

#116

Post by vovavili »

cap11235 wrote: post #20
vovavili wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because, under usual circumstances, self-interested corporations compete against each other to get as close to what people are willing to pay for energy as possible.

> compete against each other Citation needed.

https://lmgt.org/?q=econ+101

Re: Britain today generating 90%+ of electricity from renewables

#117

Post by benrutter »

goldenarm wrote: post #46

These titles are misleading, they always omit the rest of the grid and the final carbon footprint. In March, the UK emitted 161g CO2/kWh. France did 6 times less CO2/kWh with 2x less renewables ! https://app.electricitymaps.com/map/zone/FR/12mo/monthly

France has an amazingly developed grid, with a lot of nuclear. But I think there's a risk of seeing grid make ups as "one size fits all". Norway and Sweden do well with huge amounts of hydro storage, but few countries have the geography for that level of hydro. Similarly, the UK has an abundance of offshore wind (especially in Scotland), so further developing that (rather than focusing heavily on nuclear because it works in France) is by no means a bad idea.

Re: Britain today generating 90%+ of electricity from renewables

#118

Post by bhickey »

goldenarm wrote: post #46

These titles are misleading, they always omit the rest of the grid and the final carbon footprint. In March, the UK emitted 161g CO2/kWh. France did 6 times less CO2/kWh with 2x less renewables ! https://app.electricitymaps.com/map/zone/FR/12mo/monthly

That's only because that chart isn't bookkeeping nuclear as renewable, which is misleading at best.

Re: Britain today generating 90%+ of electricity from renewables

#119

Post by [deleted] »

skippyboxedhero wrote: post #81
jordand wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly, and the Tories banned onshore wind, and refused to really invest in offshore wind. We've got the North Sea and its perfect for wind farms we should have had for decades

They didn't refuse to invest in offshore wind. Tories were the ones who started this ball rolling in the mid-2010s by breaknecking the removal of non-renewable energy production without any clear plan. The issue with offshore wind is that it isn't always windy. If you look at modelling with energy system with a high proportion of offshore wind, you need other sources of energy which often isn't factored into the econ…

[deleted]

Re: Britain today generating 90%+ of electricity from renewables

#120

Post by nslsm »

indubioprorubik wrote: post #22

And thats not how good renewables are- thats how deindustrialized britain has become. And deindustrialization leads to debt slavery - and debt slavery either leads to passing on that bitter chalice to others (empire) or to becoming a colony.

They downvote you because this website calls itself progressive but it loves offshoring and basically anything that hurts the working class.
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