11–20 of 35 posts
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celtic_Interconnector Looking forward to this coming online. Very beneficial for Ireland after Brexit.
> allow wide sharing of the total European hydro power resource, which is about 6 weeks of full load European output I'm surprised it's this big. This sounds like enough grid scale storage/dispatch to do 100% renewables. Particularly if some of this hydro can be converted to also pumped storage in summer just to shift energy during the day. I'm in Portugal and was surprised to find out our grid is a net exporter in w…
I might cover short-term variability but not seasonal differences. In Germany PV generation varies by 5x between summer and winter and in the Nordics it's obviously even more extreme. Unlike some other locations peak consumption also doesn't coincide with peak production since more energy is needed for heating during winter than for ACs during summer.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celtic_Interconnector Looking forward to this coming online. Very beneficial for Ireland after Brexit.
The European electricity market is not affected by Brexit. This is very beneficial for other reasons, of course: increased imports/exports, increased resiliency, etc.
https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/irelands-energy...
A second source if needed: https://www.mondaq.com/ireland/renewables/1023934/brexit-the...
Transnational electricity transmission doesn’t get enough credit - right now I suspect the ROI is an order of magnitude beyond that of utility scale storage.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Given the conditions in North Africa, you'd rather have the higher efficiency solar power of the "solar thermal power plant" rather than the lower efficiency photovoltaics.
Solar thermal is more efficient than photovoltaics in terms of energy captured per unit of surface/land area. However, photovoltaics are significantly cheaper per unit of energy generated. So, solar thermal makes more sense in space-constrained environments rather than vast deserts. Solar thermal also makes more sense where you're directly utilising the heat generated, eg: for industrial processes. If you're just usi…
In contrast, solar thermal runs at extremely high temperatures to begin with, so even in a hot climate, there's a huge temperature difference from which to extract power.
It seems to me that mirrors would be cheaper than photovoltaics, and the power-plant itself is a fixed cost, so most of the cost must come from the motors and electronics needed to angle the mirrors, and the maintenance of that.
I wonder: could you have a system where the mirrors are all fixed in place, and you simply move the target as the sun moves. (Or at least move a smaller set of mirrors/lenses that refocus the light onto a fixed target)
> allow wide sharing of the total European hydro power resource, which is about 6 weeks of full load European output I'm surprised it's this big. This sounds like enough grid scale storage/dispatch to do 100% renewables. Particularly if some of this hydro can be converted to also pumped storage in summer just to shift energy during the day. I'm in Portugal and was surprised to find out our grid is a net exporter in w…
> This sounds like enough grid scale storage/dispatch to do 100% renewables. I might cover short-term variability but not seasonal differences. In Germany PV generation varies by 5x between summer and winter and in the Nordics it's obviously even more extreme. Unlike some other locations peak consumption also doesn't coincide with peak production since more energy is needed for heating during winter than for ACs duri…
One project I'd like to see get implemented is connecting Iceland to Britain to give 24/7 renewable baseload energy via undersea cables to Britain and potentially to mainland Europe. This would reduce the need for so many battery capacity being built out[3].
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25558986
[2] https://www.windy.com/?55.176,-3.587,7
[3] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iceland-energy-britain/ic...
There's so many exciting projects[1] going on in Europe in this space. The offshore Danish wind power island and the massive wind farms off the UK coast for example. Given how windy[2] the coastlines around Britain and Ireland are, it's great to see this in development. One project I'd like to see get implemented is connecting Iceland to Britain to give 24/7 renewable baseload energy via undersea cables to Britain an…
Sure, it would take some investment, but isn't the technology already here?
There's so many exciting projects[1] going on in Europe in this space. The offshore Danish wind power island and the massive wind farms off the UK coast for example. Given how windy[2] the coastlines around Britain and Ireland are, it's great to see this in development. One project I'd like to see get implemented is connecting Iceland to Britain to give 24/7 renewable baseload energy via undersea cables to Britain an…
[3] makes me wonder if we could simply convert Iceland to a giant geothermal power plant, and power most of Europe.. Sure, it would take some investment, but isn't the technology already here?
Maybe somebody else has examples of well running geothermal power plants but at least the Swiss are quite vary of them.