Live data from Hacker News

Open Infrastructure Map

openinframap.org

51–60 of 96 posts

Re: Open Infrastructure Map

#51
post #49
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have license for boat and use nautical maps. They show me a cable, but not the hierarchy of the infrastructure. I see a cable, but can’t evaluate if half of town stays without electricity or only an island with dozen houses if I damage it. However the available maps do not stop russian ships regularly dropping anchors on European infrastructure in Baltic see. Obviously charting them does not help. Maybe they should…

Would you feel comfortable making a decision on putting an anchor down on a cable if you knew it would only take out a few hundred houses worth of power. I would imagine that any body that issues you a license should inform you to not anchor in proximity to cables, regardless of size / spec etc. if you put an anchor down on a charted cable, and the cable is where it should be, I think you’d be responsible for the cos…

I anchor very carefully on the rocks or sandy seabed. I don’t anchor in seaweed areas and on pipes or cables. Additional attention from local newspaper is not desired.

Re: Open Infrastructure Map

#53
post #18

An initially-stupid-sounding idea I heard a while back was running power cables through the ocean floors between America and the rest of the world. It's apparently feasible and the big benefit of it is that at the grid peak hour when the sun is not shining in Europe, they can get cheap solar from America and vice versa

the Nato-L project [1] trying to get this done between Europe and North-America. 2 of the founders are the guys behind the (very interesting) redefining-energy podcast [2].

[1]: https://nato-l.com/ [2]: https://redefining-energy.com/

Re: Open Infrastructure Map

#54
post #51
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you feel comfortable making a decision on putting an anchor down on a cable if you knew it would only take out a few hundred houses worth of power. I would imagine that any body that issues you a license should inform you to not anchor in proximity to cables, regardless of size / spec etc. if you put an anchor down on a charted cable, and the cable is where it should be, I think you’d be responsible for the cos…

I anchor very carefully on the rocks or sandy seabed. I don’t anchor in seaweed areas and on pipes or cables. Additional attention from local newspaper is not desired.

So you don’t need to know hierarchy, just avoid cables?

Re: Open Infrastructure Map

#56
post #55

Shout out to the UK for the number of off-shore wind turbine farms: https://openinframap.org/#7.17/52.529/1.681

Except that the UK has one of the most expensive electricity prices in the world

That has two causes, dependency on natural gas, which would be worse without renewables and taxes, which is unrelated to renewables and related to general policy goals of reducing energy demand.

Also even in a European context UK power prices aren’t as high as many of its peers.

Re: Open Infrastructure Map

#57
post #55

Shout out to the UK for the number of off-shore wind turbine farms: https://openinframap.org/#7.17/52.529/1.681

Except that the UK has one of the most expensive electricity prices in the world

If I'm remembering correctly, it's because the previous government set the price floor to the average natural gas price, artificially propping up their north sea oil & gas industry that's been noncompetitive for decades. Even though they can make cheap energy, consumers get screwed because of national security concerns.

Unfortunately I don't have a source, and would appreciate a UK national with better understanding than me to chime in :)

Re: Open Infrastructure Map

#58
post #57
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except that the UK has one of the most expensive electricity prices in the world

If I'm remembering correctly, it's because the previous government set the price floor to the average natural gas price, artificially propping up their north sea oil & gas industry that's been noncompetitive for decades. Even though they can make cheap energy, consumers get screwed because of national security concerns. Unfortunately I don't have a source, and would appreciate a UK national with better understanding…

Pretty much all electricity markets worldwide set the unit price based on the the cost of the "marginal" (most expensive) generator running during each time period. It's a weirdly common misconception that the UK is unique in doing this.

If you paid generators what they bid, then they're incentivised to manipulate their bids to try and make the most money, distorting the market.

Almost all the wind farms and many solar farms in the UK operate under the "contract for difference" system, where they're guaranteed a fixed price per unit and have to pay back any income above that. So a lot of the money paid is clawed back through that method.

The reason the UK's electricity has been expensive over the last few years comes down to:

  - Shutdown of several nuclear plants without any replacement
  - Shutdown of coal plants and replacement with gas
  - The Ukraine war affecting gas prices
  - Clean energy surcharges on bills (which hit electricity bills a lot harder than gas bills, regardless of how clean the electricity is...)
There will be a bunch more renewables coming online soon which will hopefully start crowding out gas and driving the price down more regularly, so hopefully prices will start dropping faster soon.

Re: Open Infrastructure Map

#60

I find the fact that beer pipelines have their own color designation in the map legend intriguing. Are they common enough outside of breweries to merit singling them out?

There are two beer pipelines in Belgium: https://overpass-turbo.eu/s/2isf I think the fact that they're in the OpenStreetMap data at all is enough to give them their own color on the map.
Post reply on HN