Originally published at: Wind currently Britain’s largest electricity source - Boing Boing
…
18 Likes
When you read stories like this, always remember that the fossil-fuel Mighty Wurlitzer of misinformation and its conservative shills-for-hire spent decades claiming that this was impossible and would never happen.
42 Likes
My country, Uruguay, have been running 100% on renewables for the past two months. Previously we had to turn on oil turbines for 1 day or so, for a 97% running on renewables. It is possible, very possible, we´be been doing it for the past 5 years at least. Uruguay even sells energy to Argentina. Source: https://www.ute.com.uy/energia-generada-intercambios-demanda
46 Likes
The GB electricity grid has decarbonised a lot over the past decade, but there’s still a lot more to do.
Here’s the current energy mix- Solar is surprisingly high for this grey, overcast island.
This can be followed in real time through a couple of online resources, showing exactly how much carbon is being emitted and where:
https://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/
The good thing is that there’s a lot more renewable capacity being planned and built- We’ve only really just started seeing the major offshore wind farms being connected, which will give a more consistent output. Also, with the cost of solar having dropped, there’s still a huge potential for expansion there.
The downside is getting all this connected up. The main bottleneck to getting more renewables on the grid is a severe bottleneck in connecting new generation to the national grid.:
25 Likes
10 Likes
As wind power (which is inherently variable) grows to be a larger fraction of power generation in the UK, I wonder how the country has been managing the energy storage? Is the plan to just build a bunch of grid-scale batteries? Can the amount of pumped hydro storage in the county be scaled up significantly?
10 Likes
I recently heard that diffuse light might be better for solar power generation, but I can’t remember the details.
It’s also worth remembering that one of the biggest anti solar/wind power voices in Britain is BNFL, who have an interest in making nuclear the alternative to fossil fuels.
12 Likes
It’s not what they’re doing, but pumped hydro can be deployed underwater. For offshore wind this is the perfect solution, so I hope that it is being mandated at some point.
12 Likes
They’ve not really been doing storage up until now. While there are some pumped storage stations in the UK, they’re not suitable to cover the big swings in generation caused by wind variability.
What’s been happening until now is that the UK grid was dominated by gas generators, which were built in great numbers in the 90s, and gradually replaced coal. These have been being turned up and down to balance overall demand once you’ve taken account of wind, solar, and demand variability. Also, with the new inter-connectors to continental Europe, some import and export of power can be used to smooth out demand, but that’s not going to solve the problem on its own.
I expect we’ll eventually see real grid storage being put in place- my best estimate is that it’ll be a combination of battery storage, and some form of electricity to fuel conversion, where excess renewable energy is used to drive electrolysis or ammonia generation, and the fuel can then be burnt during times of shortage.
11 Likes
Interesting idea. I hadn’t heard of that version of pumped hydo before.
It would be great if they can make this work reliably but wow, that sounds like a maintenance nightmare to me. All the issues with salt water, machinery at depth, growth of marine life on surfaces, etc. Not to mention the significant carbon footprint of fabricating large pressue vessels out of concrete.
Their pilot project was just a 3m diameter sphere submerged 100m deep in a freshwater lake. Their proposal of building 30m diameter concrete spheres submerged 750m deep in saltwater seems like it would be orders of magnitude more challenging.
14 Likes
This is where someone jumps in with a rehash of the concrete battery / vertical storage solution.
Call me old fashioned, but I vote for energon cubes.
15 Likes
7 Likes
All of these are solved problems. The oil industry has deployed and maintained complicated machinery on the ocean floor and concrete pressure vessels for decades and there are tons of subsea companies desperately searching for the next big thing that allows them to use their expertise after the oil boom. Here in Norway they are betting on undersea mining, but I hope something like this wins out instead.
Examples of current technology:
It’s definitely challenging, but well within the capabilities of the industry
16 Likes
14 Likes
If we mix it with Brawndo, we can use it for robots and for plants!
This is totally a free idea yes absolutely free idea and please somebody hurry up and invent this, because I’m ready for this completely gonna work consequence-free game-changer.
4 Likes
There’s been a lot of noise about a lot of approaches, and some subsidies for home-scale batteries under utility control. Not yet a lot of grid-scale storage. Utilities, almost everywhere, don’t plan far enough in advance to seriously invest in things like storage before it’s an obvious, urgent need. Cynically, that ensures that by the time it’s built everyone understands the pain it’s there to prevent. No one can get expensive support for preventing a future problem like that, especially when the solutions are getting cheaper every year you wait.
2 Likes
There’s a tiny constitutional quirk that’s a factor in our wind deployment.
The Crown owns the seabed.
The windfall from rent from wind farms is bumping up Charlie’s stipend next year.
8 Likes
Completely OT but I love how the logos in Idiocracy have such painfully terrible kerning.
10 Likes
Before we get too excited
These bastards are importing biomass to keep their fires burning.
9 Likes
