Solar ... In the news

zeupater

michaels said:

zeupater said:

michaels said:

Alternatively: tide0.pdf (stanford.edu)

The logic depends on an assumption that we will use 2% more energy every year which over a 'relatively' short period becomes an extremely large number.

Hi

... so the question effectively comes down to where does the energy come from and if the energy isn't collected where does it inevitably go and what does it do .... may I suggest that the moon, the seabed and shoreline may have some influence and that tidal energy isn't as much a closed loop system as it may at first seem ... next thing they'll be saying is that if we harvest the tides the moon will come crashing down on our heads as the gravitation attraction will become stronger if the tidal range isn't as fluid for some reason ... seeing that the moon's been moving away at ~1.5"/year for longer than life on earth has been around and the rotation of the earth has been slowing by ~2milliseconds per century for a similar length of time, likely linked to existing tidal friction, I doubt the fractional effect of tidal flow harvesting will have enough differential impact to even be measured before the expanding sun boils off all of the the seawater anyway ... better put the shades on then ...

HTH - Z

I think the maths works, meeting current demand the extra energy extracted is 9 orders of magnitude too low to be a problem but if you increase the energy demand by 2% pa for 1000 years (1.02^1000) then you get a number 8 orders of magnitude larger....

Hi

Yes, but where is the energy coming from & how would tidal flow impact on the energy balance.

Again, I've come across this very argument before and it invariably starts to unravel when it's eventually appreciated that tidal flow energy is generated both as tides rise & fall, effectively the frictional 'drag effect' in one direction is negated by an equal & opposite deltaT effect in the other .... wouldn't that invariably describe a position where rotational energy equilibrium is effectively maintained to a higher degree than a theory assuming (a) no existing landmass (ie no flow restriction) and (b) tidal energy was only harvested in one direction, which is effectively moot because we're considering the reality that land exists & we're talking bi-directional harvesting as tides rise & fall ...

In addition to this, let's consider the point at hand that a 2%/year increase doesn't have a logical ceiling and apply a couple of layers of extremes logic .... In reality (1.02^1000) results in an energy demand in 1000 years time being just short of 400million times greater than that current, so in perspective to achieve this  you can consider the UK population growing to around 26400Trillion (~110k people/m2 UK landmass) or the current average UK household using around 16.5TWh of energy each day ... the argument immediately fails logical scrutiny, yes, the population will grow & the demand for energy will increase, but both will subject to a logical ceiling well short of 400million times current.

What's being missed is that the same logical fallacy argument could be applied to scaling any form of energy production to sow misinformation without appreciating context ... wind, solar, hydrogen ... absolutely anything! 

HTH - Z

zeupater

Martyn1981 said:

[ ... ]
Any news / reports on the potential for tidal energy around the World? I'm assuming (which is dangerous of course) that the UK's potential is somewhat exceptional?

Hi

On this, everything I've ever come across on harvesting energy from flow (as opposed to storage lagoons, barrages etc)  seems to concentrate on mass at a fixed average velocity and totally negates the opportunities afforded by artificially accelerating flow prior to harvesting energy in order to improve generation efficiencies per unit of turbine swept area .... 

Z

Martyn1981

French PV news again, they really are setting some big targets. Maybe the ongoing issues of their nuclear fleet has scared them, and spurred an acceleration to their RE plans. The passenger train company is now planning to up the percentage of leccy for their trains from 4% PV to 40-50% PV by 2026.

Solar-Powered Trains For France

SNCF Voyageurs is a state-owned subsidiary of the French National Railway Company. It is in charge of operating France’s passenger train network. SNCF Voyageurs is now aiming to have 40–50% of the rail network’s electricity coming from solar power by 2026.

Increasingly, SNCF Voyageurs is looking to get that renewable electricity supply from direct power purchase contracts from new clean energy power plants. The latest contract is its biggest, a 25-year power purchase agreement for ~207 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of electricity a year from 4 new solar PV power plants. The solar PV power plants total 146 megawatts (MW) of power capacity.

Coastalwatch

It would appear that Good were not living up to their name while Ofgem, who have taken a lot of flack recently, uncovered their "administration" errors and along with those of F&S Energy ensured that these were repaid and compensation applied.

Good Energy and F&S Energy to pay £800,000 in compensation for unauthorised FiT charges

Good Energy Limited and F&S Energy Limited are set to pay a total of £800,000 in compensation to Feed-in-Tariff (FiT) customers.

This follows an investigation by Ofgem which found a number of customers were charged an unauthorised administration fee from their licensees.

https://www.solarpowerportal.co.uk/news/good_energy_and_fs_energy_to_pay_800000_in_compensation_for_unauthorised_fi

Coastalwatch

On a brighter note the PV array below will assist Hull University Teaching Hospitals to achieve net zero by 2030 a decade earlier than the remainder of the NHS.

Solar panels save NHS clinic over £60,000 a year

NHS Property Services (NHSPS) have installed a solar PV array on the south-facing roof elevation at Health House in Hull, which is set to generate more than 300MWh of renewable energy, saving the NHS over £60,000 in electricity costs.

The array has a warrantied operational lifespan of 20 years and includes a 41 monocrystalline solar panels, a monitoring platform and a high-performance inverter. NHSPS also installed a live generation data display from the solar array in the clinic’s reception, which is aimed to help “increase awareness and visibility around energy consumption.”

"The project from inception to completion worked seamlessly and the collaboration between all parties who were of the same mindset worked well toward successful completion. The scheme has helped us progress on our ‘green journey’ in the building both now and in the years to come. It has also provided a specification for other buildings across the country to follow’’ said Elaine Hall, minor works manager at the NHSPS.

In response to the project, the NHSPS have identified a further 45 NHSPS sites that could benefit from a solar system installation.

https://www.solarpowerportal.co.uk/news/solar_panels_save_nhs_clinic_over_60000_a_year

70sbudgie

QrizB said:

JKenH said:

I’m all for solar PV on car parks...

Yes, me too. It also keeps cars cooler in summer so there's less demand for in-car a/c which will indirectly reduce emissions.

... it’s a great fit with industry, office and school hours but not with peak demand. Why not mandate battery storage at the same time?

If you can persuade EVs to plug in while parked under the canopy, you can (in effect) store in their batteries. No need to add additional stationary batteries to the system. (Not so helpful at weekends and holidays, admittedly.)

Apologies, I realise that the conversation has moved on, but I wanted to share that I think there is one of these in Scotland. We drove past it a few times while on holiday in the spring. It is at a major road junction so I never got a particularly good look at it (hubby was driving, so I could rubber neck!). I believe it was a park and ride.

Solarchaser

Yeah its at Stirling Park and ride, I've used it a few times.
Solar canopies and fast chargers, and slow chargers and a big tesla battery, what's nit to like?
Oh and still free iirc on the chargeplace Scotland network

gefnew

Esa mulls Solaris plan to beam solar energy from space - BBC News
Wow what a challenge that is.

thevilla

Can't help thinking that while we're trapping too much solar energy in the atmosphere maybe we don't need to redirect more of it?

2nd_time_buyer

gefnew said:

Esa mulls Solaris plan to beam solar energy from space - BBC News
Wow what a challenge that is.

Amazing. Next they will be able to put solar panels in the English countryside.