Solar ... In the news

zeupater

lstar337 wrote: »

... I wonder if this sea powered unit will also run in reverse to provide cooling during hot summer months?

... it's an interesting question. At the capacity stated I'd guess that it's been designed for efficient heating only in order to reduce complexity and extend lifespan.

To be fair, most National Trust properties we've been to are pretty cool in the summer, probably due to a combination of high thermal mass & keeping the curtains closed in order to avoid fading of d!cor, so it's probably not an issue.

The GSHP I mentioned earlier can be run in reverse, but as far as I'm aware, it's only been done a few times to reduce the temperature of the floor-slab (UFH) when the ambient temperatures are approaching 30C for a few days running, but the guy who owns it reckons that his portable aircon unit is much better for comfort and uses that instead ...

HTH
Z

lstar337

zeupater wrote: »

the guy who owns it reckons that his portable aircon unit is much better for comfort and uses that instead ...

Certainly more direct and instantaneous results.

When you are hot there's nothing quite like a really cool breeze on your face, apart from maybe an ice cold beverage of your choice!

Martyn1981

IEA predicts solar will be dominant energy source by 2050: GENR 22 May

The International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts that solar energy will be the primary source of power globally by 2050.

Mart.

lstar337

If/when solar is generating significant amounts, and smart metering is widespread, do you think we should expect to see tariffs which are cheaper during sunny periods?

Dave_16

lstar337 wrote: »

If/when solar is generating significant amounts, and smart metering is widespread, do you think we should expect to see tariffs which are cheaper during sunny periods?

Now wouldn't that be interesting, trouble is the energy companies would not like it at all and would increase the tariffs in winter to compensate.

I am tending to think the big six are getting to big for their boots and need splitting up before they get much bigger.

Dave

Cardew

Dave_16 wrote: »

I am tending to think the big six are getting to big for their boots and need splitting up before they get much bigger.

Dave

When the gas/electricity supply industry was opened to competition a few years back there were around 30 companies who jumped on the bandwagon, thinking there were easy pickings. Virgin, Sainsburys, London Electricity etc


They quickly found out that wasn't the case and sold their customer base to one of the big 6.


When we have exactly the same gas/electricity delivered by the exactly same pipes and wires, there is limited scope for splitting up the Big 6 unless new companies are paid subsidies.


Despite the huge fuss about massive profits, in reality they are not huge. There was dismay amongst shareholders last month when Tesco announced a 6% fall in its profits to a mere £3.3 billion! more than the combined profits of the energy distribution companies.

lstar337

Dave_16 wrote: »

Now wouldn't that be interesting, trouble is the energy companies would not like it at all and would increase the tariffs in winter to compensate.

I am tending to think the big six are getting to big for their boots and need splitting up before they get much bigger.

Dave

I was thinking about load balancing. You would think they would want to encourage heavy use of solar while it's there, just so they don't have to wind down the other generation sources to balance the network. Kind of how they use E7 to balance out night usage so they don't have keep spooling generation sources up and down.

Just a thought really.

While I am unsure of how smart meters and variable rate tariffs are going to affect consumers in the long run, it's an interesting concept, and will allow users with the right amount of flexibility to bring their bills down. When I was an E7 user, I nearly halved my bill by shifting heavy load appliances to E7 hours.

Dave_16

lstar337 wrote: »

I was thinking about load balancing. You would think they would want to encourage heavy use of solar while it's there, just so they don't have to wind down the other generation sources to balance the network. Kind of how they use E7 to balance out night usage so they don't have keep spooling generation sources up and down.

Just a thought really.
.

I think its just me not trusting large companies.

Dave

zeupater

Cardew wrote: »

When the gas/electricity supply industry was opened to competition a few years back there were around 30 companies who jumped on the bandwagon, thinking there were easy pickings. Virgin, Sainsburys, London Electricity etc

They quickly found out that wasn't the case and sold their customer base to one of the big 6.

When we have exactly the same gas/electricity delivered by the exactly same pipes and wires, there is limited scope for splitting up the Big 6 unless new companies are paid subsidies.

Despite the huge fuss about massive profits, in reality they are not huge. There was dismay amongst shareholders last month when Tesco announced a 6% fall in its profits to a mere £3.3 billion! more than the combined profits of the energy distribution companies.

Hi

The real issue is that the energy sector is intentionally structured into a series of complex vertically integrated subsidiaries and joint ventures, many of which are combined into multinational reporting segments and registered overseas which involve intercompany transfer pricing, often carrying an intentionally inflated level of debt through returning capital value to shareholders (etc.).

If anyone's got the time & inclination, they'd need to really delve into every segment .... R&D, Construction, facilities management, extraction, purchase chain, transport, storage, generation, delivery, maintenance, supply chain, finance, consumer sales, etc - each of which could be in a related or spin-off company, having it's own margin which compounds .... this would be almost impossible - OFGEM, with all of the resources at hand and enabling legislation, can't even do it successfully!

MrT's setup is comparatively simple .... purchase, transport, storage, finance, consumer sales etc forming one bottom line figure, non-compounded with the overall %age EBITDA margin being far lower (about half) than, for example, that of Centr1ca .... then again, SSE with an EBITDA similar to MrT's just reported £1.5bn profit (about half of MrT's) and that's with just about 1 in 6 UK customers ....

... don't you just love the way that large companies can manipulate reported margins, particularly through using the 'debt' and 'depreciation' levers ....

HTH
Z

mac2008

Not exclusively about solar, but a fun piece nonetheless, Unpicking Simon Jenkin's arguements:

http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/newsdesk/energy/fact-check/how-simon-jenkins-got-almost-everything-wrong-about-climate-and-energy

Also a podcast, partially about a new book by Keith Barnham, Emeritus Professor of Physics at Imperial College - "The Burning Answer: A user's guide to the solar revolution", and partially about releasing Bison in Romania! Solar bit from approx 21 mins in:

http://www.theguardian.com/science/audio/2014/may/26/science-weekly-podcast-solar-revolution-bison-romania

Mac