Green, ethical, energy issues in the news

Coastalwatch

JKenH wrote: »

I just see solar in a totally different light. If you want to make your house look ugly then fine, it is you who has to live with it very time you pull up on your drive or are lounging in the garden. Your neighbours might not be impressed but it doesn’t really affect them. (I am, I should add, not a great fan of solar farms out in the countryside).

Our daughter brought her two children round the other day, as she's does twice a week, during our brief conversations she asked "When are you having the solar panels installed". Three months ago I said.

JKenH

Coastalwatch wrote: »

Our daughter brought her two children round the other day, as she's does twice a week, during our brief conversations she asked "When are you having the solar panels installed". Three months ago I said.

Should have gone to Specsavers

zeupater

JKenH wrote: »

Should have gone to Specsavers

There's three ~5MWp solar 'farms' within a 30minute walk from our house ... you'd probably not be surprised to learn that the first one attracted a considerable amount of protest on various grounds that was 'whipped up' by a few very vocal activists and a number of locals that believed their hype.

Similar to Costalwatch's post, the negativity attached to the first installation proposal continued long after the project had actually been completed ... 'local' people from at least 5 miles away (the ones that were most vocal!) were driving past fields that were containing thousands more panels every week and didn't even notice ... naturally, once people were aware of how small the visual impact actually is (far less than a field of rapeseed), the two other developments mentioned had very little opposition - some even like the idea of sheep being employed on a facilities maintenance basis and being given shelter from sun & rain!

Perhaps it's not a case of sight that some have issues with, but foresight .... now if high street opticians could only offer a product to rectify that form of myopics there'd certainly be a ready made market .... :cool:

HTH
Z

Martyn1981

Interesting look at where Queensland could (emphasis on could) be. This is important as Australia's leccy is very coal dependent at the moment and RE is a hot topic, but South Australia (home of the Tesla big batt) is pushing forward too with a massive shift towards RE.

The Queensland possibility is an interesting discussion point because both 90% and 2030 are incredible figures.

Australia’s Queensland could be 90% renewable by 2030

Martyn1981

No idea if this will work, as all attempts so far to generate from wind in urban areas have been, shall we say, not so good. But fingers crossed for this attempt:

Groundbreaking 'spinning' wind turbine wins UK Dyson award

Coastalwatch

Martyn1981 wrote: »

No idea if this will work, as all attempts so far to generate from wind in urban areas have been, shall we say, not so good. But fingers crossed for this attempt:

Groundbreaking 'spinning' wind turbine wins UK Dyson award

Now that's quite a coincidence as it was only yesterday that I was researching VAWT as possible addition to solar in our garden. Unfortunately it would appear that over many years and considerable effort a viable cost effective design has yet to succeed. I wish the two budding Don Quixote's the very best of luck! :T

Martyn1981

Coastalwatch wrote: »

Now that's quite a coincidence as it was only yesterday that I was researching VAWT as possible addition to solar in our garden. Unfortunately it would appear that over many years and considerable effort a viable cost effective design has yet to succeed. I wish the two budding Don Quixote's the very best of luck! :T

Yep, I chose my words carefully as many 'solutions', almost always VAWT's hit the news on a regular basis, and they all (I think all is correct) fail to be cost effective in urban areas where there is simply too much turbulence.

I'm not trying to be negative, as the addition of a good WT would probably provide most of us with all the leccy we need year round if partnered up with PV and a battery.

But many 'ideas' so far have involved crowd funding and let's say ....... an absence of a product. Though of course this example is different and hence why I mentioned it as it does come with a Dyson award, so fingers crossed as even something like 50W would make a big difference over 24hrs to PV'ers.

Edit - I should add that the 'sphere' is described as being 25cm. That seems odd as most small HAWT's would be around 10x that, and whilst I know next to nothing about the physics, I assume you can only extract the energy from the wind that hits it, so therefore only from a 25cm circle, which doesn't sound like a lot of energy, but what do I know, I just want a WT.

Martyn1981

Little bit of off-shore wind news, nothing exciting just the financial bit sorted, but progress made on one of the CFD's issued last year. this one being the expensive one at a mighty £74.75/MWh (the others at the shocking cost of £57.50/MWh).

The interesting bit, I think is that they are going with the monster 9.5MW WT's, absolute giants.

Mammoth 860 Megawatt Triton Knoll Offshore Wind Farm Reaches Financial Close

On August 31, innogy SE announced the completion of the project’s next step, confirming that it had reached Financial Close. In addition, innogy SE announced that it had signed a turbine supply contract with world-leading offshore wind turbine manufacturer MHI Vestas for the supply of 90 of its V164-9.5 MW wind turbines — for the time being, the world’s most powerful wind turbine boasting a rotor diameter greater than the London Eye — and agreements with the east coast UK ports which will build and service the offshore wind farm. The project, which is expected to be commissioned in 2021, won a strike price of £74.75 MW-hour (MWh) through the UK’s Contracts for Difference auctions held a year ago.

Financial info from referenced article a year ago:

This time around, those looking for massive cost reductions were not disappointed, with prices on average dropping 47%. Specifically, DONG Energy’s 1,386 MW Hornsea 2 off the coast of Yorkshire, and EDPR’s 950 MW Moray off the northeast coast of Scotland both won with strike prices of £57.50 MW/h (expected to begin generating in 2022/23), while Innogy and Statkraft’s 860 MW Triton Knoll off the coast of Lincolnshire walked away with a strike price of £74.75 MW/h (expected to begin generating in 2021/22).

Between them, those 3 wind farms should produce around 3% of the UK's leccy. That's a lot of wind and power.

silverwhistle

Martyn1981 wrote: »

so fingers crossed as even something like 50W would make a big difference over 24hrs to PV'ers.

If they could make it 52 W.. which is my absolute minimum load. Plus a few watts for a few LED bulbs and I'm sorted!



Presumably the current size is a demo, proof of concept size? Does output go up on the square as for standard wind turbines? Either way interesting. Perhaps they should go for the yacht market first, as even mounted above the pushpit current whirling blades leave a lot to be desired!

Martyn1981

silverwhistle wrote: »

Presumably the current size is a demo, proof of concept size? Does output go up on the square as for standard wind turbines? Either way interesting. Perhaps they should go for the yacht market first, as even mounted above the pushpit current whirling blades leave a lot to be desired!

I'm also guessing that the size is a demo, otherwise physics is the limiting factor, not the 'cleverness' of their invention. Let's just keep hoping for a successful urban WT in the future, that'd be nice.