|
Post by David B. Benson on Jun 18, 2019 11:13:21 GMT 9.5
A thread about all the amusing, highly local energy solutions without wide applicability.
The first is
Cheddar To The Rescue? UK Company Uses Cheese To Power 4,000 Homes Tsvetana Paraskova 2019 Jun 19 Oilprice.com
Actually, it is the whey biproduct which is being "cooked" to biogas. Good use of a waste product.
|
|
|
Post by David B. Benson on Jun 19, 2019 15:35:34 GMT 9.5
Engineers boost output of solar desalination system by 50% Jade Boyd 2019 Jun 18 Phys.org
Highly local concentration of sunlight via plastic lens gives much better results than the average. Clever.
|
|
|
Post by David B. Benson on Jun 26, 2019 13:25:31 GMT 9.5
GE to partner on MayGen tidal energy project in Scotland Elizabeth Ingram 2019 Jun 25 Power Engineering International
No, it is tidal power, not energy.
There are a few suitable locations. Presumably Pentland Firth is one.
|
|
|
Post by David B. Benson on Jun 29, 2019 16:11:55 GMT 9.5
Glastonbury Festival runs on solar, storage and vegetable oil generators Kelvin Ross 2019 Jun 28 Power Engineering International
Used vegetable oil, mind you.
|
|
|
Post by engineerpoet on Jun 30, 2019 5:29:22 GMT 9.5
Glastonbury Festival runs on solar, storage and vegetable oil generators Used vegetable oil, mind you. WVO (waste vegetable oil) is both the base material for FAME (fatty acid methyl ester) "biodiesel" and is sometimes burned straight as "greasel". It typically has to be heated to be used as "greasel" and the engine must be started on other fuel and the fuel system flushed of WVO before shutdown. Regardless, WVO can only be a niche player. There are only about 2 billion gallons/year produced in the USA, while diesel consumption is tens of billions of gallons and gasoline consumption is over 150 billion gpy.
|
|
|
Post by David B. Benson on Jul 21, 2019 11:18:23 GMT 9.5
|
|
|
Post by David B. Benson on Jul 26, 2019 10:54:28 GMT 9.5
|
|
|
Post by David B. Benson on Aug 6, 2019 13:16:33 GMT 9.5
|
|
|
Post by David B. Benson on Aug 20, 2019 16:19:36 GMT 9.5
|
|
|
Post by engineerpoet on Aug 21, 2019 1:50:53 GMT 9.5
|
|
|
Post by David B. Benson on Sept 2, 2019 15:41:34 GMT 9.5
|
|
|
Post by David B. Benson on Sept 12, 2019 17:08:37 GMT 9.5
|
|
|
Post by engineerpoet on Sept 12, 2019 23:30:01 GMT 9.5
Not mentioned is how many hectares of pine forest will disappear into that plant every year.
|
|
|
Post by David B. Benson on Sept 19, 2019 11:31:39 GMT 9.5
Ocean power: a green option failing to make waves Sandra Ferrer & Mariette Le Roux 2019 Sep 18 Phys.org m.techxplore.com/news/2019-09-ocean-power-green-option.htmlTidal causes environmental issues, wave power isn't economic, etc. At last a realization that some so-called renewables are hopelessly bad.
|
|
|
Post by David B. Benson on Sept 21, 2019 14:48:02 GMT 9.5
|
|
|
Post by David B. Benson on Sept 23, 2019 6:19:12 GMT 9.5
Nuclear Fallout Drives Japan To World's Cleanest Energy Source Haley Zaremba 2019 Sep 21 Oilprice.com oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Nuclear-Fallout-Drives-Japan-To-Worlds-Cleanest-Energy-Source.htmlGeothermal, which the headline writer obviously doesn't know much about. In yet another example of socializing the risk but privatizing the gain, the government will sponsor drilling the always uncertain bore holes. If successful, some power company will utilize it. The plan is for Japan to increase geothermal power from the current 16% to about 23%. Luck with that.
|
|
|
Post by engineerpoet on Sept 24, 2019 11:12:39 GMT 9.5
If Hiroshima syndrome-afflicted Japan could have used geothermal power instead of nuclear, they would have done it.
I am certain that it won't work any better this time. Even Iceland has found that very little of their geothermal resource is good for power generation; it's mostly suitable for heating hot tubs, buildings and greenhouses. Iceland generates most of its electricity from hydropower.
|
|
|
Post by David B. Benson on Sept 24, 2019 13:10:12 GMT 9.5
|
|
|
Post by David B. Benson on Oct 10, 2019 16:05:52 GMT 9.5
|
|
|
Post by thinkstoomuch on Oct 10, 2019 22:27:33 GMT 9.5
...snip... Not clear there is much interest in pumped hydro schemes. The current ones in the USA are barely surviving, being designed to but low at night and sell high during the day. But wind power and especially solar power is invading this market. That is not how PPHS are currently functioning in places with a lot of solar. Like the Lake Hodges facility in Southern California. The night day is more of a hold over from Nuclear and other baseload paradigm, before the current renewables fad.
Now PPHS provide power in the morning and evenings. Then buying power when places like CA are giving away solar generated power or worse just curtailing it. CAISO has already curtailed almost 800,000 MWH this year with ~80 days to go and the fall curtailment season just starting. Comes out to around 3% of the total solar generation so far. Including almost 40,000 MWH in one day in May(IIRC).
That last is the real problem. How often do they get used?
Wind is even worse, figure out when to charge and when to discharge? But for CAISO not a problem, hardly any wind curtailment relative to Solar. Not a surprise with wind having half the capacity of solar.
T2M
|
|
|
Post by David B. Benson on Oct 11, 2019 12:55:16 GMT 9.5
|
|
|
Post by thinkstoomuch on Oct 11, 2019 20:23:10 GMT 9.5
Full capacity was only reached in August. Figuring selling at $50(probably higher) that is 30,000 MWH(probably less) CF of 8.5%(probably less). But until this year had less than 6 months/year of real curtailment in CAISO. It wasn't even tracked in 2013 when CAISO only had 4,822 MW of Solar; 2018, 11,572 MW. Energy used 2013, 7,391; 2018; 15,257. A lot depends.
Here is Lake Hodges US EIA page.
I never said it was economic. Matter of fact I pointed out the huge problem. If you need to store 40 GWH that only gets used once a year ... If PHS was economic all the projects on hold would be built. Like that one in Montana, on private land.
For fun Jan-July this year pumps have run for 25.95, 39.575, 74.925, 69.325, 54.025, 76.125, 43.05 hours/month, assuming full power and no recovery/revenue.
Thanks for making me look some stuff up. But I am probably done with this, T2M
|
|
|
Post by David B. Benson on Oct 29, 2019 18:54:42 GMT 9.5
|
|
|
Post by engineerpoet on Oct 29, 2019 19:52:48 GMT 9.5
It can't be anything other than small-scale compared to demand. We have increased our energy consumption way beyond what biological processes can supply. There's no way to go back to the way things were without a huge collapse, and given the exhaustion of most high-quality ore bodies that collapse will probably go back past iron and past bronze to stone technology.
|
|
|
Post by David B. Benson on Nov 7, 2019 12:10:23 GMT 9.5
|
|
|
Post by David B. Benson on Nov 12, 2019 11:01:06 GMT 9.5
|
|
|
Post by David B. Benson on Nov 14, 2019 16:46:21 GMT 9.5
|
|
|
Post by Roger Clifton on Dec 6, 2019 9:38:57 GMT 9.5
Small renewable array provides power on demand to a small town through all the vicissitudes of weather and seasons, climate disasters and enemy attack. The blessed solar array is proudly displayed for all the world to see on an artistically architectured structure that also discreetly conceals its backup device. Ref: Zero-carbon firmed solar power
|
|
|
Post by huon on Dec 8, 2019 15:03:27 GMT 9.5
|
|
|
Post by huon on Dec 12, 2019 15:09:00 GMT 9.5
|
|