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Post by David B. Benson on Jul 14, 2019 16:28:04 GMT 9.5
'Just a matter of when': the $20bn plan to power Singapore with Australian solar
Adam Morton
2019 Jul 13
The Guardian
From a large solar PV farm plus big battery, an underwater HVDC line snakes through the Indonesian archepelago to Singapore. This to replace some LNG.
At 3,800 km of cable, I estimate the losses at about 25%. Oh well, solar power is presumed inexpensive.
Two other schemes are mentioned while a professor is quoted. But somehow these large schemes often flounder for lack of financing; the money people find the power market too risky these days.
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Post by Roger Clifton on Jul 14, 2019 18:38:52 GMT 9.5
According to The Guardian article, "a 10-gigawatt-capacity array of panels will be spread across 15,000 hectares and be backed by battery storage to ensure it can supply power around the clock". To achieve that, the battery storage would have to have a capacity in excess of about 100 GWh. Seeing as the biggest battery in the world only has a capacity of 100 MWh, I hope that would-be investors notice the thousand-fold discrepancy in the salesman's spin before they hand over any cash.
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Post by Roger Clifton on Jul 15, 2019 9:48:43 GMT 9.5
From a large solar PV farm plus big battery, an underwater HVDC line snakes through the Indonesian archipelago to Singapore... At 3,800 km of cable, I estimate the losses at about 25%. What is the loss rate on standard submarine HVDC cable? The design of an aerial (suspended) HVDC cable would provide different constraints on the conductivity, so would it have a different loss rate? |
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Post by engineerpoet on Jul 15, 2019 11:13:01 GMT 9.5
For Singapore to rely on power over such a long, fragile path would involve insane amounts of risk.
The leaders of Singapore do not strike me as insane.
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Post by David B. Benson on Jul 15, 2019 13:45:17 GMT 9.5
For more modern UHVDC cable losses of 2.6% per 800 km are quoted. So including the conversion losses at each end, just 15% total loss.
For DC transmission there is no capacitance and so the same losses whether overland or underwater.
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Post by Roger Clifton on Jul 20, 2019 13:11:05 GMT 9.5
That comes out to 3.2% per 1000 km for undersea HVDC cable. It is impressive when compared to low voltage, AC distribution cables whose planning accepts losses of 5% per 100 km. Long distance, high-voltage AC is better but suffers radiation losses. I would have thought that a more feasible plan would put HVDC connections between each of the well-populated islands of Indonesia, of which there are many. The majority of these lie on the " Sunda Shelf". The Shelf extends west to Singapore and western Malaysia and east to Bali. It is separated from Australia by a subduction trench along the south and on the east by contorted ocean beds that constitute the Wallace Line. Indonesia is a world-rank exporter of coal and natural gas. Predictably, there is strong opposition to nuclear. Either way, it would make sense for Indonesia to generate and sell electricity to Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines through such cables. |
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Post by David B. Benson on Oct 22, 2020 11:42:42 GMT 9.5
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