Energy Matters Global and Domestic

[Dormouse]

the mk IIb version then

[Gibbo2286]

If we get a lot more of these will the change the weather. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Remember the sailing ships taking the wind out of the oppositions sails.

[mickthemaverick]

Picking up on that Gibbo and applying a bit of basic physics, "energy cannot be created nor destroyed, merely changed from one form to another" is how I remember learning it so if we convert wind energy to electricity it would mean the wind must have less energy to blow down houses etc which seems good!! However it also means less wind energy for other positive uses and begs the question will it interfere with the water cycle for example. Sun evaporates sea into clouds, wind blows clouds over land where they condense and supply our water reserves and then run back into the sea. If we have less wind energy available will that mean a slowing of the water cycle?

[Dormouse]

If we get a lot more of these will the change the weather. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Remember the sailing ships taking the wind out of the oppositions sails.

Fortunately (or unfortunately if you are a bird) these edifices only work in the surface winds and not in the stratospheric ones. And, yes, there must be some kind of effects even if only localised. However, mony a mickle maks a muckle! As usual, we mere mortals will just have to wait to find out.

[Gibbo2286]

Maybe we should report it to Greta.

[Dormouse]

Picking up on that Gibbo and applying a bit of basic physics, "energy cannot be created nor destroyed, merely changed from one form to another" is how I remember learning it so if we convert wind energy to electricity it would mean the wind must have less energy to blow down houses etc which seems good!! However it also means less wind energy for other positive uses and begs the question will it interfere with the water cycle for example. Sun evaporates sea into clouds, wind blows clouds over land where they condense and supply our water reserves and then run back into the sea. If we have less wind energy available will that mean a slowing of the water cycle?

Picking up on this basic Conserving of Energy Principal, Mother Earth will always apply this to herself hence the entire climate change issue. It is not an issue for Mother Earth, it is an issue for us Humans and our survival. Mother Earth will just keep applying the Principle in order to maintain herself. It is most definitely us that will have to change to survive.

[NewcastleFalcon]

Its a while since OPEC got a mention, but after their world oil outlook, reported here on the thread

viewtopic.php?p=698377#p698377

Up they pop again. Venerable motoring organisation the RAC are trailling rises in petrol prices. Not UK's lack of lorry drivers but yes....an increase in the price of crude, fairly unsurprising that after not being able to give the stuff away, as many economies around the world were shut down. Surely not just a bounceback of demand, but a bit of recovery of previous losses.

Fuel crisis: RAC fears petrol and diesel price rises

https://www.fleetnews.co.uk/news/fleet- ... ery-crisis

demand for oil is outpacing supply, and with producer group OPEC+ deciding on Monday not to release more oil, the barrel price has now broken through the $80-mark for the first time in more than three years.

“This looks likely to spell further misery for drivers at the pumps as we head towards Christmas, especially as some analysts are predicting the price could even hit $90 before the end of the year.

Regards Neil

[Gibbo2286]

They don't seem quite so able to hold the world to ransom now as they did in the sixties/seventies.

I wonder where the waste product from oil drilling (Petrol) will go when the transport world/motoring world goes all electric, will they burn it off or dump it?

[Dormouse]

Rejig their refineries to produce other "must have" chemicals and "promote" them in a Green Light.

[NewcastleFalcon]

Over the summer, "Fully Charged" did 6 Videos into mainly energy matters domestic.

While the focus of the items is Electrification, the heat pump is not the sole alternative to the gas boiler, and ideas like the old electric storage heater in more innovative form, and infra red electric heating are given their 5 minutes.

This should link to the playlist should you wish to have a look. Maybe a bit too much suck up what the reps say about their own products but informative enough.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... 7pf__Ialo

Episode 4 kicks off with the Sunderland Tower Block heat pump scheme which had a little airing on POTD and the Heatpumps thread.



Regards Neil

[Dormouse]

Over the summer, "Fully Charged" did 6 Videos into mainly energy matters domestic.

"While the focus of the items is Electrification, the heat pump is not the sole alternative to the gas boiler, and ideas like the old electric storage heater in more innovative form, and infra red electric heating are given their 5 minutes."


When we did our Sitootery/ Porch we installed 3 Infrared 700w panels on the ceiling and have been very impressed that we usually only need one of them running to sit in it in all but the coldest of winter days.

[bobins]

Why giant turbines are pushing the limits of possibility

Quote: 'Next year, Danish wind turbine manufacturer Vestas will put up a gargantuan prototype - a 15-megawatt (MW) wind turbine that will be powerful enough to provide electricity to roughly 13,000 British homes.
It will be the biggest such turbine in the world, though potentially not for long. Wind turbines just keep getting bigger - and it's happening faster than almost anybody predicted.
"It's happening quicker than we would wish, in a sense," says Aurélie Nasse, head of offshore product market strategy at Vestas. The firm is one of a handful that have led the development of super-sized turbines - but headaches associated with building ever larger machines are beginning to emerge.
"We need to make sure it's a sustainable race for everyone in the industry," says Ms Nasse, as she points out the need for larger harbours, and the necessary equipment and installation vessels required to bring today's huge turbine components offshore.
Then there's the hefty investments required to get to that point. "If you look at the financial results of the [manufacturers], basically none of us make money anymore," explains Ms Nasse. "That's a big risk." '

...Much snippage........

'He adds that blades are also twisted slightly near the tip to ensure good performance, although there is a limit on how much they can be twisted. That means there is a limit on a blade's size and speed of rotation.
In short, while building a wind turbine significantly bigger than today's giants may be possible from a manufacturing standpoint, it could be the practicalities and costs of installing, maintaining and operating them that really challenge their seemingly unstoppable growth in the future.
As Ms Nasse says, "We need to be a little careful of the pace." '

A lovely little factoid: "We've worked out that a single turn of a 14MW turbine would power a Tesla Model 3 for 352km (218 miles),"

More at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58704792

[bobins]

Linked from the BBC article above:

UK offshore wind target must be at least doubled to deliver net-zero electricity
Energy Futures Lab, Imperial College London.

"The UK will need to at least double its 2030 offshore wind target and roll out new grid-connected batteries at an unprecedented speed and scale if it is to deliver net-zero emissions electricity by the middle of the next decade, according to new analysis from Imperial College London.

The research, published in a White Paper by Energy Futures Lab, Imperial’s energy institute, shows up to 108 GW of offshore wind capacity will be needed by 2035, more than twice the 2030 target of 40 GW announced by Prime Minister Boris Johnson last year and a tenfold increase on the UK’s current offshore wind capacity.

“Offshore wind provides the best-value route to a decarbonised grid for Britain, thanks in part to our relatively windy location. In every scenario we looked at, it played the single biggest role in generating electricity, meeting around three quarters of our needs. The question is whether we can ramp up the construction of wind farms quickly enough,” said Dr Marko Aunedi, lead author of the White Paper.

Barring a dramatic fall in costs, solar power will play only a small role in decarbonising the British electricity system, while the cost of nuclear energy would need to halve to warrant building new nuclear plants, though the challenge of building wind farms quickly enough means some new nuclear power could still be needed, even if not economically optimal.

The White Paper also highlights the need for a rapid expansion of grid-scale energy storage. Over 140 GW of grid-connected batteries will be needed in Britain, a more than 100-fold increase on the volume in use today, to help even out supply and demand and ensure security of supply in a system dominated by intermittent renewables.

The exact capacity of wind power and energy storage needed in a net-zero emissions system depends partly on the availability of other technologies, some not yet widely available. If direct air capture, a negative-emissions technology, could be utilised, for example, heat pumps could use natural gas on the coldest days of the year, displacing some battery energy storage."

More: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/223373/ ... ust-least/

[NewcastleFalcon]

The big wind turbines had an outing on the thread recently. The Chinese are forging ahead, but much speculation that the plateau of increasing size with current materials technology may be reached at around the 16MW level.

Has anybody read their copy of "Composites World" today?

https://www.compositesworld.com/news/mi ... nd-turbine

Regards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

Wind/Solar and storage (whether via battery/hot rocks/liquid air/hydgogen/old coal fired power stations repurposed/gravity/flywheels/hotwater tanks/ etc etc) is current, in that established grid scale technologies already exist, and it's the pace of implementing greater capacity which is the major concern.

Not so for tidal. Its potential is clear but any developments are in the small scale project category for the UK.

Found this article with the promising title "The State of UK Tidal Energy" written in September 2021,

Lets see if it tells us anything new. Lob up any tidal related news you come across

https://www.power-technology.com/featur ... velopment/

Plenty of Tidal, Plenty of Solar, and just a touch of chilly wind at Druridge today.

Regards Neil