Can you give some examples of renewables being the best economic choice currently?Now we have reached the tipping point where renewables are the best economic choice and they will continue to be a better economic value going forward.
Mike B
Can you give some examples of renewables being the best economic choice currently?Now we have reached the tipping point where renewables are the best economic choice and they will continue to be a better economic value going forward.
That's good point, and it leads to another issue. Depending on the source sometimes they lump something into the pie chart showing " renewables" to make it larger. The "something" is hydro. That's not fair since hydro should have its own category and not prop up solar and wind numbers.Can you give some examples of renewables being the best economic choice currently?
Mike B
Can you give some examples of renewables being the best economic choice currently?
Mike B
That's good point, and it leads to another issue. Depending on the source sometimes they lump something into the pie chart showing " renewables" to make it larger. The "something" is hydro. That's not fair since hydro should have its own category and not prop up solar and wind numbers.
To quote Scott Luft (@ScottLuft on twitter): "apparently this is a picture of a feature - not a bug. before 6 a.m. on a Sunday morning in Texas"
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And from @TomHess_ in response to the below image: "For the size of the Texas Interconnection, there certainly is not a lot of intertie capacity, all HVDC & 1 VFT, which have been loaded at max import almost continuously. Eagle Pass may be on outage but is only rated at 30 MW."
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Texas has close to 30,000MW of wind capacity, which was at 22% capacity this AM:
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Oh man, was driving a GMC 2500 when I saw the road being pounded by near golf ball sized … I quickly stopped and backed under a tree - got by with hood damage only … (horrible sound) …And a couple of tornadoes or those Texas sized hailstorms will bring that output down in a big hurry. Meanwhile other energy production plants hum along.
hydro is not renewable because the water only flows one wayThat's good point, and it leads to another issue. Depending on the source sometimes they lump something into the pie chart showing " renewables" to make it larger. The "something" is hydro. That's not fair since hydro should have its own category and not prop up solar and wind numbers.
And a couple of tornadoes or those Texas sized hailstorms will bring that output down in a big hurry. Meanwhile other energy production plants hum along.
San Antonio gets a portion of their power from South Texas Project … but I know the “grid” is just not tailored for heavy ice etc … I mean a line broke a hundred feet from my house and I know they worked on a brace up there a year back.Well, *it* hit the fan, 20% of Texas is without power as rolling blackouts take place. The collapse in wind generation and insufficient gas meant they just didn't have enough power.
*Glances at Pickering 5 producing 44MW above nameplate... *
Nukes run when there is no wind power. Ask Texas how wind/solar has worked out for them the last couple days.This fantasy is typically based on CAPEX for procurement of a given capacity and ignores all the ancillary costs like transmission, fast-ramp gas backup and the fact that productivity will be dramatically lower.
Example, on a price per MW purchase wind is dramatically lower than pretty much anything else. It's usually around $1 million/MW, so a 10MW wind turbine would cost roughly $10 million dollars. So, if you wanted 1,000MW of wind capacity you'd be looking at $1 billion, this is about 12x cheaper than the AP1000 nuclear reactor currently under construction at Vogtle, so let's use that FOAK cost for Vogtle as our baseline here.
A single AP1000 at 93% CF will produce 8.2TWh/year
A 1,000MW wind farm at 30% CF will produce 2.6TWh/year and require full nameplate backup in the form of some other source, usually gas
A single AP1000 will last ~80 years
A 1000MW wind farm will last ~20-25 years
Now of course the AP1000 has staffing and maintenance costs which are significantly higher than the wind farm. A nuke doesn't have zero OPEX. Staffing makes up the largest cost of nuke OPEX.
Comparatively, the wind farm has next to zero OPEX, so the costs come from firming its output with other sources.
So, OPEX for a nuke is internalized and reflected in the per kWh rate paid to the facility. OPEX for a wind farm is externalized and becomes a "grid" cost, in terms of backup capacity, its staffing, fast-ramping, fuelling....etc.
This is why renewables are "cheap". Low CAPEX and externalized OPEX make it very easy to sell something of inherently low capacity value as something with good procurement value.
Nukes run when there is no wind power. Ask Texas how wind/solar has worked out for them the last couple days.
Don't get me wrong, I love wind/solar. But there has to be back-up, or reserve capacity. And right now that's nuke or fossil fuels. Can't make a clean break from them anytime soon. But we can sure reduce them, and any reduction is good, as long as demand can be met, IMHO.
Just watched a green power documentary on my flight from FRA … some thoughtsBetter question is when will solar energy be made out of solar energy I've yet to see a solar powered blast furnace, mining truck, dozer, excavator...etc. Nor will the panels get shipped across from China on PV-powered freighters.
Just look at the CEO’name.....says it all.BP's oil exploration team swept aside in climate revolution
Nothing escapes the winds of change now sweeping through BP, not even the exploration team that for more than a century powered its profits by discovering billions of barrels of oil.www.reuters.com
My question is - if BP wants to roll with this - why do AI’s think they all do. We will still need:Just look at the CEO’name.....says it all.
Hard to say, transporting oil is more expensive than transporting electricity.When I was teenager
They were saying we’d all be in space ship looking vehicles of some sort and gas and oil would be all gone by now
I don’t see much changing anytime soon
EV’s will become more of thing in large city’s, possibly
But rural America ? Don’t think so
You guys have been very successful with Nuclear. So has the US so I don't know why everyone hates it. Savannah River nuclear facility has a new method of disposing of the waste. They put it in glass and bury it deep. The US Navy has used nuclear power for over 70 yrs safely.I don't love wind/solar. Both have worked to drive-up our electricity costs significantly in Ontario due to feed-in subsidies. Wind here produces grossly out of phase with demand making it pretty much useless.
Solar, unsubsidized, can at least be used to depress daytime peaking at reasonable levels of penetration (not biting into baseload) and its morning/evening ramps can be dealt with via some moderate amounts of storage but wind, in locations where its output profile doesn't align with demand? useless. It's unfortunate that much of the data gathering that should have taken place prior to a full-steam-ahead roll-out wasn't because it didn't align with the narrative of the wind and solar utopia so Ontarians will be forced to pay for wind generation that's almost entirely exported at a massive loss for 20 years.
There are many tools in the tool box, it should ALWAYS be about choosing what the best tool for that job is, not about which one buys the most political brownie points/virtue signals the best.
You got a good washing of the brain. Glad it didn't work.Just watched a green power documentary on my flight from FRA … some thoughts
1.) said solar is unstoppable because it’s not just green but will be very cheap … no mention of what kind of labor/pollution makes this true ? O&G will only be for aircraft and plastic by 2030 - no mention of lubes or ships in 2030?
2.) moving from coal to NG is just extraction to extraction … No mention of how solar panels are made or maintenance impacts of commercial installations using chemicals to spray wash them … or how toxic they are at end of life cycles
3.) claimed that battery technology is already here for full backup to wind/sun lags … no comment
4.) did plug home rooftop solar and or outer walls (high rise) as better use of landmass - already used that space
(many of us agree with that) … IMO that airgap really helps too
Did show some massive dessert solar spreads … pretty useless land otherwise … but needs lots of water ? Dichotomy of sorts …?
I could see some good examples in the film … but it also had a propaganda feel overall … Good vs evil
BTW: The main commentator? Just call him Professor Investor
Just watched a green power documentary on my flight from FRA … some thoughts
1.) said solar is unstoppable because it’s not just green but will be very cheap … no mention of what kind of labor/pollution makes this true ? O&G will only be for aircraft and plastic by 2030 - no mention of lubes or ships in 2030?
2.) moving from coal to NG is just extraction to extraction … No mention of how solar panels are made or maintenance impacts of commercial installations using chemicals to spray wash them … or how toxic they are at end of life cycles
3.) claimed that battery technology is already here for full backup to wind/sun lags … no comment
4.) did plug home rooftop solar and or outer walls (high rise) as better use of landmass - already used that space
(many of us agree with that) … IMO that airgap really helps too
Did show some massive dessert solar spreads … pretty useless land otherwise … but needs lots of water ? Dichotomy of sorts …?
I could see some good examples in the film … but it also had a propaganda feel overall … Good vs evil
BTW: The main commentator? Just call him Professor Investor