Vehicle Emissions

[marknotgeorge]

The thing about electricity generation is that it my be relatively dirty now, but every time a new, cleaner form of generation comes along, it benefits everyone.

 

[Bollo]

No, it goes beyond the power wall. He's now proposing (and has done it in one city) to sort out the peaks and troughs in demand by installing city-sized battery banks. He's just made a bet with one Australian city that if he can't sort it out, they won't have to pay.

Not something that's landed on my (now cleared) desk. Just looked it up and if it lives up to promise then great, although the 100 day promise is pure gimmick. But to put 100MWh in perspective, that's probably more a STOR type capacity (Short Term Operational Reserve - used to meet very short demand spikes or unplanned generation outages) than something that could fill in long-term lulls in wind and solar production. Waving a wet finger in the air, 100MWh enough to keep London going for about 30 seconds. Although technology marches on, batteries are still a very expensive way of managing capacity when compared with more mundane measures and proper long-term supply and demand planning (with a roll-eyes to UK governments of both flavours).

 

[Yellow Saddle]

Not something that's landed on my (now cleared) desk. Just looked it up and if it lives up to promise then great, although the 100 day promise is pure gimmick. But to put 100MWh in perspective, that's probably more a STOR type capacity (Short Term Operational Reserve - used to meet very short demand spikes or unplanned generation outages) than something that could fill in long-term lulls in wind and solar production. Waving a wet finger in the air, 100MWh enough to keep London going for about 30 seconds. Although technology marches on, batteries are still a very expensive way of managing capacity when compared with more mundane measures and proper long-term supply and demand planning (with a roll-eyes to UK governments of both flavours).

Thanks, your London analogy put it in perspective for me.

 

[Joey Shabadoo]

What an informative thread!

 

[Yellow Saddle]

Although technology marches on, batteries are still a very expensive way of managing capacity when compared with more mundane measures and proper long-term supply and demand planning (with a roll-eyes to UK governments of both flavours).

Don't be too critical of the UK government on this one. The UK's storage heater and off-peak boiler heating schemes are miles ahead of other countries still struggling to get people to voluntarily switch off their boilers at peak demand times. The more "progressive" of those energy companies are now using ripple switching to turn boilers off when demand is high but consumers have cottoned on to that and bypass the ripple switches.

That said, I do think a huge part of the solution is demand management and countries with geography that allows energy to be stored in dams are fortunate.

 

[subaqua]

Not something that's landed on my (now cleared) desk. Just looked it up and if it lives up to promise then great, although the 100 day promise is pure gimmick. But to put 100MWh in perspective, that's probably more a STOR type capacity (Short Term Operational Reserve - used to meet very short demand spikes or unplanned generation outages) than something that could fill in long-term lulls in wind and solar production. Waving a wet finger in the air, 100MWh enough to keep London going for about 30 seconds. Although technology marches on, batteries are still a very expensive way of managing capacity when compared with more mundane measures and proper long-term supply and demand planning (with a roll-eyes to UK governments of both flavours).

However battery tech and solar panel tech. Is improving year on year. As is the efficiency of inverters.

Storing PV generated electricity to charge your delivery vehicle fleet overnight . Now that's a damn good goal ..... lots of work to be done mind.

 

[Salty seadog]

the Government needs to be applying serious effort into breaking that culture and promoting walking and cycle use.

I doubt they're in a hurry to do this......No money in walking....

 

[Wobblers]

There is a problem getting power generated by solar in a sunny desert to densely populated countries in the temperate zone where the consumers of energy live.

HVDC (high voltage DC) transmission will get 80% of that power to most load centres right now (compare that with the miserly 33% you'll get from the endlessly touted "hydrogen economy"). 80% is also a rather good efficiency figure for oil extraction, transportation and - especially - refining it into a usable fuel. Transmission - or even generation by solar - isn't the problem. Batteries are. Or at least, the weight compared to liquid fuel, inconvenience of recharging and finite lifespan are problems.