With seasonal variations in output of only around 30% Puerto Rico is at an ideal latitude for solar power, and despite generally low capacity factors (caused by cloudiness) it can be argued that if solar doesn’t work there it won’t work anywhere. And as the results of this post show 100% solar generation can in fact be made to work in Puerto Rico – but only by installing enormously costly amounts of battery storage. The island could be repowered with gas for a small fraction of the cost. Continue reading
Can Puerto Rico go 100% solar?
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Blowout Week 202
This week’s Blowout features Germany, where the Greens have dropped their demands for a fossil-fuel phaseout as a condition of entering a coalition government and the coal-fired Energiewende is set to continue. Next up a couple more Germany stories, followed by OPEC; shale oil; nuclear in the US, Japan and France; coal in Ukraine and Australia; the China/Alaska LNG deal; Trump not invited to COP23; Norsk Hydro buys wind energy; Tesla’s big battery; Flinders Island goes renewable; a proposed UK solar farm brings out the NIMBYs; a downed wind turbine in Antarctica and a solar-powered hurricane-resistant floating electric house boat. Continue reading
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Grid-Scale Storage of Renewable Energy: The Impossible Dream
The utopian ambition for variable renewable energy is to convert it into uniform firm capacity using energy storage. Here we present an analysis of actual UK wind and solar generation for the whole of 2016 at 30 minute resolution and calculate the grid-scale storage requirement. In order to deliver 4.6 GW uniform and firm RE supply throughout the year, from 26 GW of installed capacity, requires 1.8 TWh of storage. We show that this is both thermodynamically and economically implausible to implement with current technology. Continue reading
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Blowout Week 211
This week we return to the Big South Australian Battery (BSAB), the alleged success of which – the “Tesla effect” – is spawning a raft of similar projects elsewhere in the country. Coming after we have Frydenberg on Snowy River; the usual dose of OPEC; Russia sells gas to the US; less gas to come from Groningen; California to close Diablo Canyon; coal in Finland, Poland, Bulgaria and Japan, hydro in Colombia; Germany’s Energiewende problems; renewables in Denmark and Colorado; less gas capacity planned for UK; Ineos to challenge Scotland’s fracking ban; a contingency plan needed for cold winter nights when the wind doesn’t blow; Trump reconsiders Paris and how climate change makes turtles female. Continue reading
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Blowout Week 215
This week’s lead story highlights the perils of basing policy decisions on speculative computer models. It seems that the ozone layer isn’t healing as predicted after all, so the dangers of man-made CFC radiation are still with us. And if radiation doesn’t do the job other computer models now tell us that melting permafrost threatens us with death from mercury poisoning. And if neither happens the forthcoming magnetic pole reversal spells the demise of civilization as we know it. Lots more energy and climate-related stories in this bumper Blowout, too numerous to synthesize, but read on and enjoy anyway. They're not all bad. Continue reading
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Blowout Week 216
Britain’s free market approach to green energy is not going to save humanity from climate change, claims Labour’s Jeremy Corbin in this week’s feature story. So let’s nationalize the UK energy industry. Stories to follow include OPEC vs. shale; Venezuela’s collapse; Gazprom and Europe’s gas; nuclear in India, Taiwan, France and the Middle East; carbon capture & storage in the US and Norway; Bitcoin mining in Iceland; a Puerto Rico school goes solar; Elon Musk to shake up the Oz grid; CCGTs lose out to batteries and interconnectors in US and UK capacity auctions, blockchain grid balancing in Germany; Lord Deben questions Swansea Bay; the coming mini-ice age and the solution to climate change – more women. Continue reading
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Blowout Week 217
This week's lead article features the "imminent end of cheap finance" - does this mean disaster for the renewable energy sector? We follow up with our usual mix of stories from around the world - OPEC; oil in California; Europe's gas supplies and the "Beast from the East"; India needs 300 more nuclear reactors; Trump wants to sell off BPA; South Australia ramps up its renewable target; CCS in South Dakota; Elon Musk's virtual power plant; a new offer on Swansea Tidal; Jacobson withdraws his defamation lawsuit; solar-powered rail for the UK and how CO2 dissolves Scottish starfish. Continue reading
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Blowout Week 248
In this week's Blowout we feature China, where the central government's edict to cancel over 100 planned coal plants is being ignored by local authorities who are continuing to build them anyway (the follow-up story shows satellite photos). Elsewhere in the world: Trump and OPEC go head-to-head; Nord Stream 2 and Germany; coal and hydro in the US; a last-minute reprieve for the Vogtle nuclear plant; possible blackouts in Belgium; the Puerto Rico grid; solar in France; Australia's emssions increase; a "major" UK gas discovery; Corbyn to resurrect Swansea Bay tidal; US SEC sues Elon Musk for fraud; zinc-air batteries; Faraday exchangers and how global warming makes pigs thin and lethargic. Continue reading
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Blowout Week 249
This week's feature story exposes the mess Germany's Energiewende has become, and in the follow-up story how it's torpedoing Europe's carbon emissions goals. Coming after we have the Trump-OPEC war of words; Saudi Arabia abandons its $200 billion solar project; Shell's $12 billion Canadian LNG project; the world's "coal binge"; Australia's Liddell coal plant to close; the Belgian reactor shutdown; UK SMR companies ask for billions in government support; the EU to cut vehicle emissions, Denmark to ban petrol and diesel vehicles; power-to-gas energy storage in UK; wind turbines cause warming; Elon Musk defies the SEC and how California Gov. Jerry Brown will make the sun shine at night. Continue reading
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Powering the Tesla Gigafactory
Tesla has repeatedly claimed in publications, articles and tweets from Elon Musk that its Reno, Nevada Gigafactory will be powered 100% by renewables. Specifics on exactly how Tesla plans to do this are sparse, but the data that are available suggest that Tesla's 70MW rooftop solar array won't come close to supplying the Gigafactory's needs and that the other options that Tesla is now or has been considering (more solar, possibly wind, battery storage) will not bridge the gap. As a result the Gigafactory will probably end up obtaining most of its electricity from the Nevada grid, 75% of which is presently generated by fossil fuels. Continue reading
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