Over 50% from renewables

MrDrizz

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So one day last week we produced over 50% of our electricity needs from renewable sources. I think this is pretty remarkable that we come a long way in the last 20 years. Now I know that a lot of favorable factors made this possible, good sun, long warm days and brisk winds but it's still a great step.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-40198567
 
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Wednesday lunch time!!!! Pmsl. 20 years and we can only supply power for an hour by renewables.!!!
 
MrDrizz said:
So one day last week we produced over 50% of our electricity needs from renewable sources. I think this is pretty remarkable that we come a long way in the last 20 years. Now I know that a lot of favorable factors made this possible, good sun, long warm days and brisk winds but it's still a great step.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-40198567
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praxis said:
Wednesday lunch time!!!! Pmsl. 20 years and we can only supply power for an hour by renewables.!!!
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A bit of both really. A Wednesday lunchtime in June is hardly representative of the energy needs of the UK, but it's some kind of milestone and is entitled to a bit of self-publicity. I'm not just so sure that wood pellets will be counted as renewable in the future.
 
MrDrizz said:
So one day last week we produced over 50% of our electricity needs from renewable sources. I think this is pretty remarkable that we come a long way in the last 20 years. Now I know that a lot of favorable factors made this possible, good sun, long warm days and brisk winds but it's still a great step.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-40198567
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completely agree big step, the future
 
Still a long way to go. I think a couple of years ago Germany had a day where 100% power came from renewables. They are 10-15 years ahead of us.
If the UK government introduced mandatory separation and recycling of food waste, as they now have in Scotland, we could catch up very quickly.
 
Regular occurrance in Scotland, we've even (once) managed 100% for a day. At the expense of seeing windfarms everywhere, if it was reliable I'd say it was worth the visual blight. Tidal power is a better way to go I think.
 
BBR said:
Still a long way to go. I think a couple of years ago Germany had a day where 100% power came from renewables. They are 10-15 years ahead of us.
If the UK government introduced mandatory separation and recycling of food waste, as they now have in Scotland, we could catch up very quickly.
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The problem with Zero Waste Scotland is that it's pretty much unachievable especially without huge costs (ie mattresses etc) and there's pretty much zero Government financial support for this. Even with easier output waste streams such as plastics there's few sources looking to buy it unless it's had further treatment first which again costs a lot and makes it more expensive than simply sending it to landfill.

Even with clean wood the best you'll get is a free uplift but it still has to be separated first at cost and typically by hand which means a big wage bill and all the associated costs and taxes.

A current tactic to increase recycling rates is to send the waste away for use as RDF because it's technically not landfill but still not great for the environment.

More pressure needs to be put on the manufacturing side of things so that products are easier to recycle, but again that will probably increase costs.
 
Nuclear isn't the future and it's not cheap in short term monatery or long term environmental.

For the life of my why aren't more new builds going up with solar? A few brand new warehouses have recently gone up near Ikea in Warrington, all of them could have had solar installed but no none of them did. These buildings are huge, like several football field size, huge. The Travis Perkins one is at least 3 footy pitches in size. A roof full of solar could make enough it's needs and it's neighbours.

Anyway the next step is storing the angry pixels while production is high for use when it's not.

Battery
Hydro
Air
Salt.
 
BBR said:
Still a long way to go. I think a couple of years ago Germany had a day where 100% power came from renewables. They are 10-15 years ahead of us.
If the UK government introduced mandatory separation and recycling of food waste, as they now have in Scotland, we could catch up very quickly.
Click to expand...

I actually bought that tip back from scotland and we have a food bin in our house just like the scots it is a great idea
 
MrDrizz said:
Nuclear isn't the future and it's not cheap in short term monatery or long term environmental.

For the life of my why aren't more new builds going up with solar? A few brand new warehouses have recently gone up near Ikea in Warrington, all of them could have had solar installed but no none of them did. These buildings are huge, like several football field size, huge. The Travis Perkins one is at least 3 footy pitches in size. A roof full of solar could make enough it's needs and it's neighbours.

Anyway the next step is storing the angry pixels while production is high for use when it's not.

Battery
Hydro
Air
Salt.
Click to expand...

I also can never understand the lack of solar installs in these huge buildings.
 
BBR said:
If the UK government introduced mandatory separation and recycling of food waste, as they now have in Scotland, we could catch up very quickly.
Click to expand...
Its not mandatory, but we have that down here in the south too, green waste bins are provided, for Garden waste, and the last few years its also included all food waste, from potato peelings to chicken carcasses.
This is then turned into soil improver, on a small scale for householders and farmers on a massive scale.

However, every action, has a reaction, as a pest controller, mostly to the waste industry, when it was just "green waste" there were a few rats making their homes in the storage facilities,
now there is food waste, also, they are living the life of Reilly and breeding like erm rats.
 
Cobra said:
Its not mandatory, but we have that down here in the south too, green waste bins are provided, for Garden waste, and the last few years its also included all food waste, from potato peelings to chicken carcasses.
This is then turned into soil improver, on a small scale for householders and farmers on a massive scale.

However, every action, has a reaction, as a pest controller, mostly to the waste industry, when it was just "green waste" there were a few rats making their homes in the storage facilities,
now there is food waste, also, they are living the life of Reilly and breeding like erm rats.
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I'm a bit puzzled why they need a pest controller. Can't they just turn the rats into compost? Methinks the wate system is badly designed if they missed that trick. Not trying to do you out of a job though ;-)
 
sphexx said:
Can't they just turn the rats into compost?
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They of course have to be caught and killed first.
Have you tried to catch a healthy rat, especially while driving a 40 tonne "bucket loader" ?
Its not easy :D
 
Cobra said:
They of course have to be caught and killed first.
Have you tried to catch a healthy rat, especially while driving a 40 tonne "bucket loader" ?
Its not easy :D
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ohhhhh sounds like a new game on the app store.
 
Cobra said:
Have you tried to catch a healthy rat, especially while driving a 40 tonne "bucket loader" ?
Its not easy :D
Click to expand...

Rats driving a 40 tonne "bucket Loader"? - Jeez Cobra you've got problems!:LOL::LOL::LOL:
 
Cobra said:
Its not mandatory, but we have that down here in the south too, green waste bins are provided, for Garden waste, and the last few years its also included all food waste, from potato peelings to chicken carcasses.
This is then turned into soil improver, on a small scale for householders and farmers on a massive scale.

However, every action, has a reaction, as a pest controller, mostly to the waste industry, when it was just "green waste" there were a few rats making their homes in the storage facilities,
now there is food waste, also, they are living the life of Reilly and breeding like erm rats.
Click to expand...

Same here.
Food bin, recyclable bin, general waste, garden waste.
 
Cobra said:
Its not mandatory, but we have that down here in the south too, green waste bins are provided, for Garden waste, and the last few years its also included all food waste, from potato peelings to chicken carcasses.
This is then turned into soil improver, on a small scale for householders and farmers on a massive scale.

However, every action, has a reaction, as a pest controller, mostly to the waste industry, when it was just "green waste" there were a few rats making their homes in the storage facilities,
now there is food waste, also, they are living the life of Reilly and breeding like erm rats.
Click to expand...
We're not even allowed to put raw vegetable waste from the kitchen in our garden waste bin, because of the attraction of rats. Oddly I put hundreds of apples in it every year from the tree, but I can't put a few lettuce leaves from the kitchen :(
 
BBR said:
I think a couple of years ago Germany had a day where 100% power came from renewables. They are 10-15 years ahead of us.
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Have you any sources for those claims?
 
petersmart said:
Rats driving a 40 tonne "bucket Loader"? - Jeez Cobra you've got problems!:LOL::LOL::LOL:
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:lol:
I know, they breed them big down here

:D

Phil V said:
We're not even allowed to put raw vegetable waste from the kitchen in our garden waste bin, because of the attraction of rats. Oddly I put hundreds of apples in it every year from the tree, but I can't put a few lettuce leaves from the kitchen :(
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That's just bloody crazy!
 
Here's a slightly different take on it. My wife currently works for Centrica, in the team that builds investment cases for new electricity generation plants, and a big part of what she does is modelling the economics of the mix of different energy types.

Apparently it's a real nightmare. When it's sunny we get a huge amount of solar electricity, and when it's windy we get a lot from wind farms: when it's both sunny and windy I think we can get 50% of our total electricity from these sources. But that electricity has to be used - battery storage isn't feasible (or at least isn't economic) on this scale, yet. So then National Grid have to have other sources that can be turned on and off quickly to compensate for the fluctuations in sunshine and wind. That means National Grid contracts with generators in many different ways: for "base load" (primarily nuclear), for predictably variable power (to cover daily/seasonal peaks, the lack of solar at night, etc), and for short-notice unpredictable power. This has created a big demand for relatively small power plants, usually gas-fired, that can be started up and brought online with, say, 5 minutes notice. I can't remember the actual numbers, and if I could remember them it probably wouldn't be a good idea to mention them in public anyway, but I do remember being appalled at how few hours per year a small gas plant needs to run, to be economically viable.

So more renewable energy isn't necessarily a good idea, at least until we get large-scale battery storage technology. The more wind and solar capacity we have, the more backup capacity we need for when it's not sunny or windy. And even if the cost of the renewable energy comes down, the cost of the additional backup capacity means it doesn't necessarily get any cheaper overall.

Incidentally there is a FASCINATING website where you can watch what's happening on the National Grid in real time:
http://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk
 
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Very interesting site you linked to.
 
Cobra said:
Its not mandatory, but we have that down here in the south too, green waste bins are provided, for Garden waste, and the last few years its also included all food waste, from potato peelings to chicken carcasses.
This is then turned into soil improver, on a small scale for householders and farmers on a massive scale.

However, every action, has a reaction, as a pest controller, mostly to the waste industry, when it was just "green waste" there were a few rats making their homes in the storage facilities,
now there is food waste, also, they are living the life of Reilly and breeding like erm rats.
Click to expand...

My local council came up with the garden waste bins too as a green initiative, now that everyone has them they are charging extra to have them emptied.
 
Steep said:
At the expense of seeing windfarms everywhere, if it was reliable I'd say it was worth the visual blight.
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Why aren't wind farms reliable. The UK' s 3 largest turbines (don't think there are any larger ones yet) reliably provide 100% power to Ford's Dagenham engine plant and have done so for quite a few years now.
 
Cobra said:
They of course have to be caught and killed first.
Have you tried to catch a healthy rat, especially while driving a 40 tonne "bucket loader" ?
Its not easy :D
Click to expand...
No, I haven't but I'd like to try. I have quite good courses across my garden as "my neighbour's" rats try to make I back home before the terrier gets'em.
 
nilagin said:
Why aren't wind farms reliable. The UK' s 3 largest turbines (don't think there are any larger ones yet) reliably provide 100% power to Ford's Dagenham engine plant and have done so for quite a few years now.
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Wind farms are reliable, wind isn't. Here in Scotland the best option is hydro, small scale hydro schemes are being built to power villages and country areas. For the future larger scale generation - tidal power but not without some form of short term storage.
 
Steep said:
Wind farms are reliable, wind isn't. Here in Scotland the best option is hydro, small scale hydro schemes are being built to power villages and country areas. For the future larger scale generation - tidal power but not without some form of short term storage.
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As I go about the countryside I've been struck how many unused former mill ponds there and often wondered why nobody's putting them to use with modern generators.
 
Steep said:
Wind farms are reliable, wind isn't. Here in Scotland the best option is hydro, small scale hydro schemes are being built to power villages and country areas. For the future larger scale generation - tidal power but not without some form of short term storage.
Click to expand...

In addition the Government also made changes recently (can't remember exactly what) which made it far less financially attractive to have wind farms installed. May have been the tarrifs or grants but can't remember exactly.
 
BBR said:
Still a long way to go. I think a couple of years ago Germany had a day where 100% power came from renewables. They are 10-15 years ahead of us.
If the UK government introduced mandatory separation and recycling of food waste, as they now have in Scotland, we could catch up very quickly.
Click to expand...

Pfft, one day a couple of year ago.

Costa Rica had 98.1% of their 2016 total annual electricity usage came from renewables, and in 2015 it was 98.9%

They often go several months in a row without fossil fuels (for generating electricity), and they even export their excess to neighbouring countries (they still have the problem of storage).
 
More focus has (and is still) needs to be ploughed into battery technology.

When there is a surplus of renewable generation, it is 'spilt' and this is an excess cost that is borne by consumers.
If we can harness this in the form of a large reliable battery, then this can be used when there is insufficient supply, thus reducing the requirement for 'dirty' energy.

Its not there yet, but with the advances in technology, it will (I hope) happen.
What it needs to happen is government incentives to forge the technology, and this can happen here in the UK with the talent we have.

I sincerely ope it happens in my life time - then the growth in renewables can go on unabated.......
 
Government incentives? Like more subsidies? Yes, take more taxes off working people, All for something that has not been proved to be a problem.
 
While RnD into producing the energy is great, more money needs to go into a way to store it long term. Battery tech is still 100 year behind Times.

You could use a system like electric mountain in wales. Use renewables to pump to water back up for on demand use when it's needed. At present I believes they buy back electricity when its cheap to pump the water back up.
 
I did an essay for uni on electric vehicles and one point I made was using the batteries within the cars whilst on charge in the evening to put back in to the grid if needed.

And Renault are using old batteries that do not offer optimal range anymore, from their electric vehicles to create storage batteries. (https://www.google.co.uk/amp/uk.mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUKKBN18Y2K9)

I'm sure the tesla wall batteries will help with storage too once they become financially viable.

I can't wait until a solar roof on my own home powers my batteries in the garage and I don't have to pay for electric anymore, just can't afford it yet
 
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China are making some advancements I think, there was some air/oxygen type lithium battery that they have managed to advance and overcome the rapid degradation when charging or something. I can't remember the specifics but should be easy enough to Google. I'm sure it's China that's doing it also but might be USA.
 
Steep said:
My local council came up with the garden waste bins too as a green initiative, now that everyone has them they are charging extra to have them emptied.
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That's just taking the p*** :(
Our bins were delivered free to those that wanted them many years ago, however "New adopters" are being charged £35 for a bin.
Still worth it IMO


sphexx said:
No, I haven't but I'd like to try. I have quite good courses across my garden as "my neighbour's" rats try to make I back home before the terrier gets'em.
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I'd say joint custody TBH, Rats need 3 things to survive, Water, Food and Harbourage.
Seems your neighbour is providing the harbourage, but you must be providing at least one other, or they wouldn't bother dropping by :thumbs:
 
praxis said:
The way to go is 100% nuclear.
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praxis said:
Government incentives? Like more subsidies? Yes, take more taxes off working people, All for something that has not been proved to be a problem.
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:banghead:
Like Nuclear which always has and will continue to receive billions more in subsidies than all other renewables combined? Then there's the massively over-inflated sale price the gov has agreed to pay the French for Hinckly C's leccy for it's entire life. And there is then the massive decommissioning costs which the tax payer will pick up for all the power stations because they couldn't privatise the nuclear industry without that promise.
 
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