Can Scotland keep the lights on?
The brave new world of distributed generation designed by politicians results in power stations and power lines everywhere. There seems to be a form of cognitive dissonance among those who believe that covering the countryside in infrastructure is somehow better than having a handful of centralised generators. The Green notion that distributed generation is somehow good, repeated over until it is accepted by many, as far as I am aware is not underpinned by any scientific or engineering evidence. It is simply dogma.
It is not simply dogma.
An archipelago of generation is more reliable and more stable and can have better quality power IF
They are a decent size relative to the demand – micro generation is not helpful.
Several well-placed NG Generators are much more preferable to a Large hydro or nuclear installation.
In Thomas Edison’s original plans, he was going to build power stations at every mile or so, the maximum distance that DC electricity could be transmitted without too severe a voltage drop. If you’ve ever wondered why we have 110 volt electricity, the voltage drop from the power station through a mile of wire was 10 volts. George Westinghouse solved the problem by generating AC electricity that could easily be stepped up with a transformer and transmitted through high tension lines for miles on end. To go back to smaller power stations is to go back to 1900. What next?? Horse powered tread mills to grind the flour??
Smaller powered from my perspective is 100mw and up. So that’s about 140,000 horses.
And it’s already happening -,just look at the generation being built around Calgary and in the city itself.
Last year I went to Cowley Ridge, Ab. near the town of Pincher Creek. I must say the wind turbines are a majestic sight on a bright sunny Alberta day. I do however believe that their capacity is greatly overrated. And at night when the wind dies down, they don’t turn. Yet coal and natural gas seem to burn well after dark.
In the late 90’s & early 2000’s my father worked as an engineer for electrical consulting company who specialized in long distance HVDC transmission and distribution. They were contracted to do feasibility studies by Scotland and Ireland. The clients didn’t like the outcome and ignored it. Most likely hired others until they got what they wanted to hear.
This was accurately predicted many years ago.
He’ll find the schadenfreude delicious.
All of you are as thick as two short planks. You’re not thinking practically.
The easiest solution to this “issue” (pronounced as “iss-you”) is to get rid of all the humans – including the Scots, now – in Scotland.
After that, no one will be using any power or complain about the wind farms or about the hydro-electric grid.
Problem solved. Gaia will be pleased.
I was surprised during the Scottish referendum to discover that a critical mass of Scots were far left socialist retards. May the Muslims eat the as*holes up.
The goal to be sure. Anyone who thinks otherwise is living in a dreamworld.
there are serious things wrong i’ the land o’ da kilt laddy.
te ONLY reason Scotland was and *never* will be a completely unified autonomous nation, well, it’s kinda like the palestinians, they’re too busy fighting *each other* to focus on the common opponent. for the kilters, that’d be jolly ol’ England.
clan warfare going back X thousand years. not gonna change. they WILL be scrapping to the very last true scot.
wind farms are only a symptom.
Wind power along with Solar have helped Ontario become the most indebted non sovereign entity on the planet in terms of debt per capita at 294 billion or $21,000 per resident. Green theocracy in action! The Liberal and NDP legacies of looting and thuggery naturally helped more.
Maybe all the smart Scotts immigrated to Canada?
Maybe all the smart Scots immigrated to Canada?
ristvan | January 6, 2016 at 1:09 pm | Reply
The most likely grid to blackout is the UK. At least Scotland. Renewable penetration over 10%, weak interconnections to the continent, almost no reserve capacity. Even with the emergency measures put in place, reserves are less than 5% this winter, and will be worse next year with two more coal stations closing.
Surely the UK grid engineers know the risks, but it does not seem to get much MSM attention.
http://judithcurry.com/2016/01/06/renewables-and-grid-reliability/#comment-756562
current windmills and solar panels will never replace the ability of fossil fuels to generate sufficient electricity to keep industry going and mankind alive.
Never ever allow a bunch of drug induced granola munching tree huggers to ever dictate energy ideas you will end up having black-outs or having poor hapless Birds and Bats chopped up by their stupid windturbines
Hourly Output by Fuel Type at 09:00 a.m. EST
Nuclear11,813 MW
Hydro5,711 MW
Gas1,620 MW
Wind172 MW
Solar29 MW
Biofuel95 MW
1,084 MWHourly Imports
3,109 MWHourly Exports
26,884 MWGenerator Availability at Peak
at 6:00 p.m. EST
EMBEDDED GENERATION
Installed capacity of wind and solar generation connected to local distribution systems.
1,634 MWSolar
425 MWWind
as of March 31, 2015
Here on the eastern edge of the liberal, Eco-zealot, San Francisco Bay Area … there are several VERY LARGE oil refineries. During the daylight hours, these refineries look like abandoned relics of a bygone industrialized age. There is scarcely any movement, or steam escaping the multiple smokestacks. What Chevron et.al. learned a long time ago, is to conceal their activity from the public during daylight hours. Hence, their activity wouldn’t agitate the Sierra Clubbers. Only after dark, do these refineries come to life producing the necessary petrol to drive all their little “green” Priuses.
It reminds me of Energy Deniers who pretend their ugly wind “farms” (read: wind factories) provide their every energy need … while ignoring the reality of all the dirty coal-fired plants that are actually providing the power to keep their lights on and houses warm. So long as the REAL power plants operate after dark (and in someone else’s backyard) … then all the Eco-twits can keep pretending their “green” wind factories meet their every energy need.
Great point! Any system with a large number of parts is
more prone to breakdowns. In the day of vacuum tube
computing, at any given time some percentage of those
tubes will be non functioning. You can see this on
any large factory floor by just looking up. At any
given time, 10 percent of the fluorescent fixtures
are broken.
The ultimate example of this are the wind farms in California.
Every time I passed them, as many as 25% were sitting idle.
They were so damned expensive to repair, they sat idle.