Solar power hits 23.9% of UK power generation

Sporky

...well, on the afternoon of June the 5th it did.

Link to IET article

Rather more interesting/relevant is that renewable energy now makes up over a quarter of UK power production.

Fretwired

Wow ... that's impressive.

Paul_C

when you see news that the ozone layer is beginning to heal itself, it does give a tiny bit of hope that global warming might one day be reversed if only the people in power can be convinced to make the effort to do something about it.

snakemanStoo

Paul_C said:

when you see news that the ozone layer is beginning to heal itself, it does give a tiny bit of hope that global warming might one day be reversed if only the people in power can be convinced to make the effort to do something about it.

Hey, this is the internet.  There's no place for reasonable logic here.

paulmapp8306

I dont believe in global warming - its was warmer when the dinosaurs were around.  Just natures way.

Sporky

paulmapp8306 said:

I dont believe in global warming - its was warmer when the dinosaurs were around.  Just natures way.

There were also more dinosaurs.

Should we all be very worried about a meteor in the near future?

Fretwired

Sporky said:

paulmapp8306 said:

I dont believe in global warming - its was warmer when the dinosaurs were around.  Just natures way.

There were also more dinosaurs.

Should we all be very worried about a meteor in the near future?

Did Cameron predict a meteor strike? If not, why not?

Chalky

Ah meteors! An old chap I worked with in Risk Management used to say something like "Tell them there is a 2% risk of a meteor hitting us next week and they don't care. Tell them they might have to miss lunch tomorrow and they go spare".

quarky

There was certainly a lot of hot air in June over the referendum.

It is good news. Let's hope we get to 50% a little quicker.

PolarityMan

thats pretty damn cool...not the stuff about dinosaurs the stuff about renewable energy making up 25% of the power

Mark_R

Sounds very impressive.  I've done my bit, bought an electric car which I drive about 8,000 miles a year in.

Despite the old wives tales about range, charging and battery life, I bought one and would never go back.  As a second car, its fantastic and making good use of the renewable solar power by charging at night........  Not really helping much am I

Sporky

Chalky said:

Ah meteors! An old chap I worked with in Risk Management used to say something like "Tell them there is a 2% risk of a meteor hitting us next week and they don't care. Tell them they might have to miss lunch tomorrow and they go spare".

I worked in the same room as a chap who did risk management a fair few jobs ago. I remember a phone call just after he found out that the backup servers for the main data centre were 200m from the main data centre, in a line that directly matched a flight path that went overhead.

He didn't seem to think that this was particularly sensible and was keen to impress this concept on the person on the other end of the line...

stickyfiddle

Excellent news. 

I lol heartily at anyone who doesn't think the future is largely renewables and storage. 

crunchman

Mark_R said:

Sounds very impressive.  I've done my bit, bought an electric car which I drive about 8,000 miles a year in.

Despite the old wives tales about range, charging and battery life, I bought one and would never go back.  As a second car, its fantastic and making good use of the renewable solar power by charging at night........  Not really helping much am I

If they are serious about electric cars the government should make it compulsory for employers to provide charging points for employees (with any electricity use as a perk, or charged at cost).  This way the demand would mostly be during the day when solar is available.

There are problems with electric cars that have not been resolved.  The obvious one is range and charging time, but there is the fact that the batteries will need replacing regularly - look at what the batteries are like on a two year old mobile phone.  The other problem is that a lot of people in towns and cities don't have off street parking so charging overnight would be a problem.

I still think that hydrogen cars are a better way forward.  You can make the hydrogen by electrolysing sea water when you have a surplus of intermittent renewables like Solar and Wind.  It's possibly a more cost effective way of storing energy than batteries as batteries will probably need replacing every few years which will be expensive.

Sporky

crunchman said:

There are problems with electric cars that have not been resolved.  The obvious one is range and charging time, but there is the fact that the batteries will need replacing regularly - look at what the batteries are like on a two year old mobile phone.

The batteries in phones aren't built to the same standard, because so many people change phone every year or every two years. Have a look at the warranties on electric car batteries - they are generally pretty long and comprehensive, or the battery is leased so the car buyer isn't left with a lump.

I'm not keen on the compulsory charger idea - tax breaks would be better, or a charger counting as a carbon offset. Carrot rather than stick. I do take your point on charging though; it's not currently practical for everyone. Range is, I think, less of an issue as most people's journeys are pretty short - motorway warriors will stick with diesel or hybrid or range extender or the like.

hugbot

paulmapp8306;1138004" said:

I dont believe in global warming - its was warmer when the dinosaurs were around.  Just natures way.

The problem isn't whether this is the hottest earth has ever been. It's whether the changes are happening fast enough to seriously fuck up our way of life.

BigLicks67

My wife works in the nuclear industry and the way they waste money is astounding, so the sooner we put serious effort into renewables the better as far as I'm concerned.

crunchman

Sporky said:

The batteries in phones aren't built to the same standard, because so many people change phone every year or every two years. Have a look at the warranties on electric car batteries - they are generally pretty long and comprehensive, or the battery is leased so the car buyer isn't left with a lump.

Last time I looked it was £1200 per year from one car manufacturer for the battery lease.

On the mileage I do that's a non-starter financially.  We do around 7,000 miles per year.  A quick calculation suggests that we only spend around £1200 per year on fuel at current prices.

The other worry is something like this:
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/techandgadgets/warning-after-teenager-burned-when-iphone-exploded-on-eurostar-a3287896.html

I know you say the car batteries are better quality, but if they were to go up the amount of energy they contain is frightening.  What's in the iPhone is miniscule compared to what would be stored in car batteries.

paulmapp8306

hugbot said:

paulmapp8306;1138004" said:

I dont believe in global warming - its was warmer when the dinosaurs were around.  Just natures way.

The problem isn't whether this is the hottest earth has ever been. It's whether the changes are happening fast enough to seriously fuck up our way of life.

Yeh, I know.  I was kind of joking.

Im not as "all in" on the climate change issues as most - there is a lot of money being made from that market, and there is enough dispute in proper scientific circles (ie not the published ones paid for by governments or big business) but Im not "anti" the climate change ideas as such.  

Im happy that Solar power is at such a high level.  IMO it should be compulsary on all new buildings (residential and commercial) that SPs be in place on any roof facing the correct way.  Its a far far better solution than expensive to build, expensive to maintain, low output wind farms (which incidentally have a pretty high carbon footprint across their whole lifespan).

RE the meteors,  Id be worried.   It will happen one day.  Next "one to watch" is due in 2029.  Its the size of a football field, amd Is predicted to come close enough to go under our weather satellites.  If it hits would do more damage than anything seen by humans (though AFAIK its not quite extinction proportions).

http://www.geek.com/science/asteroid-will-pass-so-close-to-earth-in-2029-it-will-trigger-asteroid-avalanche-1608037/

Quick google search (not that I reed Geek):

Mark_R

Car batteries are very different chemical make up and the charging mechanism is built into the car so it regulates the power the batteries receive and its design is not compromised by size and weight.

There was an article last year on a Cornish taxi company that has a Nissan Leaf with over 100,000 miles on the clock, it is rapid charged at least three times a day and over 3 years, has lost just 5% of its range.  

I cover about 8,000 miles a year in the Leaf, since owning it and charging overnight on economy 7, my electric bill has NOT gone up.  So that is zero cost....

Not all battery lease schemes are good value as pointed out.  I believe the Nissan one has an option where when the battery reaches a certain age, it is replaced by a newer design, potentially higher capacity.  Pros and Cons to everything.  Overall its not worth it, especially on the second hand market.

On street charging is fucked.  The charging points are slow chargers, so unless you want to park for 3 hours, its not worth it and other major problem is non electric cars park in the bays so you cant even plug in to charge.

The other problem is the different charging networks you have to join, the varying prices and no standard charging connectors in cars.

IF you know where you are going, plan your route ahead, have a back up plan incase charging point A is out of use, then a 100 mile range works fine. 

Sporky

crunchman said:

Last time I looked it was £1200 per year from one car manufacturer for the battery lease.

On the mileage I do that's a non-starter financially.  We do around 7,000 miles per year.  A quick calculation suggests that we only spend around £1200 per year on fuel at current prices. 

That's fair. I think you ("one"? not pointing this at you-you, if you see what I mean) need to look at all the costs including depreciation, servicing, blah blah. Electric vehicles skew the calculations rather.

The other worry is something like this:
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/techandgadgets/warning-after-teenager-burned-when-iphone-exploded-on-eurostar-a3287896.html

I know you say the car batteries are better quality, but if they were to go up the amount of energy they contain is frightening.  What's in the iPhone is miniscule compared to what would be stored in car batteries.

Aye - I'm not dismissing all the concerns. It's still a developing technology, and there's also a degree of media excitement (look at coverage of Tesla incidents vs coverage of incidents in IC cars over the same number of miles). A tank of petrol going up isn't much fun either.

paulmapp8306 said:

RE the meteors,  Id be worried.   It will happen one day.  Next "one to watch" is due in 2029.  Its the size of a football field, amd Is predicted to come close enough to go under our weather satellites.  If it hits would do more damage than anything seen by humans (though AFAIK its not quite extinction proportions).

I find with things like that I'm not worried - there's nothing I can do about it, so worrying doesn't achieve anything.

Hopefully someone else who can do something about it is worrying!