Scotland's Electricity base load from 2030

[Mikie711]

Figures were in the link Robin but Ive copied them across for ease

According to the US Department of Energy (Energy Information Administration), the world consumption of energy in all of its forms (barrels of petroleum, cubic meters of natural gas, watts of hydro power, etc.) is projected to reach 678 quadrillion Btu (or 715 exajoules) by 2030 – a 44% increase over 2008 levels (levels for 1980 were 283 quadrillion Btu and we stand at around 500 quadrillion Btu today in 2009).

I wonder what surface area would be required and what type of infrastructural investment would be required to supply that amount of power by using only solar panels. To create fuel that can be used in vehicles and equipment I am assuming that some of the electricity generated would be used to create hydrogen. We should all start wondering about these things since we will have really no other choice* by the turn of the next century.

So to find this out we start with the big number 678,000,000,000,000,000 Btu.

Converting this to KW•h [1 Btu = .0002931 kW•h (kilowatt hours)] makes 198,721,800,000,000 kW•h (199,721 TW•h). This is for an entire year. As a comparison, the average household uses approximately 18,000 kW•h per year (1/11 billion of the total world usage).

We can figure a capacity of .2KW per SM of land (an efficiency of 20% of the 1000 watts that strikes the surface in each SM of land).

So now we know the capacity of each square meter and what our goal is. We have our capacity in KW so in order to figure out how much area we’ll need, we have to multiply it by the number of hours that we can expect each of those square meters of photovoltaic panel to be outputting the .2KW capacity (kilowatts x hours = kW•h).

Using 70% as the average sunshine days per year (large parts of the world like upper Africa and the Arabian peninsula see 90-95% – so this number is more than fair), we can say that there will be 250 sun days per year at 8 hours of daylight on average. That’s 2,000 hours per year of direct sunlight.

Therefore, we can multiply each square meter by 2,000 to arrive at a yearly kW•h capacity per square meter of 400 kW•h.

Dividing the global yearly demand by 400 kW•h per square meter (198,721,800,000,000 / 400) and we arrive at 496,804,500,000 square meters or 496,805 square kilometers (191,817 square miles) as the area required to power the world with solar panels. This is roughly equal to the area of Spain. At first that sounds like a lot and it is. But we should put this in perspective.

If divided into 5,000 super-site installations around the world (average of 25 per country), it would measure less than 10km a side for each. The UAE has plans to construct 1,500MW of capacity by 2020 which will require a space of 3 km per side. If the UAE constructed the other 7 km per side of that area, it would be able to power itself as a nation completely with solar energy. The USA would require a much larger area and approximately 1,000 of these super-sites.

According to the United Nations 170,000 square kilometers of forest is destroyed each year. If we constructed solar farms at the same rate, we would be finished in 3 years.

[Ferg]

For now Fusion is the only immediately available option

You mean fission I think?

Cough, yes. Hopefully obvious by my link...

[pete]

Pete - The hydro plant complements the reactor ... the vicar compliments the actress .. they are homonyms.

I would argue that the bishop (when a conversation occurs between an actress and a man of the cloth that man must always be a bishop) both compliments and complements the actress as without his presence the double entendres aren't made, the joke doesn't happen and they cease to exist.

And what did you call me?

[pete]

35million cars in the UK

average milage of 7900 per year

gives a big number

Average electric car uses about .25 of a Kwh to travel a mile

divide big number by 4

get 69,125,000,000 kwh

Feck knows what that is in billions


Oh and your efficacy calc

Somehow you have taken X amount of energy and put it through a 30% efficient machine and got 3 times the energy out of it

You been using the SNP issue calculator again?

Yes I have. Divide not multiply.

I think the important thing to take from this is that I found your point so interesting I went and read up on it!

Slightly embarrassing is my basic arithmetic was slightly lacking...

[pete]

I am surprised no one has linked to this yet . . .

http://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/


If you follow that on a regular basis it's not long before the basics of power general become obvious.

I love that you think people would be following a page which shows how much power power stations are producing.

<clicks page>

Actually that's fascinating.

[thinfourth]

Yes I have. Divide not multiply.

I think the important thing to take from this is that I found your point so interesting I went and read up on it!

Slightly embarrassing is my basic arithmetic was slightly lacking...

Don't worry we know if you can do sums and stuff it is immediate expulsion from the SNP


Now here is another wee fact to further muddy the waters

To make 1 gallon of petrol takes about 5Kwh of electricity

5Kwh of electricity will take a nissian leaf 20 miles

The electric car is not the disaster for the national grid that the naysayers say it is


If they can get a production EV which can back feed into the grid then we have these huge battery packs suddenly available to store energy

That is the thing that might lift us out of the pooh


Renewables could potentially power the country. The big issue is i want to be able to use my kettle when it is cold and dark with no wind. That leaves hydro and tidal. If it is slack water then we are down to hydro only. if it hasn't rained for a while then we are proper fcuk.

Bring in grid level storage and we could use renewables with MASSIVE battery banks as power storage.



Another issue is a traditional power station pisses energy away on a massive scale into the air. People are waking up to this and are starting to use this waste heat.

http://www.aberdeenheatandpower.co.uk

Micro power stations in Aberdeen which put out power AND hot water which is used for heating

[campbell]

Denmark is very good at the community heat thing too, I'm told. Does make sense. Heat is a big usage of energy here in chilly Scotland.

[mckeann]

Lerwick power station supplies hot water to locals for heating as well

[mckeann]

Sorry, It's not the power station itself, it's right next door. They burn waste to reduce landfill and power the boilers, so win win

http://www.sheap-ltd.co.uk

[campbell]

For a min there I thought that was sheep-Ltd lol

[campbell]

No more smoke from Longannet chimney. Decommissioning starts now.

Hell of a bang when that stack comes down.

[Rosssco]

No more smoke from Longannet chimney. Decommissioning starts now.

Hell of a bang when that stack comes down.

I'm a big proponent of sensible renewable development, but shutting down base load stations such as Longannet without replacements is a backwards move IMO..

Smacks of EU intervention / over-zealous greens...

[campbell]

Yep. EDF better get the finger out and Hinckley Point built!!

[BiggestNizzy]

Longannet was closed because it lost a contract to siupply power to the national grid.

I think there was some issues with power transmition charges as well.

[Scuffers]

Now here is another wee fact to further muddy the waters

To make 1 gallon of petrol takes about 5Kwh of electricity

5Kwh of electricity will take a nissian leaf 20 miles

utter rubbish.

please, try and back this 'fact' up, go on, I dare you!

(it's based on a very misleading understanding of how a refinery actually works).