March 30th 2009. Join the Group Read. Chapter 18. A first balance
(Instructions on how to join are at the bottom of the original post)
This is the first chapter attempting to balance-up consumption and production. While the story told so far of the raw energy potential from renewable sources shows an ecouragingly close race to maintain our rich lifestyles with sustainable energy sources, a little digging provides much disappointment. Between the potential and the realisation lies a factor of over 100! From a production potential of 180 kWh per day per person, we get to an actual production figure of just 1 kwh/d/p and a "realisable" estimate of 18 kwh/d/p---a full ten times less than our consumption.
Looking at the heart of the physics problem, David MacKay points to the geographically diffuse nature of renewables: each person needs a huge amount of land, tidal exposure, wind per person to make the sums add up. The sustainable potentials, as David emphasises, need "country-sized solutions". "To get a big contribu- tion from wind, we used wind farms with the area of Wales. To get a big contribution from solar photovoltaics, we required half the area of Wales. To get a big contribution from waves, we imagined wave farms covering 500 km of coastline. To make energy crops with a big contribution, we took 75% of the whole country."
Yet protection of species, habitats, nature, beauty etc. all move the same people who want to reduce fossil fuel dependency to limit the installations. Something will need to give to balance our energy ...
Henk Daalder Windpark Wiki (not verified) said:
Sun, 2009-08-09 13:57This book is created with the sole purpose to prevent the UK to implement wind power.
To have you accept dangerous and costly nuclear power plants.
And dismiss that wind power actually is free energy, as long as the wind park is maintained.
Wind parks are the most cost efficient way to generate sustainable power, without the obligation to pay for CO2 pollution.
A single turbine of 3 MW and 100 m high, will power a community of 8000 inhabitants.
So citizens of the UK will live on sustainable energy with about 8000 of these turbines
When designed in long lines, from south to north, this would mean such a line every 30 to 100 km for densely populated areas and less populated areas.
Of course these lines will be designed with landscape design rules in mind.
And this way of generating your own energy, with your own piece of a wind turbine, will reduce costs of energy by a factor of 3, and will make this cost stable for the coming 20 years.
Coal and gas powered electricity produces CO2.
Nuclear power produces almost just as much CO2 as a gas fired power plant.
And their price will increase every year.
Just be wise and choose to become a member of a wind park building community.
Don't believe the lies of the fossil industry in their struggle of death.
Just make your own calculations, and verify my figures and proposal.