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Where Will Our Clean Energy Come From?

Well, current generation splits and transfers against usage can be viewed on the National Grid summary page here;
https://grid.iamkate.com/
At time of writing, 46.6% is from fossil fuels, 20.6% from renewables, 17.6% from transfers, and 15.3% from other sources (including 11% from nuclear)
The output from nuclear remains fairly constant as the 'base' level of power available, but as demand fluctuates it makes up for a lesser, or greater amount of supply by percentage.
Often you'll look at this page and see a bunch of 'minus' figures on the right hand side - this is because we regularly export surplus power supply via undersea connectors.
Depends on how windy it is and how sunny it is as we are not able to store any excess electric currently, or at least, only a tiny amount.
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the cleanest energy I know of is a bicycle hooked to a generater with a kid riding the bicycle to power the television. :hahazebs: Of course it could be anyone. Those gyms could give free membership to all the members who ride those stationary bikes and treadmills if they hooked the bikes up to a generator to power the building and the other equipmemnt.
 
the cleanest energy I know of is a bicycle hooked to a generater with a kid riding the bicycle to power the television. :hahazebs: Of course it could be anyone. Those gyms could give free membership to all the members who ride those stationary bikes and treadmills if they hooked the bikes up to a generator to power the building and the other equipmemnt.
The BBC are sort of giving it a go.

BBC unveils Bike Bureau for green broadcasting
Two BBC journalists, Kate Vandy and Anna Holligan, have spent the last few years working on building a mobile broadcast studio and office on two wheels.
The Bike Bureau is an electric cargo bike, kitted out to offer solo-operated and solar-powered TV and radio lives. It's also used for newsgathering tasks.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/entertainment-arts-65511794
 
I must be getting delusional. :loopy: I'm sure it wasn't more that fifteen or so years ago that nuclear power was the work of the devil and numerous demons. The waste nuclear material had a half life in millions of years and we had nowhere to safely dump it. Lead cannisters full of waste would be dumped inn the deepest ocean trenches and containers would split in earthquakes spreading radioctive waste into the oceans. Mutant squid would prey on mankind* and any of us that survived would die of radiation poisoning and we'd all be doomed along with all life on the planet - except the mutant squid*.

Now we can't burn hydrocarbons and nuclear is a viable alternative. What happened? Did I enter a alternate reality somewhere?

*OK, I made the bits about squid up.
 
I must be getting delusional. :loopy: I'm sure it wasn't more that fifteen or so years ago that nuclear power was the work of the devil and numerous demons. The waste nuclear material had a half life in millions of years and we had nowhere to safely dump it. Lead cannisters full of waste would be dumped inn the deepest ocean trenches and containers would split in earthquakes spreading radioctive waste into the oceans. Mutant squid would prey on mankind* and any of us that survived would die of radiation poisoning and we'd all be doomed along with all life on the planet - except the mutant squid*.

Now we can't burn hydrocarbons and nuclear is a viable alternative. What happened? Did I enter a alternate reality somewhere?

*OK, I made the bits about squid up.
People got less educated, that is what happened. The corporations are running thing (or is it ruining) and money is more important than survival or health.
 
I must be getting delusional. :loopy: I'm sure it wasn't more that fifteen or so years ago that nuclear power was the work of the devil and numerous demons. The waste nuclear material had a half life in millions of years and we had nowhere to safely dump it. Lead cannisters full of waste would be dumped inn the deepest ocean trenches and containers would split in earthquakes spreading radioctive waste into the oceans. Mutant squid would prey on mankind* and any of us that survived would die of radiation poisoning and we'd all be doomed along with all life on the planet - except the mutant squid*.

Now we can't burn hydrocarbons and nuclear is a viable alternative. What happened? Did I enter a alternate reality somewhere?

*OK, I made the bits about squid up.
The bit about the squid sounds legit to me...
 
Well, current generation splits and transfers against usage can be viewed on the National Grid summary page here;
https://grid.iamkate.com/
At time of writing, 46.6% is from fossil fuels, 20.6% from renewables, 17.6% from transfers, and 15.3% from other sources (including 11% from nuclear)
The output from nuclear remains fairly constant as the 'base' level of power available, but as demand fluctuates it makes up for a lesser, or greater amount of supply by percentage.
Often you'll look at this page and see a bunch of 'minus' figures on the right hand side - this is because we regularly export surplus power supply via undersea connectors.
Depends on how windy it is and how sunny it is as we are not able to store any excess electric currently, or at least, only a tiny amount.
View attachment 66098
This site is as a good, but possible not so partisan.

https://gridwatch.co.uk/

The reason the UK grid system relies specifically on gas is that the gas station can respond quickly enough to sudden fluctuations due to wind/soar fluctuations. The grid only has a matter of minutes to sort out those changes, or bit start to shut down. That's both expensive (think explosive propelled breakers) and potentially nasty - the inductive flyback from the HV grid can blow out line transformers.

Nuclear stations cannot respond as quickly, so they tend to be run fairly constantly at 70-80% capacity.

Practically speaking, all solar/wind installations need an equal capacity of gas generators in place first.

In an ideal world 50-60% of the baseload would be nuclear (plus some redundancy), and gas would deal with wind/solar fluctuations and then as the situation 'settles' the gas use would be pared back and nuclear would take up the slack gradually.

Right now, gas supply and chronic under investment in nuclear baseload (or in fact 'baseload') has left the UK exposed.

The only reason we're getting away with it is that industrial electricity use has dropped hugely in the last two decades. In 2005 two-thirds of UK electricity was for industrial use, now it's about half. This is simply the shrinking manufacturing/industrial sector and underinvestment in technology. In short, the UK is cutting its power use by killing the economy.

As things stand, we don't have the infrastructure to even replace a tenth on the cars on the UK roads with electric vehicles, there's not enough electricity to charge them and keep the lights on.

:hoff:
 
Solar car from Durham manages to finish race this time. The car looks like the one designed by Homer Simpson.

Durham University solar car completes Australian challenge​


Solar powered car in Australian Outback


A solar-powered car designed and built by Durham University students has completed a 3,000km (1,864-mile) race across the Australian outback.

The Durham team's three-wheeled vehicle finished 11th in the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge's main race - the best placing for a British team to date.

Students took turns driving in temperatures up to 40C (104F). One student said it was "amazing" as it was the first time the university had completed the race.

Team member Vedika Bedi, said: "Durham has never finished a solar challenge before and this is the fifth race we've been to - so just finishing for us as a university is amazing."

The six-day long race was held between 22 and 29 October. The race has been held every two years since 1987 with the exception of 2021 when it was cancelled due to Covid-19.

Durham University solar car team at finish line

,Durham University solar car team raced for six days in the Outback

Fourth year electrical engineering student Ms Bedi said three drivers took turns to drive the single-seater car from 08:00 to 17:00 every day. The car battery was charged by solar rays during the day. Ms Bedi followed the car in a support vehicle and the team camped in the outback each night.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-tyne-67521709
 
Came across this last week.
Had never heard of it before: natural hydrogen extraction.

The hunt for ‘holy grail’ of clean energy buried beneath the ground​

While solar arrays and wind turbines are now commonplace, there are smaller, riskier niches within the clean energy sector. One of these, if it pans out, could be no less than transformational on a global scale, advocates say.

Senior Climate Correspondent Louise Boyle reports

Via the Independent.

Snippet: "hydrogen is constantly renewing underground when water and iron minerals react under high temperatures. Early research says there may be enough accessible natural hydrogen to power the planet’s clean energy needs for generations."
 
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With Global Dimming and Global Stilling, it's game over for solar power and wind energy!
Nuclear all the way.
 
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