Comments on: Scotland’s Rockstar Clean Energy Leadership — 39% Renewable Electricity Today, 100% By 2020, & More

By: Dave2020

Dave2020 — Sat, 18 May 2013 09:56:00 +0000

Plans are in place to use Norwegian PHS to take surplus Scottish wind power, but the price tag is £1.75bn.

NorthConnect, a 1.4GW HVDC cable, is “due to be commissioned before 2020″. http://www.northconnect.no/

By: Dave2020

Dave2020 — Sat, 18 May 2013 09:39:00 +0000

I thought this looked promising, but development seems to have stalled.

http://www.susmartech.com/pages/press-180511.php

By: Bob_Wallace

Bob_Wallace — Thu, 16 May 2013 22:47:00 +0000

If… That expense thing.

Seems to me that tidal generators should be cheaper than wind turbines or at least no more expensive. No land prep, foundations or towers. Tow them out and lower them into place.

If they get close to that price point then there are a lot of ‘run of the river’ sites where the water flows 24/365.

And that great big salt water river off the east coast of Florida.

There must be enough energy in the Gulf Stream to light every bulb in the Southeast….

By: Matthew Todd Peffly

Matthew Todd Peffly — Thu, 16 May 2013 22:23:00 +0000

While tidal is more expense now, expect a fast learning curve. Tides are more predictable than wind or even solar. You can plot tide charts years in advance. So between wind, tide, maybe a little solar, hydro. Then storage pump hydro and coming soon grid batteries. Plus they can always over install wind/tide and when they have too much to store sell to Europe, buy back when needed.

While wave is still early, there are already multiple locations with flow turbines in the water, so is much closer to large scale prime time.

By: Ronald Brak

Ronald Brak — Thu, 16 May 2013 03:29:00 +0000

A solar panel produces about two thirds more kilowatt-hours in Morocco than Scotland but point of use solar competes with retail electricity prices and so gives Scotts an incentive to install it if it provides electricity at a cost lower than the retail price. It if got cheap enough point of use solar could provide most of Scottland’s electricity when the sun is shining (roofspace is a bit limited though). Improved transmission infrastructure will be useful if the sun isn’t shining in Scotland, but it is in Spain, Morocco, Greece, etc.

By: Bob_Wallace

Bob_Wallace — Thu, 16 May 2013 00:54:00 +0000

Run a wire to Morocco. Ship Scottish wind and tidal south at night, Moroccan solar north when its sunny down there.

It’s already happening. Europe is getting ready to ship power around. It makes no sense for each little spot on the globe to be 100% self-contained when it comes to electricity.

E-Highway2050.

By: Ronald Brak

Ronald Brak — Thu, 16 May 2013 00:34:00 +0000

At German installation costs, point of use solar will produce electricity at about 10 pence a kilowatt-hour making it competitive with retail electricity prices. As I’m certain that the cost of solar power will continue to decrease it could end up supplying a substantial amount of Scotland’s electricity. (But probably not in December.)

By: Zachary Shahan

Zachary Shahan — Wed, 15 May 2013 23:21:00 +0000

I had a hunch that might be the case.

And yes, the tidal/wave stuff is certainly a bit speculative at this point, and expensive. Thanks goodness for the great wind resources.

By: James Wimberley

James Wimberley — Wed, 15 May 2013 20:47:00 +0000

The Scottish Nationalist government in Edinburgh is making a play here to be more green than the UK it wants to leave. It has accepted that coal is dead, and oil is declining. What will be difficult is autarky. Lacking solar, it would have to balance abundant wind energy with expensive pumped hydro and slightly speculative tidal and wave.