Do you believe renewables are the solution?

[Tomtomtom]

Crossed my mind, though we shouldn't forget the Chinese effort a few years back which was the first scare.

Would have thought having the Chinese build and operate a nuclear power station here might well be one of the few viable ways forward.

Give them KZN maybe in exchange (they would take it anyway when we default.)

 

[Brian_G]

So they going to blow us up and turn SA into a nuclear waste dump

You're a bit stuck. No matter how low, or high, the risk due to them, there's the other factors that make it a close to guaranteed failure - read post #46 again for details, then replay your story again if you want to....

 

[Brian_G]

I was thinking about it, the real way to start thinking about power is micro grids. Like what actually was happening back when electricity first came out.
Each province, or area within a province maintains their own grids via various means of power. be it wind, solar, batteries, hydro, coal, nuclear, hamsters on wheels whatever.
But this would of course shoot Eskom in the foot, as each province running their own power would negate a monopoly.

Fortunately they were recently shot already, so maybe the process can start.

 

[Tomtomtom]

I was thinking about it, the real way to start thinking about power is micro grids. Like what actually was happening back when electricity first came out.

I think we're already on that path.
See Eskom "load reduction" which is just localised load shedding.
And see Cape Town treating its customers to one level less.

Two sides of the same coin. People who got electricity post-1994 are losing it again.

 

[Lupus]

I think we're already on that path.
See Eskom "load reduction" which is just localised load shedding.
And see Cape Town treating its customers to one level less.

Two sides of the same coin. People who got electricity post-1994 are losing it again.

Yup it does seem so, the world might start moving that way again as well.

 

[Sinbad]

Not yet.
Tech isn't there yet to provide reliable base load from renewables.

 

[Lupus]

Not yet.
Tech isn't there yet to provide reliable base load from renewables.

Yup, that's what I've been saying, until it's able to handle base load, it's not reliable.

 

[Brian_G]

Here's one of the countries that's already making it on renewables, remembered it was Denmark.

Energy in Denmark - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Denmark has drastically decreased production of electricity from coal, and in 2019 it constituted less than 11% of the electricity production. Coal and all other fossil fuels, plus waste burned for electricity, amounted to 20% of the electricity production. The other 80% of the electricity produced came from renewables: wind power (57%; see wind power in Denmark), biomass and other combustible renewables (20%) and solar power (3%).

 

[Pak Fa Fui]

You're a bit stuck. No matter how low, or high, the risk due to them, there's the other factors that make it a close to guaranteed failure - read post #46 again for details, then replay your story again if you want to....

Not buying your dystopian reality as far fetched as it is. Do you struggle to put on socks every morning
The only way it will be a failure is if there is a lack of funding, even that won’t happen and will be backed by the global community if need be.
Nuclear is not dangerous anymore, the amount of failsafes in place make it uncompromisable.

 

[Brian_G]

I think we're already on that path.
See Eskom "load reduction" which is just localised load shedding.
And see Cape Town treating its customers to one level less.

Two sides of the same coin. People who got electricity post-1994 are losing it again.

Also, Jo'burg tried to pull a LS reduction stunt with Kelvin power station in Kempton Park. Eskom came up with all sorts of noise about why not, some of it still hanging in the air, maybe City Power will try again now..

 

[Japied]

We must leave clean earth for our children

 

[Lupus]

Here's one of the countries that's already making it on renewables, remembered it was Denmark.

Energy in Denmark - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Denmark has the population of Johannesburg the entire country could be powered by Kusile and Medupi and they still need to import 17% of their power from the rest of Europe. Though it's a good start I guess

 

[Lupus]

Also, Jo'burg tried to pull a LS reduction stunt with Kelvin power station in Kempton Park. Eskom came up with all sorts of noise about why not, some of it still hanging in the air, maybe City Power will try again now..

Yup even when they announced City Power wasn't going to Shed, eskom went is it and shed a lot of people anyway.

 

[Brian_G]

We must leave clean earth for our children

7 things you should know about poop

Although most of us shy away from poop, it is worthy of our attention. From medical treatments to unusual chemistry, poop is intriguing.

www.medicalnewstoday.com

 

[Lupus]

7 things you should know about poop

Although most of us shy away from poop, it is worthy of our attention. From medical treatments to unusual chemistry, poop is intriguing.

www.medicalnewstoday.com

Biomass fuel

 

[Spizz]

Well they are at the final stages, they did start looking at it 2 years ago, so considering South Africa timelines, in 5 years time possibly? Also 80MW that would be gone in an hour for a suburb, so unless it's for maybe smoothing out the grid or to provide a cold startup 80MW isn't going to do what at night?
We need GW of batteries not MW.

Indeed, though I'm not so sure you read that properly. Just those two installations will provide almost 1.5 GWh when complete. 320MWh at Skaapvlei, and 1.14GWh at Kenhardt.

 

[Athos]

Can you not store energy to use then the sun isn't shining and the wind isn't blowing?

I actually do this on a daily basis.

You most definitely can and it is being done the world over in different forms but none of these options provide anywhere near what the country needs.

 

[Pak Fa Fui]

Boris Johnson is pulling his hair out now since they stopped the new Sizewelll C nuclear power plant

 

[Tomtomtom]

Indeed, though I'm not so sure you read that properly. Just those two installations will provide almost 1.5 GWh when complete. 320MWh at Skaapvlei, and 1.14GWh at Kenhardt.

The Kenhardt project is impressive but this is again an apples-oranges situation overstating the renewables.

AFAICT this plant is only offering 150 MW of actual dispatchable power. For obvious reasons I guess, but that's 50% of the headline figure.

And 1.14 GWh is great but it's still only 15 minutes of Medupi running at full power. (Which obviously never happens, but still...)

 

[Brian_G]

Denmark has the population of Johannesburg the entire country could be powered by Kusile and Medupi and they still need to import 17% of their power from the rest of Europe. Though it's a good start I guess

The good news is those figures are from 2019 so already nearly 4 years ago, which means it's got that much better now.
And Jo'burg-size is good enough if we're looking at your "village model" way of splitting up the burden.