poweralert....

[richjdavies]

Incorrect. There are days when the renewables here barely make 2GW... all day. Sorry, a bit of storage and some peaker plants aint gonna cut it.

Lots of peaker plants... And there are not days when there is no wind or sun across the whole of South Africa. That's nonsense!

 

[Lupus]

Lots of peaker plants... And there are not days when there is no wind or sun across the whole of South Africa. That's nonsense!

So you're now using peakers as base

 

[richjdavies]

We'd need Germany level of renewables which currently is 64GW of wind and 60GW of solar and that would just cover us

Why are you quoting the max wattage of those systems. It's like judging a bakkie by its maximum speed. No one cares what it's max speed is, they care how much load it can carry!

 

[richjdavies]

So you're now using peakers as base

For every now and then yes... You're getting it now.

Like using desalination plants for your water... Every now and then, when it didn't rain for 6 months...
Crazy to be burning toxic fuels when you get energy basically for free from the sun and wind!

 

[wingnut771]

So you're now using peakers as base

CCGT's

 

[xcaliber]

Why are you quoting the max wattage of those systems. It's like judging a bakkie by its maximum speed. No one cares what it's max speed is, they care how much load it can carry!

German wind production is almost equal to our total generation

 

[Lupus]

Why are you quoting the max wattage of those systems. It's like judging a bakkie by its maximum speed. No one cares what it's max speed is, they care how much load it can carry!

Yes those are the maximum, but for us we need that so we could actually get the 10 or so GW we need to get out of shedding

 

[Lupus]

CCGT's

We'd need those first

 

[Sinbad]

Lots of peaker plants... And there are not days when there is no wind or sun across the whole of South Africa. That's nonsense!

Here = UK.

 

[Temujin]

 

[Vox Populi Vox Dei]

Yes those are the maximum, but for us we need that so we could actually get the 10 or so GW we need to get out of shedding

Surely SA's solar output will be higher per MW installed than Germany? You know, because we are a far sunnier country than Germany. Just build massive solar farms in the Northern Cape - no-one lives there anyway.

 

[richjdavies]

Here = UK.

And strangely no load shedding just talk of it?

UK has had weeks powered with no coal at all and lots and lots of wind (and a bit of nuclear). Yes they prepared for it building a large amount of gas peaker plants -- to run when they need it, but most of the time it's switched off...

Why Britain is a world leader in offshore wind

Its wind farms are key to the country’s net-zero hopes

www.economist.com

I'll do another water analogy. It's like watering your trees with rain.
The base loaders would say "oooohh noooo we need to water it with 400L municipal connection every day". I'd say, let the free rain water it most of the time and when it doesn't rain as much, then we use the pricey stuff. Flip for all the time theres no solar, wind or tidal for serious amount of time, you could burn diesel like Eskom and still be miles ahead!

 

[xcaliber]

Surely SA's solar output will be higher per MW installed than Germany? You know, because we are a far sunnier country than Germany. Just build massive solar farms in the Northern Cape - no-one lives there anyway.

Was mentioned in a CSIR report. The grid is at maximum. It cant transfer any more power from NC to where its needed

 

[wingnut771]

Here = UK.

How many UK's fit in SA? We also get sun in SA.

 

[wingnut771]

We'd need those first

We need a lot of things.

 

[richjdavies]

Surely SA's solar output will be higher per MW installed than Germany? You know, because we are a far sunnier country than Germany. Just build massive solar farms in the Northern Cape - no-one lives there anyway.

The worst areas in SA are better than the Best areas of Germany.
Say Gemany is averaging 2.5KWh/KWp anywhere not on the coast is DOUBLE that.

 

[Vox Populi Vox Dei]

Was mentioned in a CSIR report. The grid is at maximum. It cant transfer any more power from NC to where its needed

Ah yes, which was why only ~800MW of new generation capacity was signed in the latest IPP round. What a disaster. If I recall, not a single bit of wind power was signed off. Eskom better get upgrading the grid then!

 

[wingnut771]

Was mentioned in a CSIR report. The grid is at maximum. It cant transfer any more power from NC to where its needed

 

[richjdavies]

And...
To produce the 20,000GWh per month SA uses would need about 133GW of solar.
20,000GWh / 30 days = 660GWh/day
(i.e. 27GW is it was flat line - feels high?)

660GWh / 5 KWp/KWh = 133GW solar

1msqm = 200W give or take (1kW radiation per Sqm x 20% efficiency)

So 133,000,000KW / 0.2 = back to 660,000,000sqm

That would need 660m Sqm of panels... Which sounds a lot but that's only 660sqkm... I.e. a square 25km by 25km...

(Is that right?)

 

[Sinbad]

And strangely no load shedding just talk of it?

UK has had weeks powered with no coal at all and lots and lots of wind (and a bit of nuclear). Yes they prepared for it building a large amount of gas peaker plants -- to run when they need it, but most of the time it's switched off...

Why Britain is a world leader in offshore wind

Its wind farms are key to the country’s net-zero hopes

www.economist.com

I'll do another water analogy. It's like watering your trees with rain.
The base loaders would say "oooohh noooo we need to water it with 400L municipal connection every day". I'd say, let the free rain water it most of the time and when it doesn't rain as much, then we use the pricey stuff. Flip for all the time theres no solar, wind or tidal for serious amount of time, you could burn diesel like Eskom and still be miles ahead!

UK average figures disagree with you.
Gas is the biggest single method of generation.