Green energy that isn't.

The intermittency requires you to consume significantly more resources than a power source with 90%+ capacity factor.Taking 33% capacity factor for wind the connecting cables, transformers, switchgear etc needs to be rated for peak or close to peak output (if the peak output will sometimes be delivered for more than 24hrs playing with thermal capacities is probably not enough. For solar it might work ? ) and will be three time bigger than actually required. For offshore wind this will be some significant cabling. Some form of storage or back up will then be required. Tidal basins require a very large infrastructure resource investment up front but should have a long lived basic structure. Thermal stations as back up also require significant resources. These resources are not usually put in the balance for wind and solar. They just work from their connection point, we will get £X for every MWhr we send out, all the rest is' Somebody Else's Problem'. Renewables are also resource hungry, from available data a wind equivalent to Hinkley Point C would require more concrete and steel for a 20 year service life with intermittency compared to a 90%+ capacity factor for 60-80 years.


All the 'we will be 100% renewable by 20xx' seem to assume almost infinite resources to reach this point.


I would like to find real data to allow me to support the dash for renewables, but there are still too many gaps.


Best regards


Roger

The intermittency requires you to consume significantly more resources than a power source with 90%+ capacity factor.Taking 33% capacity factor for wind the connecting cables, transformers, switchgear etc needs to be rated for peak or close to peak output (if the peak output will sometimes be delivered for more than 24hrs playing with thermal capacities is probably not enough. For solar it might work ? ) and will be three time bigger than actually required. For offshore wind this will be some significant cabling. Some form of storage or back up will then be required. Tidal basins require a very large infrastructure resource investment up front but should have a long lived basic structure. Thermal stations as back up also require significant resources. These resources are not usually put in the balance for wind and solar. They just work from their connection point, we will get £X for every MWhr we send out, all the rest is' Somebody Else's Problem'. Renewables are also resource hungry, from available data a wind equivalent to Hinkley Point C would require more concrete and steel for a 20 year service life with intermittency compared to a 90%+ capacity factor for 60-80 years.


All the 'we will be 100% renewable by 20xx' seem to assume almost infinite resources to reach this point.


I would like to find real data to allow me to support the dash for renewables, but there are still too many gaps.


Best regards


Roger