Renewable energy means more mains outages?

[cupoftea]

Do you think the increasing reliance on renewables (solar and wind) for the power grid will mean more mains outages?...even if only for a matter of seconds each time.

 

[KlausST]

Hi

It's particularly bizarre that Germany categorizes biomass (basically burning wood) as renewable. But biomass is a CO2 polluter just like fossil fuels.

I´m no specialist here... but I´ve heared that if you don´t burn wood, but let decompose it the natural way, then it pollutes the same amount of CO2. So for CO2 it does not matter if you brun it or not,it will send out CO2 anyways.

Don´t know if this is true or not.

Klaus

 

[wwfeldman]

lots of interesting stuff in this thread

regarding Texas' power outage - the lie (misinformation) is across town before the truth has its shoes on
too many of us are so enamored of the internet, that we don't investigate the truth of what is said/written
too many of us think that being first is the arbiter of truth

i think we need to re-think, re-design and re-build the entire grid

components to be used: (my apologies for not having sources for this information)
-solar farms, wind farms, hydro - as we have and are building
-small thorium reactors - no radioactive waste owing to relatively short half life of processes - these are about the size of a chest freezer (maybe 1m by 1 m by 2m??) and can fit in a corner of ones basement or in a small outbuilding (at least in most of sub-urban and rural areas)
-solar panels on the roof of houses - apparently, even where i live in upstate New York (Rochester), where (being in the lee of Lake Ontario), its cloudy a lot, there is enough solar radiation to power my house, even on a cloudy day, let alone on a sunny day
-tesla's 10kW(?) batteries, or things like that, for backup in the evening
-appliance that run on DC instead of AC, so i don't need an inverter
-connection to the grid for those long cold winters, with a power factor corrected, harmonic content corrected AC to DC converter, which is not consistent with my DC power from solar - no synchronization problem
-maybe a small fan like, jet engine like "windmill" for those days when its windy, to take advantage of the wind power (during storms, when the sun isn't out?)

i'm sure there are lots of other ideas from lots of people that will help

caveat: every decision has its upside and its downside
if we want to understand the environmental cost, we need to look at the entire lifecycle (cradle to grave) of whatever we want to use in the re-built grid

caveat: no one can keep their information safe - as exemplified by various recent (and not so recent) cyber attacks therefore, the new grid, "smart"(?) or otherwise, needs a different and closed interconnect and control

 

[cupoftea]

Thanks, these are all very interesting.
I suspect that the "Powers that be" in the West will switch off almost all coal/oil (and yes nuclear whether right or wrong). Small amounts of coal/oil will go to big industrial users only.

The rest will just have to put up with solar and wind and accept outages. Those with money will be able to afford their own domestic battery storage, so will not suffer outages. The small battery storage units bought by many company premises will suffer problems (due to eg wear-out of batteries), and so mains outages, i believe will be more common.

To be honest, i dont beleive there's enough hydrocarbon left in the world to cause the climate change problem...but the "Powers that be" are dressing that up, because they dont want to panic people by saying hydrocarbon will soon run out pretty much totally for western countries...and very soon.

 

[mtwieg]

I´m no specialist here... but I´ve heared that if you don´t burn wood, but let decompose it the natural way, then it pollutes the same amount of CO2. So for CO2 it does not matter if you brun it or not,it will send out CO2 anyways.

It's not a simple issue. In theory, over very long timespans, biomass can be carbon neutral, so long as you ensure that harvested forests always regrow in the same way. I don't hold out much hope that policymakers will keep up that end of the bargain. What is certain is that, in the short term, ramping up biomass is carbon-positive.

A better alternative is to harvest forests and sequester the harvested trees so the regrowth actually reduces the carbon in the atmosphere. Hell, just build houses or furniture with the lumber (after treating it so it doesn't rot).

--- Updated Jul 8, 2021 ---

I suspect that the "Powers that be" in the West will switch off almost all coal/oil (and yes nuclear whether right or wrong). Small amounts of coal/oil will go to big industrial users only.

The rest will just have to put up with solar and wind and accept outages.

This would be totally contrary to how energy policy has always worked, at least in the USA. Oil and gas companies are sacred cows, their interests are always given priority, even over the climate.

To be honest, i dont beleive there's enough hydrocarbon left in the world to cause the climate change problem...but the "Powers that be" are dressing that up, because they dont want to panic people by saying hydrocarbon will soon run out pretty much totally for western countries...and very soon.

Unfortunately, peak oil theory has been a joke for at least the last decade. Now that fracking and oil shale extraction technology has matured, the known reserves of hydrocarbon fuel have ballooned:

If oil and gas companies burn those fuel reserves... well I'll let you read the IPCC report on the likely consequences. But I guess you'll be glad for the lack of blackouts.