European Salon de News, Discussion et Klatsch - 11 September | 131 comments (131 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: emergency cleanup (none / 0)

As I pointed out above, the balancing is less urgent. While you're doing your war-mode build-out of renewables capacity, you need a war-mode expansion of transmission infrastructure, but the balancing is provided by the fossil plants you're displacing. You don't need any new peaking gas plants, surely?

So, when you hit your target in terms of renewables capacity, and your fossil plants are only producing say 25% of the electricity they are producing today, you switch the war-mode effort to pumped storage etc... having done the planning carefully in the meantime of course.

_{It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue
- Queen Elizabeth II}

by eurogreen on Wed Sep 12th, 2012 at 05:01:01 AM EST
[ Parent ]

on balancing (none / 0)

eurogreen, I agree with you when you write that:

the balancing is provided by the fossil plants you're displacing. You don't need any new peaking gas plants, surely?

But the challenge set by asdf was an end to all coal-electricity within five years. So, I took that to mean no balancing with coal either, at least for this extreme-test scenario.

Yes, you're right that it would be cheaper to have some coal for balancing, in a 10-15 year transition. And in reality, that's what's happening: fossil plants just run with lower capacity factors, and might spend much of the year in mothballs.

by LondonAnalytics (Andrew Smith) on Wed Sep 12th, 2012 at 06:49:43 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: on balancing (4.00 / 3)

and even if we're still using existing plants less efficiently, the real goal of moving from poison is being accomplished. Under a "war-footing" we probably could eliminate coal within 5-10 years, but that would entail the enlightenment of an ignorant population, and the immediate germination of a new class of visionary politicians.

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin

by Crazy Horse on Wed Sep 12th, 2012 at 07:00:37 AM EST
[ Parent ]

European Salon de News, Discussion et Klatsch - 11 September | 131 comments (131 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

Top Diaries

No More Equality Under the Law, the End of Isonomy in...

Generating a toxic discourse that's not really about ARINS

Energy (and Other) Events Monthly - May 2025

Recent Diaries

City Agriculture - May 13, 2025

Major Shift Powers in Mena - West Asia

China Trade Deal: Repair 4 Years of Biden Neglect

Trump: Zelensky Should Agree to Direct Talks w Putin

IDF Sniper Murderer of Shireen Abu Akleh Named

Rift Trump w Netanyahu Deepens

MAGA Freaked Out on Election Leo XIV

A Deal of the Century In the Making .. Again

Israel Aims a Political Ban on Dutch Institutions

Nakim Terror: Taking the Holocaust to Palestinians

PMQ House of Commons and Israeli War Crimes

Bill Bradley on Russia and NATO

Friedrich Merz Humiliated In 1st Vote

Rogue States Destroying the United Nations

Last Resort: Trump Slaps Erdogan On His Shoulder

Trump Hard Work Reversing JCPOA Decision

WWII Commemoration and Today's Genocide

VE Day Winston Churchill 1945

Trump on How to Undermine Nuclear Talks w Iran

WWI and Global Peace Movement

Occasional Series