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Energy Externalities Day 13: Tidal Stream Power
Energy Externalities Day 13: Tidal Stream Power An introduction to tidal stream power was given on Monday in this post: “The MeyGen Tidal Stream Power Station: Pentland Firth, Scotland”. The simplest way to imagine tidal stream power of the MeyGen variety is an underwater wind turbine deployed in an area of high tidal flow. Two ebb […]
Energy Externalities Day 11: Geothermal Electricity
Energy Externalities Day 11: Geothermal Electricity Geothermal energy extraction involves drilling wells into hot rocks that lie close to the Earth’s surface. Given the right geology, i.e. permeable rocks that contain very hot water, the hot water or steam flows to the surface under its own steam (to coin a phrase). Temperatures are typically in […]
Energy Externalities Day 9: Solar Thermal or Concentrated Solar Power (CSP)
Energy Externalities Day 9: Solar Thermal or Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) With solar thermal, I am beginning to wander further away from systems where I have a reasonable grasp of their operation. There are two main classes of concentrated solar power (CSP) namely parabolic mirrors that focus solar energy onto a pipe filled with water […]
Energy Externalities Day 8: Diesel
Energy Externalities Day 8: Diesel Diesel powered electricity generation is a niche common on isolated island grids like El Hierro and in certain countries, like the UK, recently adopted as peaking plants. They have the advantage that they can quickly and easily be switched on and off and the disadvantage that they are expensive to […]
Energy Externalities Day 7: Solar Photovoltaics
Energy Externalities Day 7: Solar Photovoltaics Solar PV is a multidimensional energy system difficult to evaluate on a global basis. Maximum concentration required from The Game players! First, there is solar thermal hot water, solar thermal power generation (also known as CSP) and solar PV. Today’s game is exclusively on the latter. And in solar […]
Energy Externalities Day 6: Hydroelectric Power
Energy Externalities Day 6: Hydroelectric Power Hydroelectric power produces no pollution once the dam is built and the valley flooded. It is dispatchable and widely regarded to be the “Rolls Royce” of renewable energy. Based on trapping rainfall produced by solar energy trapped in high valleys that were created by plate tectonics that is driven […]
Energy Externalities Day 5: Wind Power
Energy Externalities Day 5: Wind Power It’s now day 5 of the Energy Externality Game and time to move onto the first of the new renewables, namely wind power. Loved by Green groups who see only reduced CO2 emissions, wind farms are hated by many others who see a blot on the landscape. Here at […]
Energy Externalities Day 3: Biomass-Fired-Electricity
Energy Externalities Day 3: Biomass-Fired-Electricity Its day 3 of the Energy Externality Game already and we move onto biomass-fired-electricity. Most biomass electricity currently resides in Europe, where much of the fuel is imported from North America. In evaluating biomass we need to consider the whole supply chain from timber operations in N America, transport to […]
