Is 100% Renewable Energy Viable?

[Serial_Worrier]

Wow - not a single mentioning of how to provide baseload electricity, not a serious article at all.

[kublikhan]

Wow - not a single mentioning of how to provide baseload electricity, not a serious article at all.

The article mentions it:

The main WWS challenge is that the wind does not always blow and the sun does not always shine in a given location. Intermittency problems can be mitigated by a smart balance of sources, such as generating a base supply from steady geothermal or tidal power, relying on wind at night when it is often plentiful, using solar by day and turning to a reliable source such as hydroelectric that can be turned on and off quickly to smooth out supply or meet peak demand. For example, interconnecting wind farms that are only 100 to 200 miles apart can compensate for hours of zero power at any one farm should the wind not be blowing there. Also helpful is interconnecting geographically dispersed sources so they can back up one another, installing smart electric meters in homes that automatically recharge electric vehicles when demand is low and building facilities that store power for later use.

Because the wind often blows during stormy conditions when the sun does not shine and the sun often shines on calm days with little wind, combining wind and solar can go a long way toward meeting demand, especially when geothermal provides a steady base and hydroelectric can be called on to fill in the gaps.

Geothermal and tidal are better suited to baseload applications. I also bolded the section above I felt could help with intermittency issues:
1. interconnecting geographically dispersed sources so they can back up one another - This seems like one of the easiest and cheapest solitions to this problem. This is a big country. The wind is not going to suddenly stop blowing across the entire country all at once. So you build a little more wind power spread around the country to compensate for times when certain regions of the country have low/no wind. Then when wind is low in one area of the country, you just import more power from another area of the country where the wind is still blowing.
2. installing smart electric meters in homes - This one makes alot of sense too. Have applications that suck up alot of juice turn off during times of peak demand and turn on during times of low demand. For example: charging EVs, staggering AC usage, aluminum manufacturing, etc.

I think the above 2 points make alot more sense than trying to build a giant national battery to store the energy of sunlight at night or building backup natural gas power plants for each and every wind/solar pv farm.

This is a good option as well that the article mentions:

The same analysis estimates that concentrated solar power systems with enough thermal storage to generate electricity 24 hours a day in spring, summer and fall could deliver electricity at 10¢/kWh or less.

A 20 MW plant is already operating in Spain: Gemasolar Thermosolar Plant
Another 110 MW facility is being built about 200 miles from Vegas: Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project

[Quinny]

How many MW to power Vegas - or Spain??

[kublikhan]

How many centuries did it take to build up our current infrastructure? You can't expect that to be replaced overnight.

[cephalotus]

Wow - not a single mentioning of how to provide baseload electricity, not a serious article at all.

You need storage capacity and some flexibility, for example from biogas. You can also produce hydrogen or synthetic methane from solar and wind energy and use it to power gas fired power plants.

http://www.kombikraftwerk.de/fileadmin/ ... erk_EN.pdf

https://www.enertrag.com/en/project-dev ... plant.html

[Laurentius]

I really enjoyed reading this interesting post.

[Rhyunbear]

To put this very simply, natural energy sources require nothing on our part to make. Coal, oil (crude), natural gas etc form naturally due to organic materials expiring and being compressed and transformed. The sun costs us nothing for it to shine as does the wind. What is always lost in these discussions is that it takes energy of some type to harness and exploit ANY type of energy source into a viable and workable product. The cost of energy spent versus the amount of energy gained should be the discussion. The finite energy mindset is turned on its ear with every technological turn that increases the amount of any type of material we can recover, and with the plates in the planet shifting as well as volcanoes and such rare earth materials will still be formed whether we like it or not. Finite thinking is only helpful for those that wish to have a deadline to argue for or against. Reality is that the "deadline" constantly shifts froward destroying the myth. Costs of energy typically have governmental and political reasons, not supply reasons. Public perception is just that. It is formed by what the public is told, not necessarily reality.

[JohnRM]

The answer is yes but preferably in a society where economic and population growth is zero.

And there it is. I was wondering how long it would take for someone to say it.

Not only zero growth, but also far less than 7 billion people, I'm afraid. I would guess - and it is just a guess - that we will probably require a reduction to less than 3.5 billion, perhaps as low as 1 billion.

[Timo]

The answer is yes but preferably in a society where economic and population growth is zero.

And there it is. I was wondering how long it would take for someone to say it.

Not only zero growth, but also far less than 7 billion people, I'm afraid. I would guess - and it is just a guess - that we will probably require a reduction to less than 3.5 billion, perhaps as low as 1 billion.

I will also add that the answer is "yes," under the same conditions listed above, but also only in less intensive applications. Renewable energy for commercial jets? Probably not. At least not on the scale at present. Cars? Maybe, but only used for less intensive purposes, like much shorter, less frequent commutes, and not for happy motoring. Damn you Kunstler! Anyway.....agriculture? Only for processing; not for planting and harvesting, at least not at the scale of present demand. In short, humans gan get by pretty easily with renewable energies, but only under different circumstances. Sooner or later, we'll all be forced into an energy austerity mandate, just like Europe with money.

[Pops]

I've been carping that the big drop in PV prices that lately everyone has has been puffing is in no small part because of Chinese subsidies to their manufacturers and the resultant dumping in the US. I'm sure PV is getting cheaper with scale but not as fast as appears.


U.S. orders tariffs on Chinese solar panels

[paulinenehring]

Is it possible that renewables can supply 100% of our energy needs?

Yes It is possible, Paraguay and Iceland have already done it.

Paraguay relies 100% on hydroelectric energy, where as Iceland relies around 75 % on hydroelectric energy and the rest is from Geothermal Power (also renewable).
I think at least 100 countries can rely 100% on hydroelectric energy (quantifying this based on the average precipitation per year).
Sources: Hydroelectric Generation and Average Precipitation per year

My point being, not only there is solar and wind energy, there are other forms of usable renewable energy. So the answer is, yes definitely, we go 100% on renewable energy and we should

[EnergyUnlimited]

I only wonder, how they will make road asphalt or constructions of steel smelters out of renewable energy...
How they will refurbish crumbling city infrastructure base on renewable energy...
etc.

Finally how much will cost 1 kWhr of renewable electricity if *most/all* infrastructure needed to produce it is also to be constructed and maintained base on renewable electricity?
Would that be an affordable proposal for general use?