sparky wrote:.
With 2 major black-outs in in 5 months and 6 load shedding of regional supply in one year,
the South Australians are quite irate .
From the "Advertiser" the local paper
http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/sout ... 449f1cb2d6
the first black out was caused by too much wind , the second by not enough .
The State government went heavily into renewable , with subsidies for individual panels and windmills
the majority of generation is produced by gas turbines
a large amount of complementary power would be imported from others State through the dual inter-connector line
two coal fired power stations were driven out of business
Then things went wrong , in September , high winds caused the wind mills to feather down to zero , some line were damaged and one of the inter-connector was down .
two days ago a predictable heat wave struck ( this is Australia , the sunburn country )
the State authority decide which generators get to switch on , those idiots though they could wing through it and didn't request a gas plant to come on line to save some money .
At sunset , with no wind whatsoever , the solar output dropped to zero , the inter-connector had no power to give as the others States were having high demand of their own .
The local government blame the national energy authority , which answers that they are not in the business of rationing
only of co-coordinating standards and prices ,
They also blame the Federal government who answers that they are incompetent and blinkered ,
playing the green card to be elected and too cheap to set up a decent grid and too hypocritical to mention that they import a lot of brown coal power , the dirtiest kind
While the voters are angry , the industry ,dairies and businesses are frothing at the mouth
for them it's not an inconvenience it's a major financial cost ,
several have flagged their intention to relocate from job deprived S.A. to States who are more mindful of their needs
As a longer heat wave is forecast in the coming days ,things looks grim ,
Both New South Wales and Victoria have informed the Federal authority that they will barely be able to supply their own market and have no power to trade .
sparky wrote:.
While the voters are angry , the industry ,dairies and businesses are frothing at the mouth
for them it's not an inconvenience it's a major financial cost ,
several have flagged their intention to relocate from job deprived S.A. to States who are more mindful of their needs
As a longer heat wave is forecast in the coming days ,things looks grim ,
Both New South Wales and Victoria have informed the Federal authority that they will barely be able to supply their own market and have no power to trade .
An Adelaide company has developed a silicon storage device that it claims costs a tenth as much as a lithium ion battery to store the same energy and is eyeing a $10 million public float.
1414 Degrees had its origins in patented CSIRO research and has built a prototype molten silicon storage device which it is testing at its Tonsley Innovation Precinct site south of Adelaide.
Chairman Kevin Moriarty says 1414 Degrees' process can store 500 kilowatt hours of energy in a 70-centimetre cube of molten silicon – about 36 times as much energy as Tesla's 14KWh Powerwall 2 lithium ion home storage battery in about the same space.
The device stores electrical energy by using it to heat a block of pure silicon to melting point – 1414 degrees Celsius.
It discharges through a heat-exchange device such as a Stirling engine or a turbine, which converts heat back to electrical energy, and recycles waste heat to lift efficiency.
If the claims stand up at commercial scale the molten silicon storage device could be one of the technological breakthroughs that make it cheaper to store energy from wind and solar farms. This could smooth out their intermittent generation and also help prevent or isolate blackouts from transmission failures
Rather than just sell its storage devices, 1414 Degrees wants to enter into joint ventures with customers – or partners – and share in the benefits.
For example, Mr Moriarty said its devices could increase the revenue of a wind farm by 25 per cent, through increased output and exploiting higher wholesale prices when the wind isn't blowing.
Alfred Tennyson wrote:We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
Shaved Monkey wrote:
Seems the problem isnt green energy but the profit motives of privatised utilities.
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 12 guests