Speaking of Fossil Fuels and So Called Renewable Fuels
I came across a reply to an article in the comment section that gives a pragmatic answer.
Your conclusions are not based on the true scientific and engineering requirements to maintain a large grid.
Let us start with wind.
The largest wind turbine will put out about 1.5 MWe. That means it will take ~ 1000 wind turbines to replace one nuclear, coal, or gas turbine site of 1500 MWe. Good luck trying to find a steady wind source that will steadily produce, without interruption, 1500MWe so that your house will always have electricity.
Offshore wind farms seem like a great idea. Who hasn’t been to the beach and noticed the almost constant breeze. Who also has not been to the beach and noticed every piece of metal exposed to the salt air has a lot of corrosion. Wind turbines are sophisticated machines with bearings, variable pitched blades, etc. that are mad of metals. Imagine the maintenance cost that will be incurred when you put these offshore and the natural corrosion process occurs. Also imagine the equipment needed. To replace bearings or do blade repair you will need a 350′ tall floating crane. While doable, it will be very expensive.
Solar panels seem good. However, they put out very little electricity compared to the amount of land required. Solar has little effectiveness in the Northern parts of the world where winter sunlight is limited.
Solar panels are not maintenance free, they must be constantly cleaned. If they are place on sun tracking gimbals, they will have bearings and motors to support this. This means more maintenance.
Also, what do you do at night. You could use storage batteries. However, current battery systems will have about a 40 percent efficiency. For every ten watts in you get about four watts out.
Another issue with battery storage, batteries have huge environmental impact when they are manufactured and disposed of. The kind of batteries you will need are probably wet cell due to the size requirements. These also would require constant maintenance. By the way, you better be storing money because in about ten years of short cycle operation you would need to support solar, you will have to replace the batteries. For a single household, this will amount to tens of thousands of dollars every ten years. You think replacing a roof is expensive, wait until you replace a battery bank to support your “renewable” solar unit.
Every appliance you own, every tool, every convenience you depend on is alternating current (AC). There is a reason for this. AC motors use slip rings and induction which makes them very simple and reliable.
Direct current (DC) machines must use commutating brush riggings. These are much more complicated and require more maintenance, as well as not being as reliable as AC machines. There is a reason in the late 19th. century AC Tesla based technology became dominant over DC Edison based technology. AC is simple machines that are more reliable.
Unfortunately solar panels are a DC source. So good luck trying to power any significant part of the grid with them.
Another issue is DC transmission is limited to short distances based on practical machinery. AC voltage can be stepped up and down using transformers, allowing it to be transmitted great distances.
Biofuel, give me a break. Wood and other fiber based fuels have a very low BTU output. This is why we converted to coal and oil in the first place back in the 19th. century. The environmental impact of stripping forests to supply your biofuel electric plant would be gigantic.
Another issue you fail to recognize is manufacturing impact. Heavy manufacturing requires large amounts of cheap energy. Right now that means fossil, hydro, or nuclear. Solar and wind just cannot do the job.
So unless you want to go back to an agricultural based economy, then you are limited in choices. By the way, modern agriculture requires a lot of electricity and fuel.
You see, without looking beyond the “feel good” philosophies of renewables and looking deeper into the science, your proposals will not work. I would suggest picking up an electrical and mechanical engineering handbook and doing more study on this issue. Go beyond the emotional based rhetoric, and look at the science and engineering.
Or choose to live like we did prior to the 1890s. If that is your choice then go up to Pennsylvania and join up with the Amish. If that is your choice, prepare yourself to work every day from sun up to sundown just to eat.
The article in question is titled:
Energy’s Future Today
The sun is the ultimate source of energy for our planet. Its energy is found in fossil fuels as well as all living things. Harnessing its energy holds great promise for the world’s energy needs, and it will be heavily called upon as fossil fuels are depleted.
There is a great deal of information and enthusiasm today about the development and increased production of our global energy needs from alternative energy sources. Solar energy, wind power and moving water are all traditional sources of alternative energy that are making progress. The enthusiasm everyone shares for these developments has in many ways created a sense of complacency that our future energy demands will easily be met.
Alternative energy is an interesting concept when you think about it. In our global society, it simply means energy that is produced from sources other than our primary energy supply: fossil fuels. Coal, oil and natural gas are the three kinds of fossil fuels that we have mostly depended on for our energy needs, from home heating and electricity to fuel for our automobiles and mass transportation.
The problem is fossil fuels are non-renewable. They are limited in supply and will one day be depleted. There is no escaping this conclusion. Fossil fuels formed from plants and animals that lived hundreds of millions of years ago and became buried way underneath the Earth’s surface where their remains collectively transformed into the combustible materials we use for fuel.
http://www.ecology.com/2011/09/06/fossil-fuels-renewable-energy-resources/
Still working on finding the impact study that would support a position discussed on the aforemntion #thecommunitywall post.
Any thoughts or studies related to the main question... Did old fashioned windmills kill birds like those of modern day "wind turbines"?