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Scotland already generates more than 60% of its electricity from renewables.

by phaemon 10y ago

masklinn 10y ago
Easy to do when you've got a shit-ton of hydro, which is the case of Scotland (85% hydro, and pretty much the entire potential capacity is installed). For instance Iceland is 100% electricity and 85% primary energy from renewables, not exactly hard when you've got massive amounts of geo and hydro (respectively 27% and 83% for electricity, 65% and 20% for primary energy). Good luck applying that to Belgium or Florida.
- pjc50 10y ago
  http://www.hi-energy.org.uk/renewables/hydro-energy.htm http://www.hi-energy.org.uk/renewables/hydro-energy.htm says 12%, which seems more realistic. That page also says it's been overtaken by wind power. Both Belgium and Florida seem like good candidates for offshore wind, although I'd be worried about hurricanes in Florida.
  - soundwave106 10y ago
    Florida's a pretty good candidate for solar as well. If tidal power ever takes off beyond proof of concept level, Florida (with its position near the Gulf Stream) is in a really good place for that, too. There are definitely places which probably could never be 100% renewable, which is why transmission, storage, and grid management technology are important too.
  - masklinn 10y ago
    https://www.scottishrenewables.com/sectors/renewables-in-numbers/ https://www.scottishrenewables.com/sectors/renewables-in-num... provides somewhat better number, but yeah I definitely fucked up, not quite sure where I got 85% from. > That page also says it's been overtaken by wind power. Which is true now but beware the trap of "installed capacity", as of Q3 2016 Scotland had 1600MW hydro and 5800MW wind installed (difference of 3.6x), but the 2015 production numbers were 5.8TWh hydro and 13.9TWh wind (difference of 2.4).
  - oblio 10y ago
    Well, Belgium and Florida are kind of ok. But what would you do with Poland, which has basically no wind, solar or hydro generation potential? Life's going to be hard for some countries.
    - ZeroGravitas 10y ago
      Just get them to pay a carbon tax which can be used to pay for installing renewable in the places where it makes sense. It's a global problem, and it needs global solutions. And if they do happen to figure out something that's cheaper than the carbon tax they're paying (maybe they can extract biogas from waste food, sewage or farm slurry or maybe they just super-insulate their homes to save fuel) then they have an immediate financial incentive to roll it out.
- ZeroGravitas 10y ago
  Although hydro has been around for a while, and wind power is currently the cheapest renewable, most folk seem to think Solar PV is the dominant power of the future, so I think Florida aka "the Sunshine State" will do okay.

Scotland already generates more than 60% of its electricity from renewables.

by phaemon 10y ago

Scotland already generates more than 60% of its electricity from renewables.

Easy to do when you've got a shit-ton of hydro, which is the case of Scotland (85% hydro, and pretty much the entire potential capacity is installed). For instance Iceland is 100% electricity and 85% primary energy from renewables, not exactly hard when you've got massive amounts of geo and hydro (respectively 27% and 83% for electricity, 65% and 20% for primary energy). Good luck applying that to Belgium or Florida.

pjc50 10y ago
http://www.hi-energy.org.uk/renewables/hydro-energy.htm http://www.hi-energy.org.uk/renewables/hydro-energy.htm says 12%, which seems more realistic. That page also says it's been overtaken by wind power. Both Belgium and Florida seem like good candidates for offshore wind, although I'd be worried about hurricanes in Florida.
- soundwave106 10y ago
  Florida's a pretty good candidate for solar as well. If tidal power ever takes off beyond proof of concept level, Florida (with its position near the Gulf Stream) is in a really good place for that, too. There are definitely places which probably could never be 100% renewable, which is why transmission, storage, and grid management technology are important too.
- masklinn 10y ago
  https://www.scottishrenewables.com/sectors/renewables-in-numbers/ https://www.scottishrenewables.com/sectors/renewables-in-num... provides somewhat better number, but yeah I definitely fucked up, not quite sure where I got 85% from. > That page also says it's been overtaken by wind power. Which is true now but beware the trap of "installed capacity", as of Q3 2016 Scotland had 1600MW hydro and 5800MW wind installed (difference of 3.6x), but the 2015 production numbers were 5.8TWh hydro and 13.9TWh wind (difference of 2.4).
- oblio 10y ago
  Well, Belgium and Florida are kind of ok. But what would you do with Poland, which has basically no wind, solar or hydro generation potential? Life's going to be hard for some countries.
  - ZeroGravitas 10y ago
    Just get them to pay a carbon tax which can be used to pay for installing renewable in the places where it makes sense. It's a global problem, and it needs global solutions. And if they do happen to figure out something that's cheaper than the carbon tax they're paying (maybe they can extract biogas from waste food, sewage or farm slurry or maybe they just super-insulate their homes to save fuel) then they have an immediate financial incentive to roll it out.
ZeroGravitas 10y ago
Although hydro has been around for a while, and wind power is currently the cheapest renewable, most folk seem to think Solar PV is the dominant power of the future, so I think Florida aka "the Sunshine State" will do okay.