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That thing alone is going to produce ~1.5% of all electricity in the world (assuming ~23% capacity factor which is what i expect in Saudi Arabia), even accounti
by anovikov 9y ago
That thing alone is going to produce ~1.5% of all electricity in the world (assuming ~23% capacity factor which is what i expect in Saudi Arabia), even accounting for growth of electricity consumption by the time it is built out.
What are they going to do with all that electricity, especially given it is intermittent?
To me, the project sounds like a PR BS because it is too expensive and i can't see a use for it.
- sandos 9y agoDesalination was mentioned, and it could conceivably run during the sunlight hours only, storing water for the night. I would imagine that they will build _some_ storage as well in the coming 12 years, or I will be very disappoint.
- anovikov 9y agoDesalination using reverse osmosis is just 6kwh/m3. It means 67 cubic km of water per year. Which is about as much water withdrawal as all of Russia. They can't possibly practically use that much water. It will be 10% of India's (world top), or 14% of U.S.' water use.
- tempestn 9y agoThey don't need to use it all for water. Electricity can be sold. Can also produce hydrogen and sell that.
- rorygreig 9y agoDoes that include the energy used to pump the water after processing? From what I understand the most energy-intensive part of desalination is pumping it to where people can actually use it.
- tempestn 9y agoDesalination would be one thing that could soak up a great deal of peak power and produce a valuable asset.
- TangoTrotFox 9y agoYou can create energy storage with excess energy. With energy of a large enough scale even electrolysis, as opposed to steam methane reforming, could be used to produce renewable clean energy in the form of hydrogen that could be used to create more stable power output. Saudi Arabia and all nations that rely on oil exports certainly have to be seeing the future a bit differently than the rest of the world, and so you have to take this into account when considering their plans. It's probably not particularly controversial to say that oil won't be nearly as valuable in 50 years. But when your GDP is being sustained by oil, that means you're living on borrowed time - and when it comes to completely reshaping your national economy and international role, 50 years suddenly is not such a long time.
- Maarten88 9y agoThey can build more aluminium smelters there, that takes lots of energy and brings diversification. They already have some of that (using oil/gas).
- cantabridgeman 9y agoMine bitcoin!