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First of all, I am a power systems engineer. Oil and refined petroleum products are not an economical source of power generation, which is why it isn't used an
by eigenvector 8y ago
First of all, I am a power systems engineer.
Oil and refined petroleum products are not an economical source of power generation, which is why it isn't used anywhere in the developed world except at small scale where lots of fuel storage is required, like the Canadian Arctic. Coal and natural gas are much more appropriate, if they are available.
The biggest advantage to renewables, as I stated in my initial comment, is that they don't have to be transported. Arguments about resource adequacy (not enough sun, not enough water) are largely irrelevant because fossil fuel power is already rationed in developing off grid locations due to the massive cost of transport. Recall that developing countries do not have advanced transportation infrastructure nor a highly developed power grid to transit energy.
Finally, energy security is a major concern for all countries, especially those with limited ability to purchase US$ priced global commodities, and oil is an import in most of the world.
To suggest that, for instance, countries in sub Saharan Africa are better off spending their minimal foreign currency reserves importing diesel and trucking it across the desert on non existent roads rather than using abundant solar energy flies in the face of the facts.
- dreamcompiler 8y agoMicrogrid engineer here, and I completely agree. Developing nations bypassed expensive comms grids in the 90s and went straight to cell phones. The same thing is happening now with energy. Rather than building out an (even more) expensive electrical grid, they're putting in distributed renewables. Result: Everybody has electricity but there's no grid. It's happening because of economics; not ideology.
- ThomPete 8y agonot the same at all. The investments into getting phones into peoples hands were market driven, energy infrastructure is not.
- eigenvector 8y agoA person living 3 days from the road in Nepal deciding to put in a small solar system to charge their phone and provide a bit of light absolutely is market-driven.
- ThomPete 8y agoSure but that's not enough to keep them safe from mother nature, provide for heating, cook their food, transport them etc. You are talking about a fraction of what it is to live as a person in a relatively safe environment.
- ThomPete 8y agoNo it doesnt fly in the face of facts, your claims do. Solar is not reliable neither is wind, elecric cars arent anywhere close to being accessible for poor countries. The cost of creating the infrastructure of those things are impossible to create for those countries, even countries like india will not be doing that anytime soon. Being a power systems engineer does not put you in any better position to discuss this problem than other people as this is not a powersystems problem.
- eigenvector 8y agoNobody is talking about electric cars except you. We're talking about electricity use in the home: for lighting, small electronics, small appliances like a rice cooker or kettle (displacing wood), etc. These are real quality of life improvements: reducing time spent gathering wood, reducing smoke inhalation, reducing cooking time. There is no "infrastructure" of these things, it's a completely stand alone system that requires little maintenance unlike a rotating machine. I have been in the Himalaya where solar panels from China are transported on yaks over the border to Nepal where people buy them on put them on their homes for 50 or 100W of electricity, the first they've ever had. How would you propose these people to use oil? They are hundreds of km from a road driveable with a heavy truck, thousands of km from a pipeline. Off-grid solar power is the MOST reliable form of power generation that exists. It requires no fuel, the amount of resource availability can be predicted with near-certainty without any technology, it has no moving parts, it doesn't require high-voltage equipment or transformers, and it can easily be broken into small pieces for transport on foot or pack animal. That's why I brought up my profession, because you seem to misunderstand what is actually entailed in providing electricity. I've designed, built and run power plants of all types and I would never say that thermal is more reliable for developing countries than renewables.
- ThomPete 8y agoWe aren't talking about some fraction of the major discussion that's as irrelevant as saying you can use kinetic energy to power your watch. We are talking about energy in general, not just electricity and we are talking about entire societies needing to be able to support their needs. And off-grid solar power requires way more than you let on. To begin with the resources and a manufacturing process that goes into it, the cost, the ability to provide enough energy and so on. Furthermore and again. Solar is not even close to being able to deliver enough energy for our needs as a society neither on a national level and certainly not on a global level and no amount of off-grid solar power will solve that problem.