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For wind and solar, the following sites are eye-opening https://globalwindatlas.info/ https://globalwindatlas.info/ https://globalsolaratlas.info/ https://glo
by sremani 8y ago
For wind and solar, the following sites are eye-opening
https://globalwindatlas.info/ https://globalwindatlas.info/
https://globalsolaratlas.info/ https://globalsolaratlas.info/
Its very likely the first metro area in US to live off Renewables is going to be Dallas-Ft.Worth. Of course, Austin is close too.. but all those wind farms are closer to Big D than Austin.
- ufo 8y agoI wonder why china is so blue on the solar map.
- sremani 8y agoprecipitation is a killer for solar output, that is why Florida also does not do well with solar. Suprisingly Colorado is amazing for solar because of elevation and low precipitation.
- makerofspoons 8y agoHere in Colorado people are always pushing the '300 days of sunshine' myth but there is a lot of truth to most of the state being sunny and dry most of the year.
- jimmy1 8y agoIt also wrecks havoc on your derma. I am generally an oily person and even I had to reach for tubes of lotion when I was there.
- ip26 8y agoMost people are chronically dehydrated all their lives. I've found, at least for lips, the urge to reach for chapstick frequently means I should be reaching for a water bottle instead. (Setting aside extreme conditions like subzero skiing)
- ip26 8y agoIt's a bit more nuanced, it's not perpetually sunny but it does tend to be sunny during peak solar times.
- stcredzero 8y agoHere in Colorado people are always pushing the '300 days of sunshine' myth By coincidence, that's the average number of overcast days in the part of Western Pennsylvania I grew up in.
- kerbalspacepro 8y agoFlorida is still yellow, bud
- hn_throwaway_99 8y agoGeorgetown, TX, just north of Austin, has gone 100% renewables. Of course, that's a little bit of an accounting trick, in that while 100% of energy purchased is paid for at solar/wind rates, it still uses the same Texas grid that relies on coal and gas for reliability. Thus, while it's great that more cities are going to all renewable, that doesn't mean we're much closer to solving the storage and stability problems with renewables.
- sremani 8y agoWind is better than Solar when considering dynamic generation problems, also in terms of output per dollar Wind is gives better return in Texas than Solar. Everything said and done, there are not many places where Solar and Wind can reliably replace conventional sources of power.
- gameswithgo 8y agoThey can do it anywhere with sufficient storage effort. That is a massive challenge but so is extraction of fossil fuels. The people who say it can’t be done are lacking vision.
- sharemywin 8y agojust use concrete blocks to store energy: http://www.industrytap.com/giant-hanging-concrete-blocks-could-be-the-answer-to-the-worlds-energy-storage-needs/47235 http://www.industrytap.com/giant-hanging-concrete-blocks-cou...
- hn_throwaway_99 8y agoIf you do the math on this you realize that the low value of gravitational potential energy makes it a horrible storage vehicle on a large scale for pretty much anything except pumped hydro.
- i80and 8y agoGravity has immensely low power density; each 35 metric ton block described in that article only provides a theoretical maximum of 11 kWh. There's a reason gravity batteries usually use large bodies of water for their mass.
- api 8y agoLooks like Greenland could export tons of power if we could do transoceanic superconducting cables. Wow.
- nickvanw 8y agoThese charts miss Hydroelectricity, which is currently 70% of renewable energy production worldwide. Seattle is more or less entirely powered by renewables, with 97% of Seattle City Light's energy coming from Hydro, Nuclear or Wind: http://www.seattle.gov/light/FuelMix/ http://www.seattle.gov/light/FuelMix/
- sremani 8y agoThank you for bringing this to my attention, I will check out Seattle and Portland electricity portfolios. Looks very promising though.
- greglindahl 8y agoThere are multiple definitions of "renewable energy" out there. Palo Alto doesn't count "large hydro" as part of their renewables goal.
- seanmcdirmid 8y agoThe problem with hydro is mostly fish. Anyways, from an economic perspective, hydro is definitely renewable, and works much the same way a wind turbine does (substitute blowing wind with flowing water).
- 4thaccount 8y agoYea, there are a few massive hydro dams in the Pacific Northwest around Portland/Seattle...just look at Chief Joe dam.
- seanmcdirmid 8y agoThe big one would be the Grand Coulee, more than twice as much power capacity as Chief Joe. Norway still has us beat, however.
- 4thaccount 8y agoThanks, that is the other one I couldn't remember and was too lazy to Google.
- distances 8y agoVery cool maps. I wonder why the solar map is cut off at 60th parallel north, it's not like people in e.g. Finland don't use solar.