5 ms·

What would you suggest? Keeping in mind that basically all renewable sources sans hydroelectric can't be used to provide baseload power and hydroelectric power

by asharp 16y ago

What would you suggest? Keeping in mind that basically all renewable sources sans hydroelectric can't be used to provide baseload power and hydroelectric power both has very few potential locations (most of which are in use) and has the nasty failure condition of washing away a good portion of the countryside.

Ratfish 16y ago
I know it's easy to suggest as a New Zealander (lots of mountains, lots of rain, and not that many people), but that hydro you mention is ace, wish all our power came from it.
- ctman 16y ago
  Dams aren't impervious to killing lots of people either: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vajont_Dam http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vajont_Dam http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banqiao_Dam http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banqiao_Dam 2 incidents in 15 years: 175,000+ killed. Plus they emit methane in huge quantities (from the decay of plant materiel in the reservoir) I would bet that for New Zealand the best form of energy would be geothermal even though the long-term effect studies around cooling the earth's crust are lacking.
adrianN 16y ago
Solar thermal with molten salt heat storage might be a viable baseload alternative.
- kalleboo 16y ago
  As someone who lives in a country where half the year it's -10℃ with 2 hours of sunlight (zero hours if it's cloudy), I'd have to say it's not quite viable.
  - lispm 16y ago
    Most of the world's population is in more sunny areas.
- asharp 16y ago
  It still has the same problem that you can't "turn them up" to cope with higher demand over longish periods, which makes dealing with them tricky. They are a good step though.
lispm 16y ago
So, if all you know is hydro-electric, why not use it NOW? Germany is building two large underwater power lines in the latest HVDC technology to Norway. One is described here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NorGer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NorGer NorGer is one, NORD.LINK the other. These power lines will link Germany with Hydro electric power in Norway. Essentially technology like that will provide the base load for the huge offshore wind farms that Germany will build in the coming decades in the North Sea. Alpha Ventus http://www.alpha-ventus.de/ http://www.alpha-ventus.de/ is the first one of those. These are really far away from the coast and sitting in the North Sea exposed to the most severe weather conditions. It is just that a country needs to have a plan and a will to do it. You can imagine that the nuclear lobby does not like this project to get hydro-electric power from Norway at all. They are doing everything to delay it. Corrupt politicians like those from the FDP (Brüderle) are their puppets. Actually there are more alternatives and base load is not the same all the time. If you have a large grid distributing wind generated electricity from a large area, that provides part of the base load for most of the days of the year.

by asharp 16y ago

Ratfish 16y ago

I know it's easy to suggest as a New Zealander (lots of mountains, lots of rain, and not that many people), but that hydro you mention is ace, wish all our power came from it.

ctman 16y ago
Dams aren't impervious to killing lots of people either: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vajont_Dam http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vajont_Dam http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banqiao_Dam http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banqiao_Dam 2 incidents in 15 years: 175,000+ killed. Plus they emit methane in huge quantities (from the decay of plant materiel in the reservoir) I would bet that for New Zealand the best form of energy would be geothermal even though the long-term effect studies around cooling the earth's crust are lacking.

adrianN 16y ago

Solar thermal with molten salt heat storage might be a viable baseload alternative.

kalleboo 16y ago
As someone who lives in a country where half the year it's -10℃ with 2 hours of sunlight (zero hours if it's cloudy), I'd have to say it's not quite viable.
- lispm 16y ago
  Most of the world's population is in more sunny areas.
asharp 16y ago
It still has the same problem that you can't "turn them up" to cope with higher demand over longish periods, which makes dealing with them tricky. They are a good step though.

lispm 16y ago

So, if all you know is hydro-electric, why not use it NOW? Germany is building two large underwater power lines in the latest HVDC technology to Norway. One is described here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NorGer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NorGer NorGer is one, NORD.LINK the other. These power lines will link Germany with Hydro electric power in Norway. Essentially technology like that will provide the base load for the huge offshore wind farms that Germany will build in the coming decades in the North Sea. Alpha Ventus http://www.alpha-ventus.de/ http://www.alpha-ventus.de/ is the first one of those. These are really far away from the coast and sitting in the North Sea exposed to the most severe weather conditions. It is just that a country needs to have a plan and a will to do it. You can imagine that the nuclear lobby does not like this project to get hydro-electric power from Norway at all. They are doing everything to delay it. Corrupt politicians like those from the FDP (Brüderle) are their puppets. Actually there are more alternatives and base load is not the same all the time. If you have a large grid distributing wind generated electricity from a large area, that provides part of the base load for most of the days of the year.