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We've already had numerous periods where the UK's energy needs have been wholly met from renewables, there's actually a very good site where you can see all the

by stoobs 3y ago

We've already had numerous periods where the UK's energy needs have been wholly met from renewables, there's actually a very good site where you can see all the stats from the National Grid in near real-time - https://grid.iamkate.com https://grid.iamkate.com If you adjust the time range to all time (it has data for the last eleven or so years), where you can see the total demand dropping, and the renewables overtaking all of the other production sources. To be clear, there is still a decent demand to supply gap, but it is dropping year over year, and given that we've gone from an average of 2.5GW/day to between 10 and 13GW/day in that timeframe, another 20 years or so and we should start meeting demand with renewables alone. I'm hopeful that newer technology in that timeframe coupled with lower costs will encourage more and more generation growth from the sector, especially if more local generation and storage is encouraged, for example home solar/wind and home battery combinations. We'd also end up with a much more resilient power grid if most of the day to day needs can be met from local power systems, with the main grid only needing to supplement high stress periods and industrial and public communal requirements.

solumunus 3y ago
This is just electricity though right? A lot of (I assume most) homes in the UK are heated using gas.
- stoobs 3y ago
  Yes, but there's a huge push at the moment to move to heat-pumps which will remove the need for natural gas for home heating. I did hear that there were also trials to shift from natural gas to either straight hydrogen, or a hydrogen/natural gas mix - but according to the people I had a conversation with, much of the infrastructure will need upgrading as well as all the gas engineers/plumbers needing retraining, given that hydrogen is much harder to keep contained due to the tiny size of the H2 molecule vs that of natural gas (mostly methane), as well as it burning differently so needing different internals for heating systems. Answer is still roughly the same though, give it another 10 years or so and re-evaluate
- ben_w 3y ago
  Yes to just electricity, I think so for gas heating (I've also been in places in the UK with open hearth wood fires, oil heating, solar thermal, and pure electric, and that's just where I knew the heat source). Assuming the linked calculations are correct, this doesn't matter because all current power consumption can be electrified. Of course, even that's still not sufficient, as the chemical byproducts of several major agricultural and industrial processes also produce greenhouse gases. Fortunately, people are working on those too.

by stoobs 3y ago

solumunus 3y ago

This is just electricity though right? A lot of (I assume most) homes in the UK are heated using gas.

stoobs 3y ago
Yes, but there's a huge push at the moment to move to heat-pumps which will remove the need for natural gas for home heating. I did hear that there were also trials to shift from natural gas to either straight hydrogen, or a hydrogen/natural gas mix - but according to the people I had a conversation with, much of the infrastructure will need upgrading as well as all the gas engineers/plumbers needing retraining, given that hydrogen is much harder to keep contained due to the tiny size of the H2 molecule vs that of natural gas (mostly methane), as well as it burning differently so needing different internals for heating systems. Answer is still roughly the same though, give it another 10 years or so and re-evaluate
ben_w 3y ago
Yes to just electricity, I think so for gas heating (I've also been in places in the UK with open hearth wood fires, oil heating, solar thermal, and pure electric, and that's just where I knew the heat source). Assuming the linked calculations are correct, this doesn't matter because all current power consumption can be electrified. Of course, even that's still not sufficient, as the chemical byproducts of several major agricultural and industrial processes also produce greenhouse gases. Fortunately, people are working on those too.