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This is nice, but sort of masks the reality. Providing a comfortable amount of electricity to a home is easy. It takes a few hundred watts to light, perhaps a f
by leoedin 13y ago
This is nice, but sort of masks the reality. Providing a comfortable amount of electricity to a home is easy. It takes a few hundred watts to light, perhaps a few kilowatts to heat (although I'd imagine at 21p/kWh most of the islanders use propane or wood) and then a few hundred watts for a TV or computer.
They're not self-sufficient in energy. They're self sufficient in electricity generation, perhaps, but energy? All the really energy intensive processes that support their way of life - agriculture, manufacturing of goods - those are happening elsewhere. You can't simply equate household electricity usage with the average human's energy footprint, because the two are massively different.
There's a tendency in the west to ignore the painful truth which is that our actions and consumption has far reaching consequences. Everything you buy has an energy footprint, and for many things it's one that we outsource to China. It's great to say "UK carbon output down x%", but if it's because we moved manufacturing offshore, did we really make a difference? It's easy to blame China for emissions while pointing at our renewables as evidence of how good we are, but the reality is that those emissions are often made to service our needs.
- timlukins 13y agoSo true - 100% electricity generation != 100% energy sufficiency. What opened my eyes to this was David MacKay's wonderful (free) book: http://www.withouthotair.com http://www.withouthotair.com
- leoedin 13y agoThat's a good recommendation! It's a fantastic book that does a great job of simplifying the energy equations into something understandable for most people. It really should be required reading for journalists and politicians dealing with this area. I think David MacKay was (for a while anyway) in some sort of scientific advice role for the government, but I can't imagine they listen to him very often...
- aaren 13y agoDavid MacKay is Chief Scientific Advisor to the Department of Energy and Climate Change. He's been in this role since 2009. Without hot air is excellent. Look at this page [1] which shows the rough average consumption of a household in the uk, including non electrical consumption. http://www.withouthotair.com/c18/page_103.shtml http://www.withouthotair.com/c18/page_103.shtml
- 7952 13y agoIt also ignore transport. A single SUV could consume more power than the entire islands hydro scheme could generate.