Smart Meters

due to the way power generation works it's very inefficient to run the power plants at anything less than 100% all the time with coal. So they need to use gas for peaking power (Which is very very inefficient 5-20 times the emissions and cost) solar panels make very little difference to how we generate power or overall emissions but they do cost us a fortune in feed in tarrifs.

We would be far better off to invest in energy storage to use the energy we create effectively than to add more generation capacity from renewables which is getting wasted.

Renewables will only ever work with a viable energy storage solution BUT solar panels are cheaper than batteries per kw/h and more voter friendly so will continue to dominate our flawed energy policies for years to come.


We could reduce emissions by half by actually using the energy created the 50%+ is lost due to lack of storage facilities.

For offgrid applications solar is excellent for on grid it's distinctively flawed in it's present form.

Wind suffers exactly the same problems and the added problem of maintenence (Moving parts) wind is also a lot less predictable making it even harder to balance peak power.

Mark my words energy storage is the next big thing NOT renewables, renewables will come later. I very much doubt we will ever generate everything we need from solar or wind but maybe the ocean eventually from temperature gradient. (The ocean is solar powerered so I guess indirect solar.)

If I was in charge the severn estuary would have been dammed a long time ago

I supsect the environmental impact would have been far less than burning fossil fuels for power as we do now.


Solar water heating has inbuilt storage and is far more likely to reduce emmisions.

Aesethics are meaningless to me when it comes to power generation it's just too important.

 

Shiney,I think your slate roof looks rather cool as in And the black panels don't look too bad against your pantile tiles.Perhaps the modern solar panels look a bit better than the ones of a few years ago

One of my village friends has a neighbour who has had them installed on their roof and when my friend sits in her garden all she sees is those panels and she said that they give off a glare when they are sitting outside in the summer,but not sure if she was just winding me up

JWK,how come my indeed is missing the I whereas in my post the I is there?I am afraid your photo doesn't show up on my tablet just a square with a cross in it

Still haven't got thousands of £'s to spare to have them fitted and we like our fake slate roof plus we don't have a South facing roof to spare to put them on.Our only South facing wall is on the side of the garage and we have plants growing up that wall

 

unfortunately it's not that easy we have to generate an excess of what we need to ensure there's no blackouts the power not used is lost in the system (Heat loss) the system has no storage capacity so any excess power generated is bled off as heat. The whole thing is a guess because they can't use real time monitoring as by the time they see the spike the power has already browned out.

The power stations also use massive cooling towers (Heat that could be used) and produce of course co2.

The solution is massive multi acre greenhouses to utilise the heat and co2 but that's not what our government want. Excess power could easily be used in municpal style heating projects (heat water when demand is low and use the water to heat homes when power demand is high)

They'd rather we move 50% of our food 5000 miles+ and shunt the co2 emissions on to someone elses doorstep.

Totally unsustainable the way we produce food now I believe lights to grow food is far far far more efficient than growing it on the other side of the world. We will within another 20 years be eating locally fresh produced produce once again or 3d printed poo.

Modern supermarket food isn't food though it's kind of like playdough but worse tasting

 

2 of my panels are fixed south facing, but the third I can move around to catch the morning and evening sun. I hang it over the west facing window as a sunblind in the afternoon

 

http://solarelectricityhandbook.com/solar-irradiance.html

 

Every time I've driven past Didcot I've wondered why on earth don't they productively use the heat they're losing in the cooling towers which appears to be a monumental waste of energy.

 

That site is the one I would use to plan solar

I LOVE your signature Shiney so so very true