Not normally,when mains power is off,unless the system is off grid permanently.Quote:
Originally Posted by Arapiles
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Not normally,when mains power is off,unless the system is off grid permanently.Quote:
Originally Posted by Arapiles
It's interesting trying to find data on where our electricity comes from.
Brown coal is still the main source in Vic but I was surprised at the percentage from wind (providing it's windy).
Australia: energy generation capacity in VIC by source 2023 | Statista
I think the gas turbines are mainly to fill in shortages and only get fired up when demand is high.
When Snowy 2.0 gets finished we'll effectively have a huge 'battery' storing energy for when the sun don't shine and the wind doesn't blow.
They claim it could power 3million homes for a week.
About - Snowy Hydro
In the end it all depends on reliable distribution to the consumer.
If, as some people believe, EV's are the future then the distribution infrastructure probably needs upgrading !
Colin
That’s where the solar battery comes in handy. Can power the house during outages, and when you have excess also solar charge the EV.Quote:
Originally Posted by scarry
Although V2H would also be a good back up to have. Just keep enough in reserve to drive somewhere else to recharge it (not a problem if it is a hybrid) and you could survive an extended local outage.
Renewables backed up by gas would be a much more balanced and achievable outcome that can deliver the same nett zero benefits. This is the same argument for EVs.Quote:
Originally Posted by grey_ghost
Gas power is much cleaner, generates about half the CO2 emissions of coal, and can be switched on quickly when needed.
We can always offset the CO2 from gas by other means.
Even with all 4 Loy Yang A units now back on-line, the 2 Mortlake Power Station gas units are still providing back-up to the grid feeding a Smelter and SA if needed.
I presume that the reason your PV panels do "absolutely nothing" when your grid connections fails (i.e., doesn't feed into your house) is because you don't have an isolation switch, which can be quickly and cheaply installed by any electrician.Quote:
Originally Posted by grey_ghost
A battery would be helpful but it's the isolation switch that you need. In any case, the environmental impact of all the battery systems installed in Australia wouldn't add up to a fraction of the environmental impact of Australia's materialistic lifestyle.Quote:
Originally Posted by grey_ghost
EV in Japan is often sold as a package - house, panels and car. All interconnected. It's been the case over there for ages.Quote:
Originally Posted by grey_ghost
Quote:
Originally Posted by grey_ghost
The reality is that most fossil-fuel plants can't compete on price with renewables. It's why no-one's building new coal plants. There's been times this year, already, when they were giving electricity away as the prices were negative.
Unfortunately most of the inverters fitted on solar systems in Australia can not readily do this. Even with an isolation switch.Quote:
Originally Posted by Arapiles
So you actually need a different inverter, or a seperate battery with its own inverter, which then includes the switch over capability.
Some hybrid inverters can’t even charge the battery when they switch to back-up mode - which is not very apocalypse proof.
As DiscoDB has said - I don’t think that it’s an isolation switch, it’s the type of inverter. Which was only explained to me after the system was installed - I wonder how many other people are in the same boat?Quote:
Originally Posted by Arapiles
I am not sure that I agree with your statement on batteries. And I am not really sure that you answered my questions:
1) Do we have enough minerals for all of the required batteries (EV, house, mobile phones, laptops, ipads, etc, etc)
1B) Given that these minerals are finite - surely we will run out?
1C) Exactly how much of a battery can be recycled effectively (without causing more environmental damage) ?
2) What is the environmental impact - of producing all of these batteries?
I actually think that EVs are a good option for some people.
I don’t think that BATTERIES are an environmental solution. At all.
Those statements are so wrong they border on the idiotic.Quote:
Originally Posted by Arapiles
First, remove all incentives and subsidies, all taxpayer funded and based solely on green ideology, and see who's competitive then. Hint: it won't be wind/solar. Long term results will be even worse. And, make the "renewables" clean up and dispose of their already obsolete monstrosities that lie around collecting weeds. The fossil fuelled generators have to. The various EPAs saw to that long before the arrival of the "renewables". I use the inverted commas, by the way, because they are NOT "renewable". Every part of tham, from construction, through installation, to decommissioning, is an environmental disaster, but nobody seems to care about that.
Second, take a look outside your local and Japan based bubble at the rest of Asia, including the sub continent, and then say nobody is building fossil fuel power generators. And, take a look at places like Germany, who are desperately scrambling back to coal, including the filthy lignite, because when some idiot blew up Nordstream and turned the gas off, their lovely green dream evaporated like fairy dust.
As for Japan, well.....
Back on topic, sort of. My power went off at approx 16:20 on Tuesday. Simultaneous to a very close lightning strike. Hmm. Of course, I couldn't check outages, because a; no power so no internet, b; mobile reception here is hopeless, and c; everyone else was doing the same thing. I had no idea just how widespread this event was. I agree with John at #4 that the infrastructure could be poorly maintained. It seems to me to be systematic, but I don't want this punted into CA. I don't agree about the air conditioners. The 15 year ago event I referred to, while there may have been less airconditoners installed overall, was on a Saturday, back when that meant something and back when most people would be at home, AND it was 45°C, so every airconditioner in existence would have been cranked up to 11.
Anyway, during this recent outage, which up here was exacerbated by the predictable falling of very large trees, the NBN also went down over almost the entire area known locally as "The Hills", but not until much later. I was still using it up until I shut down the genny and went to bed, but it was out in the morning. Not just here, and not just through the fibre/copper network, but through 4G and 5G mobile connection as well.. ( try filling an eScript. Had to drive about 10 K foe internet on my phone and screenshotting the QR code.) Then, at 10:423 yesterday I received a message telling me that it would be Saturday, as late as 18:00 before power could be restored. Less than two minutes later the lights came on! Not the NBN though. That was still out at 08:00 today, and came on while I was out.
For the record: I do not believe there is any need to "offset" CO2. Carbon, maybe, but CO2 ain't carbon, it's a colourless, odourless trace gas that all life depends on. The quantities it is measured in are of lower value than the stuff in homeopathic remedies, and I wonder how many people value those. It has been present in far, far higher quantities than currently exist, even when humankind walked the earth. It's increase is already being mitigated by the greening of the planet ( eg, the Sahara ), and if people would desist from cutting down rain forests it would probably just stabilise. The arrogance of thinking WE can control it by driving Teslas is mindblowingly hubristic.
I believe the only way to satisfy our needs going forward, while at the same time placating all but the most swivel eyed of zealots, is to go nuclear. Clean, efficient, reliable, we have more fuel for it than most of the rest of the world, and we are already dealing with the waste, ironically from the rest of the world.
Just my two bob's.