Renewable energy sources - the good, the bad and the ugly

My solar panels produced 12.14kWh today Nice and sunny
Yesterday only 1.91 cloudy all day
Day before 12.96 sunny

Not too bad for winter

 

We can't even build a railway on time and on budget - Elizabeth Line being example 1, with HS2 rapidly following behind. Hell, it appears we cannot build a couple of boats on time or budget either (slow clap for Ferguson Marine..) so how on earth we are supposed to believe that we will be near on fully electrified by 2027 (or 2030 even) is just a joke.

 

If, however, that was used in very hot countries (equatorial countries) where it could be used for both desalination to give more potable water for both drinking and irrigation AND electrolysis to produce hydrogen from water.. bingo, you can store the energy, transport it and burn it cleanly. If the two go hand in hand, there is no reason that planting cannot take place with irrigation, greening areas up (trees, even) thus helping to cool the planet a tadge thanks to shade given, whilst also improving air quality.

 

We don't do weeks of cloud. That's why they call our place ShineyLand

 

We use our leccy production. We save putting on washing machine/dishwasher etc. until the panels are producing good levels of leccy. Works OK for us.

 

I don't know how things work in distant parts of Aquitaine but when we installed our panels it cost just over 5k to have done. There was no subsidy towards it but we receive money for all we generate regardless of whether we use it or it goes back in to the grid. Our capital cost was repaid in approx. five years.

I think things are done differently now (haven't bothered to check) but I think there is a subsidy towards installation and a much lower (almost nothing) being paid toward generation but you can use as much of it as you wish.

When we installed the panels there was no viable battery storage system but I understand there is now. So, in theory, you can store all the generation that you don't use whilst it is being produced.

I keep intending to look into the storage situation to see whether the stored electricity can be used during power cuts as we have quite a lot of those (most are short ones). At the moment, by law, if there is a power cut then our power generation has to automatically cut off so even if it is very sunny we can't use it.

 

Some levels of grant are available but all it really does (if you qualify) is slightly offset the massively increased costs of purchase and install. It's become like a fashion accessory to my mind.

Octopus Energy are the first to start offering heat pumps at same cost as a gas boiler so will be interesting to see if there's an increased uptake. As we've mentioned before, they just seem crap.

 

Gas discovery worth £123m found in Surrey Hills - BBC News

I wonder how long the country will carry on pushing for this sort of thing in favour of wind / solar / alternative?