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slorb posted:australian distribution grids are built to an almost european standard instead of being run on a shoestring like in america. Hey now, shoe string becomes conductive at 500kV.
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Sep 25, 2016 15:40
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| # ? May 8, 2024 11:21 |
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  Published September, 1916.
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Sep 25, 2016 16:46
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Ah so it was the oak panelling that was making storage batteries prohibitively expensive this whole time.
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Sep 25, 2016 17:09
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OwlFancier posted:Ah so it was the oak panelling that was making storage batteries prohibitively expensive this whole time. Also you have to pay a guy to watch the batteries all day, lest they escape
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Sep 25, 2016 20:20
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Fun fact: During the cold war, west Berlin used to have the biggest lead-acid battery plant for energy storage in the world. It was something like 10k car batteries wired together ghetto style and designed to stabilize their tiny electric grid from communists electron agitators. Ultra fun fact: that copper solar cell in the picture can probably provide enough power to run an entire alarm clock at full display brightness from 11am to 3pm.
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Sep 26, 2016 15:22
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waitwhatno posted:Ultra fun fact: that copper solar cell in the picture can probably provide enough power to run an entire alarm clock at full display brightness from 11am to 3pm. It was still some serious dark magic in 1916. quote:In 1887, Heinrich Hertz discovered that electrodes illuminated with ultraviolet light create electric sparks more easily. In 1905 Albert Einstein published a paper that explained experimental data from the photoelectric effect as the result of light energy being carried in discrete quantized packets. This discovery led to the quantum revolution. In 1914, Robert Millikan's experiment confirmed Einstein's law on photoelectric effect. Einstein was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1921 for "his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect", and Millikan was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1923 for "his work on the elementary charge of electricity and on the photoelectric effect".
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Sep 26, 2016 16:30
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waitwhatno posted:Fun fact: During the cold war, west Berlin used to have the biggest lead-acid battery plant for energy storage in the world. It was something like 10k car batteries wired together ghetto style and designed to stabilize their tiny electric grid from communists electron agitators. Do you have a link with more information?
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Sep 26, 2016 22:41
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If I said I was worried about "communist electron agitators" they'd lock me up.
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Sep 26, 2016 22:57
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waitwhatno posted:Fun fact: During the cold war, west Berlin used to have the biggest lead-acid battery plant for energy storage in the world. It was something like 10k car batteries wired together ghetto style and designed to stabilize their tiny electric grid from communists electron agitators. It was a 14MWh lead-acid system, company that made it also fabricated batteries for submarines, it operated between 1986 and 1994. After the wall came down West Berlin wasn't such an island and the planned replacements weren't needed. When it was installed it was the largest in the world, but it was surpassed before it went out of service; there was one built to stabilize the grid in southern California that was 40MWh but it didn't have the power output to do much in the way of stabilization and was mostly used for compensation. A 100MW, 400MWh Li+ array is being built in California right now: http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/The-Worlds-Biggest-Battery-is-Being-Built-in-Southern-California
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Sep 26, 2016 23:20
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Baronjutter posted:If I said I was worried about "communist electron agitators" they'd lock me up. Thanks Obama 
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Sep 27, 2016 01:31
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Senor P. posted:So... nuclear question.... Several ABWRs are operational, mostly in Japan. South Korea has one APR-1400 operating in SK, and I think ~6-7 more under construction about split betweek SK and UEA. Given the way things are going, there is a good chance that these other APR1400s will enter production in a reasonably short time frame without too many problems. Like someone else mentioned, the fast breeder at Beloyarsk entered commercial service a couple months ago, but I am doubtful that this design or any like it will see widespread adoption outside Russia or its immediate sphere of influence. China might buy one. For Gen III+, none are in operation yet. The EPR at Olkiluoto 3 in Finland was (I believe) the first Gen III+ reactor to begin construction, now 11 years ago (Jesus Christ), but that project has been such an unholy clusterfuck that by now I think several sites that broke ground years later are expected to start production sooner. The EPR being built in France is similarly behind schedule. The AP1000 at Sanmen NPP in China is expected to enter service next year, and probably will. The EPRs at Taishan 1 & 2 are also supposed to be operational next year (before Olkiuoto or Flamanville get their poo poo together), but hey its Areva so who the gently caress knows. Other than the EPR and AP1000, I don't think there are any serious plans for other Gen III+ reactors. There is a good chance an APR+ will be built before any of the older Gen III+ designs that aren't EPR or AP1000. I would not even completely discount an APR+ being operational before Olkiluoto 3...
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Sep 27, 2016 09:17
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joat mon posted:Do you have a link with more information? I found something about it on the German wikipedia and it provides this UNESCO report as a source (look for the section about the BEWAG system) http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0009/000916/091670eo.pdf They used 7080 batteries, which (when fully charged) could provide 17MW of power to the Berlin grid. Back then it was apparently enough power and had enough capacity to keep all of west Berlin going for ~20 min. After the reunification the plant was dismantled and is now used as an energy museum.
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Sep 27, 2016 10:23
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slorb posted:australian distribution grids are built to an almost european standard instead of being run on a shoestring like in america. Hmm, about that: https://twitter.com/SAPowerNetworks/status/781024594949967873 https://twitter.com/SAPowerNetworks/status/781139848564383749 Is it European standard to have power go out to a million square kilometers of land and 1.7 million people for extended periods?
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Sep 28, 2016 18:48
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Don't forget, outages are impossible
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Sep 28, 2016 18:55
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fishmech posted:a million square kilometers of land and 1.7 million people Wow that country is empty.
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Sep 28, 2016 18:56
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Australia is huge and its population is modest at 20 mil and is super concentrated in major coastal cities. In the example above there are very very few people living in those areas. In europe for example if a piece of infrastructure fails its typically possible to reroute the power via alternate routes that serve other population centers. This often isn't possible in Australia.
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Sep 29, 2016 01:06
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BattleMoose posted:Australia is huge and its population is modest at 20 mil and is super concentrated in major coastal cities. In the example above there are very very few people living in those areas. The entire state was out, they've only just started restoring power to the most populated areas.
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Sep 29, 2016 01:28
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fishmech posted:The entire state was out, they've only just started restoring power to the most populated areas. Oh wow, didn't realise this was happening *now*. But extraordinary events like this happen in Europe and the USA too. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_major_power_outages
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Sep 29, 2016 01:43
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fishmech posted:The entire state was out, they've only just started restoring power to the most populated areas. Yeah there was a *massive* storm that damaged big transmission lines. https://twitter.com/paulkidd/status/781103870114050048 
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Sep 29, 2016 01:48
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NPR Journalizard posted:Yeah there was a *massive* storm that damaged big transmission lines. These politicians keep using so called "regulation" to force systems to do things they weren't designed for. Clear legislative overreach and they need to stop ruining my free markets.
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Sep 29, 2016 04:07
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fishmech posted:Hmm, about that: South Australia is a special case, in that they have extremely high levels of intermittent renewable generation and no regulatory mechanism to ensure local spinning reserve. This risk would have been communicated to the politicians when they let all the local baseload supply mothball itself for economic reasons but I doubt they really understood it. The South Australian grid is entirely privatised so there's no way the operator will spend money without a regulator mandate. The people who built the system aren't entirely negligent, they had duplicate connections to the Victorian grid each capable of maintaining system stability and supplying the state. Then a 50 year storm flattened one of them while the other was out of service being upgraded to increase its capacity.
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Sep 29, 2016 12:35
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slorb posted:South Australia is a special case, in that they have extremely high levels of intermittent renewable generation and no regulatory mechanism to ensure local spinning reserve. This risk would have been communicated to the politicians when they let all the local baseload supply mothball itself for economic reasons but I doubt they really understood it. The South Australian grid is entirely privatised so there's no way the operator will spend money without a regulator mandate. I was really wondering about this and figured I wasn't ever going to get anything close to the truth from traditional news sources. Those pics of those transmission lines that went down, was that just the transmission link between South Australia and Victoria? Presumably the transmission lines within SA were also damaged? If they had had a few extra base load generators, would they have been able to maintain their grid? I know these are a lot of questions and the electricity supply in SA appears to me to be a disaster waiting to happen but I cannot figure out if this disaster was *just* because of the storm or also a combination of not enough base load?
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Sep 29, 2016 13:14
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BattleMoose posted:I was really wondering about this and figured I wasn't ever going to get anything close to the truth from traditional news sources. Pretty much all the credible sources I have seen said renewables had no impact on the blackout. quote:Weatherill said the blackout would have happened even if South Australia had its own coal-fired electricity generation. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/sep/29/jay-weatherill-accuses-barnaby-joyce-of-pushing-anti-windfarm-agenda-over-blackouts
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Sep 29, 2016 15:25
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Trabisnikof posted:Pretty much all the credible sources I have seen said renewables had no impact on the blackout. https://theconversation.com/what-caused-south-australias-state-wide-blackout-66268
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Sep 29, 2016 15:35
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What about all them wind turbines. Maybe if weather is bad they should stop making all that wind?!!?
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Sep 29, 2016 18:31
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The problem with losing your only tie to the rest of the grid is the droop setting on the remaining generators in your island, no base loaded resources to meet demand = no frequency = all gen trips offline at around 48 hz (58.3 North America) if you can't get one gen in isochronous setting to meet frequency response all is lost in that island.
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Oct 1, 2016 07:28
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Didn't realize lithium-ion batteries had such a sordid mining process. https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/business/batteries/congo-cobalt-mining-for-lithium-ion-battery/ Apparently mining for cobalt, a required component in lithium-ion batteries, is pretty awful and will someday soon make a thoroughly depressing documentary. Would a concept such as the powerwall be fiscally reliant on what effectively amounts to slave labor?
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Oct 3, 2016 03:26
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Pander posted:Would a concept such as the powerwall be fiscally reliant on what effectively amounts to slave labor? Powerwall is fiscally reliant on people buying it in spite of it costing them money.
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Oct 3, 2016 03:30
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Pander posted:Didn't realize lithium-ion batteries had such a sordid mining process. The Powerwall is made from lithium-ion batteries, so it's just like everything else that uses them.
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Oct 3, 2016 03:44
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Which part of "Billions in the third world will suffer" was unclear? I thought for a moment this was the climate change thread, but the question stands.
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Oct 3, 2016 03:46
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http://aemo.com.au/Media-Centre/-/media/BE174B1732CB4B3ABB74BD507664B270.ashx The preliminary report into the South Australian blackout is out, and it's worth reading. They lost the main interconnector on overcurrent after a few 275kv lines tripped out and the wind generators dropped offline so fast after that the load shedding scheme couldn't cope. Restoration also got delayed a couple hours because their contracted black start generation provider failed to black start a gas unit.
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Oct 5, 2016 13:37
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Forbes talks electric vehicles: Battery Cost Plunge Seen Changing Automakers Most in 100 YearsForbes posted:Plunging battery costs will drive the auto industry’s biggest change in more than a century, enabling a boom by 2030 in technologies from self-driving electric cars to ride-sharing applications. 13 million bbl/day is presently equivalent to the oil consumption of China. Global consumption is 93 million bbl/day so it's not like it'll solve climate change or anything but if the projections hold up it's not too shabby. It'll be interesting to see how the grid handles it and if it'll be a benefit to renewables.
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Oct 11, 2016 16:44
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SolarReserve has announced plans for a 10 tower 1.5-2GW CSP plant with overnight molten salt storage in Nevada USA. They had previously stopped planning projects in the US due to market conditions, but looks like they are more hopeful for the future. They already have massive plans elsewhere, but this is important if CSP can compete in the US where natural gas competes directly and cheaply. http://reviewjournal.com/business/energy/developer-huge-solar-array-near-tonopah-wants-build-10-more quote:A California-based energy company announced plans Tuesday to build the world’s largest solar project in Nevada, a $5 billion endeavor involving at least 100,000 mirrors and 10 towers as tall as any building in the state.
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Oct 12, 2016 16:51
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This article seems to be making the rounds:Oak Ridge National Laboratory posted:Nano-spike catalysts convert carbon dioxide directly into ethanol No rare metals involved, and taking place at room-temperature.
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Oct 18, 2016 19:26
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Farmer Crack-rear end posted:This article seems to be making the rounds: But what's the energy intensity?
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Oct 18, 2016 19:37
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Farmer Crack-rear end posted:This article seems to be making the rounds: I haven't looked into any of this beyond what you posted yet due to work, but that sounds pretty cool. Even more useful than hydrolysis.
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Oct 18, 2016 19:45
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Farmer Crack-rear end posted:This article seems to be making the rounds: Is not global warming, is vodka now.
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Oct 18, 2016 20:00
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Ethanol would be a pretty good way to store and transport energy. Well, now we only have to wait ten years to see how this will turn out.
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Oct 18, 2016 21:03
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Lucy Heartfilia posted:Ethanol would be a pretty good way to store and transport energy. Well, now we only have to continue dying for ten years to see how this will turn out. Did I read between the lines correctly?
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Oct 18, 2016 21:55
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So the US is getting in on the HVDC bandwagon with the The Plains & Eastern Clean Line. General Electric even went shopping in Europe so it can get done right and proper  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGmAt1eTKMw Onshore wind is cheap enough that private investors will spend $2.5 billion to move it 720 miles from Oklahoma to Tennessee. If it holds up the wind-belt in the Midwest could become a giant, if diffuse, power plant.
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Nov 5, 2016 04:04
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