It isnt that simple, you cant say that would power x amount of homes, it is fed into the grid. But currently about 10% of grid demand is from wind poweer in the UK.
"An onshore wind turbine with a capacity of 2.5 MW can produce more than 6 million kWh in a year - enough to supply 1,500 average EU households with electricity." So scale that up and its about right, its a lot of kettles The average kWh usage of a UK house is 4,100kWh
There are about 26m households in the UK. 10% of that is about 2.6m. Which is about the same number of households as Scotland. #simple
And of course once installed they have a life span of circa 20 years, so that's 20 years of renewable energy.......and to think some claim the carbon cost of building them exceeds the net carbon benefit.........
ok so you are talking peak times and non peak times and all that good stuff you get paid to think about but the rest of the world doesn't care out. thats fine.
At any point you can log onto the national grid and see a real time http://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/ Who gets paid to think about what? I have no background in Electrical Engineering and a basic knowledge outside of my core feild of knowledge. But someone once highlighted.....research and reading make you a little more educated. It's interesting that at the moment it is below 10%......the wind isnt blowing as much ;-)
I've seen that link before. I distinctly remember someone posting it and thinking it was the annual contribution, as opposed to the real time actual. As well as confusing GW's with MW's........ #20kettles
"French Interconnector: This is a 2GW bi-directional link to France which (when fully operational, which is seldom) is able to import up to 2GW of power from France - usually in summer when France has a nuclear power surplus - and export in winter, when the UK's excess of backup plant and coal power can be profitably sold to meet continental shortfalls." #ouch
And.... the point originally was that it also makes jobs in the area maintaining said turbines. what happens after 20 years? I'm sure the wind doesn't stop and the ground doesn't become unsuitable. Is it a total refit kind of discussion
My understanding is that the pilings should be sound, most in the North Sea used for oil/gas are okay after 20+ years. Maintainance of the turbines happens in summer months but technology in lift ships makes this possible for longer periods of the year. How long the subsea cables will last is something I have no idea on. But it will help many who have lost work in oil/gas and make hull the new Aberdeen!!!
I think we can say that medium to longer term the current oil prices just won't sustain. there's so many factors in play right now and the world seems awash with oil but the Arabs will love to cut production and drive higher prices but i also feel they are worried about market share and killing off us investment in fracking as at the price now you can't make money. Ok there will be a democrat in the white house again but........ no US person wants the oil prices this low who sells oil. nobody anywhere wants it so they all need less supply so perversely they are hating iran playing ball and coming on stream. I'm sure energy price will go up.
If you have a base for cheap renewable alternatives, energy storage, tidal etc then Arab and Russian price fluctuations become less of a problem
thats a point... I certainly hope so. Does the energy usage include domestic use of gas for heating etc? If we all end up with air conditioning to heat and cool us and electic cookers and no gas does the electricity demand rise? the sooner that dependency is ended the better in my view.
The grid link gives information on what is used to generate energy. The kWh average of UK households will include gas. Gas for electricity generation and then commercial and domestic use for heating/cooling etc. The U.K. Tidal potential can give 100% of our needs, however this with nuclear would be my preferred choice
Mysterious Martian "Cauliflower" May Be the Latest Hint of Alien Life Unusual silica formations spotted by a NASA rover look a lot like structures formed by microbes around geysers on Earth image: http://thumbs.media.smithsonianmag....2e9e/sol778-cropped.jpg__800x600_q85_crop.jpg please log in to view this image A picture snapped by Spirit near Home Plate shows silica formations poking out of the soil, which may have been formed by microbial life. (NASA/JPL-Caltech) By Sarah Scoles SMITHSONIAN.COM FEBRUARY 1, 2016 life on Mars has been on for decades, and so far scientists have found only barren dirt and rocks. Now a pair of astronomers thinks that strangely shaped minerals inside a Martian crater could be the clue everyone has been waiting for. In 2008, scientists announced that NASA’s Spirit rover had discovered deposits of a mineral called opaline silica inside Mars's Gusev crater. That on its own is not as noteworthy as the silica’s shape: Its outer layers are covered in tiny nodules that look like heads of cauliflower sprouting from the red dirt. No one knows for sure how those shapes—affectionately called “micro-digitate silica protrusions”—formed. But based on recent discoveries in a Chilean desert, Steven Ruff and Jack Farmer, both of Arizona State University in Tempe, think the silica might have been sculpted by microbes. At a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in December, they made the case that these weird minerals might be our best targets for identifying evidence of past life on Mars. If the logic holds, the silica cauliflower could go down in history as arguably the biggest discovery ever in astronomy. But biology is hard to prove, especially from millions of miles away, and Ruff and Farmer aren’t claiming victory yet. All they’re saying is that maybe these enigmatic growths are mineral greetings from ancient aliens, and someone should investigate.
