<DrumBeat: December 3, 2008 The Oil Drum DrumBeat: December 4, 2008>

77 comments on The 2008 IEA WEO - Renewable Energy

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DaveMart on December 3, 2008 - 11:41am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

I was simply saying that the low cost alternative referred to in the report will be burning natural gas, and that is what is used at the moment instead of storage, in large part, although it is supplemented somewhat by pumped storage and so on, and extensively in some countries such as Sweden by hydropower.

Ugo Bardi has informed us that in Italy usage per house is limited to 3kw at any one time, and in practice around 2kw.

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Will Stewart on December 3, 2008 - 12:29pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Your both right, of course, though it seems natural gas generation is the most widely used trough-filler at the moment where hydro isn't available. I'm a major supporter of demand side management, energy storage, renewables, etc as a part of a national smart grid infrastructure upgrade.

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Neil1947 on December 3, 2008 - 12:51pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Dave,
It seems to trouble people to think that NG would be backing up renewable energy. Even now many NG peak plants are only used at <10% capacity, so we may have a situation with expanding NG peak capacity but less NG being used for both heating and electricity generation. Some coal fired electricity rather than being retired may also be kept in reserve as back-up for example for peak summer demand.

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Will Stewart on December 3, 2008 - 12:58pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Any realistic transition roadmap would read just so. For example, in the US Southeast, little renewable energy is available in the summer when A/C is running flat out, so while some renewable can be shipped in, coal plants would likely be needed unless supplanted by nuclear.

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drillo on December 10, 2008 - 5:05pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Of course there is: plenty of sunshine.
Especially during noon peak hours this may produce plenty of photovoltaic electricity. Or the solar heat may be converted directly to cold for air conditioning using sorption technology.
The problem is not the technology - nor the economical viability as soon as prices went down due to mass production. The problem is the same that the IEA is complaining about oil production: lacking investment.

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drillo on December 10, 2008 - 5:05pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Of course there is: plenty of sunshine.
Especially during noon peak hours this may produce plenty of photovoltaic electricity. Or the solar heat may be converted directly to cold for air conditioning using sorption technology.
The problem is not the technology - nor the economical viability as soon as prices went down due to mass production. The problem is the same that the IEA is complaining about oil production: lacking investment.

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Termoil on December 3, 2008 - 7:49pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Biogas?

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77 comments on The 2008 IEA WEO - Renewable Energy

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