News Briefs | Claverton Group

Fury at plan to power EU homes from Congo dam – Grand Inga – World Bank supports controversial $80bn project

Plans to link Europe to what would be the world’s biggest hydroelectric dam project in the volatile Democratic Republic of Congo have sparked fierce controversy.

The Grand Inga dam, which has received initial support from the World Bqank would cost $80bn (£48bn). At 40,000MW, it has more than twice the generation capacity of the giant Three Gorges dam in China and would be equivalent to the entire generation capacity of South Africa.

Grand Inga will involve transmission cables linking South Africa and countries in west Africa including Nigeria. A cable would also run through the Sahara to Egypt.

Tidal Barrage power generation potential in England

At the last count, the sum of the estimates of potential power from those bays & estuaries that have at least one bank in England, is about 5.57GWe (49TWh/y), equivalent to about 12.7% of current electricity demand

Conference on Offshore wind power planning, economics and environment University of Birmingham Friday 28th August 2009

Map…

MORE DETAILS FROM: Dr David Toke, Senior lecturer in Environmental Policy, University of Birmingham, email : d.toke@bham.ac.uk

Prof Dave Elliot and Renew – Claverton Energy Group's "House Magazine"

Renew, the long-running 34 page bimonthly newsletter on renewable energy developments and policy, is now being offered to subscribers in PDF form. It’s an invaluable and unique source of news and analysis produced by Prof Dave Elliott of the Open University. Now in its 30th year, it covers news and issues from the UK, EU […]

UKERC topic scoping workshop (TPA – Technology and Policy Assessment theme)

2009/8/13 Gross, Robert J K Dear Colleague The UK Energy Research Centre Technology and Policy Assessment theme (www.ukerc.ac.uk) is hosting a workshop for stakeholders from across the energy arena to help define its priority research areas for the next 5 years. We very much hope that you will be able to attend and contribute. The […]

Small scale gasification. by Neal Van Milligen, Manager, Bioten Power and Energy Group, Gasification Division

While renewable energy is one of the most environmentally responsible courses for consumers, the same technology which provides green power can be profitable as a traditional power source as well. Renewable energy portfolios are being mandated worldwide resulting in comfortable returns on $.12 USD/ kW and more on $.15 USD/ kW green energy programs. However, […]

Baseload nuclear power not needed in an all-renewable future

What square of land area of wind turbines would be needed in reasonable sites in the UK to in one year generate all UKs power demand?

Data

A 5 MW turbine rotor diameter is 126m ( from the Repower website http://www.repower.de/index.php?id=12&L=1 )

According to Martin Alder, a wind farm owner and developer:

Across wind turbine spacing = 3 x dia (Assume tower to tower)

Down wind turbine spacing = 5 x dia

According to Colin Palmer, of Wind Prospect, a leading wind farm developer, load factors of 30 – 35% onshore, and 40% offshore are readilly achievalbe.

So assume 33%.

Calculation

Take a 70 mile by 70 mile square. This equals 112 km by 112 km

So downwind, turbine spacing (tower to tower) will be 126 x 3 = 378m. Thus in 70 miles / 112 km we can accommodate (112 x 1000 / 378 ) +1 = 297.3 towers (allowing half blade length to protrude out of area at edges).

Similarly, cross wind, we need 5 x 126 = 630 m. Thus in 70 miles / 112 km we can accommodate (112 x 1000 /630) +1 = 178.8 towers (again allowing half blade length to protrude out of area at edges).

Thus a 70 mile by 70 mile square can accommodate 297.3 x 178.8 = 53,157 turbines..

At 5 MW each, these will generate at peak 265.7 GW.

Assuming reasonable sites and a 1/3 , 33% load factor, this will generate on average 79.73 GW.

Energy and carbon savings with trams – a short paper by Professsor Lewis Lesley

“Getting urban car trips down from 70% to 50% would save about 5% of UK carbon emissions.”

Transport is an energy intensive activity, heavily dependent on oil (99.97%) and a significant emitter of carbon dioxide (30% of UK total). Exhortation and education can reduce car dependency but in the absence of draconian powers to force people to change travel modes, people will freely choosing sustainable alternatives is surely the best way? Market research and behavioural studies demonstrate that for short journeys, under 2 miles (50% UK car trips) walking and cycling are acceptable options, when there are safe and attractive routes. For longer urban journeys ( < 5 miles = 75% of UK car trips) public transport should be the alternative to car ? In the UK most urban public transport is by bus (80% of trips). Car users however are not willing to use buses. Studies by the US Transportation Research Board shows that on a like for like basis of frequency, travel speed, fares etc, buses attract 40% less car users than even old rail services

Professor Lewis Lesley and other Claverton think tank members discuss rail electrification and carbon savings

Most of the (sub)urban electric trains in UK are multiple units, where most if not all coaches have motors. The reason for this is the need to get high adhesion for rapid acceleration, by distributing the track forces to most if not all wheels. Rapid acceleration (and braking) are needed when stations are close together get a high service speed.
Inter City trains do not need urban rates of acceleration but high top speeds. Electric motor coaches are (much) more expensive than “trailer coaches”, so having one or two locomotives per train is a compromise over costs. THe TGV trains in France climb steeper gradients than most railways (3%) but 6 power bogies on an 18 coach (36 bogie) train is enough to get up the hills

Technology S-curves in renewable energy alternatives: Analysis and implications for industry and government

Plotting the performance of a technology against the money or effort invested in it most often yields an S-shaped curve: slow initial improvement, then accelerated improvement, then diminishing improvement. These S-curves can be used to gain insight into the relative payoff of investment in competing technologies, as well as providing some insight into when […]