Energy Security

[fiannafailure]

Interesting article in this weeks economist magazine for those hoping to import electricity in any quantity from Britain.

Britain's energy crisis: How long till the lights go out? | The Economist

It seems that they dont have any to spare, on the other hand, Ireland could earn billions exporting our renewables, provided they were available at the times needed, i.e via hydro storage. Billions in earnings plus thousands of jobs, not a bad target.

[rightsofman]

IMO, we need to take the lead as a nation and implement next generation electrical power generation technologies.

Fossil fuels are unacceptable. Nuclear is prohibitively expensive and has potentially devastating drawbacks as well as the toxic spent fuel problem. Renewable has merit but is less efficient than what we currently have as well as taking up a lot of land (or sea) in an unsightly way.

There are serious research efforts underway in next generation technologies, as an urbanised island we are in a good position to examine the feasibility of those in the medium term. If we could generate all of our electricity ourselves, we would be isolated from OPEC's manipulation of the energy market, and also from Shell and other multinationals exploitation of what fossil reserves we currently have.

That might be a bit dramatic, but energy independence is achievable in the next couple of decades or even sooner with some determination and leadership. I assume the arguments for the benefits of such independence have already been made in this thread, or at least understood by the readers.

The technologies are out there today, we just need to apply them to our own situation.

Advanced Energy Research Organization - Energy Papers

[fiannafailure]

Its nice to see that the message about energy is getting through to the public.
From the S of I forum

Hello all,

I couldn't resist this opportunity to air my idea for a tidal barrage type electricity generation project. Following the collapse of the railway viaduct at Malahide which is obviously going to require major rebuilding. Would it be feasable to incorporate a turbine or turbines into the replacement viaduct. There shouldnt be any unsurmountable objections as the Broadmeadow Estuary is already dammed.
I do not have any personal interest in this proposal just that I am familiar with the estuary and would not like to see golden opportunity slip by.
Apologies if this is not applicable to this forum.

[fiannafailure]

According to a study by Dr. Mark Cooper, the cost of electricity by new nuclear reactors would be (USD) 12-20 cents per kWh, whereas increased energy efficiency and renewable energy would cost around 6 cents per kWh.

A new report challenges the cost of nuclear energy

Renewable Energy Cheaper Than Nuclear Power
Nuclear power has been increasingly hailed by lobbyists as a source of clean, cheap and safe power; but cost blowouts in the construction and maintenance of new nuclear plants, along with their need for massive amounts of water and continuing radioactive waste storage issues, is again making renewable energy look to be the only really viable option to power our future

According to a recent study by economist Dr. Mark Cooper, a senior fellow for economic analysis at the Institute for Energy and the Environment at Vermont Law School, the cost of electricity generated by new nuclear reactors would be (USD) 12-20 cents per kilowatt hour, whereas increased energy efficiency and renewable energy sourced power would cost around 6 cents per kilowatt hour.

The full reprt is available here

REVE - Regulacin Elica con Vehculos Elctricos -

[wombat]

One of the problems which the Nuclear Industry had in the U.S. was that the design codes were made retroactive. This meant that parts of a station which were built 5 years previously, had to be rebuilt when a code revision was introduced. The French take a different approach. The bottom line is that French electricity is cheaper than their competitors.

[fiannafailure]

Energy security is once again becomming a topical subject in Britain where the reality of shortages in the near future is now recognised by the British government. Of course our lot are too busy with NAMA to notice.

Analysts say that there is a strong probability of another damaging gas war between Moscow and Kiev, which could halt deliveries to the EU. "The question is whether Ukraine will try to blackmail Gazprom and Europe. We have a very divisive presidential election coming up [in Ukraine]. There is a perfect storm brewing," Neff predicted.

Europe fears winter energy crisis as Russia tightens grip on oil supplies | World news | The Observer


Or you may prefer to buy your electricity from the Russian's

The massive Atomenergoprom, which employs nearly 200,000 workers, operates 68 reactors and is building 14 of the 52 atomic plants under construction worldwide, wants to play a major role in Britain and further afield. But industry experts say it could be hampered by the bad publicity generated around another state energy group, Gazprom, whose cutting off of supplies to the Ukraine upset Kiev, but also London and Washington.

It is also tarnished in the west by the legacy of the Soviet nuclear industry, which damaged the prospects of the sector worldwide for decades following the Chernobyl accident in 1986.

Russians plan to break into British nuclear energy industry | Business | The Observer

Just what is our policy on this subject ?

[wombat]

Just what is our policy on this subject ?

Pray for a mild winter + one off windmills

[fiannafailure]

Wombat

At the moment 51% of our electricity is generated by gas turbines.

All of our gas supplies come through one pipeline terminal in Scotland.

Ireland depends for a large percentage of gas on Russia.

If we used all of the gas produced in the corrib field for electricity generation, it would last 5 years and the flow rate could only supply 60% of our gas turbines.

By 2025 only the Russian fields will still be in production.

President Putin has said that the era of cheap gas is over.

We are supposed to be building an LNG terminal at Shannon, to be in production by 2012, but now there are delays.

LNG is a product normally sold only on a spot price basis.

Do you feel we have energy security ?

[wombat]

Do you feel we have energy security ?

No, but the question was what is our energy policy and I said prayer & one off windmills, maybe I'm wrong, its only one off windmills.

[fiannafailure]

I believe it is some time since we had a real political debate on the aims of our energy policy.

We have had the creation of the Commision for Energy Regulation, CER.

We have had the creation of the Single Electricity Market, SEM.

We have had the creation of notional competition in the electricity market.

We have had the All Ireland Grid Study

We have had the government target of 40% renewables on the grid by 2020.

Grid 25 is the plan on how we were to reach that figure of 40%.

However Grid 25 was written in the absence of a viable form of large scale electricity storage to overcome the many technical challenges presented by renewable energy in a cost effective way.

The measures proposed to combat those challenges by the All Island Grid study and then includrd in Grid 25 are very expensive and this expense will be passed on to the electricity consumers of Ireland.

Spirit of Ireland are compiling a report which shows that adapting Grid 25, by including large scale pumped storage and taking an industrial sledge hammer to the cost of building wind turbines, and by building windfarms on an industrial scale in very rural and remote areas with consistently high wind speeds, will save the electricity consumers of Ireland at least €12 billion over the next 10 years and will provide a much higher level of energy security. Those benefits will also be provided in a much more sustainable manner.

Some links of interest

http://www.eirgrid.com/media/Grid%2025.pdf

Please note the cost per unit of providing back up generation for wind energy, S of I will pretty much take that cost of out the equation.
http://www.cna.ca/english/pdf/Studie...commentary.pdf

And of course there is all that sustainable long term job creation