Scotland must produce 50% of electricity with renewables by 2015

[IR35FanClub]

What is not so funny, is that it is acheivable.

How ??????

yes it's true. Scotland produces 15 % (or so) of it's energy from renewables.

If we force Scots to reduce energy consumption from 100% to 30%

then 50% of scots energy will come from renewables


thats the strategy from the green eco loons. use less enegy

It's not that mad an idea... it's actually how the economy has been working for the last 250 or so years. If I could be bothered I'd go and find the links, but basically a few years back I was reading several studies on how it's actually efficiency of work that has been driving ecominc growth, not just increased energy use = more output. First manual labour was replaced by steam, then steam got replaced by electric. Then electric machines got more efficient. It's common sense really - if you spend less money on providing your product, then it's cheaper and people have more money left offer to spend on other stuff.

The papers I was reading were showing the difference in economic growth when over laid on a graph of just energy use and then comparing them to efficiency increases. If you look at just growth vs energy consumption - the graphs don't match - especially around times when there are high energy prices. But throw efficiency into the equation and you can see a good fit. The theory being something like - high energy prices cause a slow down in the economy, people then look to improve their efficiency, and this then allows growth to continue.

You'll find a lot of a stuff around whether the recent recession was caused by high oil prices leading up to 2007/2008. It's why I'm now more interested in the economics of energy saving vs that of carbon saving. Carbon saving is very hard to predict if we will actually gain any real benefits - other than avoiding taxes in the current model. But true efficiency savings can be seen appearing in balance sheets from the time the improvements are made. And this is where we should focus.

Likewise - there are investments opportunities available from renewables - whether you agree with climate change or not is irrelevant if you can get a guaranteed rate of return of 8%(or higher if you specify your own system) for 25 years tax free, from a Solar FiT.

I can see the FiT disappearing within 5 years - and Solar will still be a sensible investment - even here in the cloudy UK. Prices are dropping so fast that soon it will be cheaper to run a solar system than pay to buy electric units off the grid (for 25 years). Unfortunately it doesn't work so well in winter, so we still need the grid until someone invents a home based electric generation unit that works in the dark.

[EternalOptimist]

ok. you first then

lets see how it works out

[Mich the Tester]

Likewise - there are investments opportunities available from renewables - whether you agree with climate change or not is irrelevant if you can get a guaranteed rate of return of 8%(or higher if you specify your own system) for 25 years tax free, from a Solar FiT.

I can see the FiT disappearing within 5 years - and Solar will still be a sensible investment -

Have you ever visited Scotland?

[Doggy Styles]

Wind, wave and solar are all a bit fitfull, so the biggest challenge for that is mass storage of energy to smooth the peaks and troughs of generation.

Any ideas how it could be done?

Is anyone researching using it to create and buffer hydrogen from sea water and then using the hydrogen to run a clean power station?

[EternalOptimist]

Wind, wave and solar are all a bit fitfull, so the biggest challenge for that is mass storage of energy to smooth the peaks and troughs of generation.

Any ideas how it could be done?

Is anyone researching using it to create and buffer hydrogen from sea water and then using the hydrogen to run a clean power station?

Yes, there are lots of exciting projects on the go. hydrogen cells, mechanical torsion,
pumping water.

and of course, fusion or cold fusion is always there as a possibility.

One of the main problems afaiaa, is that batteries seems to have reached their limit in terms of efficiency

[Robinho]

There's a thing where a circular mass is suspended by magnets in a vacuum and spun around at extreme speeds to store energy. I forget what they are called.

[TestMangler]

Salmond is also keeping the Dilithium Crystal mines a secret.

He'll drag the videos out 2 weeks before the election, shouting "Get it right up ye, english basturds, the Dilithium Crystals are in Scottish watters".

[TestMangler]

There's a thing where a circular mass is suspended by magnets in a vacuum and spun around at extreme speeds to store energy. I forget what they are called.

Yeah, Joe90 used to sit inside one of them. What was it called again ??

[Robinho]

Yeah, Joe90 used to sit inside one of them. What was it called again ??

Sadly not.

Here is the actual thing...

Technology - Smart Energy 25 Flywheel : Beacon Power, LLC

[TestMangler]

Sadly not.

Here is the actual thing...

Technology - Smart Energy 25 Flywheel : Beacon Power, LLC

Nah, that's not right !! Here it is....