Shetland windfarm - Viking Energy

[paulb]

i agree that would be a right pain if it were to happen. john your a little out dated wind generation is        

 

Estimated Levelized Cost of New Generation Resources, 2019^[12]   U.S. Average Levelized Cost for Plants Entering Service in 2019
(2012 USD/MWh) Plant Type Capacity
Factor
(%) Levelized
Capital
Cost Fixed
O&M Variable
O&M
(including
fuel) Transmission
Investment Total
System
Levelized
Cost Conventional Coal 85 60.0 4.2 30.3 1.2 95.6                                                                             Integrated Coal-Gassification Combined Cycle (IGCC 85 76.1 6.9 31.7 1.2 115.9                                     IGCC with CCS 85 97.8 9.8 38.6 1.2 147.4                                                                                             Natural Gas Fired                                                                                                                                         NG: Conventional Combined Cycle 87 14.3 1.7 49.1 1.2 66.3 NG:                                                      Advanced Combined Cycle 87 15.7 2.0 45.5 1.2 64.4 NG:                                                                 Advanced CC with CCS 87 30.3 4.2 55.6 1.2 91.3                                                                                       NG: Conventional Combustion Turbine 30 40.2 2.8 82.0 3.4 128.4                                                              NG: Advanced Combustion Turbine 30 27.3 2.7 70.3 3.4 103.8                                                        Advanced Nuclear 90 71.4 11.8 11.8 1.1 96.1                                                                                 Geothermal 92 34.2 12.2 0.0 1.4 47.9                                                                                                    Biomass 83 47.4 14.5 39.5 1.2 102.6                                                                                                      Wind¹ 35 64.1 13.0 0.0 3.2 80.3                                                                                                                Wind - Offshore¹ 37 175.4 22.8 0.0 5.8 204.1                                                                                          Solar PV^1,2 25 114.5 11.4 0.0 4.1 130.0                                                                                                   Solar Thermal¹ 20 195.0 42.1 0.0 6.0 243.1                                                                                           Hydro¹ 53 72.0 4.1 6.4 2.0 84.5

              as you can see apart from geothermal and basic gas turbines without carbon carture wind is cheaper than all the rest. 1 nuclear plant will cost 14 billion.           the last number is the useful one the chart would not copy across                    

Edited May 20, 2014 by paulb

[JustMe]

Another mini power cut tonight.  Needed to start the computer again and I suspect the router may play up for a couple of days.  Plusnet tell me I should leave it switched on all the time which is difficult when the Hydro keep cutting the power supply.  Radio needs resetting as well and of course if I was foolish enough to think that I could watch TV then I could well have missed some vital moment in whatever I was watching.  No wind, no rain, no thunder and lightning so why has my power been cut?.  With an electric shower unit I am getting afraid to have a shower in case I end up all covered in soap when the power goes off again.

 

And why should I pay for a UPS for the computer and the costs of running it just because SSE cannot maintain a local power grid?.  Got better things to spend my money on.  Complaint to SSE/Tavish/Alastair coming up.

[paulb]

with this second larger tidal turbine system about to be installed next year its looking very likely that the undersea cable is needed and will happen. if not the sea based systems will be dead in the water, 

[crofter]

Have you seen how much grants they are getting Paul?  It is approaching 4 million to produce 500kw.  That is enough power for 300 houses I think they said. So the grants are roughly 13K per household.  You could insulate to a very high spec and have plenty left to buy a lot of units of conventional  electricity with that!

[shetlandpeat]

But not reducing carbon dioxide output as is required. Insulation is not the only key to this. The way folks are happy to waste electric and consumer goods not having a power off button. How often do turn off your router?

[Hector's House]

^Peat, you've presumably long forgotten what it is to have a crappy connection -  ISP's usually advise customers not to turn routers off, as keeping them "live" lets the equipment in the exchange know that the line is still viable, and so maintains the best line speed (at least that is my understanding). No doubt that will change as  smarter systems come in, but with all these ideal scenarios the changes are driven by financial considerations - and never those of the end user.

Electricity usage is often a very personal choice - so wastage can be a matter of opinion. I for one would go round the twist if I unplugged everything every night, and then had to reset the clocks on my cooker, microwave etc etc every morning. I pay extra to the Hydro to save my sanity - of which I have precious left as it is.

That said, I do know someone who pulls the winder out on his watch at night to stop the hands and (supposedly) save the battery

[Ghostrider]

....and consumer goods not having a power off button.

 

They all do, its on the plug on the wall. 

[paulb]

i agree the cost at the moment is very silly. 4 million would get you a couple of giga watts of wind. however these turbines are like the first of any tech vastly expensive give it a few years and it should drop. not sure what it will end up as but i guess more than wind. with the new boilers that produce power these isle could with a bit of thought be 100% green. wind wave sun thermal all need to be used. with a lot of insulation of our older housing stock. may even be cheaper to fund the replacement of the worst homes.

[shetlandpeat]

To be honest, I do remember the "crappy" connections. I did not however leave the modem on 24/7. Nor have I left my router on 27/7. Though that is personal choice, in a way, you could be seen to subsidise the poor connection by paying to leave your router on. They do get quite warm as does the PSU in the socket. There have been a number of house fires started by phone chargers becoming faulty, these are similar to the PSUs for routers except the router uses far mor power. After some usage, check the temperature with your hand, you can see if it doeas at all get warm or hot. One thing as well with leaving a router and ancillary connections running is it may not always pick up on any new address when BT decides to change it. I also wonder if leaving it on will reduce connection speeds for others.

As for unplugging everything at night, why not just put a switch on appliances, like they used to. Folk may have older plug tops that do not have the insulated parts of the L and N. Do folk still use timers on their cookers?

There are other options, as we know.

Edited June 18, 2014 by shetlandpeat

[paulb]

IM not risking turning the thing off. you really don't understand our rubbish connection. it can take 2 days to calm down when it goes off 

[JustMe]

Yes I had the same problem when I used to turn the router off at night.  Dropped connections all the time.  Leave it on all the time and connections are much better.  Not perfect but better.  Have checked the power supply for the router and that is cold while the router gets warm but stays the same after an hour or a week or a month.

[shetlandpeat]

I would imagine then if the router is not that busy it will not get so hot. Mind, keep a good space around it and the PSU.

[Hector's House]

Just a smidgen of scaremongering there Peat. The reports about phone chargers (in particular) bursting into flames invariably referred to cheap copies that folk had bought from market traders etc - never the original ones supplied with their phones.

Sure, it is good practice to keep the transformers in the open, but in reality who does? I have worked in big IT offices where there would be banks of them stuffed down the back of desks, covered in dust & bruck, yet never once did any of them overheat. In fact, it is the "brick" transformers that come with laptops etc that get hottest, as they are designed to cope with differing supply voltages worldwide.

[Ghostrider]

There have been a number of house fires started by phone chargers becoming faulty, these are similar to the PSUs for routers except the router uses far mor power. After some usage, check the temperature with your hand, you can see if it doeas at all get warm or hot.

 

Best switch off your fridge and freezer too when you go out and at night as well then, the same accusations stand up equally as well for them.

[crofter]

i agree the cost at the moment is very silly. 4 million would get you a couple of giga watts of wind. however these turbines are like the first of any tech vastly expensive give it a few years and it should drop. not sure what it will end up as but i guess more than wind. with the new boilers that produce power these isle could with a bit of thought be 100% green. wind wave sun thermal all need to be used. with a lot of insulation of our older housing stock. may even be cheaper to fund the replacement of the worst homes.

That (almost) 4 million is just the subsidised part of the cost, haven't seen the total cost reported anywhere, but must be a lot more...