"Green" energy. Not so green.

[X-it]

Finally Nasa is releasing some info about the sun, did embarrassment forced them too! The sun a nuclear reactor 1.3 million X earth's size has no effect on earths temperature! How naive or stupid do you have to be to swallow that one. But here is what is coming. nasas predictions... Dalton minimum levels (brutal cold, crop failures, starvation). Valentinas prediction GRAND SOLAR MINIMUM!!


https://electroverse.net/nasa-predi...years-dalton-minimum-levels-the-implications/

 

[ABMax24]

The facility I worked at exported approx 80 percent of generation to the grid so about 120 megawatts. I am sure most of that was consumed by non oil and gas operations since most of those extraction facilities export electricity. Maybe things have changed. I haven't worked up there for10 years now.

You are correct that significant export of electricity is the case for a lot of these generating sites, but there are also a lot of smaller sites that don't have on-site generation that require this grid-power to run. One compressor station I was at recently had 5 electric drive compressors at 2500hp each, that's 10 megawatts of electricity consumption. And this site is only 1 of 6 field compressors that feed natural gas to the processing plant.

To emphasize the point California has a population 9 times of Alberta yet only consumes 3-3.5 times as much electricity. This additional electricity we use is consumed by industry, primarily the oil and gas industry.

 

[Cdnfireman]

You are correct that significant export of electricity is the case for a lot of these generating sites, but there are also a lot of smaller sites that don't have on-site generation that require this grid-power to run. One compressor station I was at recently had 5 electric drive compressors at 2500hp each, that's 10 megawatts of electricity consumption. And this site is only 1 of 6 field compressors that feed natural gas to the processing plant.

To emphasize the point California has a population 9 times of Alberta yet only consumes 3-3.5 times as much electricity. This additional electricity we use is consumed by industry, primarily the oil and gas industry.

Not entirely true.... California has a much more moderate climate requiring less climate control and has much more sun in the winter requiring less lighting.....both of which require electricity...

 

[ABMax24]

Not entirely true.... California has a much more moderate climate requiring less climate control and has much more sun in the winter requiring less lighting.....both of which require electricity...

Numbers don't lie. California average consumption per household is 6684 kwh, Alberta is 7200 kwh. This less than 10% difference in household energy consumption doesn't explain the 300% to 350% difference in per capita energy consumption.

https://energyrates.ca/residential-electricity-natural-gas/
https://www.electricchoice.com/blog/electricity-on-average-do-homes/

 

[catalac]

If “the planet of humans” by Moore had anything bang on its the fact that population growth will be the end of us.

 

[Stompin Tom]

Not entirely true.... California has a much more moderate climate requiring less climate control and has much more sun in the winter requiring less lighting.....both of which require electricity...

It takes far more electricity to run air conditioners than to heat. Most heat is an alternate source, ie natural gas.

 

[X-it]

Homes off the grid heated with electricity and hot tubs... brutal. BC and Alberta's power grid reached stage 3 warnings this winter when temperatures dropped to record levels, Solar and wind turned out to be useless...go figure. People like Suzuki and Elizabeth May need to be removed from calling the shots on electricity for good...drinking in a bar comes to mind.

 

[snopro]

She's nothing but a booze hound

 

[Bikeswithtrax]

They only pretend to be green, for the money, and power.

 

[X-it]

The only time we have ever reached stage 3 warnings is in the winter, now to solve this power shortage our government is pushing solar power...wtf! The only thing stupider is the people who agree with this.

 

[ABMax24]

The only time we have ever reached stage 3 warnings is in the winter, now to solve this power shortage our government is pushing solar power...wtf! The only thing stupider is the people who agree with this.

You do understand that the hydro dams in BC are the largest grid scale energy batteries in North America? And if you create additional generation at any time of year this water behind the dams can then be saved for the winter months to create a more stable supply of electricity.

 

[X-it]

I still remember seeing David Suzuki with his protest signs at the site c dam trying to squash that project, Horgan shut that project down immediately once he had formed his Coup with Weaver, adding delays and 2 billion extra costs. No batteries needed in a dam, just turn up and down the flow to meet the desired demand at that time...within reason that is.

 

[ABMax24]

I still remember seeing David Suzuki with his protest signs at the site c dam trying to squash that project, Horgan shut that project down immediately once he had formed his Coup with Weaver, adding delays and 2 billion extra costs. No batteries needed in a dam, just turn up and down the flow to meet the desired demand at that time...within reason that is.

I'm really not sure why there was doubt that Site-C was needed, in a growing province like BC of course more electricity production needs to be created. Surprisingly Horgan had a glimmer of something akin to intelligence and allowed the dam to be built.

That's also my point, there is also only so much water that runs through a watershed every year, if other methods of generation can be brought online elsewhere some of this water can be saved in the reservoir during the summer for use in the winter, ie making it an extremely large battery. Obviously a reservoir can only hold so much water, but facilities like the Bennett dam can hold huge amounts of water for winter use, which also has the bonus of running through the Peace Canyon and soon to be Site-C dams generating additional power.

 

[j335]

I'm really not sure why there was doubt that Site-C was needed, in a growing province like BC of course more electricity production needs to be created. Surprisingly Horgan had a glimmer of something akin to intelligence and allowed the dam to be built.

That's also my point, there is also only so much water that runs through a watershed every year, if other methods of generation can be brought online elsewhere some of this water can be saved in the reservoir during the summer for use in the winter, ie making it an extremely large battery. Obviously a reservoir can only hold so much water, but facilities like the Bennett dam can hold huge amounts of water for winter use, which also has the bonus of running through the Peace Canyon and soon to be Site-C dams generating additional power.

I would think dropping water level on a lake/reservoir would be very dangerous to people using the lake in the winter?
Dam near my house drops water level after winter fishing season in prep for spring water levels. Level is probably dropped 10-15 ft, dangerous on the shores.

 

[ABMax24]

I would think dropping water level on a lake/reservoir would be very dangerous to people using the lake in the winter?
Dam near my house drops water level after winter fishing season in prep for spring water levels. Level is probably dropped 10-15 ft, dangerous on the shores.

I'm sure it is, but it happens with these dams already, they still have to produce power over the winter. The water level drop would be more pronounced though.

 

[Cdnfireman]

And let’s not forget that these “grid scale batteries “ required many thousands of TONS ( tons,not litres or gallons) of diesel be burned to build, and often thousand of acres of productive land are permanently submerged to create the reservoir.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against hydro power, but like every other source of energy in the world, green or otherwise, there is a Cost to the environment. Greenies like to say that hydro power is environmentally friendly, but in reality it’s probably no better than other means of generation. It has a huge initial carbon footprint, it’s just amortized Over a longer period of time.

 

[X-it]

I'm really not sure why there was doubt that Site-C was needed, in a growing province like BC of course more electricity production needs to be created. Surprisingly Horgan had a glimmer of something akin to intelligence and allowed the dam to be built.

That's also my point, there is also only so much water that runs through a watershed every year, if other methods of generation can be brought online elsewhere some of this water can be saved in the reservoir during the summer for use in the winter, ie making it an extremely large battery. Obviously a reservoir can only hold so much water, but facilities like the Bennett dam can hold huge amounts of water for winter use, which also has the bonus of running through the Peace Canyon and soon to be Site-C dams generating additional power.

There were a lot of people in BC that voted NDP because they where certain BC did not need Site C dam, the media and Suzuki sure did a great job converting the shepples. That's why it is so important to pay off the media, they can say black is white and 50% of the people will believe they are telling the truth.

 

[X-it]

Here is how you justify green. Seems to working so far.


https://torontosun.com/opinion/colu...p6sIf73Z2JrJv-nWoVjuxNShHNjVkUjcM8SZ6qSxlgqbs

 

[ABMax24]

And let’s not forget that these “grid scale batteries “ required many thousands of TONS ( tons,not litres or gallons) of diesel be burned to build, and often thousand of acres of productive land are permanently submerged to create the reservoir.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against hydro power, but like every other source of energy in the world, green or otherwise, there is a Cost to the environment. Greenies like to say that hydro power is environmentally friendly, but in reality it’s probably no better than other means of generation. It has a huge initial carbon footprint, it’s just amortized Over a longer period of time.

That's also true of any major project.

For example the WAC Bennett dam has a max capacity of 2730 megawatts, given it's capacity factor of 55.6% it could be said it generates a constant 1517 megawatts of electricity. To compare that to a coal powerplant that is 40% efficient (pretty standard for a sub-critical thermal plant) that is also 1517 megawatts we know at this efficiency it takes 0.733 tons of coal per hour per megawatt. So 1112 tons/hr of coal at 1517 megawatts output, or 9.741 million tons per year. The Bennett dam is 51 years old, to generate the same amount of energy as the dam with coal over that lifetime would take 496.791 million tons of coal, not an insignificant number by any means. The burning of this coal would have also produced 1.420 billion tons of CO2.

I don't think by any stretch of the imagination it took anywhere near this amount of energy to build this dam, or did it produce this amount of CO2 during construction or operation. Especially if we were to also consider the immense amount of energy needed to mine that amount of coal, and to strip and then replace all the overburden on top of it.

Now there are other things associated with dams, like permanent ecosystem loss, land loss, methane production from the decomposition of vegetation under the surface and even a small amount of heavy metals leaching into the water from the newly submerged soils. Some of these issues are only now being studied and of course most of the studies are producing widely varying results from reservoir to reservoir.

Don't get me wrong, I don't want to see a dam built on any of the rivers that I recreate on, but I'd still rather live next to a dam than a coal powerplant.

 

[Bnorth]

I would think dropping water level on a lake/reservoir would be very dangerous to people using the lake in the winter?
Dam near my house drops water level after winter fishing season in prep for spring water levels. Level is probably dropped 10-15 ft, dangerous on the shores.

Fortunately not much winter recreation on the Williston, Revelstoke, or Kinbasket reservoirs. Kinbasket depth fluctuates by over 100'.