Renewable energy sources are critical for the future survival of our culture. Atmospheric pollution and greenhouse gas emissions will destroy our culture. Creating lots of electricity economically is or should be a top priority for all of mankind. More abundance of anything makes life easier for everybody. There are many ways to produce electricity. Some of the main sources of electrical power generation today is Nuclear power, Coal/Oil/Gas Fire, and Hydro Electric. Other common renewable sources are photo voltaic cells, Wind Turbines, Tidal Turbines, Geothermal Heat Mining.
This article will explain the issue with centralized solar farming in regards to current standards of producing and distributing electricity. It will be presented in a layman’s manner for readers with no background in this field to grasp. Some things will be “oversimplified” as I do not wish to write a textbook but let this be a guide to understanding how electricity is managed and created. Without this basic understanding do not try to engage in an argument being for or against renewable sources. Every decision has a consequence and if it was as easy as turning off one power source and adding another we’d have done it.
Background:
Power Generation
To understand the argument you have to understand how we get electricity. In the traditional way we use Faraday’s law. This Law illustrates how magnetism and electricity are related. In the simplest terms; if you have a coil of conductive material (like a copper wire) in the presence of a fluctuating magnetic field electrons will flow through the material and thus giving us electricity.
Visualize a magnet and have a coil of wire beside it. If that magnet spins then the magnetic pole facing the coil is constantly changing.
With this description most of the Energy Sources we talk about involve transforming one form of energy into mechanical motion to spin this magnet. A person could do it but it would be slow and not very powerful depending on the amount of electricity required (which in our case we’ll talk about the province of Ontario). This magnet typically is attached to a turbine and the energy source will spin the turbine.
I’m sure you can guess that wind turbines use the force of wind to spin the magnet, a waterfall can spin a turbine ect. What some don’t realize is that one of the best ways (in terms of power and yield) is to heat water and create steam to spin the turbines. Both Nuclear Power and Coal/Oil/Gas Fire processes do this. Nuclear power is amazing in this respect as it requires very little material and thus produces very little waste.
The Grid
All of these energy sources are used in the Ontario power grid.We have a balance based on using the advantages of a typical source against the demand. In a connected power grid the electricity has to be produced as it is required. You cannot store it to make up for deficits. The tolerance of the grid can be very forgiving though meaning you can produce a little more. But if you produce to much you blow the grid, to little you blow the grid. Now there is a lot of reasons for this as there is a large network of distributing power that I don’t want to get into. Just let that statement be true and do your own research to understand it.
Yes you can store power in batteries but the size of battery required for just a city would require immense space. Also being incredibly polluting to produce. Energy would be wasted (not used for intended work) by storing it in the battery (whenever electricity moves through something energy is lost to entropy). Basically it is incredible inefficient and damaging to the environment to store large amounts of energy in a battery. Battery’s are used in the power distribution process just not used to be relied on for Grid deficits.
Understanding these points is important because an electrical producer needs to be able to predict the appropriate amount of electricity needed at any given time during the day. To predict we use peaks. Most have heard of this but basically low peak or “base peak” is the minimal amount of electricity that is constantly demanded. Mid peak is when the demand grows to a higher level, and high peak is when demand is at its highest. For explanation purposes mid peak may be 5pm when most come home from work and start consuming more electricity. High peak maybe 7pm when everyone starts making dinner. Crude explanations just for easy visualization purposes.
For each peak you would want to use the right process. Nuclear power for instance is the best in terms of efficiency and yield but it can take days to get running. Clearly a Nuclear plant is best suited for handling base power demand (low peak). Coal/Oil/Gas Fire process starts up like flicking a light switch, however much you want when you want it, used for high peak times.
The Problem With Solar Power:
Solar power is produced by using the heat from the sun to influence electrical current. In a photovoltaic cell the heated silicone can produce a small amount. Other processes include a parabola shaped mirror to focus the heat to a single point, which can heat liquid and thus produce steam. No matter the method the amount of electricity that can be produced will be minimal in terms of the amount of space the process takes up compared to other so called “non-renewable sources” . A solar farm taking up the space equivalent to the space required for a nuclear power plant would produce a slight fraction.
The amount of power the “solar network” can provide is outside of the demands control. Meaning the amount of power the process produces depends on how sunny the day is (not to mention at night time when no power is produced). Even on the most sunny day the panel will not produce what is advertised. When a person picks up a 100Watt panel, that panel may never actually produce 100Watts at any given instant. With this in mind you have to degrade the panels in projections for demand to a ridiculously low number, meaning you need to double if not more the calculated amount of panels required for any given demand peak. Meaning more space is required.
In our society we require lots of space for growing food, allowing water to cycle through the land, and just to live. More space is always going to be required and projections for the future suggest we’re going to be in trouble in this regard, power sources that require more space is simply not acceptable and unrealistic.
Other factors for solar is what kind of peak demand will it serve. Since it can’t just be turned on when ever you like the only peak demand it can serve is the base peak. Meaning it can only relieve the demand off a nuclear plant, which out of all the “non renewable’s” is the least of the environmental problem. The problem I’m referring to is pollution of green house gases and atmospheric pollution. Nuclear power is extremely low, virtually non existent contributor to this, where the high peak Coal/Oil/Gas Fire process is a large contributor of. Centralized solar does nothing to alleviate this, neither do most of the “renewable” energy sources.
Because of the unpredictable output of solar farms this process actually promotes the higher polluting Coal/Oil/Gas Fire processes. This is because if the solar farm is under producing you need to quickly make up the deficit and the only thing that can handle this task is Coal/Oil/Gas Fire processes. So in affect the solar farm is taking away demand from nuclear and putting it on Coal/Oil/Gas, thus causing more pollution.
Conclusion
My intention is not to bash renewable sources. I actually promote it, just in the right places. Rooftop solar panels are fantastic, the space is already taken therefore no new space is taken, a battery bank accompanied with it can also alleviate peak demands by automating switching to battery power during night time and other high demand instances. Geothermal in your yard for heating your house another great example. My point is non-centralized renewable energy production works great, but trying to feed the grid from one location on renewable sources is just not solving the problem and in some cases is only perpetuating it.
In addition
The concept of using less electricity as an environmental protest is simply hurting the cause. We will be using more power and we should welcome it. If you put a nuclear power plant in a 3rd world Country you transform that community from 3rd world to first world very quickly. As more cultures are going to continue to use more electricity for their own prosperity it is only humane to encourage it, but we have to encourage it responsibly. China does not use Nuclear power instead relying on Coal, this is because they do not have our R&D to put in a Nuclear plant and the “renewable” options simply cannot meet the demand given the density. The USA relies heavily on Coal as well mostly because of ignorance in regards to Nuclear Power. The point is Nuclear power is our greatest resource regarding electrical power distribution. The fight needs to be encouraging this and non centralized renewable. STOP lobbying Centralized solar farms as you are lobbying for the Coal/Oil/Gas industry.
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