On 15/10/2020 08:42, Chris Hogg wrote:
On Thu, 15 Oct 2020 08:18:13 +0100, Andy Bennet
wrote:

On 14/10/2020 20:08, Andrew wrote:
In the DT -

"The operator of Britain's electricity network warned late on Wednesday
afternoon that low wind levels had forced it to search for emergency
sources of power.

In a statement, the National Grid Electricity Systems Operator (ESO)
said: "Unusually low wind output coinciding with a number of generator
outages means the cushion of spare capacity we operate the system with
has been reduced."

.... and the problem is??

Provided we still have spare capacity it's a non-issue.

The deployment of additional HVDC interconnectors to international wind
and solar farms will solve the issue long term.

ROTFLMAO! No...it...won't!! Not...a...cat...in...hell's...chance!

We already have several interconnectors to the near continent. They
are only able to supply at most about 10% of the UK's demand, quite
often less. Do you really think that enough interconnectors will be
laid to supply all of it? And that pre-supposes that the electricity
will be available in Europe for us to purchase, which it won't be.
When demand is high in the UK, because it's cold in winter, demand is
also high across Europe for the same reason. Often, when there's
little or no wind in the UK due to a 'blocking high' in winter, that
blocking high covers a substantial part of Europe. There won't be any
spare electricity to feed the interconnectors.

You live in a fools' paradise.

Maybe at present, but perhaps the future is a little more positive. We
already have a global distribution system for fossil fuels, and have had
for more than a century. We lose a little energy distributing the fuels
around, but overall the system is quite efficient and relatively
inexpensive. Perhaps that is one reason why reusable/green/sustainable
(whatever...) energy has difficulty getting off the ground. And, by
having more than one source, politics - such as the oil crisis in 1974 -
has little effect on distribution now.

There are already quite a few ideas for "supergrids" (see
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SuperSmart_Grid), and some already exist
and operate over a great distance (see the "See also" links in the wiki
article). The UK-France interconnectors are one of them; that they can
supply only 10% of the UK demand is a limitation of the technology
rather than a political one. Assuming there will be enough natural
energy available across the world at any time to supply /all/ the
world's demands (solar, wind, wave, hydro, geothermal, etc), then if
interconnected on a world-wide grid one country could not, on its own,
stop world-wide distribution. Even the weather in one part of the world
such as the "blocking high" you referred to would be irrelevant if the
sun is shining in the southern hemisphere, or the wind is blowing in the
USA. If we could solve the distribution problem, then spare electricity
should be available at any time.

We may be nearer to solving that problem than any of us perhaps thought:
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2256953-first-room-temperature-superconductor-could-spark-energy-revolution/.
We aren't there yet, but it's a good start. A practical room-temperature
superconductor would make a world-wide supergrid not only possible, but
inevitable.

--

Jeff