What is the most environmentally sustainable way to provide base load power to various consumers?
I would say more specifically, thorium breeder reactors are most sustainable, since we are t going to run out of that nearly as soon as we will yellow cake.
Local source - solar, wind, tide, river, geo-thermal or a combination of whatever the geography best supplies for particular needs. Separate self-contained systems - no grid, no miles of cable to waste power in transit, no deforestation for poles or ditch-digging to bury cables; no exposed structures that can be damaged by weather. Local systems are easier and safer to maintain and repair; a problem in one town doesn't bring down three states and two provinces.What is the most environmentally sustainable way to provide base load power to various consumers?
Local source - solar, wind, tide, river, geo-thermal or a combination of whatever the geography best supplies for particular needs. Separate self-contained systems - no grid, no miles of cable to waste power in transit, no deforestation for poles or ditch-digging to bury cables; no exposed structures that can be damaged by weather. Local systems are easier and safer to maintain and repair; a problem in one town doesn't bring down three states and two provinces.What is the most environmentally sustainable way to provide base load power to various consumers?
No giant turbines, that so many people hate, just little windmills, like the town water-towers - possibly on the water-towers. Or a dam, or whatever is cheaper. Solar panels and passive glass walls on every home and factory; each industry to supply its own needs with local source power. In cities, the possibilities are many and varied.
And, of course, cut the requirement by making every process more efficient, every building more dynamic, every user more aware.
Can that system provide base load power, or do you still need a fossil fuel power plant for that?Local source - solar, wind, tide, river, geo-thermal or a combination of whatever the geography best supplies for particular needs. Separate self-contained systems - no grid, no miles of cable to waste power in transit, no deforestation for poles or ditch-digging to bury cables; no exposed structures that can be damaged by weather. Local systems are easier and safer to maintain and repair; a problem in one town doesn't bring down three states and two provinces.What is the most environmentally sustainable way to provide base load power to various consumers?
No giant turbines, that so many people hate, just little windmills, like the town water-towers - possibly on the water-towers. Or a dam, or whatever is cheaper. Solar panels and passive glass walls on every home and factory; each industry to supply its own needs with local source power. In cities, the possibilities are many and varied.
And, of course, cut the requirement by making every process more efficient, every building more dynamic, every user more aware.
"That" is not a system; it's a suggestion for local, adapted and adaptable systems that work for each particular community, industrial installation, home or institution.
What's "base load power"? Is that a number carved on some stone tablets, or is it variable?
How many Barbie dolls does the world really need?
How many office buildings really need to burn all their lights all night and kill millions of migrating birds?
Can we afford to change to something new?
How much power do we waste in outmoded delivery systems? How much money do we throw at inadequate infrastructures?
What's a reasonable household consumption per day?
Adapt or die.
Whatever."That" is not a system; it's a suggestion for local, adapted and adaptable systems that work for each particular community, industrial installation, home or institution.
It is the minimum power supply required by the users of a power network. It includes a number of absolutely essential systems which need reliable power.What's "base load power"?
Even with the best in energy efficiency measures, a network still needs a base load power supply. Can the "local, adapted and adaptable systems" you are talking about deliver that?Is that a number carved on some stone tablets, or is it variable?
How many Barbie dolls does the world really need?
How many office buildings really need to burn all their lights all night and kill millions of migrating birds?
Can we afford to change to something new?
How much power do we waste in outmoded delivery systems? How much money do we throw at inadequate infrastructures?
What's a reasonable household consumption per day?
Adapt or die.
Bilby:If you want to live in a pre-industrial society, such do still exist in various third world shit-holes. Feel free to move there; but don't expect me to join you.
Exactly. And if the whole northwest grid is brought down by a storm, sabotage or equipment malfunctions, they do it in considerable numbers. The present grid is far more vulnerable than most people realize; it's also old and inadequate in many areas, and the power companies are reluctant to spend the money it would take to upgrade, so they're bandaiding.If your generation, storage and distribution system can't meet base load, then people start to die.
I know what it is; I don't know how much it is. Essential is a matter of opinion and unfortunately the people with the crappiest priorities usually make the decisions. How much power you need, and for what functions, changes both over time and by user habits. We need to keep the hospital cool in summer and warm in winter, but that end may be achieved by a combination of means. We can probably do without mass production of instant landfill items. Changes can be made to the way people live and work, and especially to how they build and arrange communities.["base load power"] is the minimum power supply required by the users of a power network. It includes a number of absolutely essential systems which need reliable power.
The "network" can be any size, and configuration, any source or combination of sources. Design it for the needs of the people it's meant to serve instead of forcing people to conform to a dinosaur of a system that was conceived in 1900.Even with the best in energy efficiency measures, a network still needs a base load power supply. Can the "local, adapted and adaptable systems" you are talking about deliver that?
I don't plan for Alice Springs, but I'm sure somebody more technologically savvy can. Any place that needs cooling usually has plenty of sunlight, so what's wrong with that place? If it's all underground, there is probably a hot spring or some other source of power and the insulation should be pretty good. If there really isn't any source of local power, I'd say move the people to someplace better, like someplace with water.
At the very least, retrofit the buildings - most especially the hospital - to better suit the climate. Most of the architecture in North America (I can't say about other places) is stupidly, almost criminally wrong for where it's built. And they keep building whole new subdivisions in exactly the same wrong way. People get stuck in modes of thought: how it's been done is the only way it can be done. And that's usually meant the end of their civilization.
"That" is not a system; it's a suggestion for local, adapted and adaptable systems that work for each particular community, industrial installation, home or institution.
What's "base load power"? Is that a number carved on some stone tablets, or is it variable?
How many Barbie dolls does the world really need?
How many office buildings really need to burn all their lights all night and kill millions of migrating birds?
Can we afford to change to something new?
How much power do we waste in outmoded delivery systems? How much money do we throw at inadequate infrastructures?
What's a reasonable household consumption per day?
Adapt or die.
NONE* of your options are viable answer.
The question was baseline power--that has to work 24/7. The sun goes down, the wind idles. There simply aren't enough rivers or geothermal sites to power the world.
There is a bit of a contradiction in the question, though, isn't there? You're asking about base load power, when most ecological means of generating power is about trying to move as far away from relying on base power as is practical.
For Alice Springs at night, the most reliable ecological power source would probably be convection towers. It's a desert climate with a huge temperature differential between land heat and air heat at night. Failing that, you might be able to do something with the River that gave the place it's name. Germany produces a tidy base load on 'run of the river' sources. You're probably missing a trick if you don't try some form of energy storage though, since the entire area looks ideal for some form of solar power.
Your fantasy might scare the crap out of your followers, but I understand some basic science and engineering, so it doesn't worry me at all. Fossil fuels need to be phased out as soon as possible; but fortunately there is not only the choice of fossil fuel or organic vegan macrame windmills.I don't expect you to do anything. You will soon be living in a post-industrial society, if you continue to squander resources on counter-productive industry and the kind of waste we have now. How you manage, after the collapse, is your problem, not mine.
Either you, and your fellow Canadians, are unimaginably wasteful, or your grasp of the facts is woeful (I am guessing the latter)My household daily electricity consumption is 5-7 Kw, compared to the Canadian average of 35. We do not live in a shit-hole*; we're quite comfortable and have all mod coms.
That question has zero to do with the topic under discussion. Can we please try to focus?*How do you suppose the third world became what it is?
Exactly. And if the whole northwest grid is brought down by a storm, sabotage or equipment malfunctions, they do it in considerable numbers. The present grid is far more vulnerable than most people realize; it's also old and inadequate in many areas, and the power companies are reluctant to spend the money it would take to upgrade, so they're bandaiding.If your generation, storage and distribution system can't meet base load, then people start to die.
It's not the individual lights that waste most of the power, its the transmission wires. (Security? Somebody's going to break into the 17th floor because the lights are off?)