Questions tagged [renewables]
a resource that can be created or used over and over again without depleting the materials from which it is made.
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The EU made its top priority to stop buying Russian fossil fuels, even if it involves less sustainable energy sources. Is net-zero under threat?
With Putin having invaded Ukraine, Europe made getting rid of Russian hydrocarbons a more urgent priority than phasing out fossil fuels and other unsustainable energy sources. They now intend to ...
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How is the recycling of renewables not a huge pressing issue?
I don't seem to see a whole lot of discussions pertaining to the recycling of renewables which looks to be a huge issue.
Turbine blades are near impossible to recycle.
Solar panels are equally bad.
My ...
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Amount of distributed generation installed capacity?
Since there are no data available (I didn't find anything regarding that :( ) I was trying to estimate the amount of distributed generation installed in the European electric grid. To do so, I thought ...
Samuele Benito Di Gioia
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Is oil actually a renewable and sustainable resource, but we just use much too much of it?
Wouldn't it be great if we could just drill into the ground and find pools of a natural energy source? Sure. Well, that's oil.
Oil is generally considered a non-renewable resource. But if humans ...
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Do solar panels generate more electricity in hot or cold climate?
Do solar panels generate more electricity in hot or cold climate? Who is right (sorry for the messiness, I currently don't know how to take a long screenshot)?
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What are the most viable options for long-duration storage of large amounts of energy?
With renewables being in large part weather-dependent, the issue of energy storage is slowly moving to the center stage of the incipient net-zero economy. Lithium ion batteries are kinda good, but ...
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Why create green hydrogen using renewable energy? Why not directly use electricity from Renewable sources?
We generate "green hydrogen" using electrolysis of water which is powered by Renewable energy sources like Solar Panels, Wind mills, Hydro power etc.
When we obtain such hydrogen and store ...
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Why don't they make playgrounds generate electricity?
Why don't they make playgrounds generate electricity (at least, not on a large scale)? It's a pity that all that energy of children horsing around goes to waste instead of being harnessed. You could ...
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grid-based gravity assist power generaiton
I was discussing with a friend about renewable resources in which you can generate and store power for a long time. In this one way which I know is hydropower where when you have huge requirement of ...
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Shading percentage to cause hot spots
I'm designing a solar plant over the roof or a huge building for my company. Now the roof has a lot of obstacles, Shafts, pillars, AC equipment etc. I have a couple of questions that I could really ...
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Could multiple ram pumps be used to fill a watertower for a pico hydroelectric system?
Since a watertower stores potential energy just like a reservoir does for a hydroelectric dam, could I use that to power a pico (<5kW) hydroelectric system for my homestead?
Now, I have read that ...
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How much renewable energy is curtailed around the world?
CAISO, the California electric grid operator, provides daily and historical reports on wind and solar curtailment:
I started looking for similar data from MISO, the grid operator where I live, ...
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Will negative power pricing counteract the growth in solar PV capacity?
In California, the real-time electricity prices routinely go negative. Here's pricing for the four load aggregation points for California on April 1, 2020 (source):
This is due to the large amount of ...
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How much land needed to dispose of blades from wind turbines?
I saw a news article saying that Wind Turbine Blades Can’t Be Recycled, So They’re Piling Up in Landfills. This is definitely unfavourable, but I really want to get a better sense of the scale of the ...
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Source for share of renewable energies in the electricity production of Europe
I am looking for a source that shows the development of the shares of renewable energies in the electricity production in Europe. I only found statistics about the share for the end energy consumption ...
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Is an incrementalist approach to decarbonisation feasible?
There seem to be two broad approaches to the climate crisis.
One centres around technological progress, where efficiencies, a gradual switch to renewables, and CCS enable a broadly similar model of ...
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Is there any case where plant farming is more eco friendly than raising livestock?
I am looking for an example or a case with arguments that would justify converting cattle ranches into plant farms (e.g., wheat, apple, or anything non-meat). The advantages should be in a more ...
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Is the cost of non-fossil fuel LCOE misleading?
Natural gas is a waste product. Its "cost" is almost entirely profit. All renewables can do is compete down this margin, they can never beat gas. If renewables are cheaper that just means some ...
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Do electricity generators that run on methanol exist?
Methanol is probably the easiest burnable fuel to produce that is also sustainable. I'd like to produce electricity from methanol, using a device I'd call a 'Methanol Generator' - but I am struggling ...
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Reducing/Offsetting Impact of New-Build Home [closed]
So, here's a breakdown of the question.
Situation: In the next month or two I will be moving house to a new-build detached house in the UK, which is on an estate of around 100 similar such properties....
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Why do some people say that biofuels are renewable energy source if producing biofuels requires nitrogen fertilizers?
Why do some people say that biofuels are renewable energy source if producing biofuels requires nitrogen fertilizers that are produced from natural gas (and energy output of biofuels is less than that ...
Anixx
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Is electricity used at night more likely to be renewable?
Discussing charging my electric car with a colleague recently I argued that since (in Ireland) our renewable energy sources are mainly wind and hydro, since I charge my car at night the mixture of ...
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Is it possible to harvest energy from the storm?
My idea of a device for harvesting energy from wind
If used in reality, this device will harvest significant amounts of energy from wind, waves and storms. This not only solved the problem of energy ...
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Which measure of solar irradiance is needed to calculate the energy output of PV systems?
According to "E = A * r * H * PR" global formula to estimate energy generated, the solar irradiance value is needed. I have Horizontal irradiance, Tilted irradiance, and Normal irradiance values but ...
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Is there a simple on-line tool for estimating wind turbine power output?
The back-and-forth in the comments on this answer sent me searching for a simple tool that would enable a user to put in a location, wind turbine size, and a few other parameters, in order to estimate ...
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Are trees more productive than wind turbines?
Tree farm assumptions:
250,000 square meters (m2) tree farm
A 1 ton tree contains 1 MWh of energy
Each tree takes 10 m2 of space
Total energy for this farm is thus 25 GWh
Wind farm assumptions:
5 ...
user5650
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Will natural gas or propane generators also run off of methane?
I'm looking at building a sustainable energy project that will convert biogas (methane) into electricity. I haven't found any biogas or methane electric generators for sale. It seems that there are ...
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Cost benefit analysis of a PV array with racking to set optimal angle, vs a larger array
I'm thinking of installing some panels on the roof. It's unshaded but only pitched at 5 degrees on long run roofing iron.
Would I be better off racking at an angle to optimize for winter sun, or just ...
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Are there any articles that describe to correlation between the forecast errors for renewable energy resources, depending on the distance?
In an article by Zhang et al., the authors describe how the (normalized) forecast errors of different renewable energy sources (like solar panels and wind mills) are correlated. To that end, they ...
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Is it possible to reverse the air flow of a roof turbine/whirlybird?
I am currently working on a device that requires omnidirectional air currents (e.g. breezes/winds) to be directed downwards through a vertical tube. I think it would be a very similar design to a ...
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Is solar energy the best renewable source of energy?
Here is my thinking on renewable resources. Biomass is the absolute worst way to go because it releases CO2 and damages habitats.
Geothermal is not far behind but is for a different reason. ...
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Calculating wheel and motor size for run-of-river hydroelectric generator [closed]
I am a student designing a hydro electric generator used on rivers to collect kinetic energy from horizontal water flow, rather than potential energy from vertical water drops.
My idea is to turn a ...
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Are RECs (Renewable Energy Certificates) an effective method to "green" industry?
Chris Goldie's answer to a question on sustainable web infrastructure brought this question up.
From the US Environmental Protection Agency:
A renewable energy certificate, or REC (pronounced: rěk)...
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Is "renewable" a proper term for both solar and hydro power?
The common definition for renewable energy sources includes at least:
Wind
Solar
Biofuels
Hydro
Geo-thermal
However, the common definition of renewable makes this grouping a bit awkward. Webster ...
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Should we leave all fossil fuels in the ground and not use them?
I get the feeling that there is such a strong backlash against fossil fuels that there is an irrational movement to purge them completely. Maybe because people are transferring their worries about ...
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What is a good database containing wind speed and direction?
I am pursuing a science project involving wind power, and am looking for some data on wind speeds, directions, and ideally turbulence and shear.
Do you know where I could find this? I would need to ...
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Is a master's degree in computer science relevant for working in sustainable living?
I'm currently at the end of computer science bachelor and not quite sure what to do after. In a way I'd like to continue with a Master's degree and at the same time help somehow for a more eco-...
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What metrics are usually used to quantify forecasted power error for weather-dependent renewables?
What metrics are usually used to quantify forecasted power error for weather-dependent renewables such as wind or PV?
I guess that there are at least two kinds of errors: where the magnitude of the ...
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How the grid is managed in markets with high renewable energy penetration
As many people know, many of the renewable energy technologies generate fluctuating power dependent on availability of the power generating source e.g. wind and solar et al. Balancing power must be ...
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How accurate are consultant pre-construction energy assessments?
For power plants where the energy that could be generated is driven by exogenously variable factors, such as wind farms, PV power plants, and run-of-river hydro, which are all driven by weather, how ...
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How are readings from the wind sensors mounted on wind turbines influenced by the blades' wakes?
Utility-scale wind turbines have various sensors mounted on the nacelle, to ensure the power generation is optimised.
How are readings from the wind sensors mounted on wind turbines influenced by the ...
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What does the P90 of a wind resource mean?
I've heard that investors use the P90 of a wind resource when considering an investment. What kind of measure is it, what does it actually mean, and how is it calculated?
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Which part of the process of estimating wind resource has the potential greatest benefit from further research?
Estimations of the potential generation resource of wind power happens at all scales from very coarse global estimates, to detailed estimates at individual sites based on specific locations and ...
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Is there a recent study that shows how accurate wind turbine wake models are?
Wind-turbine wake models are used in the design of wind farms, to optimise the choice of turbine model, and the layout of the turbines. They're also sometimes used in the operation of wind farms, to ...
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What's the average efficiency of pumped hydroelectric energy storage facilities?
Pumped hydroelectric storage has, to date, been the most scalable way to store electricity (in this case, in the form of gravitational potential energy), allowing us to spread the time between when ...
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What are the advantages and disadvantages of using lidars over sodars for wind resource assessment?
The process of wind resource assessment has used a variety of methods over the years; more recently, lidar - radar-style sensing using lasers; and sodar (similar, but using sound) have come to ...
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How close are renewables prices to scrap value?
I suspect that it's less than a factor of two. Is this right?
A 1 kw panel has 10kg of silicon at $20/kg.
That's $200 for a panel that costs less than $400, at 34 cents/watt.
A 1.5mw turbine has ...
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Are Eco-Schools more effective teaching children about sustainability?
Is there any evidence that Eco-Schools are better at building sustainability awareness for school kids and teaching them about renewable energy technologies? Or is there a better approach that might ...
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Does a PV panel take more energy to build than it generates in its lifetime? [duplicate]
Industrial energy costs are $1 per million BTU (MMBTU) or 300kWh, or $3*10^-6 per watt hour (Wh).
http://www.eia.gov/consumption/manufacturing/
Solar has 1 kg of 9n silicon per 100W, at $20/kg. ...
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Is pellet fuel a sustainable energy source in the way it's used now?
Pellet fuel is considered a sustainable energy source. But the way it's used now seems to produce air pollution which I think should not happen in case of sustainable energy source. So is pellet ...
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