Re: Grand Apagon - Electricity (not) in Spain

On Thu, 1 May 2025 15:48:45 +0100, Martin Brown
<'''newspam'''@nonad.co.uk> wrote:

On 01/05/2025 15:06, john larkin wrote:

On Thu, 1 May 2025 10:27:36 +0100, Martin Brown
<'''newspam'''@nonad.co.uk> wrote:
 

>

I hadn't realised that the French government have deliberately limited
400kV link capacity over the Pyrenees to protect EDF nuclear power from
cheaper competition from Spain's massive solar PV investment.

 
One consequence of using a lot of solar power is that interconnected
networks get bigger hence less stable.

>
There is no reason why a larger network should be less stable - if
anything it should become more stable the more kit attached to it.
>
The only caveat is when the magentosphere goes haywire like in the
Carrington Event of 1859 and then long wires at high latitudes like in
Canada can get fried. That is a realistic mode of failure for our very
electricity focussed world. GPS going bad will also cause chaos.
>
Big transformers have *very* long lead times.

And are easily damaged. I wonder if an electronic version will ever be
a replacement for tons of steel and copper and oil. They could be
modular, like big RF transmitters are now. Lower voltage would help,
namely more regional power generation. In other words, pump gas and
not electricity. Gas pipelines store lots of energy; electric lines
don't.

>

A lot of mid-sized natural gas power plants (or, eventually, small
nukes) would allow regions to be independent when they have to be.

>
The networks have been continent wide for long while now. The newer
national interconnectors and offshore long distance lines are DC now!

Seems like stability is getting worse.

>
There are schemes to build vast solar arrays in Morroco (pretty good
location for them) with DC links into Europe and even to the UK!

Cool. One dragged anchor, or a bomb planted by a robot sub, could make
Europe go dark.

>
Tesla must be turning in his grave.
(presumably at 60Hz since he was American).
>
Installing solar PV in the UK is highly profitable but a wasted
opportunity since at our high latitude there really is no huge aircon
peak in the mid summer afternoons and we get too much cloud.
>
It is a double benefit in a lower latitude country to have solar panels
on the roof since it shades the roof from direct sunlight slowing heat
ingress and provided power as well.

Residential rooftop solar all over Morroco, to be collected and
exported to europe? Interesting concept.

>
Sun barely makes it above the horizon in the UK for 5 hours in mid
winter if it isn't cloudy. Solar powered "smart" road signs invariably
fail on frosty winters mornings. Ironically they say "please slow for
the dangerous bend ahead" - they work fine in mid summer but in mid
winter they wreck their batteries. Guess when there is ice on the road?

Solar electriocity or water heating makes no sense in San Francisco
either, but people get big subsidies so many do it. It complicates
roof repairs.