Greece runs on 100% renewables for the first time on record

https://electrek.co/2022/10/12/greece-100-percent-renewables-for-first-time-on-record/

by nathandaly • 4 years ago

32 14 4 years ago

prottog2• 4 years ago

For five hours out of the eight thousand seven hundred and sixty in a year ;-)

I'm in favor of harnessing all available sources of energy, including renewables; I hope that energy storage technology continues to improve.

sam345• 4 years ago

Right. 5 hours. Renewables alone won't do it and never will. Despite wishful thinking, we will still also need fossil fuels and nuclear.

Schroedingersat3• 4 years ago

Electrolysers exist and are rapidly approaching parity with gas.

Fossil fuels already require massive subsidy and military spending, and there never has been and never will be a thermal fission reactor that can run without subsidy.

vegai_2• 4 years ago

"Never will" is of course an untrue hyperbole. There are stronger and stronger incentives to make this happen, and while it's probable that non-renewables will never go to 0.0%, they will definitely reach for it.

173TW is the amount of solar energy that reaches Earth. More than 10,000x what we currently use. Sure, we'll probably never (there's that word again!) use all of it, but it gives a sense of scale. And who knows, perhaps we'll use more since there's always the other side of the sun. Apparently, a full dyson sphere around the sun would theoretically give us 400 septillion (10^24) watts.

oifjsidjf• 4 years ago

And what's gonna happen when the sun won't shine?

You think large powerplants that will need to be turned back on then can be turned on like a TV, with a press of a button?

Also: the energy comes from renewables, but the solar panels themselves are certainly not.

Schroedingersat3• 4 years ago

You think large powerplants that will need to be turned back on then can be turned on like a TV, with a press of a button?

In addition to batteries (including ones made from abundant materials like sodium which are beginning mas production now), wind, tidal, bagass and waste stream methane generation, this is precisely what OCGT plants are for and many CCGTs can do it too (especially if by some lost magic they learn how to predict when sunset will be). You can run them on Hydrogen or one of many other flammable substances you made during the day or during the summer. This already costs on par with new nuclear and is dropping by over 20% per year.

Also: the energy comes from renewables, but the solar panels themselves are certainly not.

The raw material investments of solar and wind are on the same order as coal or nuclear and decreasing every year. Unless you are proposing building more gas?

rasz• 4 years ago

covering 100% of electricity demand for 5 hours on October, 7 2022

https://euenergy.live/country.php?a2=GR

230 Euro/MWh, one of the most expensive in whole EU. For comparison it was windy that week. Norway, Sweden and Finland had almost free electricity

https://euenergy.live/country.php?a2=SE1

7 Euro/MWh

ZeroGravitas2• 4 years ago

Good news but plenty more to do, luckily the pace of change seems to be accelerating.

ZeroGravitas2• 4 years ago

The article they link to has a nice graph showing that acceleration:

https://thegreentank.gr/en/2022/09/27/admie-august2022-en/

Greece runs on 100% renewables for the first time on record

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