Slashdot Mirror
Tesla Proposes Microgrids With Solar and Batteries To Power Greek Islands (electrek.co)
Tesla is proposing ways to modernize the electric grid of Greece's many islands in the Mediterranean sea with microgrids and renewable energy to reduce their dependence on fossil fuels. "Several Greek islands are relatively remote and rely heavily on fossil fuels to power their electric grid," notes Electrek. From the report: The Greek Minister of Environment and Energy, Mr. George Stathakis, confirmed last week that they have met with Tesla to discuss the deployment of microgrids in Greek islands. They issued the following statement (translated from Greek via Capital.gr): "[...] The extremely interesting thing that emerged from the meeting is that technological progress has now significantly reduced the cost of energy storage. At the same time, successful competitions for new RES investments in Greece, led to an equally significant reduction in the cost of energy production. As a result, the conversion of the islands to RES, apart from being environmentally useful, is now also economically viable. In this context, cooperation with Tesla can prove to be extremely beneficial, as the American company officials have highlighted, showing strong interest in the initiatives promoted by the Ministry for 'smart' and 'energy' islands."
Tesla has reportedly already suggested a pilot project to demonstrate their microgrid system in the region. The government would like it to be on the island of Limnos. The idea is to install a large solar array and combine it with an energy storage facility to store the excess energy during the day and use it at night when the sun is not shining.
Tesla has reportedly already suggested a pilot project to demonstrate their microgrid system in the region. The government would like it to be on the island of Limnos. The idea is to install a large solar array and combine it with an energy storage facility to store the excess energy during the day and use it at night when the sun is not shining.
Even if the average IQ of Slashdot readers has gone down in the last decade I think everyone knows what "night" means.
Thanks, dumbass.
Solar is ideal for the Greek islands. They have been building wind-power generators on some (e.g. the Cyclades), however the peak energy usage on islands is exactly when the sun is shining hot. The battery requirements should not be that great, especially compared to other scenarios. ;)
I've had a solar roof on mainland Greece for several years now, which, at 10kW nominal (Renesola Virtus II hybrid) was predicted to produce 12-13 MWh/year due to its suboptimal E/W orientation, but it is generating over 14 MWh every year, and some islands are even more sunny from that mountainous area. For something geek-cool check out the bottom of this page to see how my solar roof "perceived" a partial solar eclipse
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. Polar Scope Align for iOS
Greece probably can apply for EU green energy loans or something.
Where is the nuclear only crowd? Have we finally found a scenario where they won't recommend a nuclear option?
Ok troll...the Greek island grids are small so we can build batteries large enough to backup their tiny grids. And that's a great solution. Doing the same things for CA (or the US or anywhere on a continent really) would be an entirely different proposition requiring the drastic increase (several fold) in global production of the raw materials for whatever type of battery you build. Learn to do math and do some research and you will find quite quickly how stupid the solar/wind only proposals for large countries really are. As for Greece, its a great place to build a solar/wind/tidal only battery backed grid and you don't need to strip mine most of Chile and Australia to do it. Now that's you've trolled the nuclear folks for the day, go get your paycheck from the natural gas folks greenie...
"Those that start by burning books, will end by burning men."
https://electrek.co/2018/09/24... or it could be like this.
Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
In this case, the islands are quite literally islanded micro-grids that are not connected to the outside world. There are no undersea power cables, instead they rely on diesel/fossil fuel generation.
...si hoc legere nimium eruditionis habes...
PG&E (Pacific Gas and Electric) has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Maybe Tesla can work with them, or with alternative energy companies like East Bay Community Energy (EBCE), to help supply power.
Or Tesla might help large numbers of customers get power off the grid, using their solar panels and power walls. (For that to take off, Tesla should lower their prices.)
Good idea, PG&E won't be bankrupt again for at least a month if you force them to buy even more overpriced power they don't want. CA is already completely oversupplied with power generation and doesn't needs more. PG&E is declaring bankruptcy to get out of liability for all the recent wildfires. They know huge settlements are coming against them from the wildfires. That combined with the sweetheart deals they were forced to sign to buy rather expensive solar and wind at losses and its no surprise they want a reset. And that's what a PG&E bankruptcy is, a reset. They declare bankruptcy on a regular basis for various reasons (3x in the last 20 years) including their own bad management at times (see San Bruno, 2008) but more significantly the regulations that force them to buy renewable power at huge losses.
And I'm sure that Elon is willing to use the entire year's output of a gigafactory to build a battery that could backup CA's grid for an entire hour. The CA grid is entirely too big for battery backups to be useful for anything more than load shifting (which we don't really need in CA). EBCE is a feel good initiative and nothing more. They can't bend the laws of physics any more than PG&E or the regulators can and will likely only make even more of a mess of the situation than the last round of do-gooders did.
"Those that start by burning books, will end by burning men."
Most of us reading this are probably thinking the same thing - how does someone who's broke pay for some new tech?
Greece isn't broke. That was 8-10 years ago. Greece recorded a budget surplus (0.6% and 0.8% of GDP respectively) in the past two years. That is with all the debt payments included. Without the debt, Greece's primary surplus last year was about 3.2% of GDP. In 2017, it was 4.2%. So yes, they can pay for new stuff, especially since solar panels and batteries on islands don't need to be necessarily paid for directly by the central government.
Hi Tesla.
Just get the money up front.
Best regards
The rest of the EU
L'Idiot
Have we ?
You understand very little about power apparently. Pumping water uphill is at best about a 30% energy conversion.
Closer to 70%. The New York State Power Authority has been operating pumped storage facilities for power generated in off hours at Niagara Falls for decades. If it didn't make economic sense, they wouldn't be doing it.
BUT the economics only work if you use the facility every day and there are not a lot of sites suitable for pumped storage.in typical terrain.
Google Gilboa-Blenheim for more information on an actual facility that has been in operation for about half a century.
You can't see ANYTHING from a car, You've got to get out of the goddamned contraption and walk...Edward Abbey