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| This red square shows how much solar panel area is required to power the world [6]. What if we put them all over the world and connected the grids together with wires ? |
Environmental prophets [1] want to conserve consumption whilst solving environmental problems. Let me give you a concrete example from Gellings [2] "Enough solar energy falls on the surface of the earth every 40 minutes to meet 100 percent of the entire world's energy needs for a full year.". Here the prophet in me says, why not constantly harness this energy to meet our entire energy needs ?
Environmentalists who yield wizardry [1] believe they can consume with more sophistication to solve the failings of overpopulation. In Suncable's words "infrastructure will facilitate the electrification of new and existing industries, supporting large-scale economic development, whilst reducing greenhouse gas emissions.". Here the wizard in me says, why not put super solar and mega batteries everywhere and then lay cable to countries which need this power ?
It is pretty clear that both environmentalists have good points and direction. The prophet aims to find answers with minimal consumption and maximal conservation (as discussed in the first section below). The wizard aims to create necessary solutions to problems (as discussed in the second section below).
Where the prophet fails in practicality, the wizard fails in understanding consequences. Can our two energy environmentalists work symbiotically in the future to solve our energy needs without emissions and just a little land pollution ?
A prophet's devil is in the detail
Yes the sun bathes us with ample power and all we need to do is to capture it with solar panels. For the solar panel is the ultimate in a recyclable product - at least 80% of a solar panel is recyclable (primarily glass and aluminium) - it is well suited for mass production, service and end of life recycling [5]. The conjecture is that it is very unlikely that the sun will be blocked entirely by clouds on the side of the earth which it is facing. Consequently distribute solar panels everywhere (e.g. on all buildings) and we can meet our energy requirements with panels alone.
The electrical interconnection of continents (with HVDC power lines) has begun [4], such as the one connecting the continents of Europe and Asia (proposed in 2010 and funded from 2017) which will drive capacity of 2 GW of power - the equivalent of a large sized Australian power generator. In theory a global interconnection of power grids with HVDC lines is all that is needed to pipe the power of solar midday all over the world to where it is needed.
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| Undersea power cables transporting the sun's power to continents in the night. |
Talk to power engineers who manage residential power grids for the city suburbs and they will scoff at this idea of HVDC undersea cables solving their future problems. While it is fruitful to share energy globally, the practical challenge is getting it from the edge of the continent into the suburbs at 6pm. For 6pm is that time when everyone is plugging in their EVs and turning on the heaters, air conditioners, ovens and just generally tending to the home front. Our aging residential grids simply can't do it alone (transport such a large amount of power from the coastline HVDC cable into the suburbs).
Here enters the argument for residential batteries of one form or another, for they will be distributed and of ultimate service in power distribution.
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| Will each house have a battery ? |
A wizard's earth has no limits for necessity is the mother of invention
Cobalt, lithium, silicon and mines, plenty of mines. Lets make a recipe for the construction of efficient batteries. Yes, there is the smallest percentage of lithium in batteries (<2%) but that has to be mined from the earth. I know you are thinking right now about recycling old batteries, but economical forces will not recycle while it is cheaper to pillage the earth for its minerals.
Batteries are typically warrantied for 10 years, which is their effective life time. Every 10 years all of these batteries (we are hedging our power futures on) will be replaced. That is a lot of land fill.
It really doesn't matter which non-renewable power generation or storage method you choose, you will have to pillage the earth to acquire your medium and then dispose of that medium once it is spent.
The concept of gravity storage and other non-distributed storage mechanisms - whilst more environmentally friendly - will suffer the same problems that the continental grid suffers from. Ultimately the question will be whether non-distributed storage remains economically viable when continental grids become common place.
Conclusion
The sun provides ample power (the prophet's gamut), but we simply can't utilise it with our current poles and wires (the prophet's gamut's antithesis). We have no option but to use distributed storage (the wizard's gamut) which will end in land pollution (the wizard's gamut's antithesis). We evidently are sleep walking from the era of air pollution into the era of land pollution.
Despite the current concerns, it is clear that a global grid will make it possible to pipe ample renewable energy all over the world. This will only happen if the interconnections between continents continues and preferably at a fast pace. At least the global grid will challenge utility scale storage.
Future work
What can be done about this land pollution problem ? Can we revitalise our residential grids and strongly encourage the uptake of solar panels by the masses ? Can the wizards and the prophets work in symbiosis to provide our energy needs without polluting our land and water ? What is the necessary course of action ? Where will business and government take us ?
References
[1] Mann's book : The Wizard and the Prophet - Two Remarkable Scientists and Their Dueling Visions to Shape Tomorrow’s World
[3] Suncable
[6] Varsavsky's catchy Twitter image on the topic of solar arrays and the requirements of the Earth.
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