Path: news.eternal-september.org!eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail
From: Martin Brown <'''newspam'''@nonad.co.uk>
Newsgroups: sci.electronics.design
Subject: Re: Grand Apagon - Electricity (not) in Spain
Date: Thu, 1 May 2025 15:48:45 +0100
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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.

> 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!

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!

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.

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?


-- 
Martin Brown