Much confusion is created by using the unclear terms "primary energy" and "secondary energy". It's best to distinguish "heat energy", which is the sum of the kinetic energies of trillions of vibrating molecules, from "useful energy", which is the ability to do work -- electric energy, or kinetic energy of an object, or gravitational potential energy. They are notated kWh(t) for heat (thermal) energy and kWh(e) for electric energy. See ElectrifyingOurWorld.com .
Excellent article. Covers a very important part of wind/solar/battery/hydrogen/agrofuel energy that is ignored by most media and completely ignored by grifters like Lazard in their LCOE calculations. Also a subject EIA, IEA and BP avoid like it was the plague. The net result is that changing the World to one powered by wind/solar/hydrogen/agrofuels is a physical impossibility. The people responsible for foisting these scams upon us deserve long prison terms.
Note that CANDU nuclear has the highest EROI of any energy source on the planet right now 120:1. And calculations for Advanced reactors operating on a closed fuel cycle have EROI of from 300:1 to 800:1.
Color us shocked that solar PV outside narrow bands below certain latitudes on all continents is a net energy sink from an EROEI standpoint. Rube Goldberg is the right sign to hang on both wind and solar.
I have a coworker in Switzerland that has ~60kW of solar on his farm rooftops and he gets paid something like 0.40-0.50 CHF/kWh (call it $0.50 to be close enough) for net metering. This is pure insanity given that I pay around 0.15-0.25 CHF/kWh in Zürich.
So far Switzerland has been able to absorb all of the solar because they have so much hydro and pumped hydro (60-65% of total kWh supply) - essentially the solar energy from the summer results in water “saved” for winter in the Alpen dams. So Switzerland (and probably Austria too) have some of the best capability in the world for absorbing the ups and downs for Solar/Wind and it is still incredibly expensively and inefficiently subsidized to the point of economic nonsense. At least we don’t have to ramp our 4 remaining nuclear plants much... yet...
Much confusion is created by using the unclear terms "primary energy" and "secondary energy". It's best to distinguish "heat energy", which is the sum of the kinetic energies of trillions of vibrating molecules, from "useful energy", which is the ability to do work -- electric energy, or kinetic energy of an object, or gravitational potential energy. They are notated kWh(t) for heat (thermal) energy and kWh(e) for electric energy. See ElectrifyingOurWorld.com .
Excellent article. Covers a very important part of wind/solar/battery/hydrogen/agrofuel energy that is ignored by most media and completely ignored by grifters like Lazard in their LCOE calculations. Also a subject EIA, IEA and BP avoid like it was the plague. The net result is that changing the World to one powered by wind/solar/hydrogen/agrofuels is a physical impossibility. The people responsible for foisting these scams upon us deserve long prison terms.
Note that CANDU nuclear has the highest EROI of any energy source on the planet right now 120:1. And calculations for Advanced reactors operating on a closed fuel cycle have EROI of from 300:1 to 800:1.
Good piece.
Color us shocked that solar PV outside narrow bands below certain latitudes on all continents is a net energy sink from an EROEI standpoint. Rube Goldberg is the right sign to hang on both wind and solar.
I have a coworker in Switzerland that has ~60kW of solar on his farm rooftops and he gets paid something like 0.40-0.50 CHF/kWh (call it $0.50 to be close enough) for net metering. This is pure insanity given that I pay around 0.15-0.25 CHF/kWh in Zürich.
So far Switzerland has been able to absorb all of the solar because they have so much hydro and pumped hydro (60-65% of total kWh supply) - essentially the solar energy from the summer results in water “saved” for winter in the Alpen dams. So Switzerland (and probably Austria too) have some of the best capability in the world for absorbing the ups and downs for Solar/Wind and it is still incredibly expensively and inefficiently subsidized to the point of economic nonsense. At least we don’t have to ramp our 4 remaining nuclear plants much... yet...