Claes de Vreese ☑️And now something positive:
solar and wind energy production in the EU surpasses fossil energy for the first time.
☀️ 💨
Source: https://dr.dk
Marvin R@claesdevreese is the framing here a little odd? I only read the auto-translation, why do they treat hydro-electric and other renewables differently?
Sounds like the big milestone might be 2026 if 50% EU wide electricity comes from renewable sources(currently 49%)
Ariaflame@marv51 @claesdevreese Possibly because some of the hydro is storage, so the water pumped up to the upper reservoir is powered by energy from sources including fossil fuels.
@ariaflame @claesdevreese I see around 10% of hydro might be from pump storage.
Wouldn't logically almost all the energy stored in a pump storage come from wind and solar?
Wouldn't logically almost all the energy stored in a pump storage come from wind and solar?
@marv51 @claesdevreese Maybe, maybe not. Pumped storage is used to store any excess energy in the system. In the past at least that included fossil fuel systems which are very difficult to ramp down and up, so it was easier during periods of low demand (such as overnight) to keep going at a higher level and put the excess into storage for the next day's morning peak.
@ariaflame @claesdevreese Yeah no, I don't think that pump storage has anything to do with it. I found a second Danish newsarticle, that explains why they like this "solar + wind" framing:
"Denmark occupies its place as the EU country with the highest share of solar and wind energy in the entire EU - 71 percent."(https://www.dr.dk/nyheder/viden/klima/se-eu-landenes-energirekorder-danmark-bedst-paa-sol-og-vind)
@marv51 @claesdevreese That doesn't seem to mention hydro so I'm not sure what the relevance to the conversation is
@ariaflame @claesdevreese
Q was: Why does this Danish news org frame the progress with renewables this way? Why is solar + wind being larger than fossil significant, when renewable overall are *much* larger than fossil.
Your theory: Because hydro storage might contain non-renewable electricity.
After some research, my likely answer:
Danish news likes this view, because Denmark has the largest solar + wind percentage in the EU. (But not the highest percentage of renewables over all)
@marv51 @claesdevreese I suspect I did not read the question that way. I speculated about a reason why hydro-electric and other renewables might be treated differently. Then when you asked if the pumped hydro wouldn't all be solar and wind powered I answered that. Whether that is the reason I don't know. It was not a theory, merely a hypothesis.
Wulfy—Speaker to the machines@marv51 @ariaflame @claesdevreese
IMHO Pump storage is not green.
It's claimed it is, but you could by using brown coal offpeak to push the water uphill.
It's purely an economic gimmick.