Tag Archives: solar power

The view over a distance

That is what I see, at a distance my old country (the Netherlands) is setting a new premise of pressure. In the BBC article (at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn40y9yxkgvo) we are given ‘Netherlands’ renewables drive putting pressure on its power grid’ and that is fine. For me (my intake) is that the setting is that when there is no renewable energy, they will have to resort to the old setting (like gas or oil) and there is ample reason for this. Yet we are given “In a Dutch government TV campaign called “Flip the Switch” an actress warns viewers about their electricity usage. “When we all use electricity at the same time, our power grid gets overloaded,” she says. “This can cause malfunctions. So, use as little electricity as possible between four and nine.”” A setting we comprehend, the other option is that we are ‘handed’ the setting of “Renewable energy prices in the Netherlands are not a separate category but are included in the overall electricity price, which currently averages around €0.33 per kWh” so we could end the setting that renewable energy above a certain usage is delivered at €0.99 per kWh, the rest can either adhere to the additional prices or accept that oil is the other party in the mix (at €0.33 per kWh), a simple solution for the Dutch to increase what they have going in renewable settings. And there is no blame on the Dutch admittedly we are given “it leads the way in Europe for the number of solar panels per person. In fact, more than one third of Dutch homes have solar panels fitted.

The country is also aiming for offshore wind farms to be its biggest source of energy by 2030.” And that is a time pressured setting and the Dutch political systems know this. There is no averting your eyes from the needs and the Dutch know this too well. The other nations face a similar setting, the Dutch were however a lot more hands on into finding these options and they have 18 million people in that nation, it is almost as much as the Australian population (27 million) but the area differences is that the Netherlands is only 0.54% of Australia, setting the premise that the Netherlands has the population pressure of Sydney on a national foundation, they needed a renewable energy policy in place. No one denies that. But the needs are not matching the availability. As such my solution at a premium (which might achieve the same setting) or accept that oil isn’t a thing of the past yet and perhaps in 2030 when there are the actual additional kWh available it will be possible and at that point the Dutch are still the first by a mile over all other European nations to be the first to get to a positive carbon setting, even above zero carbon (meaning that no carbon emissions are being produced from a product or service) and that is quite the achievement to have. Oh, and I reckon that these kids squandering energy as they mine for bitcoins will foot that bill as they are eager to get wealthy and those who do not, get to explain to their mummies and daddies why they need a RTX 5090 32gb AMD Ryzen 9 9900x3d to play Frogger (or Minecraft). I wonder how many excuses they will employ and in the meantime it will reduce the pressures as well, I just wonder how much as there is no real number on the number of bitcoin miners, but they do have a top100 in the Netherlands, so anything is possible.

The other part of the explanation is given to us by Kees-Jan Rameau, chief executive of Dutch energy producer and supplier Eneco. ““Nowadays we’re switching to renewables, and that means there’s a lot of power being injected into the grid in the outskirts of the network where there are only relatively small power lines.” And these small power lines are struggling to cope with all the electricity coming in from wind turbines and solar panels scattered around the country.” OK, that is a fair assessment, but those cases could be renewed or reviewed and separate cables could be set to whatever the renewable setting is to a clear hub (my lack of technical knowledge is optionally at fault here) and that could have been seen in advance to the renewable farms being designed (as I personally see it). 

We get all the excuses and not the simple setting that even as the Netherlands is already at 70% renewable, there was no way that they would be ready before 2035 and that is likely a decade ahead of several other EU nations, the only exception might be Sweden as it constructed Vattenfall some time ago, so they get to have a head start, and they only have 11 hungry mouths to supply and that is as it is 1 times larger, but the bulk of that nation is in the southern third of that country. So they are in a comfortable league to stay even with Dutch ingenuity as I personally see it. 

So whilst the BBC is correct in its article, I fail to see the applaud that the Dutch are due as they are one of the few EU nations that achieved what was needed to achieve (with Sweden in second place) I am missing that part in the article, no matter the laurels that are due Kees-Jan Rameau of Eneco. It is a side we should have been given in this all. So where do Germany, France and the United Kingdom stand in this, how far are they? Just simple questions that come to mind. 

Have a great Sunday (I am having mine with chocolate sprinkles) and enjoy the pre Monday bash you will enjoy, except Canada, they started the weekend a day early due to the Toronto Blue Jays giving the Dodgers (LA) a thrashing with their 11-4 victory. Lucky bastards, a long weekend where none was given.

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It’s in the air

I saw an ‘article’ and I was momentarily stunned. It was merely a moment, but the headline got me. It gave me ‘Saudi Arabia Air Conditioner Market to Hit Valuation of US$ 5,969.25 Million By 2033 | Astute Analytica’, it was a surprise as Saudi’s have a much better resistance than almost anyone else on the planet. And i’m fine that they prefer a less desert heat feeling. But then I got to wonder about that premise. You see it comes with a ‘sample’ page and for $ 4250/- you get a one seat license. They do hand over a free sample (if you submit your email and phone details, and when did that EVER go well?) You see, now the article is set to a simple sales page. 

And the sales people have a decent grasp of the need. They start the story with:
The air conditioning market in Saudi Arabia stands as a testament to the interplay between climatic necessity and economic prosperity. In a country where temperatures can soar beyond 50°C during summer months, air conditioning transcends luxury to become an indispensable aspect of daily life. This necessity is reflected in the staggering statistic that approximately 75% of the electric load in Saudi Arabia is consumed by air conditioning systems, with air conditioners accounting for about 52% of the total electric energy produced in the country.” There we have the words ‘Staggering statistic’ but there is no underlining evidence. Well there might be if you pay the $ 4250/- or hand over all your details (and I am not THAT stupid). You see, it might have value if they had submitted that report without wanting anything, but that never happens in this world as they see it. And here I found some details “BSI Business Park, Sector-63, Noida UP- 201301 – India” this doesn’t invalidate them, it merely gives voice to their ‘aggressive’ sales technique. Then we get the ‘run-down’. You see they are given their ‘great companies’ in just too small graphics, but it is too small. At some point you see logo’s like Google and the rest? I couldn’t make this out. So what are these ‘experts’? According to searches I did, we see that they “rated 4.7 out of 5 stars on AmbitionBox, based on 7 company reviews”, and a place called AmbitionBox gives us more, these 7 reviews are 7 people in Noida (likely employees), so which people at Google trust them? 

That is merely the start of it. Then we get to “approximately 75% of the electric load in Saudi Arabia is consumed by air conditioning systems, with air conditioners accounting for about 52% of the total electric energy produced in the country” so on what data is that based? Oh, right, for $ 4250 or handing over all your data you get to know that part. Yet I have questions. You see, There is a side that I consider valuable. They give us that America and India are the larger supplier of AC systems, but that is not the side I looked at. The one sentence I looked at. It was “High energy consumption straining the national grid”, it is the one setting that has value to me. There is a need to look at what makes an AC system operate. There is a need to reengineer these systems so that the power consumption goes down by 50% that is the actual challenge. You see there is a need for cold air, not merely cool air. The romans (you know the ancient Italian bunch) did it in reverse for hot houses in two stages, can this be reengineered to keep things cool? I reckon that you need a lot more power to get something from 50 degrees to 20 degrees than you need when you get 50 to 35 degrees in stage one and 35 to 20 degrees in stage two. Now, this might not apply to all houses. But consider malls and apartment buildings they could use that approach. You see 50.60% of the total housing are apartments, that means thousands of apartment buildings. Now consider that they might get free building AC reducing power drains. Then consider that they have 107 malls in Saudi Arabia (according to 2025 counts) and they set the same setting. A few years ago I set the premise for Dubai in a new setting of power distribution. That could apply to malls as well. So downing the power drain seems to be a first requirement. I did this on June 28, 2022. Almost three years ago in the story ‘Will you feel frisky?’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2022/06/28/will-you-feel-frisky/). Is it foolproof? No, but it is a large step in the right direction and power consumption will hit the planet on a global setting and I saw Dubai as one of the first places to get hit with requirements. I never tried to sell anything. I am merely trying to contribute to the solution. So take that and add a reduced power drain through air conditioning. Seems that I partially solved the energy drains, and it didn’t require anyone to hand over their details or ask for $ 4,250. You merely had to read the piece and see if you could improve on it, or even implement it, partial or not.

Yet, no matter what the motives of Astute Analytica are, they seemingly handed the world an issue. You see, a salesperson might see opportunity in ‘Valuation of US$ 5,969.25 million by 2033’, yet others will see infrastructure and support jobs by then and others still will see that something needs to be done about power drains by 2033. You can get solutions in more power or you can get solutions into getting better power systems and more power efficient AC solutions. It is up to the instigator to see what is best. The AC supplier wants to sell, but at some point it becomes a redundant setting, especially if power needs are rising. America gave us some numbers late last year when they gave us “Five-year US load growth forecast surges 456%, to 128 GW: Grid Strategies. U.S. electricity demand is forecast to increase 15.8% by 2029”, I wonder what happens when we look at Texas and someone did. A mere two weeks ago we were given “it’s possible that the grid would not have enough power to meet peak demand during the summer and winter seasons starting next year.” As such getting some systems more efficient might be the way to go. And I for one saw an option which was found in ‘cheap’ Slovakian fridges. Considering the two step solutions it might be a way to go, especially in Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Optionally more places as well. But I will leave this to the properly educated civil engineers in the land to see where they can take this idea.

Well I earned my sandwich today. Have a great day.

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Energy Tattoo

It is always fun and exciting to see a new wave of IP, it is equally interesting and exciting to see this when it is the IP of someone else. You see, any creative mind will respect and delight in seeing and meeting any true creative mind and that is where I was this morning. It was an article by the BBC on April 9th that got to me. The article ‘Nano ink solar cells allow tech to charge in any light’ (at https://www.bbc.com/news/av/technology-61025430). There we see “While they are unlikely to help charge more power-hungry devices like phones and laptops, the nano inks, developed by Giovanni Fili’s company, Exeger, will help power many other things such as headphones” I think that Giovanni is on the right track to a lot more. Yes, he might be right in one way. But consider a messenger back, or backpack cover with that ink, not powering the device, but a power block. It charges all day long and then at the end of the working day can recharge the phone, perhaps even the laptop to some degree. Consider that part, an ink that has the ability to charge. Now consider that it is in nearly all light conditions and that ink is sort of black, now consider fabrics, how much surface does that power enable? Now these are mere thoughts that come without any regard on how expensive the ink is, but the idea that it can be done, implies that more is possible and Exeger is at the start of that race and they are alone at the start of that race. Powering drones, powering isolated devices the consumer goods and military applications are close to limitless and Exeger is the only player in town. That matters. It matters more than my 5G IP, it matters more than some of my other IP including the public domain solution of $10,000,000,000 I placed less than a week ago. Giovanni Fili has the inside track to a new race most do not even know is starting soon, and it makes me happy, it makes me rejoice, because the true creative mind is rare and when it is towards a common good nearly anyone will require it makes sense to become happy. A Swedish invention that could have a large global impact and global intentions soon enough. To see a creative mind should make anyone happy and suddenly I have no need for coffee (weird), I am just sitting here on the sofa considering what else is possible. Because when you consider that ink becoming a paint, how much energy efficiency will a container carrier get? What is possible when the roof of a modern building is covered with that. The larger energy impact solutions will become royalty of tomorrow, consider that part and consider how big your energy bill was and how much of that can be reduced? You see we know that there are solar cells out there, but now THEY have competition, so how much cheaper will these solutions suddenly become?  

Just a few ideas to keep in mind, in the mean time lets raise our glass to Giovanni Fili and his creative mind, he’s earned it.

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