This was a calculation I made myself, some years ago, from sources I had around at the time on energy density, etc. I'll try to do it again, and post the results. Unfortunately, 30% of the country isn't suitable for the growing of it, but I think it does point out the practicality of bioenergy.
Yes, it's true, offshore wind is insanely costly, :(, but running out of fuel is going to be an expensive issue, too.
This (http://www.countryguardian.net/RAENG%20Report.htm) suggests that 10% of UK farmed area under rotation coppicing would provide about 9GW, eventually, but perhaps 1-2GW during initial development.
Oh, excellent. It's good to know that it's being investigated more thoroughly: there seems to be a lot more data about than there was a few years ago. My figures were just astronomy type calculations based on annual consumption in TWh, etc. The thing that annoys me is discussion of things like photovoltaics in their present form (or any near-future one, as far as I can tell) in the same breath as, say, wind or biofuel.
Your figures are a bit disappointing, but, still, I guess it would be a significant contribution to (I assume) the 100-200GW required, say, fifty years hence. pjc50's comment about using fuel sources like this for space-heating makes a lot of sense, too.
It would be interesting to try to collect together data in one place about these things. For example, annual electricity consumption in terms of both power and energy, to see the effects of peaking, etc.
There appear to be several organisations sort-of doing this ... 8-)
(defra and cranfield among them).
One question that's interested me in the past is how much hedge/wood a single household would need for heating/cooking purposes on a sustainable basis; I currently have no good intuitive estimate for this - whether it'd be (say) the 20m hawthorn/yew hedge down the side of our house, or (say) a couple of acres of woodland.
I'm fairly certain our hedge wouldn't see us through a cold winter - you're looking at perhaps five medium-sized split logs a day for perhaps 100 days, to heat a house, if you're not too worried about being a bit chilly some of the time, and rely on warm clothing rather than central heating.
The problem with repositories I've found are that most of them only archive the information they've comissioned (you can usually find stuff in the UL, but that's a bit of a needle and haystack type issue), and they all seem to be bound up in large reports (I think a certain amount of funding must necessitate a certain weight of paper) which mean it's difficult to extract the figures. I realise that serious researchers need the full information, but it would be useful to have an almanack type compendium.
I would be interested if you find out the wood figures.
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(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-02 06:10 pm (UTC)Yes, it's true, offshore wind is insanely costly, :(, but running out of fuel is going to be an expensive issue, too.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-02 06:37 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-03 11:28 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-04 11:22 am (UTC)Your figures are a bit disappointing, but, still, I guess it would be a significant contribution to (I assume) the 100-200GW required, say, fifty years hence.
It would be interesting to try to collect together data in one place about these things. For example, annual electricity consumption in terms of both power and energy, to see the effects of peaking, etc.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-04 11:49 am (UTC)There appear to be several organisations sort-of doing this ... 8-)
(defra and cranfield among them).
One question that's interested me in the past is how much hedge/wood a single household would need for heating/cooking purposes on a sustainable basis; I currently have no good intuitive estimate for this - whether it'd be (say) the 20m hawthorn/yew hedge down the side of our house, or (say) a couple of acres of woodland.
I'm fairly certain our hedge wouldn't see us through a cold winter - you're looking at perhaps five medium-sized split logs a day for perhaps 100 days, to heat a house, if you're not too worried about being a bit chilly some of the time, and rely on warm clothing rather than central heating.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-04 12:12 pm (UTC)I would be interested if you find out the wood figures.