There's an article up on Forbes about the rise of micropower generation versus large scale power-plant generation.
The Economist’s Vijay Vaitheeswaran coined the umbrella term “micropower” to mean sources of electricity that are relatively small, modular, mass-producible, quick-to-deploy, and hence rapidly scalable
This article comes from an update from the Rocky Mountain Institute's Micropower Database, which provides source data (as a spreadsheet, plus methodology) for micropower generation capacity.
According to Forbes:
The update’s most astonishing finding: micropower now produces about one-fourth of the world’s total electricity
[...]
Big hydroelectric dams and nuclear power are also carbon-free in operation. Thus in 2013, nearly half of the world’s electricity was produced with little or no carbon release
There's some loose re-use of the general terms Microgeneration and Micropower at work in various articles and comments, which can be slightly misleading. To clarify from the RMI methodology section:
Following The Economist’s convention, “micropower” is defined here as the electricity-producing portion of combined-heat-and-power (known in the U.S. as “co-generation”), plus all renewable sources of electricity except big hydroelectric stations (which are defined as units bigger than 50 MWe)
(Score: 4, Interesting) by AnonTechie on Thursday September 25 2014, @12:08PM
Small Is Beautiful: A Study of Economics As If People Mattered is a collection of essays by British economist E. F. Schumacher. The phrase "Small Is Beautiful" came from a phrase by his teacher Leopold Kohr. It is often used to champion small, appropriate technologies that are believed to empower people more, in contrast with phrases such as "bigger is better". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_Is_Beautiful [wikipedia.org]
Albert Einstein - "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 25 2014, @12:43PM
BULLSHIT! Where do you think the "microgenerators" come from? From smoke belching factories which gorge themselves on power. And the sorry fact is that many of these current generation devices will NEVER produce as much electricity as it took to manufacture them. They break down long before.
So, while this going local has very many things for it, there is no need to play stupid or outright lie.
(One major benefit is lack of transmission losses which are huge.)
(Score: 2) by mtrycz on Thursday September 25 2014, @01:02PM
I have always wanted to learn more about the energy cost of producing the thing.
Do you have some references?
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(Score: 5, Informative) by subs on Thursday September 25 2014, @01:07PM
There's a term for this, "Energy Returned On Energy Invested" (EROEI): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_returned_on_energy_invested [wikipedia.org]
The EROEI for solar PV microgeneration is in the low single "x" digits and that's without the expense to back it up. By comparison, nuclear is as high as 75x and hydro up to 100x. More advanced nuclear power and especially fusion can easily put a couple extra orders of magnitude on top of that.
(Score: 2) by mtrycz on Thursday September 25 2014, @01:43PM
Thanks, this is plenty useful. More stuff like that.
Also, I'm reading here [wikipedia.org] some interesting facts about EthanolFueled.
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(Score: 2) by Sir Garlon on Thursday September 25 2014, @02:33PM
A quibble: given that major national governments have been researching fusion power for over 60 years and just recently achieved positive net energy [bbc.com] from the reaction, I wouldn't say fusion can "easily" do anything in the real world.
Similarly for more advanced fission reactors. I'll grant you that theoretically they can have a high EROEI, but given fears among the public and politicians after Fukishima, it seems unlikely new plants will be approved in the next few years.
[Sir Garlon] is the marvellest knight that is now living, for he destroyeth many good knights, for he goeth invisible.
(Score: 2) by subs on Thursday September 25 2014, @02:38PM
I wouldn't say fusion can "easily" do anything in the real world
Of course, what I'm saying is predicated on the technology being viable.
As for more advanced fission reactors, they are getting built, just not much in the west. China and Russia are where it's at in regards to nuclear and they're steaming ahead with new Gen III+ plants, while we in the western world let our infrastructure crumble, our industry dwindle and offshore and generally fall behind (being partly sarcastic here, but not too much).
(Score: 1) by Max Hyre on Friday September 26 2014, @05:18PM
IOW, they got more energy out than came in from the lasers, but less than went into the lasers, thanks to entropy and its pals. When they get more out of the fusion than went into the lasers, then they'll declare “ignition”.
(Score: 1) by Max Hyre on Friday September 26 2014, @05:24PM
(Score: 2) by hoochiecoochieman on Thursday September 25 2014, @02:19PM
Speaking about "bullshit", "stupid" and "outright lie", would you please care to back your statements with some reliable data?
(Score: 3, Informative) by bob_super on Thursday September 25 2014, @07:25PM
From the report itself: Out of the 24% for "Micropower", about TWO THIRDS is in the "cogeneration" category.
What is cogeneration? mainly gas/diesel turbines which also provide heating. Definitely not emissions-free.
Per the Methodology: "we recognize that some cogeneration units and some aggregations of wind turbines, photovoltaics, etc. are relatively large"
So, the 24% is made of
- 16% of something that belches emissions
- 8% of others, which still include massive wind/solar installations that wouldn't fit anyone definition of "micropower"
I'm glad the trends are all straight up, but TFS/TFA's presentation of the current status is HIGHLY MISLEADING...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 25 2014, @04:53PM
yes the monkeys in the goverment office need lotsbof visits and convincing with paper to "see" that theres a great ball of fusion in the sky outputting free enerrgy for the next million of years. convincing monkeys is a big part of eroi for solar.