UK Energy Production

[mwinfrance]

Yes I know i can have both, I have been working with computing since the 70s. But I can't run Chrome with currently 600 tabs spread across 11 windows, and my last session of FF with 2800 tabs spread across 14 windows both at once on this one box, I'd run out of RAM ( been there done that ) .This is one reason why I have so many machines. re Finding reasons for "it" to be impossible.Not at all.The way this roof was built, the way the house is lined up, I cannot get a single panel on the current roof and I can only extend with a north facing roof, it will only allow me 6 panels of 450W each at max.you have a far better choice of gear than we do. I could then add to the walls of that extension another 4 panels max ( even then the town hall is likely to refuse that I put any on the walls, even though they could not be seen by anyone ) ..If I lived 2 km further inland, it would not be the same mayor, I could add as many panels on the wall as I wished.Your circumstances are not mine.Becoming annoyed at this attitude, I'm extremely pro solar, pro wind, but our town hall claims to be, and in reality makes it difficult ( taxes the panels in place yearly ) and makes it well nigh impossible for anyone to use it without a huge roof. Got it, I hope so.

We get so little sunlight that vitamin D deficiency is a major problem in this part of France, 6 days of sun since last November..Further around the coast Lille has had just 5 hours since Jan 1st.

Before you think to say "move"..we moved here to look after Mme's mother, she died, we bought out the rest of the family to buy this house.Where we were ( Var ) my atelier with built in appartement, had 600 sq metres of roof , and 3 hectares of land could have run all the solar i'd ever have needed there, and would have.

Temp outside is currently 6°C light wind , and is heavily overcast..heavy rain forecast. Yesterday it snowed , was windier and colder. here you stop heating the house in late May, begin again end of September. It is also extremely humid and cold with it, Coastal Brittany.

one other thing, the prices we pay ( even a trade rates I get ) for any solar gear , even cars now, are much higher than OZ, UK, or Germany nor Spain...because "reasons"....and "preserving our industries".

 

[Spectric]

If I lived 2 km further inland, it would not be the same mayor

The Uk is going down that route of local mayors and so maybe we will end up with different rules for different areas where what you can have in one place is not allowed in others.

We get so little sunlight that vitamin D deficiency is a major problem in this part of France

I dare say that applies to many northern parts of the UK and Scotland but most people see france as a warm and sunny place.

 

[Agent_zed]

We get so little sunlight that vitamin D deficiency is a major problem in this part of France,

Getting off topic but I'd say a lot of this comes down to lifestyle. People just don't go outside enough.

 

[Dabop]

Your location is in Brittany in France correct???
Our family came from Lancaster in the UK originally, well to your north, and we still have relatives there (running a 5kw solar array quite successfully I might add)

Yes you get a lower solar insolation there, but that doesn't stop 'others' from running solar successfully...

.The way this roof was built, the way the house is lined up, I cannot get a single panel on the current roof

I find that quite unlikely- solar works regardless of roof direction (admittedly with a decrease in performance)
My old place for example ran half facing east, and half facing west as we had no available north facing roof- and that e/w combination made exactly the same daily total as the neighbours identical all north facing array did...

In fact many installations (both here in Oz and in the UK) now run multidirection arrays...

 

[mwinfrance]

Our roof is the same shape, but smaller, with dormers and skylights, , cannot get a panel even 100 x 100 on any of it. If I could I would have done so long ago.
I get outside a lot, yes ,Even in current temps i'm in tee shirt, many don't get outside nearly enough, or stay covered up ( like Mme who rides a cycle daily ) because it is cold..Even colder on a pushbike.Especially in the rain.

This bit of France is warmer than the UK in the summer, July and August, and cold and wet the rest of the year, Cotes d'armor, nearest town St Brieuc.

Colder and wetter here, than where I'm from, in south east Ireland.

 

[mwinfrance]

I find that quite unlikely

As by writing the above you have as good as said that you think I'm lying, I'll give up with you.

 

[Dabop]

Our roof is the same shape, but smaller, with dormers and skylights, , cannot get a panel even 100 x 100 on any of it. If I could I would have done so long ago.
I get outside a lot, yes ,Even in current temps i'm in tee shirt, many don't get outside nearly enough, or stay covered up ( like Mme who rides a cycle daily ) because it is cold..Even colder on a pushbike.Especially in the rain.

This bit of France is warmer than the UK in the summer, July and August, and cold and wet the rest of the year, Cotes d'armor, nearest town St Brieuc.

Colder and wetter here, than where I'm from, in south east Ireland.

Cold is better for panel performance than hot is...
In fact summer is basically the worst time of year for solar generation at my place, equal to winter...

With the summer heat here being over 40C for most of summer, and my panels running over 80C, I lose over 20% of my total generation...

So just when I want to run the A/C, I've lost 1/5 of my generating capacity...

I really find it hard to believe your house and surrounds have literally no way of having panels installed- there are literally so many options to having solar...

Quite common these days is having fences made of vertically mounted solar panels- either single sided for north facing (south in your case) or double sided for east/west facing fencelines

I never said you were lying- perhaps a little less paranoia???

What I am saying is you seem to have a very outdated view on solar power generation- not your fault, but it is obvious that you have little idea of the current state of the art... or what the actual requirements are...

 

[mwinfrance]

I have local knowledge ( which you don't of what is available here in France, I have trade accounts with the two largest suppliers in my county, One of whom sends me daily invitations to join their 3 days courses to become a fully accredited solar installer..Yes it is that "Mickey Mouse" here. Your solar fence would be absolutely refused by any French planning authority , because they wouldn't like "how it looks"..Ours even dictate which way up ( vertical only ) wooden cladding can be fitted to the outsides of domestic buildings or small sheds, on the grounds of the retired musical therapist ( planning councilor ) prefers the look.

If you never said I was lying..those words in the sequence you posted must have a different meaning in OZ.

Try being less "know it all" and dismissive of what is written by those" on the ground" ,about what can be done in places that you know nothing about apart from via maps,France , while not being as big as OZ and having less coastline ( if you only count "metro France" * ) has a large range of climates.

If you count all of France, including the "overseas" bits, it has the second longest total coastline of the world, and is the only country with land in all oceans. Some of it very close to OZ..much closer to you than to me. Some of it can be at -5C while at the very same time , other parts of France can be at +35°C. At the moment ( today ) the temperature difference between where I am and where I had my atelier is 20°c , normal, it is 1200 km south of me, But only 25 Kms inland from there the ski resorts are open, and they have over a metre of snow, and freezing temps, their solar is working well, they have more sun than we do, except when it is actually snowing.

The current "state"of the art" is not what determines what one can do, that is determined by what one has access to where one is. I know what can be done, but I cannot get the gear to do it here, and certainly not for the prices that you pay, nor the permissions to do it. if I could, I'd have done so, years ago. Not everyone here is as thick as you seem to think that they are, witness you telling me about linux, with screenshots no less. ROTFALOL. I was coding in 73., before Linus was a glimmer in his dad's eye. doesn't mean that I could code better than him.But I cut my teeth on Fortran, Cobol and Pascal, with a bit of assembler before I got bored with coding and left it alone til 95.

 

[Dabop]

I have local knowledge ( which you don't of what is available here in France, I have trade accounts with the two largest suppliers in my county, One of whom sends me daily invitations to join their 3 days courses to become a fully accredited solar installer..Yes it is that "Mickey Mouse" here. Your solar fence would be absolutely refused by any French planning authority , because they wouldn't like "how it looks"..Ours even dictate which way up ( vertical only ) wooden cladding can be fitted to the outsides of domestic buildings or small sheds, on the grounds of the retired musical therapist ( planning councilor ) prefers the look.

If you never said I was lying..those words in the sequence you posted must have a different meaning in OZ.

Try being less "know it all" and dismissive of what is written by those" on the ground" ,about what can be done in places that you know nothing about apart from via maps,

I've been using and installing solar since the 1980's, and have designed and commissioned solar installations in many countries around the world...

True I haven't been to your particular part of France- but I HAVE done systems far further north than yours (UK and Scotland) as well as designed the actual controllers themselves (as in hand making the prototype preproduction PCBs for charge controllers), and am now 'semi retired' after working with solar for much of my life... (I been doing offgrid solar installs since the 1980's, gridtie solar installs since the early 2000's and worked with a company designing and installing remote monitoring systems for mining industries- solar powered of course and with installations worldwide...)

There is no valid reason (petty politicians are not a valid reason for ANYTHING- imho, should be treated like rabid dogs the lot of them...) why solar can't be used- it will most certainly work well in your part of the world (just like it does everywhere else...)

Hell, we use it in Antarctica (as do several other countries) to provide power to their bases there...

France is positively tropical in comparison lol
(that solar fence is not mine btw- its in Norway...)

 

[Dabop]

Not everyone here is as thick as you seem to think that they are, witness you telling me about linux, with screenshots no less. ROTFALOL. I was coding in 73., before Linus was a glimmer in his dad's eye. doesn't mean that I could code better than him.But I cut my teeth on Fortran, Cobol and Pascal, with a bit of assembler before I got bored with coding and left it alone til 95.

OK- you are a cranky old fart with 'knowledge' decades out of date and won't accept anything new (ie from the 20th or 21st centuries)
Got it...
(And yes I also grew up using hexdec coding (assembler) with machines that had only kb of ram for the 'big ones'...)
You aren't anything special there lol

Bye bye

 

[mwinfrance]

Your bank is probably still running the code languages I and many others learned back then.That is why those of us who know them can get paid handsomely if we so wish.they are very far from being, out of date.

I agree totally re politicians and until you began insulting me, I agreed with 99% of everything I have seen you post here. I still agree with much of it. But I cannot do it, the panels that I can get, I cannot fit on the roof. The local mayor ( maybe local politicians will change next year , for the better, to ones with more sense and understanding of the relevant science * ) refuses to authorise installation on walls or fences etc.He ( or to be more precise the retired lady musical therapist from Paris who is the councilor with the decision making ability ) has refused ground installed panels by those who have gardens large enough to do them, because "looks bad from the air, not in keeping, blah , blah " ) .If we get a different set of pols, I'll be putting as much solar on as I can squeeze on, but I can't get what isn't on offer here. I'm no "cranky old fart decades out of date" , but those who decide here what we are allowed to do..they are.

They have decided ( last year ) that any new walls around properties must be no higher than 1 metre so as not to impede the view of those looking into the private property..yes..rural , coastal France. I now have to prove that the 2 metre high wall between us and the neighbour is older than 10 years.it is 95 years old, and the weathering and lichen attests to it.They want me to pay for a survey to put it in writing. New roofs must be slate ( despite it all coming from Spain and of a different colour to what was mined locally ) or zinc sheets only ( because zinc is what most of the roofs in Paris where she comes from are, so she thinks they are "authentic".

* Mayor is a retired biologist, ..anti-vaccer - anti-masker . didn't stop him making loads of dosh testing people for covid though just before he sold his private lab and retired..I get no enjoyment at all from coding..I made our websites, but our son is doing all the code work on them now, I'd rather sculpt and paint. The one exception is running our own offline tweaked stable diffusion or flex2..later this year. That will require even more leccy for the graphics cards..

Never claimed to be "anything special" there..You just didn't read what I'd posted previous to your "screenshots" re why I cannot run Chromium and FF both at the same time on this box, If I had fewer tabs and windows open in each session on each, I could.Obviously I know that what one browser is signed into, does not affect the other, ( except for cross domain cookies and various other kinds of tracking, profiling, google "calls" especially ) ..I'm on a fixed IP addy, same one for about 5 years now.

Many typos..cold hands..15°C at this desk today .14.30 pm

Can't insulate the outside of the house, because the retired musical therapist hasn't yet decided if it would be "in keeping" if I finished it in white ( like it is now, as are were 90% of the houses here for centuries ) or vertical decking ..like she thinks vertical wooden decking, ( pine only ) would look more "ecological"..But she has also banned any thing which looks like Swiss Chalet, because that style of wooden exterior, would not be, "in keeping".

 

[Spectric]

Your bank is probably still running the code languages I and many others learned back then

Made me think of old languages, Fortran, ADA, Cobol, Modula2 all gone and yet C still in common use with some Pascal.

 

[mwinfrance]

Judging by the occasional posts from "old greybeards" such as us , over at "el reg" ( might be just describing myself there ) Fortran at least is still in use in UK banks. My mate Yann* ( who headed the security team at CA here, in his last job ) said many banks worldwide still used the old languages, and too few young ones were taught them. He saw major problems ahead when things broke, not enough bods around to fix them..Applies to many other things too as you know and have spoken on.

*Dead now.. 40 a day unfiltered did for him. He was one of the early ones to work on what is now called AI ( LLMs ) he got me interested in it, May as well embrace it, my ( and everyone else's ) days as as illustrator ( and other 2D art ) stopped as soon as Stable Diffusion etc went live.