England could produce 13 times more renewable energy

[AE-NMidlands]

"England could produce 13 times more renewable energy, using less than 3% of land – analysis" A good article: https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... d-analysis

Onshore wind and solar could provide 226GWh of electricity without impairing food production, says Friends of the Earth
England could produce 13 times more renewable energy than it does now, while using less than 3% of its land, analysis has found.

Onshore wind and solar projects could provide enough electricity to power all the households in England two and a half times over, the research by Exeter University, commissioned by Friends of the Earth (FoE), suggested.

Currently, about 17 gigawatt hours of electricity comes from homegrown renewables on land. But there is potential for 130 GWh to come from solar panels, and 96GWh from onshore wind.

These figures are reached by only taking into account the most suitable sites, excluding national parks, areas of outstanding natural beauty, higher grade agricultural land and heritage sites.
...
The calculations of the land needed exclude rooftop solar panels.

If only there was the will...

[Mart]

Great article and news, shows the 'easy' potential.

One small* niggle, I assume they meant TWh's not GWh's. Just 1GWp of PV would generate ~1,000GWh, or ~4x the high target mentioned ion the article.

* Is three orders of magnitude small?

[Countrypaul]

Great article and news, shows the 'easy' potential.

One small* niggle, I assume they meant TWh's not GWh's. Just 1GWp of PV would generate ~1,000GWh, or ~4x the high target mentioned ion the article.

* Is three orders of magnitude small?

Either that or they mean GW not GWh, either way it does not seem to make sense to me. In 2022 we procduced 14TWh of PV, and in 2023 34TWh of onshore wind (15370 MW capacity with a load factor of 25%) assuming I have interpreted things correctly - https://assets.publishing.service.gov.u ... MAR_24.ods

Just realised that their figures are only for England

[Mart]

Yep, a simple error I suspect, I have e-mailed them hoping for a correction.

Looking at the linked map you see 1,000's? of sites, and just clicking on a few randomly, they suggested 20GWh-80GWh each. So really great news, just out by a letter T v's G.

[Countrypaul]

Yep, a simple error I suspect, I have e-mailed them hoping for a correction.

Looking at the linked map you see 1,000's? of sites, and just clicking on a few randomly, they suggested 20GWh-80GWh each. So really great news, just out by a letter T v's G.

Yes the FOE report has it correct, but the journalist appears to have rounded the number to the nearest 1000 GWh and forgotten to change the units.
https://policy.friendsoftheearth.uk/ins ... nergy-fast

[Mart]

Nearly there, they've updated the main article, but not the lede.

The potential is incredible, reminds me of the reports that Stanford University have been publishing for 5yrs or so, showing that WWS (wind, water and solar) can meet the World's and individual countries, needs. Plus the technology (and storage) is already good and cheap enough, but getting better every year.

"If only there was the will", very, very true.

[Ken]

They say it was corrected on 09/03/2023 ?? incapable of doing the simplest right??

[Adokforme]

Nearly there, they've updated the main article, but not the lede.

The potential is incredible, reminds me of the reports that Stanford University have been publishing for 5yrs or so, showing that WWS (wind, water and solar) can meet the World's and individual countries, needs. Plus the technology (and storage) is already good and cheap enough, but getting better every year.

"If only there was the will", very, very true.

China seems to have it by the bucket load.

But then again other than coal I'm not sure what reserves they may have of the dreaded black liquid gold?

[Mart]

They say it was corrected on 09/03/2023 ?? incapable of doing the simplest right??

I didn't spot that.

[nowty]

China seems to have it by the bucket load.

But then again other than coal I'm not sure what reserves they may have of the dreaded black liquid gold?

They are 14th position just behind Qatar for oil reserves.
https://www.worldometers.info/oil/oil-r ... e_vignette

And 6th in terms of oil production just behind Iraq.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of ... production