Essay by Eric Worrall
“Even solar plus batteries on a small section of Spain would solve EU energy needs.”
Elon Musk Has Original Idea to Solve the Energy Crisis in Europe
The billionaire is the CEO of Tesla, the electric-vehicle maker pushing the auto industry to reduce its CO2 emissions.
LUC OLINGA
DEC 29, 2022 6:01 PM ESTEurope discovered a new reality this winter: energy rationing.
No matter which European country you are in, the inhabitants explain to you how they must save energy because of the energy crisis hitting the Continent.
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Elon Musk seems to agree and even says that installing solar panels in a small area of Spain would be enough to solve the energy problems of the EU.
“The total area of solar panels it would take to power the world, Europe, and Germany. This map is from Nadine May’s thesis,” the Twitter user tweeted on Dec. 27.
“Such an obvious move!” Musk commented.
And then the CEO of Tesla added that: “Even solar plus batteries on a small section of Spain would solve EU energy needs.”
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Read more: https://www.thestreet.com/technology/elon-musk-has-original-idea-to-solve-the-energy-crisis-in-europe
Spain is one of the sunniest places in Europe, but even Spain sees a drop from a peak of over 300 hours of sunlight per month in Summer, to around 150 hours of sunlight per month in Winter. Spain also has substantial periods of bad weather – last March Spanish solar output was 50% below normal thanks to bad weather.
I’m not sure how many batteries would be required to tide Europe through a month of poor Spanish solar output, but I’m guessing it would be a lot.
The biggest problem though, Musk’s idea isn’t original. Spain already tried solar energy.
A decade ago, Spain was all set to be the solar power mecca of Europe. Then the solar push collapsed, 62,000 mom and pop investors went bankrupt, after the Spanish Government ran out of other people’s money.
Investors are still fighting court battles, trying to get compensation from the Spanish Government.
I’m guessing the solar crash was too recent, it is probably a little early for Spain to go through all that pain again, unless Musk plans to personally put up all the cash.
Schernikau and Smith estimate that it would require~45 TWh of battery storage for a 14 day backup just for Germany, which they say would require 4-5 times the current global battery production just for replacement once the existing infrastructure is established.
It would require a 6x increase in global lithium production, 22x global graphite rod production, 2x global cobalt production and 8x global nickel sulfate production to keep the battery backup scheme going in perpetuity. Again, that is just for Germany and only for 14 days.
Source: The Unpopular Truth About Electricity And The Future Of Energy pp. 51-52
Spain would have a lot of solar power around midday during summers, except when it is overcast, and much less solar power during winter, and zero solar power during late-afternoon/early-evening (the usual period of peak demand), to about 8 am the NEXT DAY.
Spain would need at least 100 TWh (100 billion kWh) of storage to smooth the daily variations of solar output, so it can be fed into EU grids to provide power, in accordance with the daily electricity demand curves of various nations.
The all-in turnkey capital cost would be 100 billion kWh x 1/0.6, available capacity x 1/0.93, Tesla design factor x $500/kWh, 2022 pricing
The life of the system would be about 15 years, if operated within 20% full to 80% full, in a temperature controlled environment
The round trip losses, from HV grid to HV grid, would be about 20%, which has to be made up with additional solar panel or wind turbines.
BATTERY SYSTEM CAPITAL COSTS, OPERATING COSTS, ENERGY LOSSES, AND AGING
https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/battery-system-capital-costs-losses-and-aging
Presumably they will be those special Spanish solar cells that worked at night?
The cost of batteries is not only horrendously expensive, but very resource-intensive.
Elon should stick to the marketing and fixing Twitter.
Let the accountants do the accounting.
I’m pretty sure the people who are responsible for making the rockets rocket also don’t take direct orders from Elon.
Like all statements of this kind, you need a lot of “it depends”. Musk is right, of course, but first we need the batteries (current battery technologies are just not really up to the task) and it would help if we had solar panels that were more efficient and the wherewithal ($$$$$) to pay for it all, including transmission and conditioning.
The idea that the Sun could provide all the energy we need is true. We just don’t have the technology to capture and store and distribute that energy.
I don’t think Musk was talking of abandoning other sources of energy. He may have a point if he means to just fill the current shortfall. Europe is not devoid of energy, they just don’t have enough at the right times.
Tesla is being fined by the Korean government for exaggerating the range of it’s vehicles during cold weather.
https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/tesla-fined-2-2m-exaggerating-driving-range-vehicles-report
Thanks Mark, that’s hilarious.
you people with all your numbers, and calculations and sciency stuff. Sickening. Don’t you FEEL the pain mother GAIA is undergoing right now? The dwindling numbers of polar bares? The ice caps are mellting. Greta has lost her childhood! Shame on all of you.
whoever said ‘rent-seeking’ about musk nailed it.
If I recall my dates correctly, about a decade ago Spain went overboard on solar panels only to find they couldn’t meet energy demands, so they had to turn to imported North African natural gas to make up the shortfall. In other words, it didn’t provide consumers with clean power and wound up increasing emissions after all. In the end, the citizens had no complaints as long as there was enough power for heat, light, and cooking. Chances are good people worldwide would nurture the same sentiments.
Well solar panels in Spain would work if they did it the same way as a few years ago. Their solar panels were so efficient they were ever generating electricity at night!
It took a while, but someone finally go suspicious and wondered how that could be, and investigated. Turns out the subsidies were so high, it paid them to run diesel generators at night and shine floodlights on the solar panels.
So yes, that method just might work for the rest of Europe too.