Dear reader,
since once in a while all of us encounter an ongoing discussion about historical events or we are being asked if know more about xyz it can't harm to know what history and what isn't.
History isn't just a factual science, but it's always also being used or better abused to make a point, to tell a very subjective story. The abuse of history is perhaps best to compared with the situation of a couple who just split up and who are intending to get divorced (even worse when they have children and both want to engage in a custody battle)
Both sides want you the third person to hear their story of how the other side has done this and that and overall is as guilty as hell for the situation finally ending in a divorce. Very often both parties involved in this struggle want you, the outsider, to hear their story, to take their side, to make sure that only they get your sympathy. It's human and it happens many times in our social life where we are getting drawn into decision making who is 'completely' right or 'totally' wrong. It's not often grey, but usually:black or white.
History is very often describing situations where whole nations are in such a battle for getting you, the outsider, the observer, the researcher or the just curious person on their side. Be always aware of that and do your research before getting getting involved emotionally and take a side, see it either black or white as desired by all parties. Another parallel between private life and history is that in your private life those who shout loudest are often the ones who are wrong and in history those who kill people are of course wrong, but also eager to get your sympathy because not they are guilty, but the other side, so they want you to believe. And be aware that as with couple where the woman says the man hit her where you can see they obvious marks on her face, what you can't see as obvious evidence are the numerous provocations before. Before hell breaks loose:there are also of course many many situations where men hit their women completely unprovoked, because they are drunk, bad mannered or because this or that, as well as there are also violent women.
After this warning what history unfortunately often in reality is: a giant 'blame game', here's what you can do to prevent being dragged into a quagmire. Be aware of the fact that more facts you learn the more the manipulators will hate you for that. Be also aware of the fact that many of the most evil players try to destroy evidence of their deeds and try to cover it up or even blame it on others as eg the Soviets did quite successfully for many years with the Katyn massacre.
Always search for the 'bodies' and do your research as a detective would do to uncover murder and find the right perpetrator. It often helps to know the circumstances, the context of the murder. The situation the killer is in and was 'forced' to kill his victim. Such often circumstantial evidence should also be considered when it comes to history where perhaps the crime itself is covered up, but not the fact that eg 20.000 bullets are suddenly missing from stockpile 24 (just made that one up).
Try not to concentration too much on the 'action' a war, an armed conflict, but look what happened before, what led to the outbreak of the war. When wars start the outcome is very often uncertain, since both/all sides are convinced to be victorious otherwise they would be just plain stupid to getting involved in it, wouldn't they? Once it started it comes to know the battles which are just like to punch in the face very obvious signs of conflict whereas the 'insults' happened before the outbreak of the war are often overlooked because they are less obvious and 'emotionally important' only to one side, who knows all about the importance of 'little things' and you the outsider don't.
Try to see history as a timeline of events which are a web and which are all connected in one way or another. A system of myriad of roads that lead to a long period of peace or a seemingly never ending chain of wars. Often the direction where history is leading peoples is dominated by personal ambitions, wisdom or stupidity of individuals such as emperors, politicians or even business people such as Cecil Rhodes who determined the fate of whole countries or even founded them where before there were tribal territories. Always try not only to listen to those who finally 'made it', like Rhodes in Southern Africa, but also to those who finally lost the freedom, their small kingdom and whose history is written down in languages we don't speak/understand. We don't have to look to Africa when it comes to the history of the subdued people and the need to know all the stories albeit if they are written down in languages we don't understand. Just imagine the couple in the divorce battle where one speaks only French, the other only English. You don't speak French like the husband also does, so you won't be able to listen to her side of the story, because you don't understand what she tries to tell you.
We now fortunately live in the Internet age where much more information is getting available to the public then previously when knowledge was only in available in books which were either stored in a library perhaps too far away for you or you were forced to buy often expensive books you probably couldn't afford to buy. In the Internet age we are lucky to have Wikipedia, but the words of caution also apply to this otherwise fabulous new source of knowledge. Be ware of that the fact that
a.) Wikipedia is maintained also sometimes 'ill spirited' humans who want you only to read their side of the story
b.) Wikipedia is almost never 'complete', which means delivers as much,often crucial info, than books, documentaries, documents, audio & video recordings can.
c.) If you know more than one language compare the different language versions of one Wiki entry. Often the quantity and quality of the article in another language is astonishing.
On the other hand hyperlinks are often found in Wikipedia which lead you easily to other sidelines of 'a story', a page of history.
Google and other search engines are also useful , but also be aware that a lot a bullshit can be found on the internet and a search engine won't warn you:this is BS ! So you have to be careful what sources you can trust. Always look for the original sources from the history period you are studying, since also authors of books are often manipulative in one way or another, often unwittingly by omissions because they either didn't know the factoid or deemed it too unimportant for you to read it. Also be aware that those historic recordings may be incomplete,slightly or completely wrong because those people of time wanted to create a certain image of themselves or perhaps later other people altered the recordings. Mankind seemed always keen to be as subjective as possible and that has changed ever since.Especially when it comes to ideologies where they are obsessed with getting you, the outsider ,the independent thinker on their side. Ideologies fear facts, because they might result in doubts that this believe the are upholding is either slightly or completely. The more 'completely' wrong it is the more brutal the suppression of the facts, the truth, you can bet on it !
So history isn't easy, but the digital age makes it easier to get closer to historical facts, if you are always aware that even Google can't find all the things powerful people don't want you to find or even more tricky:they might insert forgeries into 'the Google'. Forgeries such the The Protocols of the Elders of Zion are often used to reinforce believes you are already holding. We humans tend to believe things very easy when we want them to be true, when a story sounds 'sexy' instead of boring, or when nice looking pictures or graphics are added which in itself are based on wrong data or when a text is added to picture which gives it a completely different meaning. It's never wrong to be a bit skeptical, always try to find the original source and then start your interpretation, don't rely on others to that for you. Those other 'interpreters' may not know all facts or may come to conclusions that match their personal believes, serves their ideology. Some historians also didn't completely comprehend the possibilities the digital age has to offer in researching historic records, or they see it as a threat to their position as 'editor' of history, because so far they could decide what historical records made into their books or which specific info from those records they did us and which other they omitted. You can spin pretty much especially with omitting info and sometimes small things which might have been overlooked by the one historian writing book 'A' could be very useful to the author of book 'B', because he has knowledge of a different context. That's why it's so useful to have more and more of those records scanned and opened to the wider public.It diminishes or at least limits the role of the former 'keepers of wisdom' or 'messianic' historians. Always look up biography and bibliography of an author and try to find out whether he/she is factual,neutral or biased. If the latter it's also OK to read,but everything has then to be put in a context.
As it happens most nations are trying to sell you an overly optimistic picture of their nation's past, the opposite is true with the Germans. Their historians tend to be overly focused on Nazi evil and on negative views of the Kaiserreich and especially their last emperor: Wilhelm II
History never repeats itself as it is claimed so often, because it's a very complex network of events which are influencing the path of history like gravity and other forces influences all objects in space which also interact constantly. Individuals may make the same or similar mistakes as other individuals before them, but the constellation of actors and/or circumstances is never exactly the same.
[UPDATE 2016/10/18]
Although it's always good when 'new' historians publish books with additional information on e.g. The Great War, the public tends too often to hype it or to view either the book or/and the author as the new 'bible/messiah'. Especially when a country formerly overladen with PC soaked history is welcoming books from Australian authors.
The fact that a new book on the events of the World War I arrived in the book stores doesn't mean that the author is completely right about everything. As it was premature for scientists who knew a lot, but not all, about physics to insist in the early 1930s that the atom can't be split, it is premature to state in a book's foreword that "unfortunately it's impossible to read all available archived material of a certain time period". Of course it's difficult for one person to be familiar with all languages significant documents in various archives are written in, but that doesn't mean it's impossible.
a.) There are some expert historians who do actually speak 10+ languages
b.) OCR and other means of transcription offer the chance to use automatic translation. Not yet perfect, but a very promising technology
As mentioned above the 'bias' of a book about history can sometimes tell what languages the author knows and where consequently the research was done and where it wasn't.
[/update]
October 02, 2016
November 23, 2015
Refugee related data
Funding shortage leaves Syrian refugees in danger of missing vital support [UNHCR, Jun 25 2015]
In Jordan, head of UN food relief agency urges increased funding for Syrian refugees [UN News Center, Aug 12 2015]
Europe's migrant crisis: key questions [Yahoo/AFP]
Over 900,000 migrants arrived in Germany this year, state ministry [Reuters, Nov 20 2015]
Sweden hits refugee crisis zero hour [DW, Nov 20 2015]
Ifo think tank sees refugee costs soaring [DW, Nov 10 2015]
http://www.trust.org/item/20151124135325-afxzu/?source=shtw [Nov 24 2015]
UK aid for Turkey to help address impact of the Syria conflict [UK govt, Nov 13 2015]
Hungary poll: among definite voters Fidesz 51% (+12% in 3 months), Jobbik 23%, MSZP 14% (lost 5%), Gyurcsány's DK 6% (lost 2%), green LMP 4%
— Mariann Őry (@otmarianna) October 29, 2015
Putin's bombing causes more refugees to flee Syria, destabilize Europe, and contribute to growing support of right. https://t.co/alS3hrW8Ds
— Christina Otero (@morozhnoye) October 18, 2015
De aantallen zijn ook anders hier. Alleen al de stad Kilis (90.000 inw) vangt 115.000 Syrische vluchtelingen op. Gaziantep 200.000 #turkije
— Jan Eikelboom (@janeikelboom) October 10, 2015
Die Flüchtlinge werden überwiegend in die einfachen Jobs drängen: http://t.co/b2qFSGDsw3
— Hans-Werner Sinn (@HansWernerSinn) October 9, 2015
UNHCR official watched Syrian refugee crisis 'slow burn' in Lebanon. No wonder they leave. http://t.co/A0qsUcVcYv pic.twitter.com/J6xXUQUIce
— Melissa Fleming (@melissarfleming) September 30, 2015
UNHCR's @melissarfleming tells #BBCAskThis that UN has been "shouting in the dark for years" about Syrian refugees.
— Paul Adams (@BBCPaulAdams) September 23, 2015
In Syria, 2.1 million homes, half the hospitals and 7,000+ schools have been destroyed. https://t.co/NEVSl1wivZ pic.twitter.com/eeSqpdUDr8
— Robert Mann (@RTMannJr) November 23, 2015
862,901 people have arrived to Europe, by sea in 2015. 3485 are dead or missing. https://t.co/ov6Jvx0dB6 pic.twitter.com/TgLZDbDcio
— UN Refugee Agency (@Refugees) November 24, 2015
Mehr als nur ein freundliches Gesicht zeigen [Die Welt, +-Sep 10 2015]November 15, 2015
Je suis Paris & Je suis pissed
Dear reader,
for the record:
enough is enough
&
I detest all apparatchiks who prefer political correctness over effectiveness in combatting THE ENEMY !!!
I hope all those wounded in Parisian hospital make it and all politicians stop talking & start acting.
This is not only an attack on France, but rather on all of us Europeans and civilized people in general !
Every response short of a NATO article 5 is inappropriate. It's either them or us, either fight them there or in our cities!
If there are still national politicians who prefer to issue the usual 'blablabla' instead of doing the right things i will continue with individual blog posts with the motto: J'accuse !
Of course there's a lot of solidarity and compassion for all those who lost love ones or who have been wounded needlessly in this attack. It shouldn't be necessary to repeat the expression of condolences and therefore the emphasis must now be that the enemy must be not only prevented of his capability to strike anywhere in Europe again, but this evil must be annihilated completely.
If some politicians still can't/won't share this view they'll have to go !
France Needs to Push for Activation of NATO’s Article V—Now [National Interest]
March 09, 2015
Twitter lists: advantages
Dear reader,
many users don't know how to use Twitter's 'list' functionality. So here are a few explanations:
You can first use lists in order to organize your favorite accounts by 'grouping' them. So instead of a rather unorganized chaotic full TL, consisting of a broad spectrum of different subjects, you will get a highly specific time lime of its own.
I often use it when there is a new event requiring coverage and suddenly there's a need of adding new sources for keeping up to date.
Another problem most of you will only encounter once they reach this magic Twitter limitation of 2001 maximum accounts you can follow 'regular', meaning you just hit the follow button and from this click you are an official follower. It's not clear how many own followers you need to have in order to cross that barrier, since Twitter does keep quite about this 'unlocker'. Perhaps when you also reach 2000 followers they will allow you to follow more accounts.
This problem doesn't exist with Twitter lists. You can basically create as many as you want and then follow as many accounts on each list as you want. So that enables you to 'follow' more people in a more organized way. Only disadvantage is that those you follow will often not realize that you are 'following' them by putting them on your list. At least Twitter's own web platform does give only a short notice that someone put you on his list and after a screen refresh this information is gone in your 'notification' section. (No need to discuss all the shortcomings of Twitter's web platform here)
Once you have created one or several Twitter lists you can even share this 'sub-TL' or time line with others (e.g. your own followers), since they too can be 'followed' or better subscribed to.
Another advantage of such a list is that there's no need of repeating for instance a #ff list by tweeting a limited number recommended accounts. Such a #ff tweet is often only visible for a short time to your followers while a list with recommended accounts is static = always available. You can publish the entire entire list at once by copying its URL either to a tweet or even more static... to your own Twitter bio, allowing your readers either to subscribe to that list or to pick the accounts they deem right to follow.
Your Twitter list is so public that people are not even required to be logged in or even be a member of Twitter, since everyone who clicks on that Twitter list URL will be able to see all the new tweets it shows. You can even embed this public 'sub time line' into your blog as some kind of public news service. It takes some effort to create a so called widget somewhere in your Twitter settings, but it's quite easy to copy & paste the necessary code to your blog.
Example of a complete (?) list of US National Weather Service branches:
https://twitter.com/NWS/lists/noaa-nws-offices
Example of displaying up to date info on your own website/blog [EZR Statistics]:
http://ezrcharts.blogspot.com/2014/12/statisticscharts-updates-via-ezr.html
So it's the ideal tool to organize your Twitter 'mentors', 'news channels', friends etc
All incoming tweets will be in a special little time line (TL) and it can be displayed to others also when your are not online.
How to do it (Twitter web interface):
create/maintain your own lists:
1.
2.
3.
4. once a list is created you can add the accounts:
click on that wheel to the left of 'follow' / 'following' and you get a drop down menu: 'add or remove from list'
next you get a list of all your existing lists. Choose one or several where this account should be added to:
and that's it !
#ff = short for follow Friday, but could also be used on other occasions to animate own followers to follow the recommended Twitter account
many users don't know how to use Twitter's 'list' functionality. So here are a few explanations:
You can first use lists in order to organize your favorite accounts by 'grouping' them. So instead of a rather unorganized chaotic full TL, consisting of a broad spectrum of different subjects, you will get a highly specific time lime of its own.
I often use it when there is a new event requiring coverage and suddenly there's a need of adding new sources for keeping up to date.
Another problem most of you will only encounter once they reach this magic Twitter limitation of 2001 maximum accounts you can follow 'regular', meaning you just hit the follow button and from this click you are an official follower. It's not clear how many own followers you need to have in order to cross that barrier, since Twitter does keep quite about this 'unlocker'. Perhaps when you also reach 2000 followers they will allow you to follow more accounts.
This problem doesn't exist with Twitter lists. You can basically create as many as you want and then follow as many accounts on each list as you want. So that enables you to 'follow' more people in a more organized way. Only disadvantage is that those you follow will often not realize that you are 'following' them by putting them on your list. At least Twitter's own web platform does give only a short notice that someone put you on his list and after a screen refresh this information is gone in your 'notification' section. (No need to discuss all the shortcomings of Twitter's web platform here)
Once you have created one or several Twitter lists you can even share this 'sub-TL' or time line with others (e.g. your own followers), since they too can be 'followed' or better subscribed to.
Another advantage of such a list is that there's no need of repeating for instance a #ff list by tweeting a limited number recommended accounts. Such a #ff tweet is often only visible for a short time to your followers while a list with recommended accounts is static = always available. You can publish the entire entire list at once by copying its URL either to a tweet or even more static... to your own Twitter bio, allowing your readers either to subscribe to that list or to pick the accounts they deem right to follow.
Your Twitter list is so public that people are not even required to be logged in or even be a member of Twitter, since everyone who clicks on that Twitter list URL will be able to see all the new tweets it shows. You can even embed this public 'sub time line' into your blog as some kind of public news service. It takes some effort to create a so called widget somewhere in your Twitter settings, but it's quite easy to copy & paste the necessary code to your blog.
Example of a complete (?) list of US National Weather Service branches:
https://twitter.com/NWS/lists/noaa-nws-offices
Example of displaying up to date info on your own website/blog [EZR Statistics]:
http://ezrcharts.blogspot.com/2014/12/statisticscharts-updates-via-ezr.html
So it's the ideal tool to organize your Twitter 'mentors', 'news channels', friends etc
All incoming tweets will be in a special little time line (TL) and it can be displayed to others also when your are not online.
How to do it (Twitter web interface):
create/maintain your own lists:
1.
2.
3.
next you get a list of all your existing lists. Choose one or several where this account should be added to:
and that's it !
#ff = short for follow Friday, but could also be used on other occasions to animate own followers to follow the recommended Twitter account
August 21, 2014
Belgium: half of Flemish communities could be without power
Half of Limburg's communities could get disconnected from the electricity grid in the event of a power shortage. That's what mayors are being told by the governor of the province. Mainly Northern Limburg and the Maas area will be affected.
Governor Herman Reynders called the mayors to his offcie yesterday. Presently after nuclear reactor Doel 4 has also been shut down the chance of a power failure has increased during a cold winter. The governor himself didn't want to inform the press. The people present at this meeting were also told to handle this information discretely, although many of the mayors did not agree with this. In Antwerp they have received clear information, one of them said.
Elia communicated once before that the disconnection would happen per station, hence it's not clear if a whole community would be out of power. Meeuwen-Gruitrode should be only partially without electricity:Plokroy and Wijshagen should be able to retain power.
Governor Herman Reynders called the mayors to his offcie yesterday. Presently after nuclear reactor Doel 4 has also been shut down the chance of a power failure has increased during a cold winter. The governor himself didn't want to inform the press. The people present at this meeting were also told to handle this information discretely, although many of the mayors did not agree with this. In Antwerp they have received clear information, one of them said.
A map was briefly shown to the mayors with some indication of who will get disconnected and who won't, but the communities were not identified by name what made it difficult. Some mayors didn't get it whether they will get disconnected or not. "we will be notified 7 days in advance", says Marino Keulen, Open VLD (party) mayor of Lanaken. "At an acute crisis that's a day in advance. We could get disconnected for a period of 4 hours and that's usually in the early evening."
"Unclear"
The map which was shown to the mayors is from 2012, the regulatory framework which determines who will be cut-off goes back to a ministerial decision from 2005. "How this classification was done is not clear to us. That doesn't make sense", says Marino Keulen. A story that we hear also from other mayors. Elia (http://www.elia.be/en) said earlier that mainly that rural communities should be switched off, but the largest part of Southern Limburg will get off the hook. "Thus the choice for Northern Limburg and the Maas area", Jos Claessens, mayor of Bocholt asks himself.
"We are very astonished", says mayor Jan Dalemans of Hechtel-Eksel. "That we could still be catapulted back to stone age in 2014" "The military base of Kleine-Brogel has a lot of generators. Maybe a cooperation with the defense (dept) is possible, if disaster strikes", says the mayor of Peer Steven Matheï
"Voeren is obviously on the list of the disconnected Municipalities, but we could certainly get our power from Wallonia", says mayor Huub Broers.
"In September surely there will be a new 'disconnection map' for Limburg", Kristof Pirard mayor of Heers knows.
January 15, 2014
Natural gas production in NL
some (latest) facts:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groningen_gas_field
Groningen Gas Field - Shell (pdf, 2 pages, ENG)
Groningen gas field almost world's largest (NU.NL, Dutch)
Groningen gasfield (NAM - facts and figures)
Groningen gas field (nlog.nl)
http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nederlandse_Aardolie_Maatschappij
fiscal implications:
Natural gas revenues reduce public deficit (CBS- Dutch Statistics, Nov 22nd 2012)
economics:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_disease
newspaper reports:
Groningen gas production to be scaled back, costing state €3.5bn (Dutchnews, Jan 17th 2013)
Most MPs want to reduce gas extraction in Groningen (Dutchnews, Jan 15th 2014)
Action group 'Shocking Groningen' occupies NAM's gas facility (nieuws.nl, Jan 12th 2014)
Protests in eastern Groningen as anti-government sentiment rises (Dutchnews, Jan 6th 2014)
A lot more gas pumped up (in 2013) (NOS , Jan 2nd 2014, Dutch)
Groningen gas earthquakes damage listed buildings (Dutchnews, Nov 27th 2013)
New earthquake in Groningen (Dutchnews, Sep 4th 2013)
Second minor earthquake hits Groningen (Dutchnews, Aug 17th 2013)
Groningen hit by another earthquake, minister visits locals (Dutchnews, Jul 3rd 2013)
Minister wants earthquake risk through gas extraction lowered (Dutchnews, Jan 29th 2013)
Earthquake risk is 'manageable and acceptable' says gas group (Dutchnews, Jan 27th 2013)
Exxon Set to Tap ‘Enormous’ Slochteren Field for 50 More Years (Bloomberg, Jun 17th 2009)
earthquake related:
Natural gas extraction in Groningen (NL govt letter to parliament, Jan 25th 2013)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groningen_gas_field
Groningen Gas Field - Shell (pdf, 2 pages, ENG)
Groningen gas field almost world's largest (NU.NL, Dutch)
Groningen gasfield (NAM - facts and figures)
Groningen gas field (nlog.nl)
http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nederlandse_Aardolie_Maatschappij
fiscal implications:
Natural gas revenues reduce public deficit (CBS- Dutch Statistics, Nov 22nd 2012)
economics:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_disease
newspaper reports:
Groningen gas production to be scaled back, costing state €3.5bn (Dutchnews, Jan 17th 2013)
Most MPs want to reduce gas extraction in Groningen (Dutchnews, Jan 15th 2014)
Action group 'Shocking Groningen' occupies NAM's gas facility (nieuws.nl, Jan 12th 2014)
Protests in eastern Groningen as anti-government sentiment rises (Dutchnews, Jan 6th 2014)
A lot more gas pumped up (in 2013) (NOS , Jan 2nd 2014, Dutch)
Groningen gas earthquakes damage listed buildings (Dutchnews, Nov 27th 2013)
New earthquake in Groningen (Dutchnews, Sep 4th 2013)
Second minor earthquake hits Groningen (Dutchnews, Aug 17th 2013)
Groningen hit by another earthquake, minister visits locals (Dutchnews, Jul 3rd 2013)
Minister wants earthquake risk through gas extraction lowered (Dutchnews, Jan 29th 2013)
Earthquake risk is 'manageable and acceptable' says gas group (Dutchnews, Jan 27th 2013)
Exxon Set to Tap ‘Enormous’ Slochteren Field for 50 More Years (Bloomberg, Jun 17th 2009)
earthquake related:
Natural gas extraction in Groningen (NL govt letter to parliament, Jan 25th 2013)
Intensifying quakes in NL's Groningen natural gas field not surprising: underground readjusts to gas pressure, down from 350 to 100 bar.
— Kees van der Leun (@Sustainable2050) November 26, 2013
December 23, 2013
Solar power per square kilometer
please note: this is just a 'quick & dirty' reply to an interesting question on Twitter, the usual more in-depth stories about renewables can be found here : http://ezrdevelop.blogspot.com)
So I looked it up, and indeed this value is at best a theoretical value, but I couldn't really understand the assumptions made by the author Nadine May.
Although she referred to thermal solar energy potential, the solar yield for photovoltaics in the Sahara desert is between 1800 kWh/per 1kW installed capacity based on silicon panels, and 2100 kWh/ per 1 kW thin film panels. (according to PVGIS optimized slope and several locations probed) . Concerning 'land use' of solar plants it's not possible to just make calculations of efficiency per m2, but it is important to leave some space between rows of racks where the panels are attached to, because otherwise the shade will affect the solar yield. So per ha (=10000 square meter) the power production capacity is +-300 kWpeak for thin film panels and +-500 kWpeak for silicon based panels.
A practical problem which obviously is somehow ignored by the scientific community:
So in reality it's
1 ha= 500 kW,
10 ha = 5 MW,
100 ha =1 sq km = 50 MW
5 sq km = 250 MW
(Also taking into account frames & space between 2 panels)
practical exception: If you install panels on a mountain slope of +-30°
but on the other hand it isn't really important how much land is used to produce solar power, since there is lots of wasteland available. Especially when the use of the vast spaces of the Sahara desert is intended. In the end not the efficiency per square meter, kilometer or mile is important , but the price per installed kW, MW and GW is ! So no need to impress the public by small numbers of land needed.
Although the use of thermal solar energy by CSP is perhaps better to store the energy for the time after the sunset, it's by now cheaper (and less complicated) to use PV panels.
Concerning 'land use' of CSP I found this
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_in_Utah
The total area of solar panels it would take to power the world pic.twitter.com/6X7cZPDMHO
— Amazing Maps (@Amazing_Maps) December 15, 2013
@went 55 shared, @RF_HFC was skeptical and so I found the source of this map and shared the pdf document and its main underlying thesis : (on page 25, map on page 26)
@RF_HFC
"an area of 254km x 254km would be enough 2 meet the total electricity demand of the world"pg25 http://t.co/z5aL7LI52U
@went1955
— EZR news channel (@EZR_news) December 22, 2013
Robin Fransman (@RF_HFC) replied in Dutch: "250 GWh per square kilometer is way to high"So I looked it up, and indeed this value is at best a theoretical value, but I couldn't really understand the assumptions made by the author Nadine May.
Although she referred to thermal solar energy potential, the solar yield for photovoltaics in the Sahara desert is between 1800 kWh/per 1kW installed capacity based on silicon panels, and 2100 kWh/ per 1 kW thin film panels. (according to PVGIS optimized slope and several locations probed) . Concerning 'land use' of solar plants it's not possible to just make calculations of efficiency per m2, but it is important to leave some space between rows of racks where the panels are attached to, because otherwise the shade will affect the solar yield. So per ha (=10000 square meter) the power production capacity is +-300 kWpeak for thin film panels and +-500 kWpeak for silicon based panels.
A practical problem which obviously is somehow ignored by the scientific community:
At 'home level' it's correct (but no obligation to purchase panels with highest efficiency = often with highest price per kW) , but for utility scale it isn't.>>2. At home: 1 kWp ≈ 1000 Wp ≈ 5 m2 (at 20%)At large:: 1 GWp (Giga Watt peak) ≈ 5 km2<<
So in reality it's
1 ha= 500 kW,
10 ha = 5 MW,
100 ha =1 sq km = 50 MW
5 sq km = 250 MW
(Also taking into account frames & space between 2 panels)
practical exception: If you install panels on a mountain slope of +-30°
but on the other hand it isn't really important how much land is used to produce solar power, since there is lots of wasteland available. Especially when the use of the vast spaces of the Sahara desert is intended. In the end not the efficiency per square meter, kilometer or mile is important , but the price per installed kW, MW and GW is ! So no need to impress the public by small numbers of land needed.
Although the use of thermal solar energy by CSP is perhaps better to store the energy for the time after the sunset, it's by now cheaper (and less complicated) to use PV panels.
Concerning 'land use' of CSP I found this
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_in_Utah
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