Today I Had The Privilege Of Organising The RWSABC Clyde Swim 2018. 31 Swimmers Who Are Pictured Here

Photos from Lanzarote February 2017 #lanzarote (at Costa Teguise Lanzarote)

Europe: Carnivore Paradise?

Bears, wolves, lynx and wolverines are flourishing in Europe, largely in humanized landscapes and not in parks. Can North America learn from the “coexistence model” that characterizes the continent’s approach to conserving big carnivores?

"UV" -

I was down at the Boat Club today. David Jenkins and I did a 500m swim in around 16 minutes without wetsuit. Water temperature 9 degC. Highish tide going out. After our swim I needed to get more steps. These birds were sitting on The Esplanade railing across from the Old West Kirk. (at Greenock Esplanade)

Open Water Swimming Sunrise - Emma and I were down for a swim today (5 Jan 17). The sun was just coming up. We were in for about 13 minutes, we swam around 400m. Water temperature 8 degC. The water was really clear, the settled weather the last few days must be responsible. (at Royal West Amateur Boat Club, Greenock)

I had a nice swim with Colin and David tonight. It was high tide and very calm. I saw a few jellyfish. There was a rainbow at the start of the swim. I swam to the "yellow" pole. #inverclyde #openwaterswimming #Greenock #RWSABC #Scotland #esplanade (at The Royal West of Scotland Boat Club)

Swam with Stacey from Rosneath Slip (1st slip) bang on high tide. There was a south east breeze creating a reasonable swell. Swam to the yellow pole and then back towards the beach. Stacey exited the water at Rosneath Slip (1200m 42m) and I continued to the Boat Club (1675m 53:33) Water Temperature 13.5 degC #esplanade #inverclyde #greenock #rwsabc #openwaterswimming (at Royal West of Scotland Amateur Boat Club)

Space and the city

        BUY land, advised Mark Twain; they’re not making it any more. In fact, land is not really scarce: the entire population of America...

Dome City Blog 3 - Energy production in the city

 In today's blog I plan to talk about energy production and use within a Dome City.

In general, residents of cities use less energy per capita, then people in rural areas.  Some reasons for this are:

Distances travelled can be less,

Mass transportation systems can work well,

Shared walls in housing lead to lower heating requirements,

If energy sources are located in the city then combined heat and power can be used, and

Less resources are used to provide infrastructure for high density populations compared to low density ones.

  A Dome City should have nearby power resources large enough to cover the needs of the population for electricity, heating, cooling and local transport within the city.  Transport away from the city would most probably provided in standard cars and trucks powered by gasoline and diesel.  

I would propose that the Dome City has a electricity power station sited just beside it. This power station would be located close enough to the Dome City to allow the waste heat, which arises from electricity production, to be used to provide hot water, heating and if required, cooling, to the city.  This is known as combined heat and power (CHP) or as cogeneration.  When a Dome City is sited in a tropical location then a "trigeneration" systems which includes refrigeration could be provided.  The typical efficiency of thermal power plants for electricity is 30% to 40%.   This waste heat represents a significant resource.  District heating would be feature of the Dome City.  This heat supplied to residents and business would form another source of income for the city.   

My preferred method of dealing with electricity production would be with Nuclear Power.  Nuclear Power is a low-carbon form of electricity production that is not so climate dependent compared to wind or solar.  Furthermore, while wind and solar can be excellent sources of low-carbon electricity at the right locations, these forms of energy production are intermittent.  This intermittentcy requires back up power sources to cover the times when these renewable sources cannot provide power.  

There are proposals for new smaller reactors  known as Small Modular Reactors (SMRs).  By definition these reactors have electricity outputs of less than 300 MWe (Megawatts electrical).  The suggested size of these reactors varies from 2 MWe for the UPower proposal to 130 MWe for the B&W MPower proposal.  The system that I would most want to see would be 3 number NuScale 45 MWe reactors to provide electricity and heat to the city.  A combined output of 135 MWe would generally provide more power than the city would require. I would estimate that the city will consume around 100MWe.  However, the additional supply could  be used to entice power hungry industries to move to the city.  Some energy intensive industries are data centres or heavy manufacturing.  Alternatively, the additional supply above the needs of the city would be a useful source of income for the city.

The NuScale reactors have a refueling cycle of around 2 years.  Refueling would be staggered such that no more than one reactor is off line at any one time.  In the UK, the city should be connected to the National Grid and any shortfall in power during a refueling shut-down could be supplied from the grid.

The use of 3 number SMR's has the advantage of "right-sizing" the plant to the population of the Dome City.  The Dome City will take several years to build.  Once the lower levels have been constructed I would expect that people would begin to move in.  However, to reach the full population of around 100,000 people will take a number of years.  Initially a single reactor would provided for power.  The second and third would follow in later years when the population as grown large enough to justify the additional generating capacity.

I would very much hope that the power station for the city be owned and operated by the municipality.  

I appreciate that there will be some reading this blog that are opposed to or afraid of nuclear power.  In addition, the NuScale SMR is still in the design and licensing phase.  We are still waiting for the first one to be constructed. An alternative to an SMR that would accomplish much the same ends is to have a Combined Cycle Gas Turbine (CCGT) power plant producing electrical power for the city.

This brief outline on the supply of electrical power and heat to a proposed Dome City has set out what I consider to be the "best" option. The compact nature of the Dome City would allow Combined Heat and Power to be feasible.  The power station would have 2 sources of income.  One comes from the Electricity produced and the second is the hot water and heat supplied.  This would increase it's financial performance and make it easier to find financing for this aspect of Dome City development.