France runs fusion reactor for record 22 minutes

[zqwerty]

France runs fusion reactor for record 22 minutes
https://newatlas.com/energy/france-tokam...-duration/

[nzoomed]

Thats pretty impressive, I usually skim over many of these headlines, because so many of them are click baity.
Ive been following Commonwealth Fusion Systems too, they appear to be making great strides in this space. At this rate ITER may become redundant, I do wonder if thats part of the reason its construction has sort of almost halted, im wondering if they are waiting for new developments to play out and possibly modify its design? Although I believe the reactor is designed to test out different technologies.

[zqwerty]

I've been waiting for a viable fusion reactor for 50 years, having mastery would set us free from the Middle East and herald a new start for the technological nations.

Not there yet.

[harm_less]

Our fusion reactor is working just fine at present. It's beaming onto our radiation collector panels, generating about 8kW ATM with most of that being directed into our EV.

[nzoomed]

Our fusion reactor is working just fine at present. It's beaming onto our radiation collector panels, generating about 8kW ATM with most of that being directed into our EV.

Yeah many forget solar is really fusion power, just extremely inefficient in the scheme of things, we are only collecting the smallest fraction of the suns energy that reaches us on earth.
Yet we still have over 1000W per square meter reach us, and our solar panels can only convert 20% or so of that to electricity, but we can still do alot with it!
All our renewable energy is in fact solar when you think of it, because the sun drives our climate that gives us hydro power and wind.
An EV would place quite a high demand on your solar power im guessing, Im hoping to install 10KW here, but I can probably squeeze a bit more on all sides of the roof, even though they dont get much sun, the panels are so cheap now.
I bought a 500W panel for only around $150 recently, and this was a big name brand from the electrical whoesaler.
cost is no barrier now, but I hope efficiency improves so I can get more watts per square metre on the roofspace available.

[zqwerty]

Maximum theoretical efficiency of a solar panel is less than 50% because a panel is a forward biased diode in essence; only incremental gains will be made in the future and they will be insignificant compared to what we already get.

[harm_less]

Our fusion reactor is working just fine at present. It's beaming onto our radiation collector panels, generating about 8kW ATM with most of that being directed into our EV.

Yeah many forget solar is really fusion power, just extremely inefficient in the scheme of things, we are only collecting the smallest fraction of the suns energy that reaches us on earth.
Yet we still have over 1000W per square meter reach us, and our solar panels can only convert 20% or so of that to electricity, but we can still do alot with it!
All our renewable energy is in fact solar when you think of it, because the sun drives our climate that gives us hydro power and wind.
An EV would place quite a high demand on your solar power im guessing, Im hoping to install 10KW here, but I can probably squeeze a bit more on all sides of the roof, even though they dont get much sun, the panels are so cheap now.
I bought a 500W panel for only around $150 recently, and this was a big name brand from the electrical whoesaler.
cost is no barrier now, but I hope efficiency improves so I can get more watts per square metre on the roofspace available.

It's not only renewable energy that is driven by the sun. Fossil fuels are formed from plants that used the sun to grow millions of years ago.

We're charging two EVs and battery garden tools from our 8.2kW of solar plus pumped water supply and usual home demands. We are currently seeing a credit on our Octopus account of $40 which will see us going back into debit by about Apr/May. To put the EV consumption into perspective our Polestar2 uses ~2,200kWh/year and the Leaf more like 1,300kWh. Our annual generation is around 12,000kWh/year and we export ~4,500kWh of that.

When we did our last upgrade we ended up with a redundant 5kW inverter which we're currently considering reinstalling with appropiate extra panels on our house roof as part of major renovations we're about to start. The plan is to export 100% of this extra generation which should return us about $1,300/year at Octopus's FIT. That would see us in constant and increasing credit all year so now in the process of approaching Octopus about how we could go about 'withdrawing' this credit from time to time. Planning stages at present but I'm confident of <5year ROI on the extra costs of getting this up and running. Adding battery or going V2G with our Leaf is another possibility I'm considering.

[nzoomed]

Yeah many forget solar is really fusion power, just extremely inefficient in the scheme of things, we are only collecting the smallest fraction of the suns energy that reaches us on earth.
Yet we still have over 1000W per square meter reach us, and our solar panels can only convert 20% or so of that to electricity, but we can still do alot with it!
All our renewable energy is in fact solar when you think of it, because the sun drives our climate that gives us hydro power and wind.
An EV would place quite a high demand on your solar power im guessing, Im hoping to install 10KW here, but I can probably squeeze a bit more on all sides of the roof, even though they dont get much sun, the panels are so cheap now.
I bought a 500W panel for only around $150 recently, and this was a big name brand from the electrical whoesaler.
cost is no barrier now, but I hope efficiency improves so I can get more watts per square metre on the roofspace available.

It's not only renewable energy that is driven by the sun. Fossil fuels are formed from plants that used the sun to grow millions of years ago.

We're charging two EVs and battery garden tools from our 8.2kW of solar plus pumped water supply and usual home demands. We are currently seeing a credit on our Octopus account of $40 which will see us going back into debit by about Apr/May. To put the EV consumption into perspective our Polestar2 uses ~2,200kWh/year and the Leaf more like 1,300kWh. Our annual generation is around 12,000kWh/year and we export ~4,500kWh of that.

When we did our last upgrade we ended up with a redundant 5kW inverter which we're currently considering reinstalling with appropiate extra panels on our house roof as part of major renovations we're about to start. The plan is to export 100% of this extra generation which should return us about $1,300/year at Octopus's FIT. That would see us in constant and increasing credit all year so now in the process of approaching Octopus about how we could go about 'withdrawing' this credit from time to time. Planning stages at present but I'm confident of <5year ROI on the extra costs of getting this up and running. Adding battery or going V2G with our Leaf is another possibility I'm considering.

Yes thats a good point, especially given that fossil fuels are not considered a renewable fuel, its really just on the scale of a human lifetime that they are not when they take at least tens of thousands of years to millions of years to form.
V2G is a great option for a home battery, providing the car is available when you need to use that energy. I see that the returns from energy retailers varies dramatically, many dont want to credit you back in cash either, hopefully you can strike a good deal with Octopus.
I take it that you must have a high voltage DC inverter if you are considering V2G. Higher voltages also allow more efficiency and thinner cables, etc, plus there are a ton of cheap surplus EV batteries available from wrecked cars now that make a great second use as a solar bank.

[harm_less]

It's not only renewable energy that is driven by the sun. Fossil fuels are formed from plants that used the sun to grow millions of years ago.

We're charging two EVs and battery garden tools from our 8.2kW of solar plus pumped water supply and usual home demands. We are currently seeing a credit on our Octopus account of $40 which will see us going back into debit by about Apr/May. To put the EV consumption into perspective our Polestar2 uses ~2,200kWh/year and the Leaf more like 1,300kWh. Our annual generation is around 12,000kWh/year and we export ~4,500kWh of that.

When we did our last upgrade we ended up with a redundant 5kW inverter which we're currently considering reinstalling with appropiate extra panels on our house roof as part of major renovations we're about to start. The plan is to export 100% of this extra generation which should return us about $1,300/year at Octopus's FIT. That would see us in constant and increasing credit all year so now in the process of approaching Octopus about how we could go about 'withdrawing' this credit from time to time. Planning stages at present but I'm confident of <5year ROI on the extra costs of getting this up and running. Adding battery or going V2G with our Leaf is another possibility I'm considering.

Yes thats a good point, especially given that fossil fuels are not considered a renewable fuel, its really just on the scale of a human lifetime that they are not when they take at least tens of thousands of years to millions of years to form.
V2G is a great option for a home battery, providing the car is available when you need to use that energy. I see that the returns from energy retailers varies dramatically, many dont want to credit you back in cash either, hopefully you can strike a good deal with Octopus.
I take it that you must have a high voltage DC inverter if you are considering V2G. Higher voltages also allow more efficiency and thinner cables, etc, plus there are a ton of cheap surplus EV batteries available from wrecked cars now that make a great second use as a solar bank.

V2G is on its way as latest version of the AU/NZ electrical standard 4777 is being rolled out now in Aussie and here this year which includes V2G functionality. The energy stored in an EV battery is typically ~400V DC so that needs to be converted to grid voltage to be used domestically. V2L, and some V2H, enabled EVs do this through their onboard inverter while others allow DC output that is then converted by a bidirectional EVSE 'charger'. The manufacturers of EVSEs are currently hurriedly developing suitable bidirectional chargers as a result of the demand coming as the V2G standards are adopted.

The amount of energy required to power a home is small compared to most EV battery capacities so easy to 'pinch' a bit of it without hindering EV mobility. Even better if the EV in question is a second vehicle.

Newer electricity suppliers such as Octopus and Ecotricity are paying good tariffs for exported generation as a way of building a stable of customers with solar capacity as their own distributed 'power station' which insulates them to some degree from the volatility of NZ's wholesale electricity prices. For us the FIT is 1.5c short of our night supply rate with Octopus but in some regions the inverse applies which make for a great incentive to ramp up solar capacity.

[nzoomed]

Yes thats a good point, especially given that fossil fuels are not considered a renewable fuel, its really just on the scale of a human lifetime that they are not when they take at least tens of thousands of years to millions of years to form.
V2G is a great option for a home battery, providing the car is available when you need to use that energy. I see that the returns from energy retailers varies dramatically, many dont want to credit you back in cash either, hopefully you can strike a good deal with Octopus.
I take it that you must have a high voltage DC inverter if you are considering V2G. Higher voltages also allow more efficiency and thinner cables, etc, plus there are a ton of cheap surplus EV batteries available from wrecked cars now that make a great second use as a solar bank.

V2G is on its way as latest version of the AU/NZ electrical standard 4777 is being rolled out now in Aussie and here this year which includes V2G functionality. The energy stored in an EV battery is typically ~400V DC so that needs to be converted to grid voltage to be used domestically. V2L, and some V2H, enabled EVs do this through their onboard inverter while others allow DC output that is then converted by a bidirectional EVSE 'charger'. The manufacturers of EVSEs are currently hurriedly developing suitable bidirectional chargers as a result of the demand coming as the V2G standards are adopted.

The amount of energy required to power a home is small compared to most EV battery capacities so easy to 'pinch' a bit of it without hindering EV mobility. Even better if the EV in question is a second vehicle.

Newer electricity suppliers such as Octopus and Ecotricity are paying good tariffs for exported generation as a way of building a stable of customers with solar capacity as their own distributed 'power station' which insulates them to some degree from the volatility of NZ's wholesale electricity prices. For us the FIT is 1.5c short of our night supply rate with Octopus but in some regions the inverse applies which make for a great incentive to ramp up solar capacity.

Yes, I dont believe we are far behind either, I work for a fella who is working with the regulatory bodies for establishing this standard here, it will probably happen later in the year is my guess.
IIRC i remember reading an article that Nissan was looking at adding V2G with the leaf, I could be wrong, but I had the impression they were doing this.
I hope we dont see a situation like is happening in parts of Australia where energy companies are penalising those who put power into the grid if its deemed they are producing too much.
We need all the solar we can get, I consider it a good problem to have if there is too much surplus energy, but I can see that the grid has not been designed to cope with this, there probably needs to be more batteries installed to the grid unless more homes get their own battery/EV to store the power..

[harm_less]

V2G is on its way as latest version of the AU/NZ electrical standard 4777 is being rolled out now in Aussie and here this year which includes V2G functionality. The energy stored in an EV battery is typically ~400V DC so that needs to be converted to grid voltage to be used domestically. V2L, and some V2H, enabled EVs do this through their onboard inverter while others allow DC output that is then converted by a bidirectional EVSE 'charger'. The manufacturers of EVSEs are currently hurriedly developing suitable bidirectional chargers as a result of the demand coming as the V2G standards are adopted.

The amount of energy required to power a home is small compared to most EV battery capacities so easy to 'pinch' a bit of it without hindering EV mobility. Even better if the EV in question is a second vehicle.

Newer electricity suppliers such as Octopus and Ecotricity are paying good tariffs for exported generation as a way of building a stable of customers with solar capacity as their own distributed 'power station' which insulates them to some degree from the volatility of NZ's wholesale electricity prices. For us the FIT is 1.5c short of our night supply rate with Octopus but in some regions the inverse applies which make for a great incentive to ramp up solar capacity.

Yes, I dont believe we are far behind either, I work for a fella who is working with the regulatory bodies for establishing this standard here, it will probably happen later in the year is my guess.
IIRC i remember reading an article that Nissan was looking at adding V2G with the leaf, I could be wrong, but I had the impression they were doing this.
I hope we dont see a situation like is happening in parts of Australia where energy companies are penalising those who put power into the grid if its deemed they are producing too much.
We need all the solar we can get, I consider it a good problem to have if there is too much surplus energy, but I can see that the grid has not been designed to cope with this, there probably needs to be more batteries installed to the grid unless more homes get their own battery/EV to store the power..

The AS/NZS 4777.1:2024 electrical standard will be adopted in New Zealand in the next few months. The potential logjam though is that the lines companies will revise their own regulations at their convenience, which may take some time. For example Vector are still running with the 2nd to last version (2015) and haven't updated to the 2020 regs from what I understand.

For example we're with Powerco and since the installation of a new HV transformer bank and voltage regulator back in September we have had excess grid voltage as Powerco push the voltage up to compensate for voltage drop that remote customers are experiencing. The grid voltage we are now supplied is beyond what our inverter is allowed to be set to supply into which is causing our generation and export levels by over 10%. The new reg's when adopted by Powerco will allow us to adjust our inverter to push higher voltages into our grid connection so the sooner the better. This situation is a result of an outdated grid infrastructure that can't cope with, and wasn't designed for, inputs to be backfed from consumers, and the woeful state of Powerco's infrastructure assets.

All EVs manufactured in Japan have had bidirectional functionality mandated by the Japanese government since ~2013 as grid resilience measure following the Fukushima disaster. This is where Chademo connectivity has really shone and is the reason we updated our 2012 Leaf to a 2016 one just before the Clean Car Discount scheme was canned. NorthPower from what I understand use Leafs as backup batteries for their transformer sites' control systems during grid outages so V2G has been in use in NZ for some time by them at least.

The Australian situation where domestic solar customers are being disadvantaged in terms of FIT and ability to export generally shouldn't happen in New Zealand. The big difference is that Australia's base load generation is from coal plants which have a considerable lag in both ramping up and down their generation. Renewables are variable in output at short notice and because the coal plants cannot change their generation as quickly it is the solar customers that get 'switched off' to protect the grid from overload. New Zealand has hydro as its baseload generation which can be increased or decreased at short notice by just opening or closing their penstocks so work well in conjunction with renewables. The other huge advantage this situation presents is that renewable generation offsets hydro thereby leaving that hydro dam storage unused which in effect is an enormous battery. This scenario unfortunately seems to be lost on this government's energy ministers who appear to be hell bent on importing LNG to power thermal generation with huge economic, environmental and energy security costs.