Cyprus-Forum.com

[devil]

Unions vow to block offshore gas unit
By Elias Hazou

EMPLOYEES of the EAC (Electricity Authority of Cyprus) yesterday vowed to block government plans for an offshore Liquid Natural Gas unit, even hinting at possible strike action.

The threat came as a ministerial committee decided earlier this week to invite tenders for an LNG floating storage unit. The Cabinet is set to endorse – or not – the decision at its next session on Wednesday.

While the government says it is committed to building an LNG land terminal in the long term, in the meantime it wants to “explore” alternative technologies such as an offshore unit.
...

“The workers are obliged to stand up for what they believe is right for their organisation and their country’s economy,” he added.
“Going for a floating unit will strangle the option of a land terminal, and will make our economy dependent on foreign capital.

...

Copyright © Cyprus Mail 2007

I'm not going into the politics of this but only the environmental aspects.

Natural gas (NG) is a fossil fuel. It is BAD, as a fossil fuel, possibly worse than coal, even. This can be seen here. Liquid Natural gas (LNG) is possibly the worst form of NG for a variety of technical reasons. A LNG terminal is not just a tank or two to store the stuff but it has to include a regasification plant. A floating terminal is not a good idea, from the safety point of view.

However, there is worse. The consumption of LNG proposed for Cyprus will be small, so we cannot be serviced by large tankers. Small tankers are horrendously expensive, because the loading fees at Qatar (or elsewhere) are about the same for a large or a small tanker. It takes three days to load or unload a tanker, irrespective of its size. In fact, the terminals often refuse to load small tankers because it is so uneconomical and large tankers will refuse to unload a small part of their cargo and lose an extra three days of useful service at a cost of millions/day in amortisation.

Then there is the cost. A regasification plant is horrendously expensive. Th have our own storage and regasification facility will cost the best part of a billion, if not more, at today's prices: by 2012, when it could be built, it will probably double in cost. In the meantime, we would be leasing the floating unit at hundreds of thousands/day and, as the article says, it is still rather experimental.

There is only one environmentally-friendly way of ensuring a certain supply of electricity at an acceptable cost: a EuroPR nuclear reactor. This would cover all our foreseeable needs with almost no carbon emissions until at least 2025, with the most absolute security. And it could ensure we could run desalination plants. Remember Cyprus is already amongst the worst per capita CO2 generators in Europe and the E. Med. We do not need to add to our unenvious reputation by going the LNG road.

[denizaksulu]

I will vote for "devil" for the post of Minister of the Environment. Cyprus is too small for such an enterprise, and Cyprus is ruined enough by developers on both sides of the line.

[Dadalushe]

There is only one environmentally-friendly way of ensuring a certain supply of electricity at an acceptable cost: a EuroPR nuclear reactor. This would cover all our foreseeable needs with almost no carbon emissions until at least 2025, with the most absolute security. And it could ensure we could run desalination plants.

This seems to be the route Tony Blair wants to take in the UK. There will, of course, be the usual anti-nuclear lobby. In the NW of England we are currently being plagued with wind-farms which will never produce enough energy to outweigh their ugliness!

[devil]

I admit that when I wrote about nuclear above, my tongue was slightly in my cheek, as I'm quite aware that the Cypriot populace would go ballistic at the thought of a nuke power station. Many still equate it with Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Of course, wind in NW England is much more viable than it ever could be here. However, the problem anywhere is that the wind does not always blow and you need the nukes to supply the juice to full demand for those times. If you look at the top graph here, you will see red, blue and green lines representing the gust, average and minimal wind speeds at my weather station. For a viable use of a wind farm, the blue line must be over 10 m/s, the green line must be over 5 m/s and the red line must not exceed 22 m/s. These conditions rarely obtain in Cyprus, perhaps 2 or 3 half-days/year. On the left hand side of that graphic, you will see a figure for the windrun. This is the distance an infinitely small dust particle will have blown in the day, assuming it never falls to the ground. Although not a linear relationship to the energy produced by a wind turbine, I would say you would need to see close to 1,000 km/day windrun for wind turbines to be commercially viable.

I have an essay on electricity in the Cyprus context, with links to pages on renewable sources and suchlike here.

[Dadalushe]

I admit that when I wrote about nuclear above, my tongue was slightly in my cheek, as I'm quite aware that the Cypriot populace would go ballistic at the thought of a nuke power station. Many still equate it with Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

.

I agree that "nuclear" is possibly a dirty word, but it will be hard to find a viable alternative in the near (or distant?) future.

[Crivens]

Meh, I lived for years very near to a nuclear power station on an island that took about half an hour to cross by car (now probably about 20 mins with the new dual carriageway). You want cheap leccy (and much lower harm to the environment) then go nuclear. You could get run over tomorrow (very likely in Limassol).

Cheers

[Sotos]

What about solar power with photovoltaic systems? If every building had some solar cells on its roof then most of our needs would be covered

[devil]

What about solar power with photovoltaic systems? If every building had some solar cells on its roof then most of our needs would be covered

Fine in theory, but
a) who is going to pay for the enormous capital cost (tens of times more than nuke)?
b) who wants to pay for electricity at 35 c/kWh, instead of 6 c/kWh?
c) most people want to watch their TV after the sun goes down and electric light would also be nice.

PV may be OK to reduce the load of aircon on a sunny day. And more than ~20% of peak grid capacity as renewables will cause instability, causing island-wide blackouts for several hours. Have a look at this site.

[Kikapu]

Devil,

As always, you give a lot of information, with knowledge.

Can we all agree, that nothing comes "cheap and problem free", when it comes to electricity.

Wind farms are nice, but not enough power produced to keep up with the demand. Not even 1%.

Nuclear has a great capacity to satisfy all our needs, as France has proven to their own nation, but there is the initial high cost in building one and safeguarding it's potential dangers and harm to the population of Cyprus. One bad "Nuclear meltdown", can and will ruin every one's day on the island.

I think Sotos idea is the best way to go, regarding Solar Panels. With storage Batteries charged all day long, and converters from a DC to AC, for domestic usage, one should be able to subsides most of their energy needs, with the normal power grid being there, to pick up the slack, when needed. Sure the initial investment will be high, but so is a Nuclear Power Plant. I also understand, that Batteries will also have to be dealt with, when it comes to be replaced.

In California, people are getting grants from the local governments, to put Solar Panels on their roofs, and any excess power that they produce and not needed, can sell it to them (to the government), which will help pay off, towards the grants. You can have the same in Cyprus, where people will become more aware of their power usage, to reduce their unnecessary wastage, so that they can sell unused electricity to the government, to add into their power grid. It can be a win win proposal, but needs to be done in a large scale, to make a difference.

I agree with you, that Nuclear Power is the more direct route to solve electricity problems of Cyprus, but will also take the longest route politically and environmentally, to get those Nuclear facilities built.

[Jerry]

That's a very interesting site Devil, surely it's not beyond the inventiveness of man to develop cheap ways of turning the sun's energy into electricity and storing it. I'm sure I read about an experimental system where the heat from the sun was used to produce steam and then electricity. I reckon in the next century people will look back at our crude and wasteful attitude to energy production with some amusement and resentment at the damage we did.