El coste de la tarifa eléctrica

Las tarifas eléctricas han tenido un incremento espectacular en los últimos 3 años.

El pasar de una facturación bimensual a mensual en 2009, ha servido para intentar disimular la afectación de los sucesivos incrementos.

La subida del IVA, en julio del 2010 - del 16 al 18 %-, afecta al recibo de la luz., y hace que se haya encarecido aún mas.

Se puede comprobar que el recibo de la luz consta de los siguientes conceptos, (valores de una facturación doméstica):

Potencia contratada (término potencia)
Es el producto de la potencia contratada por la tarifa de dicha potencia y por el nº de días del periodo a facturar.
Ejemplo: 6,6 kW * 32 días * 0,056529 €/kW día = 11,94 €
Energía consumida.
Es el producto de la energía consumida durante el periodo a facturar multiplicada por el precio de la tarifa de dicha energía:
Ejemplo: Consumo punta de 296 kWh * 0,168965 €/kWh = 50,01 €
Consumo valle de 292 kWh* 0,060407 €/kWh = 17,64 €
Impuesto sobre la electricidad, és el 4,864 % sobre el importe de los costes de la potencia contratada más el de la energía consumida y todo ello multiplicado por el factor 1,05113
Ejemplo: (11,94 + 50,01 + 17,64) * 1,05113 x 4,864% = 4,07 €
Alquiler de equipos de medida
Es el producto del número de días del periodo a facturar por el precio del alquiler diario del equipo
Ejemplo: 32 días * 0,07309 €/día = 2,34 €
Tenemos un subtotal de 86,00 €
IVA (el actual es del 18 %)
Se aplica sobre el total de los conceptos anteriores.
Ejemplo. 18 % * 86,00 = 15,48 €
Total de la factura
Es la suma de todos los importes anteriores
Ejemplo: 101,48 €

Tomando como base 100, el 1/Enero/2007, tenemos los siguientes incrementos anuales, en la tarifa doméstica:
Enero 2008: 8%
Enero 2009: 39%
Enero 2010: 38%
Enero 2011: 42%

Para justificar estos incrementos se habla del déficit tarifario, de si las empresas eléctricas tienen sobrecostes, de la adecuación a la situación de precios de UE, ...etc.

Cuando se calculan los ratios de evolución del PIB y de la producción de energía eléctrica, para distintos paises de la UE se obtiene algo interesante, tenemos: (Fuente EUROSTAT)
Alemania y Francia: Generan un PIB de 20 Mio € por cada GWh producido de electricidad.
Reino Unido: és de 33 Mio € por GWh producido.
Italia y España: 40 Mio € por GWh de producción.
Polonia y Suecia: 85 Mio € por cada GWh de producción.
Paises Bajos y Bélgica: 135 Mio € por GWh producido.
Grecia y Portugal: 250 Mio € por GWh producido.

De acuerdo con estos valores parecería que en el mix de generación del PIB de los paises más fuertes, económicamente, no está vinculado al consumo de la electricidad, es decir que la generación del PIB no procede mayoritariamente del sector secundario, sino del terciario. O que estos paises poseen una infraestructura de generación de energía totalmente sobredimensionada con respecto de sus necesidades, lo cual me parecería extraño. Si podría ser que estos paises hubieran invertido en poseer una infraestructura eléctrica en que haya sido posible abaratar los costes de generación y por ello los costes a los consumidores domésticos e industriales.

Y cuando se examinan, para estos mismos paises, la tasa de coste de la factura eléctrica para las economías domésticas (detrayendo el IVA y los impuestos) con respecto de la producción de electricidad, obtenemos también algo muy interesante:

Coste electricidad (economías domésticas) / producción eléctrica

Francia 0,16; Alemania 0,22; Reino Unido 0,34; España 0,46; Italia 0,62; Polonia 0,67; Suecia 0,80; Paises Bajos 1,17; Grecia 1,55; Bélgica 1,86; Portugal 2,39.

Así Francia, Alemania y Reino Unido, són más baratos que España, a pesar de que para generar PIB no precisan tanto de la energía eléctrica. El resto són más caros que España, pero son más caros los paises que están en generación de PIB por debajo de España.

España en PIB, debería acercarse más en la linea de los tres primeros, ello significaría aprender a generar PIB a partir de los servicios, y que quizás nuestra infraestructura eléctrica no ha sido capitalizada con las inversiones necesarias para disponer de una generación eléctrica lo suficientemente importante como para abaratar precios a los consumidores, algo que si han hecho en Alemania, Francia y Reino Unido.
(Datos del 2008)

RD 14/2010

Muchos quebraderos de cabeza está causando, para la población fotovoltaica, este Real Decreto desde su aprobación el 23 de Diciembre de 2010.


En cualquier caso grava a un productor de energía fotovoltaica por utilizar la red de distribución de energía en un valor de 0,5 € / Mwh. Este sobrecoste puede ser asumible. Pero el golpe fuerte llega con la limitación de la retribución de acuerdo con las horas equivalentes anuales. Estas deben verificarse para cada zona climática. Se entiende por hora equivalente, de acuerdo con el RD 14/2010, el valor resultante de dividir la energía inyectada anual (según memoria de proyecto) en kWh dividido por la potencia de la instalación en kWp


En instalaciones fotovoltaicas fijas situadas por ejemplo en el Norte de España (Zona I) se admite hasta un valor de 1.232 horas, en el centro, cataluña y levante (Zona III y IV) los valores son de 1.492 y 1.632 horas y para las zonas más cálidas (Zona V) hasta un máximo de 1.753 horas.
Instalaciones con importantes valores en la PR, están muy penalizadas. A pesar de que el plazo se ha alargado hasta los 28 años, esto sólo representa de 0,4% a 0,7% más en la tasa de rentabilidad.
Hasta el 31 de Diciembre de 2013 el valor és de 1.250 horas equivalentes. Ello representa reducir la energía retribuida en un 25% a 30% según instalaciones.
Diganme a cuantos de Vds. no les salen los números ?

Proposed Spacetime Structure

Spacetime, which consists of three dimensions of space and one time dimension, is such a large, abstract concept that scientists have a very difficult time understanding and defining it. Moreover, different theories offer different, contradictory insights on spacetime’s structure. While general relativity describes spacetime as a continuous manifold, quantum field theories require spacetime to be made of discrete points. Unifying these two theories into one theory of quantum gravity is currently one of the biggest unsolved problems in physics.

In an attempt to better understand spacetime, a new possible structure of spacetime has been proposed on the Planck scale. Spacetime could be both discrete and continuous at the same time, conceivably satisfying general relativity and quantum field theories simultaneously.

This theory is inspired by information theory, since information can also be simultaneously discrete and continuous, the underlying mathematical structure of information theory in this framework is sampling theory - that is, samples taken at a generic discrete set of points can be used to reconstruct the shape of the information (or spacetime) everywhere down to a specific cutoff point. In the case of spacetime, that cutoff would be the natural ultraviolet lower bound, if it exists. This lower bound can also be thought of as a minimum length uncertainty principle, beyond which structural properties cannot be precisely known.

In the study, a sampling theory that can be generalized to apply to spacetime was developped. In this it shows that a finite density of sample points obtained throughout spacetime’s structure can provide scientists with the shape of spacetime from large length scales all the way down to the natural ultraviolet cutoff. Further, it shows that this expression establishes an equivalence between discrete and continuous representations of spacetimes. As such, the new framework for the sampling and reconstruction of spacetime could be used in various approaches to quantum gravity by giving discrete structures a continuous representation.

But it is very hard to obtain experimental data that could guide the search for the theory that unifies quantum theory and general relativity.

New Malaria and Cholera vaccine?

A University of Central Florida biomedical researcher has developed what promises to be the first low-cost dual vaccine against malaria and cholera.
There is no FDA approved vaccine to prevent malaria, a mosquito-borne illness that kills more than 1 million people annually. Only one vaccine exists to fight cholera, a diarrheal illness that is common in developing countries and can be fatal. The lone vaccine is too expensive to prevent outbreaks in developing countries after floods, and children lose immunity within three years of getting the current vaccine.
The development team genetically engineered tobacco and lettuce plants to produce the vaccine. Researchers gave mice freeze-dried plant cells (orally or by injection) containing the vaccine. They then challenged the mice with either the cholera toxin or malarial parasite. The malaria parasite studies were completed in fellow UCF professor Debopam Chakrabarti's lab.
Untreated rodents contracted diseases quickly, but the mice who received the plant-grown vaccines showed long-lasting immunity for more than 300 days (equivalent to 50 human years).
Results from the National Institutes of Health-funded research are published in this month's Plant Biotechnology, the top-ranked journal in the field.
Clinical trials are needed. But if it works then it could be yet another example of plants delivering life-saving medicines.
Producing vaccines in plants is less expensive than traditional methods because it requires less labor and technology. And distribution to mass populations would be easy because it could be made into a simple pill, like a vitamin, which many people routinely take now. There is no need for expensive purification, cold storage, transportation or sterile delivery via injections.

Greece agrees with austerity

Greece has agreed the outline of a €24bn austerity package, including a three-year wage freeze for public sector workers, in return for a multibillion-euro loan from the eurozone and the International Monetary Fund, according to people familiar with the talks.
Final details of the measures, which were intended to slash the budget deficit by 10-11 percentage points of gross domestic product over the next three years, were still being worked out.
Negotiations with officials from the IMF, the European Commission and the European Central Bank are due to be completed at the weekend and the measures will be presented for approval by the Greek parliament next week.
The package also includes an increase in value-added tax, the second this year.

Greek two-year bond yields, which have an inverse relationship with prices, fell more than 3 percentage points to 12.74 per cent, while the stock market rose 7.14 per cent as confidence grew after it was reported on Wednesday that the EU and IMF were preparing a €120bn loan to bail out ­Athens.
Greece faces exceptionally strict monitoring by the EU and IMF because of its poor record of implementing previous economic reform programmes:
-Three-year reform programme
-Two to three percentage points increase in value-added tax
-Three-year public sector pay freeze; recruitment frozen
-Abolition of ‘13th and 14th monthly salary’ for public sector workers; 5 per cent cut in allowances
-No renewals for short-term public sector contracts
-Closure of more than 800 out-dated state entities
-Opening up of more than 60 ‘closed-shop’ professions
-Overhaul of pension system: raising average retirement age to 67 for men and women; cutting state corporation pensions.
-Privatisation: sales of state corporations; flotations on Athens stock exchange; sales and leasing of state-owned properties
George Papandreou, prime minister, was last week forced to activate the EU-IMF rescue package after three previous rounds of austerity measures failed to convince financial markets that Greece could bring its public finances under control.
On top of the wage freeze, public sector workers will lose their “13th and 14th month” salaries, paid at Christmas and Easter, and see further cuts in allowances.
Greece’s swollen public sector, which employs about 13 per cent of the workforce, will be gradually reduced through a recruitment freeze, the abolition of short-term contracts and closures of hundreds of outdated state entities.

Hubble's Deepest View to Date Unveils Never Before Seen Galaxies

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has broken the distance limit for galaxies and uncovered a primordial population of compact and ultra-blue galaxies that have never been seen before.

The deeper Hubble looks into space, the farther back in time it looks, because light takes billions of years to cross the observable universe.

This makes Hubble a powerful "time machine" that allows astronomers to see galaxies as they were 13 billion years ago, just 600 million to 800 million years after the Big Bang.

The data from Hubble's new infrared camera, the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), on the Ultra Deep Field (taken in August 2009) have been analyzed by no less than five international teams of astronomers. A total of 15 papers have been submitted to date by astronomers worldwide. Some of these early results are being presented by various team members on Jan. 6, 2010, at the 215th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Washington, D.C

The faintest galaxies are now showing signs of linkage to their origins from the first stars. They are so blue that they must be extremely deficient in heavy elements, thus representing a population that has nearly primordial characteristics.

The existence of these newly found galaxies pushes back the time when galaxies began to form to before 500-600 million years after the Big Bang. This is good news for astronomers building the much more powerful James Webb Space Telescope (planned for launch in 2014), which will allow astronomers to study the detailed nature of primordial galaxies and discover many more even farther away. There should be a lot for Webb to hunt for.

The deep observations also demonstrate the progressive buildup of galaxies and provide further support for the hierarchical model of galaxy assembly where small objects accrete mass, or merge, to form bigger objects over a smooth and steady but dramatic process of collision and agglomeration. It's like streams merging into tributaries and then into a bay.

These galaxies are as small as 1/20th the Milky Way's diameter, the masses are just 1 percent of those of the Milky Way. The results show that these galaxies at 700 million years after the Big Bang must have started forming stars hundreds of millions of years earlier, pushing back the time of the earliest star formation in the universe.

The teams are finding that the number of galaxies per unit of volume of space drops off smoothly with increasing distance, and also found that the galaxies become surprisingly blue intrinsically.

The ultra-blue galaxies are extreme examples of objects that appear so blue because they may be deficient in heavier elements, and as a result, quite free of the dust that reddens light through scattering.

Hubble's WFC3/IR camera was able to make deep exposures to uncover new galaxies at roughly 40 times greater efficiency than its earlier infrared camera that was installed in 1997. The WFC3/IR brought new infrared technology to Hubble and accomplished in four days of observing what would have previously taken almost half a year for Hubble to do.

200,000 Degree Star Found at Center of NGC 6302

Astronomers at The University of Manchester's Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics have discovered one of the hottest stars in the Galaxy - with a surface temperature of around 200,000 degrees, it is 35 times hotter than the Sun. Despite numerous attempts by astronomers across the world, the mysterious dying star at the heart of NGC 6302, the Butterfly nebula - one of the brightest and most beautiful of the planetary nebulae - has never been seen before. NGC 6302 lies within our Milky Way galaxy, roughly 3,800 light-years away in the constellation Scorpius. The glowing gas is the star's outer layers, expelled over about 2,200 years. The "butterfly" stretches for more than two light-years, which is about half the distance from the Sun to the nearest star, Alpha Centauri.The central star, which up to now could not be seen because it is hidden within a doughnut-shaped ring of dust, appears as a dark band pinching the nebula in the center. The thick dust belt constricts the star's outflow, creating the classic "bipolar" or hourglass shape displayed by some planetary nebulae.

The star's surface temperature is estimated to be about 200,000 degrees Fahrenheit, making it one of the hottest known stars in our galaxy. Spectroscopic observations made with ground-based telescopes show that even the gas surrounding the star is roughly 36,000 degrees Fahrenheit, which is unusually hot compared to typical planetary nebulae."This star was so hard to find because it is hidden behind a cloud of dust and ice in the middle of the nebula.

Using the recently refurbished Hubble Space Telescope (HST), a team of astronomers have shed new light on the nebula with a set of spectacular images. The images were taken to show off the new improved HST after it began work again in September this year. The Manchester astronomers were amazed to find that the images unexpectedly revealed the missing central star.

Astronomer's said "It's extremely important to understand planetary nebulae such as the Bug Nebula, as they are crucial to understanding our own existence on Earth". That is because the elements necessary for life, especially carbon, are created inside stars, and ejected into space as part of these planetary nebulae. Planets such as the Earth form from small dust particles, which also form within planetary nebulae. The cloud of dust and ice in the Bug Nebula contains the seeds of a future generation of planets." Finding the star was made possible by the Space Shuttle's final servicing mission of the HST, earlier this year. During the mission, astronauts installed the new Wide Field Camera 3 which was used to take these images. "How a star ejects a nebula like this is still a mystery. It seems most stars, including the Sun, will eject as much as 80 per cent of their mass when they finally run out of nuclear fuel at the end of their lives. Material that then goes on to help form the next generation of stars and planets.

These observations have shown that the star at the heart of the Bug Nebula is only about 2/3 as heavy as the Sun, but was several times heavier before it threw off its outer layers to form the nebula which had previously hidden it from our view.