Loading Data for the Kilcullen 38 kV Substation.

Loading data for the Kilcullen 38 kV Substation, courtesy ESB Networks.

From the ESB Networks document 38 kV & 110 kV Station Special Load Readings. 

The table shows summer and winter loads in megawatt (MW) for transformers T41, T42 and T424.

Conversations With ChatGPT: Converting Garden Waste to Electricity

Created by ChatGPT

Eugene: Is it possible to convert the energy stored in garden waste directly into electricity? 

ChatGPT: Short answer: Let me unpack that a bit.

---

🔥 The usual way (not direct)

Most power plants don’t convert heat straight to electricity. They go:
combustion → heat → steam → turbine → generator

That mechanical step (spinning a turbine) is actually very efficient, which is why it’s still dominant.

---

⚡ Direct (or near-direct) methods

1. Thermoelectric generators (Seebeck effect)

This is the cleanest “direct” method.

• Based on the Seebeck effect
• A temperature difference across a material produces a voltage

Pros:

• No moving parts
• Very reliable

Cons:

• Low efficiency (typically 5–10%)
• Needs large temperature differences to be worthwhile

👉 These are used in niche cases like space probes (radioisotope generators), not big power stations.

---

2. Thermophotovoltaics (TPV)

A bit more exotic and very cool in principle.

• Hot surface from combustion emits infrared radiation
• That radiation is converted to electricity using photovoltaic cells (like solar panels tuned for heat)

Pros:

• Potentially higher efficiency than thermoelectrics
• Still no moving parts

Cons:

• Technically complex
• Still under development for large-scale use

---

3. Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) generators

This one feels almost sci-fi.

• Hot ionised gas (plasma) from combustion flows through a magnetic field
• Generates electricity directly from moving charged particles

Pros:

• Theoretically high efficiency

Cons:

• Extremely difficult to operate (materials, temperatures, plasma control)
• Never really took off commercially

---

4. Fuel cells (sort of “skipping combustion”)

Not exactly combustion, but worth mentioning:

• Chemical energy → electricity directly via electrochemical reactions
• e.g. hydrogen fuel cells

These avoid the “heat stage” entirely, which is why they can be efficient.

---

🧠 The key limitation

The reason direct heat → electricity is hard comes down to thermodynamics:

• Heat is disordered energy
• Electricity is ordered energy
• Converting between them efficiently is fundamentally limited (think Carnot efficiency)

Ironically, spinning a turbine is still one of the best ways to impose order on that energy.

---

🧩 Big picture

• Yes, direct conversion exists
• But:
  • It’s usually less efficient than turbines
  • Or more complex and expensive
• That’s why your power station still looks like a Victorian steam machine on steroids 😄

---

If you want, I can run through rough efficiency numbers comparing all of these—or even sketch how a TPV system would look in practice.

 

Eugene: I'm thinking of my garden waste. It'd be great if I could recover the energy.

 

ChatGPT: Ahh now that’s a lovely engineer’s instinct—looking at a pile of garden waste and seeing untapped energy instead of rubbish 😄

 

Short answer: yes, you can recover energy from it—but generating electricity directly is the tricky (and usually disappointing) part. Heat is where the real win is.

---

🌿 What you actually have in garden waste

Your clippings, leaves, twigs etc. are basically stored solar energy (via Photosynthesis).

So in principle, burning or processing them releases that energy again.

---

🔥 The most practical route: heat

If you dry the material and burn it:

• You can get useful heat for space heating or water
• This is by far the most efficient and realistic option at small scale

Think:

• Small wood stove
• Outdoor burner
• Even a DIY biomass heater if you’re inclined

👉 You might recover 50–80% of the energy as heat, which is actually very decent.

---

⚡ Electricity… this is where reality bites a bit

Option 1: Thermoelectric generator

Stick a Thermoelectric generator on a hot stove.

• Works, but…
• You’ll get tiny power (watts, maybe tens of watts)

Good for:

• Charging a phone
• Running a small fan

Not good for:

• Powering your house

---

Option 2: Steam engine (the old-school way)

You could do:

burn waste → boil water → steam → small turbine/engine → generator

But:

• Complex
• Needs pressure vessels (safety issue)
• Hard to do efficiently at small scale

---

Option 3: Gasification (now we’re talking interesting)

This is probably the most “you” option given your engineering bent.

• Heat biomass with limited oxygen → produces “wood gas”
• Burn that gas in an engine → drive a generator

This is basically:
garden waste → fuel gas → engine → electricity

Pros:

• Much better than direct heat-to-electricity
• Actually used historically (e.g. WWII vehicles)

Cons:

• Fiddly to run
• Needs dry, consistent fuel
• Tar/soot management is a pain

---

Option 4: Just compost it (seriously)

Don’t dismiss this one.

• Composting releases heat slowly
• Improves your soil (which feeds more plant growth → more stored energy)

It’s not flashy, but it’s efficient in a different way.

---

⚖️ Reality check (honest answer)

If your goal is:

• Maximum energy recovery → burn it for heat
• Fun engineering project → gasifier + small engine
• Simple + useful → compost or mulch

Generating meaningful electricity directly from garden waste at home scale is:

technically possible… but usually not worth the hassle

---

💡 A neat hybrid idea

If I were setting this up in a garden in Ireland:

• Burn dry woody waste in a small stove
• Use the heat for something useful (shed, water, drying clothes)
• Stick a small thermoelectric module on it just for fun output

You get:

• Real useful energy (heat)
• A bit of electricity as a bonus
• A nice experimental setup to play with

---

If you want, I can sketch a simple DIY setup (nothing dangerous, no pressure vessels) that’d actually work in a garden shed.

Press Release From the ESB About Potential Releases From the Poulaphouca Reservoir

Poulaphouca Lake. © Eugene Brennan

Water isn't released directly into the River Liffey south of Ballymore Eustace from the Poulaphouca reservoir — it's discharged indirectly from the Poulaphouca dam into a compensatory lake in Ballymore. This acts as a buffer, protecting the river from huge surges and flooding. Although it's not related to surges on the river, a surge tank adjacent to the Liffey bridge over the gorge on the N81 protects the pipes, or penstocks, that deliver water to the turbines in the generating house from hydraulic shock.

The compensatory lake also creates a pressure head for the Golden Falls hydro station as well as providing an amenity for fishing and water skiing. "The Flood" on the River Liffey is caused when water is discharged from this lake through the Golden Falls dam. The Poulaphouca reservoir has been acting a buffer up until now, holding large quantities of water from recent rainfall. The lake is fed by both the River Liffey and Kings River, in addition to some minor streams. However, water levels have increased by almost 2 metres, requiring water to be released. Since the Golden Falls lake is also almost full, this means that large quantities water must also be released from the Golden Falls dam into the Liffey at Ballymore Eustace to allow room for water being discharged from the Poulaphouca lake.

In a recent press release by the ESB, quantities haven't been specified and they say "there may be a need to pass through some of these additional inflows over the coming days."

Flows haven't been higher than 33 m³/s (cubic metres per second) in recent years. However, according to the Kilcullen Diary, they were at 55 m³/s in 2000 when a controlled, 24-hour discharge was necessary. this caused floodind in Kilcullen and other regions downstream.

Forecasted flow for the day, with values at 00:00, 08:00, 18:00 and 24:00 from the Golden Falls dam is available here on the ESB hydrometric page. 

Golden Falls dam. © Eugene Brennan

 

Work at Dunstown 400kV Substation

Groundworks at Dunstown 400 kV Substation. Image © Airbus, Maxar Technologies.

On a section of land adjacent-to and SE of the existing substation.

Maybe extra transformer capacity being added or other electrical infrastructure. I'm going to have to visit Google Earth, rather than Google Maps, as the former has historical satellite imagery.

 

Edit: Possibly preliminary groundworks for this: The connection of a "a high-capacity 400 kV (kilovolt) underground electricity connection between Dunstown substation in Co Kildare and Woodland substation in Co Meath." This is part of the Kildare-Meath Grid Upgrade (or Capital Project 966).

Microgeneration and Athgarvan Mill

Athgarvan corn mill in 2001. © Eugene Brennan

I've added links below to a list of electrical power generating sites in Ireland in a Wikipedia article, and also written answers from a Dáil Éireann debate of Tuesday, 26 Jan 2010 on the Oireachtais.ie website. There may be sites that generate lower output, not listed in these resources. According to a list referred to by Minister Eamon Ryan and provided by EirGrid and ESB Networks, Athgarvan Grain Company Limited's installation in Athgarvan was generating 20 kW from its small hydro turbine. (The owner showed me this in 2001, but I can't remember anything about it). Also Silliot Hill was generating 1.255 MW from methane produced by the landfill. An installation at Celbridge Mills was listed as generating 55 kW.

Let's Do Some Calculations: How Much Water?

© Eugene Brennan

I know I'm getting nerdy about this and becoming somewhat obsessed, but let's do some calculations for the total amount of water which has been flowing through the town per day.

Releases of water from Golden Falls dam in Ballymore Eustace have been unusually high over the last week. Some of this water will have flowed through the penstocks (large diameter pipes) to power the alternator and generate electricity. If power from the hydroelectric station can't be accepted by the grid and water level is too high in the lake supplying the dam, it has to "overflow". It's released through "doors" known as sluices, which are raised by electric motors. It then flows down concrete spillways into the river.

Replica Gun Discussion on Liveline

Created by Grok.

A discussion on RTÉ Liveline today was about "Airsoft" type guns on public display in shops. Under the Firearms Acts 1925, revised to 2023, these guns must have a muzzle energy of less than 1 joule to avoid being classified as firearms requiring a license.

What's a joule?

It's the Système International (SI) unit of energy or work done.

Energy = power x time

So 1 watt for 1 second = 1 x 1 = 1 joule.

Think of a 1 watt bulb turned on for 1 second; that consumes 1 joule of energy.

High Volume Releases at Golden Falls Dam

Golden Falls dam, Ballymore Eustace. © Eugene Brennan

According to the ESB, a flow rate of 15 m³/s (cubic metres per second) is estimated for today, 13th November, from 00:00 to 24:00. That's 15 tonnes of water per second. The compensatory/buffer lake at Ballymore Eustace has risen by 9 m since 14th October. The lake acts as a buffer to cater for larger releases at the Poulaphouca dam. I'm guessing some of this water may be through the sluice gates and over the spillways, if the water has reached "overflow" level, rather than through the penstock (a large diameter pipe) feeding the alternator. I've put in a query to the ESB, requesting answers to some technical questions.

The Golden Falls hydroelectric power station has a single three-phase alternator that generates 4 MW of electrical power. For comparison, onshore windmills typically output 2 to 3.5 MW.

Golden Falls Generator Assembly

Golden Falls G 4 assembly. Main shaft guide bearing and oil pump. July 1948. 

Permission to reproduce image courtesy ESB Archives.

 © ESB Archives

ESB Archives have sent me some photos, dating from the 1940s, of the electrical generating equipment in the Golden Falls hydroelectric power station. The stator assembly of the generator can be seen around the perimeter of the casing in two of the photos. Similar to the alternator in your car, a rotor carrying field coils, driven by a shaft from the turbine, turns within the outer stator. The field coils are excited by DC to create a magnetic field and three-phase AC is drawn off the stator. (The same thing happens in a car alternator, but the three-phase AC at a frequency of several hundred hertz is rectified to DC. Older cars used dynamos, that produced DC directly, but suffered from several drawbacks).

ESB Networks Account

Generated using Bing Image Creator

Did you know, you can register for an ESB Networks account that allows you to access lots of information about the electricity usage logged by your smart meter, irrespective of which supplier you're with? The details are more comprehensive than those provided by electricity providers. Also, meter readings are shown and it's possible to download a comma separated values (CSV) file that contains meter readings which can be read by spreadsheet software such as Excel. Time and date-stamped daily readings are provided, with a precision of two decimal places. I switched to SSE Airtricity recently and was annoyed to discover that their bills don't show meter readings, just usage. So there's no way to double check whether the figure they quote tallies with meter readings.

"Take Your Coat Off"

Attic cold tank. © Eugene Brennan

The insulation on the cold water tank in my attic is an ad hoc setup from 20 years ago or more. I just used leftover fibreglass insulation from doing the floor and shrink-wrapped it around the tank. I'm thinking of replacing it with a removable jacket that I can take off in the summer so the water insides absorbs ambient heat. Might lower the cost for heating water somewhat. At this time of the year, water from the mains is colder than the air temperature. However a heat exchanger would improve things. That would take heat from the attic and put it into the water. A heat exchanger uses fins for increasing surface area to maximise the rate of heat transfer. That's why radiators in vehicles and in your home are finned or have accordion-like metal corrugations. Similarly for the heatsinks on some electronic components such as power transistors and microprocessors. The ambient temperature in an attic that doesn't have the slope of the roof insulated can reach the mid-thirties on a sunny day in the summer. Unfortunately water, compared to other a liquids has a huge specific heat capacity. That means it takes a lot of heat to raise the temperature of a kilo of water by 1 deg Celsius. (4200 J⋅kg−1⋅K−1, expressed as "joules per kilogram per Kelvin. The joule is the SI unit of energy).

I remember in the 70s, water was always warm when it came out of the cold tap. I guess that was before the cavernous reservoir (which lorries were able to drive around in, I'm told) was constructed in the hill at Old Kilcullen. Before that, I think our water came from a reservoir on the elevated ground behind Dunlea's garage. The likely smaller volume of water in the tank and lower population in the town resulting in less water flowing from the tank probably gave it time to warm up.

Battery Storage for the Grid

Battery storage facility for grid. Made with Bing Image Creator.

We could do with more though to act as buffers or reservoirs of energy when the sun doesn't shine or wind doesn't blow. (Think of them as the electrical analog of the flywheel on your lawn mower engine that stores energy between the power strokes). Traditional thermal or hydro power station generation is predictable and the output can be switched into the grid as necessary. Renewable generation because of its unpredictability needs the backup of battery storage to take up the slack. More info in this ESB YouTube video.

Nuclear Fusion Reactor Up and Running

JT-60SA tokamak nuclear fusion facility outside Tokyo, Japan. JT-60SA.org

The old joke is that fusion is always 50 years away. Unlike fission which breaks up atoms and results in dangerous radioactive waste, fusion pushes atoms and their subatomic particles together, mimicking the process that happens on our nearest star and nuclear reactor, the Sun. This results in conversion of matter to energy and a tremendous release of heat (thermal power stations use that heat to boil water and make steam, which drives turbines to spin the alternators that make electricity). Fusion produces minimal radioactive waste and unlike a fission reaction which can go out of control and result in a explosion as happened in Chernobyl, it's inherently safe because of the conditions required to sustain fusion: high temperature and pressure. If these conditions aren't sustained, the reaction safely fizzles out. While the Sun finds it "easy" to sustain a fusion reaction, due to the immense gravity that squeezes hydrogen atoms together and forms helium as a waste product, creating the conditions for fusion in a reactor on Earth is a huge technical challenge. Up until recently, more energy has been required to create the required high temperatures and pressure than the net energy that could be generated by a fusion reaction. According to Popular Science, in 2023, "the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Northern California’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory achieved a net energy gain for the second time using what’s the inertial confinement fusion method".
The fuels for fusion reactors are tritium or deuterium, both isotopes of hydrogen.
This article from Popular Science, published in Dec 2023, informs us that the world’s largest experimental tokamak nuclear fusion reactor is up and running.

Proposed LNG Power Plant in Kerry

Gas storage tanks at an LNG Terminal. © Copyright Robin Lucas and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

Great news for energy security as reported in this RTÉ News article, but of course some aren't happy because the gas (shipped as liquid methane) that it's hoped will supply it may come from fracking. The plant will also include a 120 MWh Battery Energy Storage System, such facilities being needed nationwide to store energy and release it as needed (although they're controversial as we saw locally). Newer forms of electricity generation such as wind can be unpredictable, so battery storage acts as a buffer to feed the grid when the Sun isn't shining or wind isn't blowing. It's hoped, according to the RTÉ article, An Bord Pleanála won't put a spanner in the works now and appeal the High Court ruling on the LNG terminal. The court overturned An Bord Pleanála's refusal of permission for the facility last September.

There's an error in the RTÉ article. "120-megawatt" should presumably read "120 MWh" or "120 megawatt-hours".

Real-Time Information From EirGrid

Screenshot from the EirGrid website.

Eirgrid's function is to match supply and demand from their control centre in Dublin. As load i.e. demand increases, generating facilities have to be switched onto the grid or increase their output to compensate, and vice versa. They also have to be synced so their voltages match and AC waveforms all start at the same point. One of the results of increasing demand is that generators slow down, and frequency drops. The opposite happens when load reduces. A change in frequency from 50 hertz can affect clocks and timing, motors and other connected equipment, so frequency is usually regulated to within fractions of a hertz (typically 0.03 hz). Anyone who has ever had an electric clock driven off the mains, will know they keep relatively good time, in comparison to a clockwork clock. That's because the speed of the shielded-pole motor used in the mechanism to turn the hands depends on frequency, not voltage.

Eirgrid's Smart Grid Dashboard shows various parameters of Ireland's electricity system, including frequency, daily supply and demand in GW, fuel mix, interconnection imports, and CO₂ emissions. Historical stats and real-time graphs of system parameters are also available on the EirGrid website. At 3 pm today, demand is 5.485 gigawatt (GW) and wind generation provides 21.8% of that. Peak demand is forecast to occur at 6.30 pm today and is expected to be 6.34 GW.

1 GW = 1000 MW (megawatt) or 1,000,000 kW. Think of 1 GW as the power used by one million, one bar electric fires.

Golden Falls Releases Through the Spillways

Golden Falls dam. © Eugene Brennan

High flows at Golden Falls today, which were forecast to be 10 m³/s all day. The releases are due to recent heavy rainfall. I always end up here late in the afternoon on dull days, so the high contrast in the scene means photos aren't the best. So the sky gets washed out if I increase the exposure.

© Eugene Brennan

 

© Eugene Brennan

The Mill Stream in 2015, Kinetic Energy and the EPA's National Hydrometric Programme

Flow wasn't quite as strong today, but it could be once all the rain from last night soaks through the ground and makes its way into watercourses. This video was from October 2015 after a long, wet autumn. The water level was up to the 4th rung from the top of the ladder (half a rung spacing lower today in the video at the end of this post). At some stage, I want to do back-of-envelope calculations to see what the max energy output would be if the stream was harnessed. Kinetic energy can be calculated simply by measuring width, depth and speed of the flow to get cubic metres per second and working from there. Surface speed could be checked by timing how long it takes something floating on the surface to pass between two points. Speed wouldn't be constant from surface to bottom of the flow or from centre to the banks because of friction, but the streambed under the bridge is smooth and level, as are the walls, so velocity profile is known for such shapes (This is effectively a rectangular weir, used by the EPA to do hydrometric measurement). 

 

Data for the "Kilcullen Stream" is available here on the EPA's HydroNet website. (Isn't this the "Mill Stream")? 

 

Data available on the EPA's HydoNet website. Image courtesy EPA.

 

What's the tube at the side of the bridge?

 

This is the stilling chamber of what's called a gauging station by the EPA. The stilling chamber is used to make the surface of water less turbulent so that stream level can be measured with an ultrasonic sensor (which needs a level surface to get a reliable echo for measuring distance). I'm not sure whether they actually use a logger here to measure levels continuously. There's no antenna for telemetry, so possibly data is downloaded every so often or more likely transmitted using a GSM modem over the mobile phone network. A Yuasa type battery would power a setup like this because the electronics only has to wake up every 15 minutes or so, take a measurement and then go to sleep again. (Similar to the way a wireless doorbell sounder only wakes up every second or so to detect a button push). There's also a scale at the station for taking manual depth measurements.

More information about the EPA's National Hydrometric Programme is available here.

 

 Mill Stream December 7th, 2024

 

Toyota's Portable Hydrogen Cartridges

Portable Hydrogen Cartridge (Prototype). Image © Toyota. Source: Toyota UK Media Site.

Toyota have shown off their new hydrogen cartridges at the Japan Mobility Show 2024, according to HydrogenFuelNews.com. The cartridges are an alternative to filling a fuel tank with hydrogen. While hydrogen can power an internal combustion engine directly, a more efficient option is to convert hydrogen into electricity using a device called a fuel cell. The current produced by the cell can then power electric traction motors in an FCEV (Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle). Capacity wasn't specified for the cartridges, but another source suggests it's 4.7 l of liquid hydrogen at 525 bar. That would equate to 329 g (liquid H₂ has a density of 70 g/l compared to 1 kg/l for water). According to a resource provided by the Center for Sustainable Resources at the University of Michigan, hydrogen has a low volumetric energy storage density of 8 MJ/l for liquid hydrogen (mega joules per litre), compared to 32 MJ/l for petrol. Hydrogen does have the highest energy density by mass however of any fuel. That 329 g estimate of liquid hydrogen at an energy density of 120 MJ/kg (versus 44 MJ/kg for petrol) equates to approximately 11 kWh. What range would that give for an FCEV with a typical efficiency of 60% fuel to wheels? Toyota UK didn't have any further detail or a press release on the technology when I asked them, however here's an interesting article on The Conversation about hydrogen cars.

 

References: 

 

Toyota showcases technology developments towards a sustainable future. Toyota Media Site. (2024, October 8 ) https://media.toyota.co.uk/toyota-showcases-technology.../

Toyota and woven planet develop new portable hydrogen cartridge prototype to power everyday applications. Toyota Media Site. (2022, June 2). https://media.toyota.co.uk/toyota-and-woven-planet.../

Hydrogen factsheet. Center for Sustainable Systems. (n.d.). https://css.umich.edu/.../facts.../energy/hydrogen-factsheet

Tsakiris, A. (n.d.). Analysis of hydrogen fuel cell and battery efficiency. https://c2e2.unepccc.org/.../analysis-of-hydrogen-fuel...

Hydrogen storage | Department of Energy. (n.d.). https://www.energy.gov/eere/fuelcells/hydrogen-storage

The Sun's Vital Role: How It Powers Life and Energy on Earth

© Eugene Brennan

 

As you probably know, the Sun is a giant nuclear reactor, the cosmological equivalent of a hydrogen bomb. It’s our nearest star and it would take 600 years to cycle there at a leisurely pace of 12 miles per hour, 24/7. That’s if there was actually a road we could travel on! Even at a distance of 93 million miles, we feel its heat, and it lights our world and has a huge influence on planet Earth. Without the Sun, the Earth would eventually become a cold, frozen place as the temperature of the planet continued to fall to hundreds of degrees below zero. The Sun drives the climate and it creates the energy necessary for crops to grow. Without sunshine, the chemical process known as photosynthesis can’t take place, since plants need light energy to turn CO₂ and water into sugar and starch in their roots, stems and leaves. Without plants, animals can’t survive either, because herbivores eat plants and carnivores in turn eat the herbivores that eat the plants. The Sun was also responsible for providing the energy that is now locked into fossil fuels. Refined oil products and gas originated from dead marine organisms which over millions of years metamorphosed into crude oil. Those organisms, such as plankton, algae and other sea creatures relied on the energy of the Sun for life. Similarly coal originated from trees in ancient forests, pressed into a rock-like material by huge pressures from above. Our renewable energy sources today all derive their energy from the Sun. Solar panels convert sunshine directly into electricity. Wind, wave, tidal and hydro power wouldn’t be possible without the motion of air and sea caused by solar energy heating the ground surface and oceans and generating air currents.

Like most stars, the Sun formed when clouds of dust left over from the formation of the Universe coalesced under the influence of gravity into clumps. The process took millions of years and planets in our Solar System formed similarly. The swirling clumps slowly became more defined and spherical. Small clumps became planets, but the larger clump at the centre of the Solar System continued to become tighter and more compressed. Newton’s law of universal gravitation states that: 

 

“Every particle attracts every other particle in the universe with a force that is proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between their centres.”

 

The consequences are that the force of gravity is stronger if either or both particles have greater masses and are closer together.

In the case of the Sun, the sheer volume and weight (or more correctly mass in this context) of the clump at the centre of the Solar System meant that there was colossal gravity, and that gravity continued to pull everything together towards a common centre. As everything continued to get closer together, the “distance apart” in Newton’s law became smaller. The result was a runaway situation with distance getting smaller and gravity increasing because of the increasingly smaller distances between particles. Eventually atoms were squeezed into one another, ultimately sparking off a fusion reaction (something we've being artificially doing for decades in experiments on Earth in the quest for fusion power). The process didn’t continue however and eventually there was equilibrium between the heat of the thermonuclear reaction causing expansion and gravity pulling inwards.

Facts about the Sun

 

• It’s 93 million miles or 149 million km from Earth.

• The Sun is approximately 4.6 billion years old.

• It has a diameter of approximately 864,600 miles or 1,391,400 km.

• Eventually the Sun will become a red giant star, swallowing up the inner planets including Earth in 7.59 billion years time.

• Ultimately the Sun will become a white dwarf with 54% of its original mass.

 

Weight is something that changes depending where you are in the Universe. An astronaut weighs less on the Moon, but their mass is the same. Both mass and weight are measured in kg.

Many thanks to ChatGPT for making up the title!

References:

How does the Sun work? | High Altitude Observatory. (n.d.). https://www2.hao.ucar.edu/.../about-the.../how-does-sun-work
K.-P. Schröder, Robert Connon Smith, Distant future of the Sun and Earth revisited, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 386, Issue 1, 1 May 2008, Pages 155–163, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2966.2008.13022.x