Energy chat

Let’s not forget that nuclear can provide constant base load reliably, unlike most renewables except tidal hydro.

Yup, I’m surprised they are that low :slight_smile:

The problem with cost comparisons is that they ignore all sorts of costs and include some strange one, carbon offsets being one such. Wind costs always include the offshore NRE for infrastructure but others don’t include substantial costs for infrastructure NRE (pylons, distribution etc associated just with that power station).

As an example the 2 nuc PWRs planned for Cumbria (now in trouble) demanded a new 80 mile HV pylon system that would provide a third supply route south to north, those costs were excluded from the power station costs. They are substantial as most of the route was in and around the Lake District and needed a tunnel, including a good 10 mile under Morecambe Bay!

Nuclear is 13%, offshore wind baseload Min is 6%. Tidal, wind and solar really should be exploited more in the UK. we have the largest tidal and wind capacity in the bloody world FFS, it’s a bloody disgrace that we keep taking short term investment decisions and are now entirely dependent on Gas, an increasing amount of which is imported from the bloody middle east.

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I of course say this while smugly having solar PV installed right now…

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Gas is cheap and not coal.

Nuclear is very expensive to set up and dispose of.

Wind farms have a short finite lifetime.

We should have 2 severn barrages by now, combined would be about 17% of UK power needs. It is a crime we built bridges and not barrages with a bridge on top.

I hadn’t realised that the scheme was aiming to supply electricity in that direction …

I see what you did there :wink:. Still, at least it’s not bloody Russia.

VB

After which a simple refurb brings them back to full spec. Not something you can say about nuclear!

Most coal has been converted to biomass, which is looking like it might be suboptimal for the environment, but there’s no other use for those power stations really.

The other development is that battery storage for home solar PV is likely to become much cheaper in the future, on the basis that most batteries are refurbed electric car batteries that have dropped below automotive spec. Wider battery use once the feed in tariffs disappear should reduce the requirements for peak capacity a bit.

It depends who you listen to. RSPB and other ornithological institutes have produced many reports citing wind farms as being responsible for killing birds. Other, more independent, sources claim otherwise.

It’s true, they do kill birds, however not nearly as many as the nuclear or fossil fuel industry.

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Ok offshore, but definitely not in my back yard from the acoustic and radio-frequency interference viewpoint.

When I was still working I was asked if I we would like to quote for a new section of ladder that was needed to replace a damaged part. The company that invited me to tender told me to make sure it was expensive as ‘cost was no object’ They had already been contracted to supply and install it. They were/are specialist providers of off-shore rope access solutions

I calculated that to realise our usual profit margin we would have to charge £12k. That would have been a fairly small order for us and I wasn’t fussed about whether we got the job or not, so I submitted a price of £24k. We got the order the next day, followed by a phone call thanking me for quoting and the comment " after what I told you yesterday, I was expecting it to be a lot more than that"

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It’s all well and good supplying energy to the people buy how will they nourish their souls? I so wish we could take a leaf out of Bhutan’s book and measure things on a scale of happiness (Now there’s a beautiful thing) If only we could all hoof glue, surely we’d all get along? - Stronzetto.

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Another Beautiful thing

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Top scumming, I thought.

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Claires mate has got a static caravan/lodge type place up in the lakes. A few hundred metres away is a single, biggish wind turbine.

The thumping noise it imparts into the caravan when it’s pointing in the “right” direction is quite substantial.

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You know you have arrived when you first taste Caviar, you know you are staying when you don’t have to ask the price.

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Flaccid - I was hoping the thumping sound was going to have a sexy punch line

My abject apologies for denying you your rightful fap fodder.

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I accept pies, auto erotic stimulation and or all major credit cards. Amends is an action Sir!

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Yea, they snuck it in on the back of the two power stations. Luckily for locals , Lancaster City Council left the costed options paper on their public web site and various bodies have since pulled the route options to pieces. The pylons are massive, traverse lake district scenery and originally the only buried portion would see it bypass a local Lords land, Cavendish, Tory Lord!

Lots more of it now being buried, but without the two nucs I can’t see it getting funded.