On 4/27/2016 12:49 PM, ChrisB wrote:
No, it’s the wind turbines that go into standby, for just that
reason. The grid pays the operators to stop their turbines during
time of low usage.
Sounds to me like you must have those mythical turbines which continue
spinning when the wind doesn't blow. The typical wind farm only
produces at 1/3 of its capacity but can, at times, overproduce. But it
will always be thus for energy sources outside man's control.
Assuming that that EIA table is representative of real life, it looks
like offshore is pretty pricey, but does the nuclear capital cost
include the decommissioning? And where do we put the waste?
I'm sure it doesn't include the decommissioning just as the solar and
wind numbers in the table don't include the very high US government
subsidies. I do not propose creating any new nuclear facilities such
as we have now (originally designed primarily to produce plutonium for
weapons) but there are far better nuclear solutions.
With regard to conventional generation, we are running out of the
stuff to fuel it, Chuck.
By some estimates the UK has large deposits of shale gas but you haven't
drilled enough exploratory wells to be certain.
Yes, we need batteries.
We all need super batteries... but they don't appear to be anywhere on
the horizon. Best to plan around that which you don't and likely won't
have any time soon.
Chuck Norcutt
Chris
On 27 Apr 2016, at 12:52, Chuck Norcutt
<chucknorcutt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
But what have you gained? The grid is still dependent on
conventional power stations operating in inefficient standby mode
to compensate for the wind and solar systems that can not and never
will produce power on demand.
Offshore wind has a capital cost about 50% greater than nuclear and
operational and maintenance cost that is about double.
<http://www.eia.gov/forecasts/aeo/electricity_generation.cfm
<http://www.eia.gov/forecasts/aeo/electricity_generation.cfm>> And
that doesn't count the cost of the backup power stations which have
to have equal power capacity and still have to operate about 2/3 of
the time.
Wind and solar would make more sense if there were such things as
giant batteries but there are no such (affordable) things today nor
on anyone's technology horizon.
<http://spectrum.ieee.org/at-work/innovation/the-search-for-a-better-battery
<http://spectrum.ieee.org/at-work/innovation/the-search-for-a-better-battery>>
The lithium-ion battery was the last major breakthrough in battery
technology and, apart from minor engineering improvements, there
has been nothing new in 25 years.
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