Obviously linked to the Japan Tsunami thread but..
In the 60s, 70s we had the future in our grasp and built some cutting edge nuclear stations. We discovered NS oil and gas, we had coal mines.
Where are we now?
Our oil and gas are running out.
We lost our grip on nuclear power. We haven't built any more.....yet.
We closed all our coal mines despite sitting on top of the stuff.
We haven't built a Severn Barrage because no one has the Borlz to actually do it.
We dashed for gas but now we have to speak nicely to Mr Putin.
We put up a few windmills, they look good, we need a few tens of thousands more.
We talked about more nuclear plants, we are probably going to knock those on the head now, after Japan.
It's a mess. Please tell me I'm wrong!
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I'm hoping for a cold fusion reactor about the size of a fridge to generate everything I need. :-(
John
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I suspect the coal mines may reopen to fuel new power stations which will use carbon capture technology.
And I don't see why the situation in Japan should turn the UK against nuclear power. We're hardly on the San Andreas fault, are we?
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Ah you're applying logic A. Anti nuclear don't do that.
I read somewhere that most of the coal is still in the Durham coalfields. But the way to get it out is to pump steam down and you get 80% of the energy out without sending anyone down.
John
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But where is the energy to come from to extract hydrogen from water? And you get out less energy than you put in so why not use that energy source direct?
John
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Ah! well - that's for you boffins to work out :)
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Hmm
All so passe...
You need to catch up and be really modern..
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geothermal_power_in_the_United_Kingdom
www.darvill.clara.net/altenerg/geothermal.htm
I'm drilling for geothermal energy in our garden. 1 metre down, only 14,999 to go... I just need the odd £20 mill to finish the job and our house will be at 40C - all year round and cost nothing to run...I'll sell the surplus 5MW energy to our neighbours, and the whole town and most of Stoke On Trent...
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"cost nothing to run" sorry but you need to pump the coolant round. For standard ground heat systems I believe it's about one unit of energy in for three out. Then you need to rip the house to pieces to put underfloor heating in.
For the serious geo-thermal stuff, near volcanoes, faults and the like, the ground water is highly acidic and eats the inside of your heat recovery system away like nobody's business. The Icelanders are the experts if you want to build one of them.
John
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>>The Icelanders are the experts if you want to build one of them.
Why would anyone want to build an Icelander? ;>)
Did they ever recompense our government for the financial bail-out?
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Not yet, they are still prevaricating.
Stole our cod too.
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"Stole our cod too."
My uncle was involved in the third cod war. His frigate HMS Juno rammed one of their gunboats. Twice I think in different scraps.
That's where I get my road rage from.
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and your love of the smell of fish?
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"and your love of the smell of fish?"
no, that was a fat bird from Fulham.
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>> "cost nothing to run" sorry but you need to pump the coolant round. For standard
>> ground heat systems I believe it's about one unit of energy in for three out.
>> Then you need to rip the house to pieces to put underfloor heating in.
I think Madf was exaggerating slightly, but it's still barmy not to take advantage of a natural heat source. Pumping coolant round? Aw shucks, that must be far worse than burning gas and pumping water around a central heating system. We should have been incorporating underfloor heating into new builds years ago.
As usual it boils down to cost - it's not going to happen while builders and architects still live in the dark ages and the gas companies need to make a profit.
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>>and the whole town and most of Stoke On Trent<<
Say allo to my bro in Gillow Heath while you are 'at it'.
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No doubt a megalomaniac, Texan multi billionaire has the secret locked away in a secret research facility in Boswell.
John
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"We put up a few windmills, they look good, we need a few tens of thousands more."
(a) They look horrible, (b) we don't need more.
Last edited by: Roger on Tue 15 Mar 11 at 13:58
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Heavy irony never works well on forums, does it?
He meant they look good on paper and score lots of green brownie points, and we'd only need ten thousand more to meet the absurd claims of their proponents.
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The target is that they provide 20% of UK electricity needs - during the cold snap (cold weather very little wind) they provided less than 5% - a complete waste of time and money.
There is no real alternative to Nuclear power..
From the BBC website.
#
1716: The Japanese-born head of the International Energy Agency chief has warned that the cost of fighting global warming will rise if there is a backlash against nuclear power. "I think it is very difficult (to fight global warming), even impossible, without using nuclear power," Nobuo Tanaka said, according to Reuters in Oslo.
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This enables you to plan you own solution to the UK's energy needs. Really quite instructive
news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/uk/06/electricity_calc/html/1.stm
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>> This enables you to plan you own solution to the UK's energy needs. Really quite
>> instructive
>>
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>> news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/uk/06/electricity_calc/html/1.stm
Easy Peasy
You'll be building 0 new fossil fuel power stations, 17 new nuclear reactors and 2,355 new wind turbines, insulating 14m houses and buying 0% of electricity from overseas.
10 of them are in Norfolk. It will be called the Norwich Nuclear ring.
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Looks like some renewable projects are getting the go-ahead:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-12767211
So long as this doesn't interfere with my favourite distilleries, all of which are on that island............ ;-)
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>> So long as this doesn't interfere with my favourite distilleries, all of which are on
>> that island............ ;-)
>>
I believe they have already signed up to use the power.
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We need a mixture of power supplies:
Clean Coal
Gas
Nuclear
Hydro
Wind
Tidal
Why
None are 100% availability
Coal - new mines needed + new technology of burning + smoke / C02 issues
Gas - NSea +imports from Norway /Europe +LNG from Middle East/South/North America
Nuclear - base load - 24 hrs /day, very reliable base production
Hydro - Limited as we cannot build mountains but pumped storage gives instant power
Wind - yield is low and cannot be relied on at peak demand - Virtually nil in Dec/Jan when we needed power most
Tidal - Early days but has potential for 22 hrs out of 24 everyday and can be relied on - unless the moon stops.
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Scientists are breedin Hamsters big enough to turn the London Eye, if experiments are succsessful, every major city will have one (an "Eye") - lt is estimated that every revolution of the wheel could theoretically power 250.888 homes or 1.2 Battersby`s. The Hampsters would require 2.5 Hectares of mixed grain each per month in order to perform at peak performance. After 4 months the Hampster is considered "spent" and is then replaced by a newer younger version, the old out-going model is rendered harmless by the Cat(alytic) converter,
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Tee Hee! Thanks Devonite, that really brightened up a rather depressing day! An alternative power mode could be to get people on community service to run in the wheels and get fit for the Olympics?
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UK Energy Policy? - Zero
