Wave Energy - The Best Solution

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#81
As I said, in my view it would be wrong to exclude any potential methods.

" La Rance: learning from the world’s oldest tidal project
Tidal energy has faced huge challenges in an effort to obtain large-scale adoption, with many arguing that it cannot be made economic. But an often overlooked benefit is the huge lifespans of the technology, as typified by the La Rance power station in France. Scarlett Evans takes a look at the grandma of tidal power. Scarlett Evans October 28, 2019"

https://www.power-technology.com/features/la-rance-learning-from-the-worlds-oldest-tidal-project/

There are a number of locations in the UK that could be used, though as with all things british, "thinking" about it seems to take a lifetime.

"Located between the landmasses of England and Wales, the Severn Estuary is the point at which the river Severn, Great Britain's longest river, flows into the Bristol Channel. The average tidal range for the Severn Estuary is 15m (50ft)."

People still propose nuclear as a viable option, but have the true decomissioning costs ever been factored into their generation costs?
" The Guardian "
The cost of decommissioning the UK’s seven ageing nuclear power stations has nearly doubled to £23.5bn and is likely to rise further, the public accounts committee has said. The soaring costs of safely decommissioning the advanced gas-cooled reactors (AGRs), including Dungeness B, Hunterston B and Hinkley B, are being loaded on to the taxpayer, their report said."

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/may/20/uk-nuclear-power-stations-decommissioning-cost
 
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#82
The problem with all intermittent generation isn't the generation it's storage.

To level out the peaks and troughs you need a lot. Particularly with wind, where calm periods can last for several days, even weeks. It's a big issue that the UK has yet to address.

At least with tidal it's predictable...
 
#85
Remember, when using tidal one could decide to hold the water back for a while (all other things being equal) and only release it when best advantage is to be gained. Cross country sharing will also come to be more common as their demand peaks will be different. One can also use pumped water storage facilities such as...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinorwig_Power_Station

To store energy and flatten the demand curve.
 
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#87
Galu said:
There's a long-running joke that fusion is the energy source of the future - and always will be!
Click to expand...
Maybe I said that already, but most current energy is in fact fusion generated.
We have a giant and nearly ever lasting fusion plant some 8 lightminutes away, in perfectly safe distance.
Solar, wind, hydropower and biofuel is transformed fusion power.
Fossile power is stored, transformed fusion power.

Nuclear, geothermal and tide power however are not sun-related, which is interesting.
The most interesting one for me is tidal power, because it means harvesting energy from the moon!
 
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#89
Tidal power in theory could be made continuous.
First double the construction cost or more.
The lagoon has to have two more sub lagoons made.
One is filled towards high tide through its own turbine while the lull at high tide takes place.
The other is filled at high tide and provides the power during the low tide lull via its own turbine.
 
#90
Supposing you have a perfectly insulated house, how deep would you have to go to get geothermal at a comfortable temp ( say if you had thermaly conductive foundations, or just pipes with a computer fan)?
I like the idea of solar water heating, but it's most effective in the summer when you need it least. I guess the amount of hot water used for washing remains constant throughout the year though.
 
#92
Having looked at this a bit, most companies like to drill down at least 100Mtrs. The problem is that they want £40+ per Mtr drilled. Average homes need between one and two holes. For shallow trench geothermal they go down 1.2Mtrs, but a large area of coverage is required (I was told half to three quarters of an acre), otherwise the ground can freeze. All being said if the property is well insulated it's less likely as the drawer off is smaller. As long as the radiators are oversized (50%) I was told 55 degrees flow temp from the heat pump is OK, thus keeping the COP high. Personally I like the idea of PV's with battery storage (for any extra electricity produced) using an air source heat pump and some heat store buffer storage.
 
#94
Some people were experimenting with PVs, they hung them vertically, just to see what happened. They didn't need cleaning, they weren't damaged by hail, but the most surprising result was they provided more power, I think it was because the "chimney effect" of them being vertical helped dissipate heat.
 
#97
How deep: it depends https://dandelionenergy.com/determining-the-appropriate-length-of-a-geothermal-borehole

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dave
 
#99
All one needs for a household for energy is 7500 plus square meters worth of solar-cells...don't get conned by that "solar companies" malarkey , with a driveways worth of surface area for electricity generation.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Rick...
 
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