Re: Mother nature knows best...

Aug 15, 2026 Last reply: 1 month ago 3 Replies

Rate this thread:

Saved reading

Roger Hayter 1 month ago

>>> >>>>> I don't know about costs, but a pivot system could have two uses:

>>>>>
>>>>> 1) Keep the panels at 90 degrees to the sun throughout the day, to
>>>>> absorb maximum energy.
>>>>> 2) Rotate the panels so they are horizontal with the glass downwards
>>>>> when storms are expected, in order to prevent hail damage.
>>>>
>>>> The great thing about 'free' solar and wind energy is how much it
>>>> costs and how much more it costs to make it reliable.
>>>>
>>>> I've never heard of nuclear power plants needing batteries, massive
>>>> grid interconnectors, mechanisms to protect against hail, backup
>>>> power stations
>>>
>>> The irony is that the Fukushima disasters was precisely because backup
>>> systems didn't work.
>>
>> But modern reactor designs don't need those backup systems. Older
>> designs had to keep the pumps running, newer ones can be shut-down with
>> no active cooling.
>>
>
> Why weren't these 'modern' designs implemented in the first place?

Why did we ever bother with steam locomotives and then diesels when we could have had electric trains?

Roger Hayter

Vote

The Natural Philosopher 1 month ago

At any given time the cost of labour, the level of technology the availability of resources and of course the political flimflam dictates what is the optimal solution

In the case of Fukushima the backup systems did not fail. The containment contained...

Now the fact of the matter is that a large - very large - reactors is more efficient in terms of resources but the political flimflam makes it immensely long to get certified. Not built: certified.

Small modular reactors are more expensive in terms of resources, but need less approval due to no active scram cooling and being able to be approved just once at the factory.

This makes them nuch faster to bring online., 3 years maybe

"Socialist governments traditionally do make a financial mess. They always run out of other people's money. It's quite a characteristic of them" Margaret Thatcher

Vote

Charles Hope 1 month ago

timing. I don't think electricity had been invented in time,].

Vote

Joe 1 month ago

The first electric motor ran some years before Stephenson's Rocket. Technology takes time and someone's money to develop, and steam looked easier to scale up, and did not require a large and complex fuel distribution infrastructure. Even today, not all UK railway track has electric power. There are still diesel engines, though now they normally drive electric motors.

The earliest cars were driven by steam and by electricity, but hydrocarbons took the lead fairly quickly. Even today, electric cars are much more expensive and of lower utility than hydrocarbon-driven cars, and are driven by politics. Had they been driven by economics and practicality, they would have become popular decades earlier, and would have forced battery development much earlier than actually happened.

Joe

Vote