Shock Horror: wind turbines produce some useful power!

Has to be the right sort of wind though, the wrong sort is no good. Has to be steady, not variable in direction, with few gusts.

Brian

About time they did something useful. Look at the yearly plot on Gridwatch, I doubt the yearly mean makes 2GW. Pathetic.

yes. It bloody well is.

Of course. because its alsos warm, demand is down by as much as 10GW ...

And you don't want to know how much it has cost to get there, either.

Lets say that you could have built 3-4 sizewells for the same amount. And they wouldn't be beyond economic repair in 10 years time either.

I want one like yours!

Perfect weather for windmills tomorrow:

"Windy, with a bitter northerly wind bringing frequent and often heavy showers."

Andy

Sellafied is not a fair comparison, the site was originally set up with much more of an eye on materials for nuclear weapons and being seen to be among the first with civil nuclear power than long term requirements. That meant that waste minimisation, safety, ease of future decommissioning and ease of clean-up were not given the design stage consideration that they deserved. Design right from the start and there is far less cost down the line.

SteveW

Anti- nuclear people never use fair comparisons nor do they use them when talking about intermittent renewables - where the costs in fuel burn, ancillary equipment and cash terms, of intermittency are never added to their glowing estimates.

In the real world teh one question that is worth asking is whether the cost of more nuclear and the benefits of its reliable supply of electricity outweigh the costs of decommissioning what we have and then working out what to do with all the spare fuel we have.

As many have pointed out having a nuclear program costs less than getting rid of the one we have already.

The reverse is of course true for 'renewables'