|
|
Author |
|
Message | |
|
Ty Gwyn
Joined: 22 Sep 2010 Posts: 4613 Location: Lampeter
|
|
|
|
|
gz
Joined: 23 Jan 2009 Posts: 8925 Location: Ayrshire, Scotland
|
|
|
|
|
dpack
Joined: 02 Jul 2005 Posts: 46220 Location: yes
|
|
|
|
|
Mutton
Joined: 09 May 2009 Posts: 1508
|
|
|
|
|
Nick
Joined: 02 Nov 2004 Posts: 34535 Location: Hereford
|
|
|
|
|
Hairyloon
Joined: 20 Nov 2008 Posts: 15425 Location: Today I are mostly being in Yorkshire.
|
|
|
|
|
Mutton
Joined: 09 May 2009 Posts: 1508
|
|
|
|
|
Nick
Joined: 02 Nov 2004 Posts: 34535 Location: Hereford
|
|
|
|
|
Mutton
Joined: 09 May 2009 Posts: 1508
|
Posted: Fri Jan 17, 14 2:28 pm Post subject: |
|
You need to distinguish between
1. Wave power - which is really delayed wind power. There is a hub for plugging in wave power test rigs off Cornwall. Not been following how that is going.
2. Tidal power via a tidal barrier - see La Rance for one that has been going for a long time and the environmental and engineering problems (such as silting up) associated with it.
3. Tidal power as harvested in an estuary - Severn estuary has been comprehensively investigated and the environmental impacts are bad enough that everyone has currently given up on the idea.
4. Tidal stream - which includes partially, or fully, submerged underwater turbines in the tidal stream. Can be a lot of energy, there are test models and even full production models in place in a few locations - Stanford Logh in NI springs to mind - but there is concern regarding environmental impact on dolphins and seals for starters, both in terms of injury and for the dolphins additional underwater noise interfering with their sonar.
But - renewable energy is NOT infinite. If you take enough energy out of the wind or the tidal stream, then you change the climate. There is data on warm areas downwind of large wind farms. I haven't looked for similar data on tidal stream turbines - but there are probably not yet enough of them.
It is back to we have to use less electricity. We cannot safely generate the amount we'd like to use even using renewable. Yes, I know you said 'tiny percentage' Nick, but we need to work out what is really tiny in sustainable terms.
There is also the further problem, that the National Grid was originally built to the infrastructure as it stood - so power stations tended to be built near areas of high consumption. Renewables are not necessarily anywhere convenient in terms of areas of high consumption, and you then have to add in the environmental and energy costs of new runs of pylons to bring the electricity from where it is generated, to where it is used, and then add loss during transmission to the equation - how much is lost when you transport electricity over a long distance. |
|
|
|
|
Nick
Joined: 02 Nov 2004 Posts: 34535 Location: Hereford
|
|
|
|
|
dpack
Joined: 02 Jul 2005 Posts: 46220 Location: yes
|
|
|
|
|
Mutton
Joined: 09 May 2009 Posts: 1508
|
|
|
|
|
Nick
Joined: 02 Nov 2004 Posts: 34535 Location: Hereford
|
|
|
|
|
Hairyloon
Joined: 20 Nov 2008 Posts: 15425 Location: Today I are mostly being in Yorkshire.
|
|
|
|
|
oldish chris
Joined: 14 Jun 2006 Posts: 4148 Location: Comfortably Wet Southport
|
|
|
|
|
|