Nuclear power in Ireland

Ubbquittious

When they first invented nuclear power they horsed up a working power station within about 10 years. Now they spend 10 years doing a small feasibility study to see if the big feasibility study is worth it. Hydrogen storage has never been done before so they'll be feasibeasibiliting the absolute feck out of it till the end of the century before anything actually gets done. Humans are much more risk averse in the modern age.

Capt'n Midnight

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118673180#Comment_118673180

Teeside in the UK goes through roughly the same TWh of hydrogen energy a year as our electrical grid so the only unknown is exactly much cheaper the future cost of producing green hydrogen in those quantities will be. Hydrolysers are falling in price as volume goes up and new factories open and while surplus wind energy is cheap it may be stored or exported or used in other ways, market forces etc. Gas turbines are already on the grid so generation costs are know.

Barakah was approved in Dec. 2009 and while it may have been connected to grid in August 2020 commercial operation didn't start until 06.04.21 and as of Jan 19th "Unit 2 is to start operations within months" For full operations "Hammadi last week said ENEC was set to produce 85 percent of Abu Dhabi’s clean electricity by 2025." (ENEC = Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation)

Also it's 'greenness' is offset by the new 'clean' coal power plant.

LED's play a bigger role in global electricity than nuclear. Nuclear provides 10-11% of global electricity. Incandescents used to account for 15% of global electrical consumption. And there's still gains to be made even moving from sodium can save 50%

nuclear reactors generated 2553 TWh of electricity worldwide in 2020 (slightly up from 2524 TWh in 1990 when the global population was 1/3rd smaller) and yes it's more than wind or solar, today. But is it more than wind and solar ? And it will be considerably less than either wind or solar before you could build a new plant.

Nuclear power takes a decade longer to build than offshore wind. That's a decade's more interest accruing on the loans and funding alternative power sources.

It's not cheaper, especially against the 2035 cost of renewables.

Capt'n Midnight

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118673769#Comment_118673769

Please use wholesale prices to compare actual costs of providing electricity.

Please contact your supplier about the difference between those prices and your bill.

And ask them why the smart meter tariffs don't follow the wholesale price.

patnor1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118671607#Comment_118671607

It is always about the money. We should argue about the cost otherwise what is the point?

If you are not in cute concepts and demand something reliable then there is nothing more reliable than ocean. Go for tidal if wind reliability scare you.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118673855#Comment_118673855

This is one of the main drivers behind the development of tidal energy projects. Unfortunately tidal power is a very niche option as there are so few places, globally, where it works well. If you are talking about tidal flow, you need very specific conditions to make it work well.

There are other options e.g. wave energy capture, but these do not offer any real prospect of large scale energy generation.

Tidal looks like a total no-brainer, but its incredibly difficult to do on a large scale.

I'm really hoping that changes at some point and some breakthrough is made, because it really would be an excellent option for Ireland if that particular nut could be cracked

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118673769#Comment_118673769

Maybe you missed where that question was already answered for you today. I've linked below

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118673508#Comment_118673508

patnor1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118673981#Comment_118673981

Respectfully I do not agree. Ireland actually do have quite a lot of possibly ideal localities. Two of the biggest five are pretty much next door.

Safety is also one of the best arguments for tidal over (current) nuclear.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118674039#Comment_118674039

Again, it depends on the type of tidal power generation you are talking about as to how suitable various locations are. My comments about location are in relation to the type of generation done in the likes of Strangford Lough. There's only a handful of locations suitable for this type of generation and even then they are relatively small in terms of output.

Just to note, I'm not dismissing this type of generation, quite the opposite, I think it will be a fantastic generation source once it achieves large scale generation capability over large areas. What I mean is something akin to the scale of offshore wind installations as thats the only kind of scale that I think will be capable of providing a large amount of power from tidal.

There is a large variety of options on offer though, where wave and tidal are concerned, so its anyones guess as to what method will be the most successful.

Might be worth taking the discussion over to the main energy infrastructure thread as thats more of a "catch-all" thread.

Safety is also one of the best arguments for tidal over (current) nuclear.

Safety is one of the best arguments for anything over nuclear.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118674193#Comment_118674193

Its interesting that you think that

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118674676#Comment_118674676

Still, its unlikely to have any bearing on the prospect of nuke plants being built here or do you see it effecting a change?

Capt'n Midnight

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118674193#Comment_118674193

Wind can be predicted further ahead than the day ahead auctions or the intraday auctions. Complete non-issue. Backup can include solar, storage and interconnectors. Gas plant is cheap especially because it's already there. And we are allowed a fifth of our current emissions until 2050. And gas turbines can run on hydrogen.

Backup for wind is easy, easier when have three times as much wind and can power the grid from fractional amounts of wind.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118674776#Comment_118674776

did you find a explanation for ever increasing electricity prices despite constant claim of renewables being so cheap??

yeah, but you keep ignoring it for some reason, even though you quoted the link to the answer.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118674845#Comment_118674845

Asked and answered. Many times. Yet you keep ignoring the answers, strange

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118674871#Comment_118674871

Not at all, I wholeheartedly acknowledge the increase in gas prices has had a horrific effect on energy bills.

The sooner we remove fossil fuels from the grid, the better. As you rightly point out, having to continue using gas is leading to higher energy costs. Its something I hope to see addressed over the next few years as we move to 80% renewables by 2030.

Capt'n Midnight

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118674871#Comment_118674871

Can you please explain how using 80% less gas will lead to higher prices ?

Speaking of (white) elephants can you also explain how peak power could be supplied by nuclear and how you'd provide spinning reserve ?

All island demand is ~40TWh/year average so 4.6GW but peak is 50% more at 6.9GW

Ubbquittious

The UKian and EU dash for gas was a terrible idea. Pewtin has everyone by the balls now