Energy infrastructure

@cnocbui

Right now, our interconnectors all import far more than we export, so I don't know how the idea of importing energy could be new.

Exploiting more of our wind resources will help to rebalance that exchange, and eventually we will end up exporting more than we import. That is, however, an aggregate surplus, and yes, they're will be days at a time when there is low wind in this country. When these lulls happen, we will import energy, but overall, we will still end up exporting far more than we import (high grid exports are the only thing that countries with cheap electricity have in common). We are over provisioning wind because it is intermittent. With a capacity at a scale that is able to meet our needs, we will end up with frequent large surpluses. Without more interconnector capacity, we could not sell that surplus energy, so we could not offset the cost of buying energy to cover those occasional dunkelflautes.

I think we both agree that only a simpleton would think that we could constantly export from an intermittent resource, so it's tiring to hear that being stated over and over again as if it's the position of those in favour of more wind. It isn't, and it never was. but when you repeatedly present this as their position, you are implying that people who favour renewables are fools, and calling someone a fool is a bad place to start any reasoned debate from.

At least a year, possibly two this has been said to the other fellow and is constantly ignored. 6 weeks of burning gas (>70% fuel mix) is phenomenally better than burning it all year round.

6500-7000mw of wind is installed by about now

https://rdm.geohive.ie/datasets/e9154ef2827c4719bc82209d88f7a968_0/explore

don’t forget Eirgrid reports on all island level

But yes, pathetic

Here is amount of steel before concrete is poured for a 2MW turbine foundation only, that has a capacity factor of 30% at best, and a lifetime of about 2 decades

Yeh, tho when referring to Eirgrid dashboard best use all island installed capacity as the generation figures are all island too

Either way terrible performance for wind

No wonder we have second most expensive electricity in Europe and probably the world, billions spent on wind and **** all to show for it

Sorry but thats rubbish when you look at energy prices and fuel mixes across the EU

There is no country heavily dependent on wind and solar where the consumer electricity price is low. The energy costs in Germany are so high, major businesses are moving out of the country. Their high costs are due to their insane Energiewende driven by the greens and Schroder, who it turns out, along with the green movement, was in the pay of Gazprom - surprise - not. ER is Ireland's Schroder, though I suspect he's not bright enough to have landed the same pay deal and is just doing it because he can't think straight.

To put their brain-dead energy policy meltdown into perspective:

A recent study suggests that if Germany had continued using its nuclear power plants and invested in new reactors, it could have saved €332 billion compared to the costs of its current energy transition policy, known as Energiewende. The research, published in the International Journal of Sustainable Energy, was led by Jan Emblemsvag, a professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Nucnet reports.

In addition to the financial saving, had they gone for increased nuclear, instead of renewables, they would have reduced CO2 emissions a further 70%.

The countries that are heavily investing in renewables, apart from Spain, just don't end up with even reasonable energy prices, let alone cheap:

Next you will tell us that wind generators naturally grow like trees when manured with properly green tinted fertiliser

And don’t use any steel, concrete, aluminium, copper, rare earths etc at all

https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/what-materials-are-used-make-wind-turbines

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0959652614009779

If you build infrastructure, it uses resources ,all infrastructure, I admit it's a bit of a surprise just how much steel goes into the foundation of a modern wind turbine,but that's the way it is ,

The steel aluminium copper ,and even the not very rare "rare earth's" are all easily recyclable after the lifespan of the turbine , although the newer, larger ones are more likely to be just refurbished, the blades are more tricky, they can be reused ( chopped up as a concrete additive, or possibly refurbed too ,( a field replaceable leading edge )

So popping up out of the ground like mushrooms ,fertilised by manure and then powered by unicorn farts while producing rainbows is a little way off yet -

Question for the knowledgeable wind experts on here:

How will non state owned wind generators result in cheaper electricity prices for the consumer?
Private companies are answerable to shareholders who want profit- hence high prices, no?

That’s a good point but it can be done once in one spot not thousands of times across various communities (and then having to build power lines across communities in between)

Not really that good , you'd still need all the power lines upgraded , and you could probably add 20 years of legal dispute to the planning and construction time , just look at what happened with the planned apple data storage ,

Or multiply up the shell gas processing plant protests in mayo by 100,

How much will 37GW of offshore wind cost…

Incidentally, where would the fuel for increased nuclear in the west come from ?

The 2 biggest suppliers are russia and khazakstan, so that's pretty much russian influence and china ,

Canadian fuel largely goes to the US,

Africa is increasingly going offline,with the french looking further afield

So that leaves Australia,who are planning to Ramp up production,

with the US likely controlling the lions share of that ,

Which leaves everyone else exactly where ..? The Japanese , Koreans maybe Poland and UK will likely get looked after by the US ,but Europe ?

This is in the nuclear thread, I think €20 Billion but not sure.

• It would be built in stages and start producing electricity from the first batch built
• Can be done in separate contracts getting competitive pricing over decades long timescale
• If costs spiral you can abandon project leaving working wind farms in place
• Isn't illegal under Irish law
• I don't think I mention OSW in this thread recently so don't know why I'm writing this