Nuclear Power; energy scenario

[Celegorm]

Wind?



We're probably seeing a large influx of viewers due to the Nuclear crisis in Japan.

Man Power!

Seems strange how the thread has over 10,000 views, yet not one of the new apparent viewers, has registered and / or voiced an opinion, would be nice to hear from others form other fields / interests, or maybe a few proffesionals.

Wind energy itself is clean, but the process to mine the magnets needed from China is not so we still have the double-edged sword there.

My guess is the entire Japan issue has anything related to nuclear power high on the hit list for Google right now.

 

[iPwn]

Wind energy itself is clean, but the process to mine the magnets needed from China is not so we still have the double-edged sword there.

Touché

 

[alex_boothby]

10,000! ive created a monster! i only wanted a bit of advice!! LOL, Wind is ok, but just the sheer amount of them you would need to create anything useful is silly.

If were gonna use renwaables, IMO tidal is the best, for UK that is anyway.

 

[superman22x]

Tidal is good, wind as said, mining the materials isn't too great, but it's renewable, just not a good enough source for much power. If there was a good way to harvest solar power, that would be good.

 

[alex_boothby]

ha ha maybe in california but not in cloudy old england, i havnt seen the sun in days! ( i know it doesnt have to be direct sunlight, but does in improve effciency, before someone shoots me down)

 

[superman22x]

That's why we need a good way to store electricity as well. Solar panels could be charging all day long. Especially the summer up here in da Yoop. Sun comes up at 6-7am and goes down at 10pm. Solar panels could just charge all day then, add a little boost to the grid when needed rather than the very expensive gas plants that are currently out there.

Since it's coming up... did you know, earth hour doesnt really save any power at all? All that power you aren't using... just gets wasted. Coal and Nuclear plants can't react to a 1 hour shutdown, lol.

 

[root]

The amount of light and intensity of the light is important, but so is the amount of heat.
e.g in some really sunny climates in the height of summer the heat actually reduces the efficiency of photovoltaic panels, so on a really hot summers day you may not generate as much PV power as you would on a relatively cool yet clear winters day.

So you have to choose your solar techs carefully.
Basically, in a hot sunny country you're better looking at solar furnaces than at PV panels.

The best power storage that we currently have is hydro electric power.
E.g power stations that spend the night time (when everyone is in bed and not using power) pumping water to the top of a hill (therefore allowing the energy surplus from coal/gas/nuke stations [which as you point out don't respond to instant demand situations very well] to be used). and then in times of high drain from the grid these stations can typically turn on in time scales of less than a few minutes generating massive amounts of instant power.

I'm not sure that there could be a better storage medium than that.
carbon nano tube news seems to be a bit quiet nowadays, I'm sure that people are still researching it, and more breakthroughs will come,

 

[superman22x]

The amount of light and intensity of the light is important, but so is the amount of heat.
e.g in some really sunny climates in the height of summer the heat actually reduces the efficiency of photovoltaic panels, so on a really hot summers day you may not generate as much PV power as you would on a relatively cool yet clear winters day.

So you have to choose your solar techs carefully.
Basically, in a hot sunny country you're better looking at solar furnaces than at PV panels.

The best power storage that we currently have is hydro electric power.
E.g power stations that spend the night time (when everyone is in bed and not using power) pumping water to the top of a hill (therefore allowing the energy surplus from coal/gas/nuke stations [which as you point out don't respond to instant demand situations very well] to be used). and then in times of high drain from the grid these stations can typically turn on in time scales of less than a few minutes generating massive amounts of instant power.

I'm not sure that there could be a better storage medium than that.
carbon nano tube news seems to be a bit quiet nowadays, I'm sure that people are still researching it, and more breakthroughs will come,

Yeah, there is a plant that lifts the water like that in MI.
Flywheels are fairly good for storage I think.

 

[alex_boothby]

Yeh thers a few in Scotland but they only produce like 50Mw and as the electricity poduces is something like = mgh the topography has to be hilly, so isnt of much use in norfolk like where i am! So hydropower is not always good, but tidal, for the UK anyway, is good as noone is that far from the coast!!

 

[superman22x]

So, if anyone is interested, here is the NEI page for Japan. Don't trust any other sources of media... Usually are biased. This is just reports:
Nuclear Energy Institute - Information on the Japanese Earthquake and Reactors in That Region

UPDATE AS OF 11:20 A.M. EDT, FRIDAY, MARCH 18:
Reactors 1, 2 and 3 at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant are in stable condition, with workers continuing to provide seawater cooling into the reactors. Containment integrity is believed to be intact on reactors 1, 2 and 3, and containment building pressures are elevated but are within design limits.

Sounds like it's getting better. If it doesn't stay stable though... They are going to bury it like 3 mile island.