Thread: DITCH YOUR DIRTY ENERGY COMPANY

Originally Posted by DiscoMick

Nuclear is really expensive to construct and difficult to manage. Renewables are much cheaper, safer and easier to manage.

Unless you need continuous base load power. Then renewables get more expensive and more difficult to manage, although not necessarily more dangerous. Not that, taken over the whole industry worldwide, the nuclear industry is dangerous compared to other traditional power generation methods. The problem with nuclear is one of perception and hence politics, not economics, although these perceptions add enormously to the cost.

i would argue that renewable is impossible to manage.
we cant manage the sun, the wind or the rain.

Originally Posted by Eevo

i would argue that renewable is impossible to manage.
we cant manage the sun, the wind or the rain.

You can argue that all you like but what you really mean is "it is impossible to control 100.00%". People have been managing intermittent sun wind and rain for 1000's of years by using storage. And when storage is insufficient you reduce demand. The bigger a system is the easier it is to manage variable supply with storage and demand reduction. Then there is the magic process called Trade where you move commodities over large distances to meet local demand. It's been a successful strategy for millennia, why stop now? Water, food, fuel and power, all based on intermittent supply have been traded across thousands of km all over the world.

Originally Posted by trout1105

We already have the technology to create electricity more efficiently, more environmentally friendly and cheaper than gas and coal fired power stations.
It's called nuclear power plants, Much cheaper and reliable that solar or wind generation and there is also NO need for any batteries.
We also have abundant fuel resources right here in Australia so we won't be held to ransom by oil or gas companies like we are now either.

If they're "much cheaper" how do you explain Westinghouse, US builder of nuclear power, going bankrupt? Reactor projects going billions of dollars over budget and getting shut down before they bankrupt entire states? Example:

S.C. utilities halt work on new nuclear reactors, dimming the prospects for a nuclear energy revival - The Washington Post

The long quest to revive the nation’s nuclear power industry suffered a crippling setback Monday when two South Carolina utilities halted construction on a pair of reactors that once were expected to showcase a modern design for a new age of nuclear power.

The project has been plagued by billions of dollars in cost overruns, stagnant demand for electricity, competition from cheap natural gas plants and renewables, and the bankruptcy of Westinghouse Electric, the lead contractor and the designer of the AP1000 reactor that was supposed to be the foundation of a smarter, cheaper generation of nuclear power plants.
Instead, the partly finished South Carolina reactors, along with two others under construction in Georgia, have demonstrated that the main obstacle to new nuclear power projects is an economic one. The plants would be more viable if the federal government imposed a tax on carbon as part of climate change policy, but that seems unlikely.
“Today’s announcement is another powerful signal of just how bleak the outlook for nuclear in the United States is, a result of a hollowed-out nuclear industry, cheap gas, falling renewable costs and inadequate policies to account for the climate change costs of carbon emissions,” said Jason Bordoff, director of the Columbia University Center on Global Energy Policy.
“Stronger climate policy as well as government support will be needed if we are to realize the much-heralded ‘nuclear renaissance,’ ” he added.

They need a carbon tax to survive! Endless taxpayer support!! Boondoggles!!!

If they're "much cheaper" how do you explain Westinghouse, US builder of nuclear power, going bankrupt? Reactor projects going billions of dollars over budget and getting shut down before they bankrupt entire states? Example:

The Yanks would struggle to build a dunny for less than a Million bucks when it is a government contract

Toshiba has written off more than $6 billion in losses connected to its U.S. nuclear business, citing accounting problems, delays and cost overruns.

Of course a nuclear plant would cost more to build than a gas/coal one but the running costs would be Far cheaper, So in the Long run Yes nuclear power is a cheaper and cleaner option.

Originally Posted by Eevo

i would argue that renewable is impossible to manage.
we cant manage the sun, the wind or the rain.

Sure we can, happens every day.

Originally Posted by DiscoMick

Sure we can, happens every day.

can I have a little less windy and a bit warmer today please.
oh, and it only rain at night please.

Originally Posted by Eevo

can I have a little less windy and a bit warmer today please.
oh, and it only rain at night please.

Don't you have air con?