Friday 16 December 2016

Wind Power - Vastly Superior to Nuclear Power In Resource Use: Metal X19.2 Concrete X9.6

This goes a long way to explaining why the cost of Wind Power Farms, per MWh delivered, is so much greater than a Nuclear Power Plant !

Hinkley Point C Nuclear Power Plant is rated at 3.2 GW, has a 90% Capacity Factor and a Design Life of 60 years.
It will deliver 1,513.7 TWh of 24/7 electricity.



UK Wind Turbine Operate at a Capacity Factor of 30.4%

"...The design life of a good quality modern wind turbine is 20 years. Depending on how windy and turbulent the site is, the turbine could last for 25 years or even longer, though as with anything mechanical, the maintenance costs will increase as it gets older...."

At a Capacity Factor of 30.4% and an 'Operational Phase' of 25 years, to deliver 1,513.7 TWh of intermittent electricity, the UK would need a Wind Turbine Total Operational Capacity of 22,736.422 MW.



Metals Use, Hinkley Point C: 141,806 tonne.
Metals Use UK Wind Power: 2,723,823 tonne [X19.2].

Concrete Use, Hinkley Point C: 1,022,490 tonne.
Concrete Use UK Wind Power: 9,844,871 tonne [X9.6].

A lot of people have fought oppression for the right to have wind turbines, but John Cleese gets right to the heart of the matter at 1:34 on this:




Friday 2 December 2016

Rampion Ramps Up The Cost Of Offshore Wind.

Everything you need to know about Rampion here:

Rampion Offshore Wind Farm is rated at 400.2 MW and will cost £1.596 billion [not including decommissioning].


Rampion will deliver Intermittent Electricity, capable of Intermittently Powering 283,444 homes every year, for its 'Expected Life' of 25 years.
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By contrast, Hinkley Point C Nuclear Power Plant will deliver 24/7 Electricity, capable of On-Demand Powering of 6,406,501 homes for its 'Design Life of 60 years.
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A bit of very simple Arithmetic
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6,406,501 [1 Hinkley] ÷ 283,444 [1 Rampion] = 22.6
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We'd need to build 22.6 Rampions once and then a 2nd time and then be 10 years into the 3rd build to deliver the same amount of intermittent electricity as Hinkley's 24/7 electricity !
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That's a factor of 2.4 54 Rampions

That would cost 54 x £1.596 billion = £86.18 billion
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Hinkley will cost £18.0 billion + £7.3 billion [decommissioning, waste handling and storage]

22.6 Rampion-Sized Offshore Windfarms 
Cost 3.4X more than Hinkley
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The area Rampion occupies is 79 sq. km.

22.6 Rampions, to deliver the same annual amount of [Intermittent] electricity as Hinkley, would occupy an area of 1,785 sq. km

 Rampion is about 6.6 km 'deep' [nearest turbine to furthest turbine from shore]. 22.6 of them x 6.6 km deep would stretch 270 km along the South Coast:
From Eastbourne to Torquay !!
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Hinkley sits on a site 870 m x 870 m
[About the size of the letter 'H' in SOUTH DOWNS]
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