Comments on: UK Renewable Energy Growth In 2012

By: Ronald Brak

Ronald Brak — Fri, 17 May 2013 02:30:00 +0000

Haven’t you heard? Nuclear is completely safe! All those nuclear accidents in the past were just the result of specific circumstances that will never be repeated again and so we can be certain no nuclear accident will ever happen in the future. After all, the word accident means something we can predict with 100% reliability and so can be sure will never happen, right?

By: Bob Wallace

Bob Wallace — Thu, 16 May 2013 19:13:00 +0000

Ernest Moniz, nuclear physicist is now head of the US DOE.

Im guessing nuclear isn’t going away.

By: Bob_Wallace

Bob_Wallace — Thu, 16 May 2013 18:24:00 +0000

I’m pretty sure the pro-nuclear people simply assume that the host governments (taxpayers) will assume the liability.

By: Zachary Shahan

Zachary Shahan — Thu, 16 May 2013 17:59:00 +0000

Completely agree. But the propagandists definitely have a good portion of the public misinformed.

By: Otis11

Otis11 — Sun, 12 May 2013 15:02:00 +0000

Ha!

By: Ronald Brak

Ronald Brak — Sun, 12 May 2013 08:24:00 +0000

With Melborne levels of sunshine in Taipei and extremely low costs of capital, solar obviously has a lot of potential in Taiwan. As I’m sure we will soon see $1 an installed watt solar I think they’ll end up putting a lot of it on exterior walls due to their high density living conditions putting roof space at a premium. But building more nuclear reactors in a country which is one of the most densely populated in the world and is known for earthquakes and tsunamis? It would probably take quite an insurance premium to cover that.

By: Bob_Wallace

Bob_Wallace — Sun, 12 May 2013 06:30:00 +0000

The independent studies I’ve seen for new nuclear in the last few years have pegged it a close to 20c or higher.

Turkey requested a guaranteed price and the only submitted bit was for 21c/kWh.

I think the turnkey bids received for new reactors in Ontario, CA and San Antonio penciled out at around 20c.

I suspect we’re going to see countries back away from nuclear due to sticker shock. It looks like the UK might be about there. There’s a lot of noise right now in Taiwan over whether or not to build more nuclear.

I’m betting financing is getting really, really hard. In the US the loan guarantee is only for the period of construction. It doesn’t protect the investment once the plant starts to produce.

By: Ronald Brak

Ronald Brak — Sun, 12 May 2013 03:56:00 +0000

As a back of the evelope calculation I can’t see anything wrong with that. But a study on the actual cost of insurance for German reactors has a minimum figure of 19 cents a kilowatt-hour and a maximum figure that is vastly higher. So if the insurance cost for a modern nuclear reactor is half that of the minimum German figure, 8 cents a kilowatt-hour won’t even cover the insurance bill. If nuclear reactors had to pay the full cost of their insurance virtually all would be shut down in short order.

By: Bob_Wallace

Bob_Wallace — Sun, 12 May 2013 03:05:00 +0000

I’ve been playing with a very crude model of what our future grid electricity might cost at wholesale.

Suppose we get about 50% of our electricity directly from wind at 5c/kwh, 20% from PV solar at 7c, 10% from hydro/geothermal/tidal at 7c, and the final 20% stored wind at 17c/kWh.

The 17c is the Eos projected LCOE of stored 6c off-peak electricity stored in their batteries. I’m going high on numbers, off-peak should be cheaper, wind and solar are expected to decrease from what I use.

(0.5 x 5c) + (0.2 x 7x) + (0.1 x 7c) + (0.2 x 17c) = 8c

I’m suggesting that if new nuclear can’t profitably sell for less than 8c/kwh then it’s finished. Anywhere decisions are rational, that is….

By: Ronald Brak

Ronald Brak — Sun, 12 May 2013 02:55:00 +0000

By holding out for even 12.4 cents a kilowatt-hour they are still destroying the nuclear industry and guaranteeing that Hinkley C will be the last reactor they ever build. So we’re still faced with the industry either being unable to compete or for some reason deciding not to compete and putting themsevles out of business.

By: Bob_Wallace

Bob_Wallace — Sun, 12 May 2013 02:09:00 +0000

Or they figure that they can make money at 12.4 and are trying to work the number nigher.

I think it unlikely they can make money at 12.4, but need to leave that possibility open. The US EIA thinks that nuclear at about that price is possible. But I don’t hold EIA forecasting abilities in high regard. They’re the go-to for history, but they continued to forecast solar high when panel prices were obviously plummeting.

By: Ronald Brak

Ronald Brak — Sun, 12 May 2013 01:51:00 +0000

Walking away from a guaranteed minimum of 12.4 cents a kilowatt-hour has made it blindingly obvious that the nuclear industry cannot compete with other low emission generating capacity. Or, if one is a a true believer, I guess it must mean that the nuclear industry has decided not to compete. In which case we can draw some conclusions about their intelligence.

By: Bob_Wallace

Bob_Wallace — Sat, 11 May 2013 23:28:00 +0000

The UKers are offering 12.4 cents guaranteed for every kWh produced for the next 20 years. And the nuke builders are cutting staff and walking away.

20 years guaranteed. With both wind and solar already being under 10 cents.

By: Harry C02

Harry C02 — Sat, 11 May 2013 11:22:00 +0000

UK renewable energy program is not working to reduce Co2 emission, a report released today that the worlds Co2 emissions are at its highest level ever record in mans history, so why hasn’t rooftop solar power programs like the Californian CSI didn’t combat rising Co2 emission, many questions need to be answer here.

By: Bob_Wallace

Bob_Wallace — Sat, 11 May 2013 07:55:00 +0000

I think we’re going to have to take up a collection and hire a better cast of sock puppets. The free version is rather pathetic….

By: Otis11

Otis11 — Sat, 11 May 2013 04:04:00 +0000

Apparently spam from someone who doesn’t speak much English… and bad spam at that.

They could at least try to get some shots in with bad math and ignorance instead of just lying…

If this is the strongest opposition left though, I guess that’s good news…

By: Otis11

Otis11 — Sat, 11 May 2013 04:02:00 +0000

Comment it not only blatantly false, but doesn’t really make sense in any context as it’s hardly an English sentence… I’m not sure what they’re even trying to spam…

By: Average Electricity Prices

Average Electricity Prices — Fri, 10 May 2013 05:12:00 +0000

Hi Zachary,

Great info… as the prices keeps on changing it really effects the business to manage their utility bills. At this situation we need a utility broker who can help in providing the best solutions to reduce the amount of utility bills.

By: Bobby

Bobby — Fri, 10 May 2013 01:02:00 +0000

And thanks to the great effort Greg combat environment Minister this week the great outcome in reducing the price of carbon trading down to $15 and going down further. The good news in Australia is that the carbon price has now collapsed to $15 a ton after the European carbon price collapsed in Germany & failed deliver renewable energy to the national grid. Traders are pulling their money away from carbon trading and now investing in cold fired power stations and stable’s liable source of base load energy 24/7 is being produced without interruption is a good thing for the economy.

By: Vanson

Vanson — Thu, 09 May 2013 10:56:00 +0000

I think you are wrong on that mate. The Government said the carbon price will be lowered next week to $15 a ton, i think you should get your facts right mate and stop misleading people on the Aussie carbon price just like the rooftop solar house fires recorded in Australia.