Adding two new nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle is going to need some help from Congress and the federal government to work, according to Georgia Power’s request to continue. And it is in the national interest to subsidize new nuclear power the way the government is helping wind and solar power technologies, a nuclear engineer said.
Georgia Power and its partners made the request to the Georgia Public Service Commission last week to finish Reactors 3 and 4 at Vogtle, which would be the first new nuclear reactors to come on line in the U.S. in more than 30 years. Georgia Power said its capital cost to complete would be an additional $4.5 billion, raising it to $8.771 billion, with a total capital cost for all partners of $19 billion.
However, in a table buried deep in its filing, the company reports financing costs of just under $4 billion, which appears to raise its total cost to more than $12.1 billion. That does not include, however, a $1.7 billion anticipated payment from Toshiba, the parent company of original contractor Westinghouse, said Georgia Power spokesman Jacob Hawkins, which would make the company’s total cost $10.47 billion.
Georgia Power owns 45.7 percent of the project and is the only partner to publicly report its costs. If the other partners incur similar financing expenses, and Georgia Power has warned against using its numbers to calculate costs for the other partners, total costs for the project would approach $30 billion, according to an Augusta Chronicle analysis. That would not include $3.7 billion in promised Toshiba payments, Hawkins said, and any actual financing costs for the other partners could be very different than what Georgia Power is facing, he said.
Currently, the cost of the project is adding 5 percent to the bills of ratepayers and completing the project will boost that to 10.3 percent if each reactor is completed in the additional 29 months that the company is putting forth as its most reasonable timetable, according to the filing. Georgia Power President W. Paul Bowers said rates are currently 14 percent below the national average and would still be competitive and below the national average with the cost of completing the project.
In the filing, Georgia Power assumes that production tax credits for new nuclear power that are set to expire before the projected date for the reactors to come online in 2021 and 2022 will be extended. The company has also been in talks with the U.S. Department of Energy about new loan guarantees in addition to those that are already saving customers $375 million, according to the filing. Georgia Power has received $3.4 billion in guarantees and has applied to DOE for an additional $1.7 billion, Hawkins said.
The U.S. House of Representatives in June passed an extension of the tax credits and it is pending in the U.S. Senate. U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., is “committed to doing whatever he can to ensure that the Plant Vogtle project stays on track for completion, and he will continue working with Senate leadership on a path forward to get the nuclear production tax credit extension passed this year,” spokeswoman Amanda Maddox said.
Those credits and loan guarantees, as well as nearly $3.7 billion in payments from Toshiba set to begin next month, are part of the risk assumptions that Georgia Power made in deciding to go forward.
“If any of these assumptions are not realized, the economics may not warrant going forward with the Project,” the company said in the filing.
But the country does have an interest in making sure the project, the only one still underway in the U.S., is viable and able to deliver new first-of-a-kind “evolutionary” nuclear technology, said Dr. Travis Knight, director of the nuclear engineering program in the College of Engineering and Computing at the University of South Carolina. Nuclear provides about 75 percent of the country’s electric generation that does not create greenhouse gases and is an important part of reducing those emissions in the future, he said.
“You want some diversity in your energy generation so keeping nuclear power going is essential,” Knight said. “Clearly, there is a strategic interest in things like grid reliability and diversity of power sources. Without a doubt there is a strategic interest in that. If it were totally driven by market forces and plants were forced to shut down and everything went to natural gas and what you could derive from solar and wind, that would put us in a very vulnerable position.”
One has only to look at south Texas, where two nuclear reactors 90 miles southeast of Houston are still operating despite widespread devastation from Hurricane Harvey, he said, while the nearby petroleum and gas refineries are heavily disrupted. Moreover, while natural gas is very cheap at the moment, that might not be the case in the future, Knight said.
“I don’t think anyone reasonably expects (prices) to stay so low for so long,” he said. Long-term operations are also much cheaper in nuclear power than natural gas or coal – with nuclear, the fuel cost is about 5 percent of the cost of generation versus about 90 percent for natural gas and around 75 percent for coal, Knight said.
“That makes it very volatile and those are pass-through costs that are borne by the ratepayer, the customer,” he said. In fact, once the reactors come online, “customers begin to see fuel savings immediately,” Hawkins said. According to one analysis the company included in the filing, it would actually save $585 billion to complete the project versus abandoning it and building a gas-fired generating plant instead, and that is before applying an additional savings from loan guarantees or tax credits.
The U.S. government already heavily subsidizes wind and solar technology and “I think you could make a stronger case for nuclear” because it is always available and reliable, Knight said. Only about one in five in the USC program go to work for a utility but others go into related fields, such as nuclear safeguards and national nuclear security, he said.
“If we shut every plant down today, the United State still has a strong interest in nuclear technologies,” Knight said. “And we need to maintain a strong workforce, a strong technological basis and a strong position in the world. I don’t think we want the greatest nuclear experts to be in China or North Korea or Iran or Russia or any of those other places. We have a leadership role to play. Therefore, it only makes sense that the government take some responsibility in ensuring that is the case.”
Anonymouse1 on Sun, 3rd Sep 2017 2:20 pm
Subsidies for dangerous, un-economic and toxic technologies are what made amerika grate.
That, and paid shills and propagandists.
Go Speed Racer on Sun, 3rd Sep 2017 2:52 pm
The stupidity of absolutely everybody
is absolutely phenomenal.
Pressurized Water, Uranium reactors are garbage.
The dumb stupid politicians, greedy and selfish
conniving sociopath billionaires, are incapable
of understanding what is the best design possible.
The best design possible is ‘Thorium Reactor’.
Even though such reactor was already built and
proven, the billionaire politician criminals are incapable of comprehending such a fact.
Here is Thorium reactor technology explained:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uK367T7h6ZY
There is also a book which can be purchased
to fully explain the opportunity:
https://www.amazon.com/SuperFuel-Thorium-Energy-Source-Future/dp/113727834X
I bought a copy. Of course there was
only 1 copy sold, since nobody else wishes
to learn anything whatsoever, aside from me.
Because everybody has to be as stupid
as possible because that is their dream,
their goal, their force, is total raging
stupidity backed up by ill-gotten power.
Just look who is president. No reason to
build any Uranium power plants they are
garbage. Build a Thorium power plant. Duh.
onlooker on Sun, 3rd Sep 2017 4:18 pm
I think the window to subsidize Nuclear power has closed already for all countries. The upfront costs are too high and the finances and economic prospects are too dim for this to happen now. We had our chance but did not take it. And by the way I do not consider myself a pro nuke person either.
Antius on Sun, 3rd Sep 2017 4:36 pm
“I think the window to subsidize Nuclear power has closed already for all countries. The upfront costs are too high and the finances and economic prospects are too dim for this to happen now. We had our chance but did not take it. And by the way I do not consider myself a pro nuke person either.”
How is it that we managed to build hundreds of nuclear power plants in the 1970s and 80s at very affordable costs? At interest rates that were much higher than today’s? Until recently, they were the cheapest form of power. Suddenly, they have become very expensive.
Apparently, we are incapable of doing now what was easy to do in the 1970s. After natural gas, light water reactors are the most power dense power plants we have. This tells me that we are doing something wrong and inefficient when we build these things.
Go Speed Racer on Sun, 3rd Sep 2017 4:47 pm
I like how Antius says it.
Why can we do it in the 1970’s
but can’t do it now?
Over where I live is a long winding
mountain road between two cities
and takes 3 hours drive.
The many little bridges over canyons
and rivers were all built in the 1950’s.
They are rather rusty and old. Actually
the older bridges didn’t anticipate the
very large vehicles seen today, and probly
they are a bit under-rated by today’s
expectation.
But the point is, they BUILT them back then
from nothing and nowadays, they act too
dumb to even paint them, much less replace
them. Why could they BUILD AND PAINT a bridge in the 1950′ but now, can’t even Paint it only what’s already standing?
Well the answer is, cause all the supposed
labor force is stoned out of their heads on
legalized pot, and all the other related
drugs, and their high-fructose soda pop,
and their game-box first-person shooter
video games, AND their welfare checks,
their SNAP cards, and their screamin little
white chill-uns that give them a bit of
extra welfare-kick. (The chill-uns are
playing the video-games and the soda pop
too).
With such a pathetic modern USA, AND a
big mommy Hillary government to feed them
ever-greater welfare checks,
THAT is why nobody seems to be able to
build a bridge or a nuclear power plant,
like we did in the 1950’s, 60’s, 70’s,
anymore.
In that sense,
Trump could yet be the BEST President, all
he has to do, is cut off every last welfare
check, close down every last subsidized
welfare government housing project,
shut off the SNAP cards, get rid of their
free health care, and provide every last one
of them a catapult ride off some aircraft
carrier into the shark-infested waters
off Zambonia.
Meanwhile, they import supposed ‘workers’
from all the muslim countries, to fill in
the void of human energy of the graying
population that knew how to work but is
dying off. BUT those nasty immigrant
guys dont work anymore than the home-grown
ones. They just sign up for more welfare.
I am eagerly awaiting Trump’s plan to get
rid of all the degenerates who play video
games but won’t paint a bridge.
As to building a nuclear power plant,
you should not WANT to build a nuclear
power plant unless it runs on liquid
thorium fuel.
And all the dumb stupid sheeple said
‘prayyyzze Jeeeezus, Amen!’
onlooker on Sun, 3rd Sep 2017 4:51 pm
Ant, I like Racers reply. I will just be brief and say it is not because Nuclear has become much more expensive, it is just that the US has become a lot poorer.
Antius on Sun, 3rd Sep 2017 5:07 pm
Molten salt thorium reactors are not as good as they sound. The molten salt contains hundreds of different fluoride compounds, many of which are highly corrosive to the reactor walls. In the original aircraft reactor experiment, intergranular cracking rates were kept to acceptable levels (for the duration of the experiment) by carefully controlling uranium oxidation rates. Even so, engineering a vessel that can maintain salt containment for at least 4 decades, is a tall order. There are other Gen IV technologies that might be just as promising, such as the GFR and SFR.
Go Speed Racer on Sun, 3rd Sep 2017 5:27 pm
Build it out of Ceramic. Those problems were already solved. Ceramic is happy at red heat.
And they have ‘ceramic engineers’ who can
tweak the recipe a little.
Oh, kidding. All the ceramic engineers
were laid off, and are now working at Starbucks
and McDonalds, tring to pay off their 6-figure student
loans
on $11/ hr.
So maybe we can’t build it out of ceramics
after all.
There is the GFT and the SFR,
but what about the GSR ?
(O;
Anonymouse1 on Sun, 3rd Sep 2017 6:07 pm
What about painting all those rusty nuclear reactors that were built so affordably and with much high interest rates in the 70’s? A new coat of paint on those and the uS nucleatory rubber stamp commision can certify them good for another 40…or 80 years of operation. And they can use lead paint to help keep the rad count down.
It’s in the national interest to subsidize new coats of paint for amerikas bust-rucket reactors.
Good for nuclear power, good for home depot, good for amerika.
Bob on Sun, 3rd Sep 2017 7:25 pm
This is insane. Nuclear made it thru the Hurricane? Well guess what, so did Wind power. For the cost of this sucker we could build a dozen windmill farms and have them all up and running in 5 years, using free fuel as soon as they start spinning. Wake up America!
Go Speed Racer on Sun, 3rd Sep 2017 8:50 pm
When there is no wind,
the windmill doesn’t produce any power.
and they ugly too. Vandalism of the view for 50 miles.
However. If we turn them from generators into motors, plug to 240VAC, they spin around real fast and blow the smog away.
China is very interested in this to solve their air quality problems.
Tom on Sun, 3rd Sep 2017 9:15 pm
Bob, if GE thought there was more of a profit in windmills as opposed to nuclear, then they wouldn’t be wasting their time building nuclear power plants, would they.
does the wind blow hard & steady enough in Georgia to support a windmill farm?
Ghung on Sun, 3rd Sep 2017 9:21 pm
Please Sir? Can I have some more?
Outcast_Searcher on Sun, 3rd Sep 2017 9:24 pm
Go Speed Racer. 94 Amazon customer reviews of the book you’re whining about, at the link you gave. Sounds like more than one copy sold.
Based on your comments, you’re a legend in your own mind. Which makes you like Trump. Congrats.
GregT on Mon, 4th Sep 2017 2:08 am
“Based on your comments, you’re a legend in your own mind. Which makes you like Trump. Congrats.”
Trump happens to be the president, and commander in chief, of the most powerful empire that the world has ever seen. Methinks that you’re giving far too much credit to GSR, outcasted searcher.
Go Speed Racer on Mon, 4th Sep 2017 2:09 am
Hi Outcast,
no legend here, just a bunch of noise is all I am producing. Nobody will listen to anything intelligent, so I don’t say anything intelligent.
GHung that’s amazing those capital letters, how is that done?
GregT on Mon, 4th Sep 2017 2:18 am
HTML code. Mr. President.
Cloggie on Mon, 4th Sep 2017 3:13 am
This is insane. Nuclear made it thru the Hurricane?
I read some horrors stories about nuke power stations that could be destroyed by Harvey. When that didn’t happen (thank God), I thought that all the hype around Harvey was “overblown”.
And then came the rain bomb.
Nothing that can be prevented though with a solid Dutch dike system, build by those folks for whom building solid dike systems is an absolute prerequisite for naked survival.
http://www.nola.com/hurricane/index.ssf/2010/04/dutch_planners_architects_want.html
http://nltimes.nl/2017/08/30/new-orleans-turns-netherlands-help-dealing-floods
Perhaps calling off the recent $60B expansion of the “defense budget”? I mean the US already owns a share of almost 50% of global “defense” spending. Some folks might begin to surmise that the US has aggressive intentions, although we all know that is not the case.
http://www.dw.com/image/14982127_7.jpg
Boat on Mon, 4th Sep 2017 3:44 am
clog,
President Cheeto ran on a stronger military, the same guy that leads your poor white revolution.
Cloggie on Mon, 4th Sep 2017 7:07 am
President Cheeto ran on a stronger military, the same guy that leads your poor white revolution.
The Swamp has already the American Mussolini largely under control. But he can he still make himself useful by attacking the media and perhaps, after he is thrown out, lead the initial Rust Belt uprising.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jK2a6035VcY
1945. The world’s communists (Americans, Soviets and Chinese (1:32)) united at Red Square after their victory over Europe that had run the planet for 5 centuries.
At 0:51 we see Eisenhower (West Point nickname “the Swedish kike”).
The victory of the Jews over the white race was complete. Or was it? Soon after Stalin opted out from the NWO…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalin_and_antisemitism
… much to the chagrin of the US Deep State…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWakgLZOiZQ
… that was forced to wage a Cold War against the defectors from the WW2 anti-European coalition.
Meanwhile Russia is solidly conservative European and China is gradually growing into superpower status. Russia has defeated the West in Syria. The US is set up for defeat in Afghanistan. This tastes like more, like the overthrow of the Saudi regime as well as the Merkel regime.
#HoustonWeHaveGotAProblem
Davy on Mon, 4th Sep 2017 7:14 am
#clogyouliveinafantasyworld
Cloggie on Mon, 4th Sep 2017 7:29 am
Manifest Destiny was a fantasy… until it materialized:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manifest_destiny
Communism was a fantasy since 1848…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Communist_Manifesto
…until it was realized in most of Eurasia one century later.
One needs to dare to “fantasize”, that is use your informed intuition about what will come next.
I do not think we will have to wait for a century until we will be living in a multi-polar world a la Samuel Huntington, with Paris-Berlin-Moscow + US Heartland annex.
Davy on Mon, 4th Sep 2017 8:10 am
You have fantasies about a fantasy past to predict a fantasy future. I am not saying it can’t happen but it is fantasy now. The past you talk about is your fantasy interpretations. Fantasy is a powerful human disposition when reality sucks.
Cloggie on Mon, 4th Sep 2017 8:18 am
The past you talk about is your fantasy interpretations.
Your fantasy interpretation is that the US “saved our European asses”.
But for some reason you always avoid confronting your fantasy with mine (“Europe intentionally colonized by a secretly cooperating USA and USSR since 1933”) and dive into the deep.
This could be an indication that you are not that sure of the veracity of your fantasy after all.
Davy on Mon, 4th Sep 2017 8:27 am
I don’t care about your past cloggie. The 20th century is over and it’s relevance greatly diminished. We are now a global interconnected civilization that is delocalized and crumbling. That is my reality. You and I will collapse together. How that happens is an unknown. I doubt like your fantisize but that is still a possibility minus the empire of affluence you proselytize.
Cloggie on Mon, 4th Sep 2017 9:53 am
I don’t care about your past cloggie.
My past is your past as well. It is a bit of careless attitude Davy. But of course your “patriotism” keeps you from studying your past if you sense that the past was slightly less glorious as your media kept telling you. Your deep state masters and their media are using their interpretation of the past (lies) as a weapon against you. There is a war going on against people like you (and me) and history (slavery, WW2, holo-tale) is used as a weapon to demoralize us and gradually break all resistance. America is being set up to become a hell to live in, like the USSR. Every aspect of white civilization will be demonized, every statue toppled, every author banned.
And history is a central weapon in their arsenal to achieve their aims.
You and I will collapse together. How that happens is an unknown.
What does that mean, “collapse”?
After a breakdown of civilization, after a war, after a depression, after a hyper-inflation, there is always a recovery and a new reality. Even if our cars will be smaller after that collapse or even absent. Life goes on.
Davy on Mon, 4th Sep 2017 10:14 am
Clog this is nothing about patriotism. Even if your version is true I don’t care. It is also careless to dwell in an irrelevant past that does project into a new reality. We are in a new time of decline and decay of an interconnected globalized world. Your version of the future is my end. Your version is of the realization of your empire in waiting in a future of European affluence. How convenient is that. If you wonder why I hound you it is because you are talking my death. You don’t think your version of my future will end at all nicely do you?
“there is always a recovery and a new reality.”
Who says clog, is that the world according to clog? No one knows what is ahead and never have we. We have just been lucky so far. Get a grip life is not a human function it is a natural function we are a part of. There is no European or human exceptionalism in the real world.
GregT on Mon, 4th Sep 2017 11:12 am
“Even if your version is true I don’t care.”
“If you wonder why I hound you it is because you are talking my death.”
So if you don’t care Davy, then why do you feel the need to “hound”? People don’t get emotionally upset about things that they don’t care about. You’re contradicting yourself.
deadlykillerbeaz on Mon, 4th Sep 2017 11:15 am
Irma better move in a different direction soon or it is going to sweep through the north side of the Caribbean and probably hit Florida.
Load up the laptop and fly to LA until next Tuesday.
Davy on Mon, 4th Sep 2017 11:19 am
Good morning stalker.
GregT on Mon, 4th Sep 2017 11:36 am
Good morning Davy.
Climate change has a far greater likelihood of causing your death, than the collapse of the empire. So why do you not hound people who talk about climate change?
Hello on Mon, 4th Sep 2017 12:35 pm
Quick stopover in Montreal. What an arab invested shit hole it has become.
Davy on Mon, 4th Sep 2017 12:53 pm
Stalker, got examples or is this just your effort at pricking?
GregT on Mon, 4th Sep 2017 1:07 pm
You understand exactly what I’m talking about Davy.
Davy on Mon, 4th Sep 2017 2:14 pm
Examples stalker or consider yourself a prick. I can’t read you sick mind.
GregT on Mon, 4th Sep 2017 2:25 pm
The collapse of the American Empire in no way poses a threat to your life Davy. You have already positioned yourself for a collapse. A runaway greenhouse event threatens the survival of everyone, and most every other living thing on the entire planet.
Apneaman on Mon, 4th Sep 2017 2:27 pm
clog, Manifest Destiny was supposed to include Canada too. Did not happen, but there is still a few decades left for the humans, so who knows. Obviously those cancers in the deep south are going to be in need of new territories very soon. Who wants to live in Super Fund city?
Manifest Destiny, Lebensraum, White Man’s Burden and on and on with the moral justifications of expansionists throughout history.
Humans are the only Cancer that has need for an elaborate excuse for being a Cancer. The truth is you have no choice. It’s what the universe wants.
A New Physics Theory of Life
An MIT physicist has proposed the provocative idea that life exists because the law of increasing entropy drives matter to acquire lifelike physical properties.
https://www.quantamagazine.org/a-new-thermodynamics-theory-of-the-origin-of-life-20140122
“The formula, based on established physics, indicates that when a group of atoms is driven by an external source of energy (like the sun or chemical fuel) and surrounded by a heat bath (like the ocean or atmosphere), it will often gradually restructure itself in order to dissipate increasingly more energy.”
Davy on Mon, 4th Sep 2017 3:19 pm
grehg, get out of here. How does that relate to my climate change credentials?
GregT on Mon, 4th Sep 2017 3:25 pm
What do your ‘climate change credentials’, in any way have to do with your self admitted hounding of other people over your imaginary death due to the collapse of the American Empire?
fmr-paultard on Mon, 4th Sep 2017 3:44 pm
der dear let’s just say i’m not too impressed with people i call the “outtertards”. but like i said full report is coming.
Davy on Mon, 4th Sep 2017 4:30 pm
“get help grehg” is all I can say
Boat on Mon, 4th Sep 2017 6:00 pm
Tesla Teams Up with One of the World’s Largest Wind Power Companies
Tesla’s Powerpack energy storage systems will now help power Vestas wind turbines. The Danish company is the largest wind turbine maker in the world. Both Tesla and Vestas hope the partnership will expand upon their respective global ventures.
https://interestingengineering.com/tesla-teams-up-with-one-of-the-worlds-largest-wind-power-companies
Makati1 on Mon, 4th Sep 2017 6:02 pm
GregT, it is obvious that Davy cannot help himself. He is unable to just ignore those he disagrees with, even when the comment is not aimed at him. Every comment here begins with the commenter’s tag. There are many here whom I just ignore for one reason or another. It is easy. Davy really does need help.
Davy on Mon, 4th Sep 2017 6:23 pm
“it is obvious that Davy cannot help himself. He is unable to just ignore those he disagrees with, even when the comment is not aimed at him. Every comment here begins with the commenter’s tag. There are many here whom I just ignore for one reason or another. It is easy. Davy really does need help.”
Da…..so you are saying that you (makat) are unable to just ignore the comment in question (between grehg and I) even though it was not aimed at you? Last I read your dumbass was not part of the conversation. Peeooo, it must suck getting so old you contradict yourself.
GregT on Mon, 4th Sep 2017 7:14 pm
I asked you three simple, and considerate questions above Davy, and you haven’t answered a single one of them. Instead you resort to your usual childish rhetoric and name calling, And you are suggesting that I am the one that needs help? Unbelievable.
GregT on Mon, 4th Sep 2017 7:20 pm
“Last I read your dumbass was not part of the conversation.”
Last I read Davy, Makati’s comment above was to me, and not to you. That being said, I do agree with you that everybody is entitled to post anything in response to anybody else on an open Internet forum, especially an unmoderated open Internet form.
Cloggie on Tue, 5th Sep 2017 1:34 am
When there is no wind,
the windmill doesn’t produce any power.
and they ugly too. Vandalism of the view for 50 miles.
Make that 5 miles. Moreover putting them onshore is so backward, offshore is all the rage: out of sight, out of mind and much more energy per m2 rotor.
And remember, Europe is here to help you:
https://deepresource.wordpress.com/2017/09/03/us-offshore-wind-about-to-take-off/
#SevenBrothers
How is it that we managed to build hundreds of nuclear power plants in the 1970s and 80s at very affordable costs? At interest rates that were much higher than today’s? Until recently, they were the cheapest form of power. Suddenly, they have become very expensive.
After Chernobyl and Fukushima, energy planners began to get a grasp of external costs. Besides, the first fuel that will run out would not be oil, but uranium. And virtually nobody is ready for a plutonium economy.
Renewables won, learn ti live with it (wait for Greg to reply that there is no such thing as “renewable”.facepalm)
Tesla’s Powerpack energy storage systems will now help power Vestas wind turbines.
That’s edgy! Wind turbines acting as ventilators during windless heat waves.
Antius on Tue, 5th Sep 2017 6:39 am
“Make that 5 miles. Moreover putting them onshore is so backward, offshore is all the rage: out of sight, out of mind and much more energy per m2 rotor.”
Very few people outside of Europe are doing this because the installation and maintenance costs are substantially greater than on land. So far, even European development has focused on shallow water close to the coast, where monopoles can be used. Deep water development is speculative at present.
The arguments in favour of offshore wind are based upon higher wind speeds generating more power (i.e. higher power density across the blades). It needs to be remembered that wind speeds are higher in the North Sea because of an absence of topography – no hills, buildings, etc. If the North Sea is populated with country sized wind farms that will change.
Go Speed Racer on Tue, 5th Sep 2017 8:52 am
I can’t wait until an oil tanker in a storm, with its
engine out, plows thru the offshore windmills
like mowing the grass.
Cloggie on Tue, 5th Sep 2017 9:35 am
If the North Sea is populated with country sized wind farms that will change.
Did some digging in research in optimal wind power distance in very large grids, like the North Sea. The result is indeed a little disappointing. A Belgian study arrives at an cost optimal distance of 15 rotor diameters, which would reduce the total number of 4 MW wind turbines (like applied in the Gemini wind farm) to 50,000 or 200 GW name plate wind power in that part of the North Sea (200,000 km2) that is “monopilable”.
https://deepresource.wordpress.com/2017/09/05/wind-shadow-the-fewer-the-better-cheer/