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25 comments on Nuclear Britain

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Simstim on March 10, 2006 - 9:33am Permalink | Subthread | Comments top
Personally, I think microgeneration (which unsurprisingly excludes nuclear) is the way forward.  If the government can put enough incentives for households to invest in wind/solar/heat pumps then people's self-interest will do the rest.  Nuclear is just perpetuating the centralised generation/grid system which although needed even in a microgeneration utopia is not the sole answer to the gap.
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LevinK on March 10, 2006 - 12:04pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
It's funny. It seems that so many people in modern industrialized countries don't have any idea what market economy and industry are all about. Let me explain just two concepts:

  1. Specialization
  2. Economy of scale

Specialization is the thing that allows you not two worry what is in your TV or in your microoven, how the materials for them were mined and delivered, how those nice things were invented, projected or produced. Specialization allows our society to work without everybody being an technician, engineer, scientist, doctor, farmer, politician at the same time.

Economy of scale is what makes your living standart so high. In short you can produce electricity both in a large power plant and in your back yard. The difference is that when you get it from the power plant it will cost you $0.05/kwth and when you produce it in your backyard the cost will be $0.50/kwth. But this is just the face value of it, because everything in the economy is so interconnected. Suppose the supplier that delivered the generator for your electricity also scales back. Then the generator you bought from him will cost not $10 000, but $100 000, and the electricity you produce will cost you not $0.50 but $5/kwth. And this applies to everything.

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Simstim on March 11, 2006 - 12:12am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Economy of scale is all well and good, but the National Grid isn't exactly the most efficient of distribution networks, producing electricity/hot water at the point of use eliminates the inefficiencies of centralised power production.  The point of subsidies/regulations is to make microgeneration amenable to economy of scale, i.e. if you make it a prerequisite of new-builds and council homes you make it an economical proposition to make affordable windmills, heat pumps, etc. in their hundreds of thousands.
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LevinK on March 11, 2006 - 3:25pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Aha. So you are proposing the taxpayers to take the burden of subsidizing those that are decide to generate electricity in their backyard in order to cover the huge difference of costs. Brilliant.

If you don't like the grid you may try living one day without it. Or you may try to make a local grid in your neighbourhood and pray all day and night that nothing breaks, because you are obviously not an electrical engineer.

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SHiFTY on March 14, 2006 - 7:04am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Part of the problem is that the only viable microgeneration I have seen so far is the combined boiler/electricity generator. As you know, supplies of natural gas are running low, so this is not a good long term solution either. Wind turbine efficiency is proportional to the radius, so small windmills generate very little electricity, as does solar. The question of council regulations about mounting noisy eyesores to your roof also spring to mind.

All of these things also require a reliable grid connection for when they have down time. As for cost, they are incredibly expensive at this stage, thousands of pounds, which households will be reluctant to fund.

There is certainly some scope for commercial and industrial generation, but for average households it doesn't make economic sense.

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25 comments on Nuclear Britain

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