UK's faith in nuclear power threatens renewables, says German energy expert

[zeus]

If Norway as example   has produced 140 TWH  per year with hydro power  recently   and feed in to the Grid , that does not automatically mean that the stores are empty ,at the end of the year

Apart from the fact that 143TWh is in a high rainfall year, however in a low rainfall year the capacity needs to be reduced to as low as 105TWh in order to not overload the system and empty the storage ... to me that says something about the stores being empty if generation continued to target ~140TWh .... 

[billi]

to me it says that  there is storrage   to grant  a renewable based scheme in Europe and extent Windpower, Biomass, PV , Geothermal.... , cause there are storrage capacities in Europe to buffer those  friends

and Norways  370 hydro storage plants have a system of several reservoirs which can be
upgraded to pumped-storage plants  (i read  in a Nuclear friendly  energy providers brochure )


But  you ?  would like to depent on which power   supply again  ?   

Amazing , how destructive you are , and i wonder why


We need to figure out the potential  , all you do is to fight against this

Thanks Billi

[zeus]

to me it says that  there is storrage   to grant  a renewable based scheme in Europe and extent Windpower, Biomass, PV , Geothermal.... , cause there are storrage capacities in Europe to buffer those  friends

and Norways  370 hydro storage plants have a system of several reservoirs which can be
upgraded to pumped-storage plants  (i read  in a Nuclear friendly  energy providers brochure )


But  you ?  would like to depent on which power   supply again  ?    

Amazing , how destructive you are , and i wonder why


We need to figure out the potential  , all you do is to fight against this

Thanks Billi

Hi

Driving a car at 70mph towards point A and seeing a sign saying 'Bridge Out Ahead' some might take a temporary, but necessary, detour through point B, some may slow down and consider their options, but others would simply say that it was a conspiracy driven by those with vested interests in point B and continue at the same speed, or even put their foot down harder to prove a blinkered point based on a biased view towards point B .... again, every time the route is questioned the reply becomes personal, not logical, and everyone challenging a viewpoint is accused as being a lobbyist on behalf of some group or other, usually nuclear .....

As a result of logical argument I'm happy to see that the position has shifted from "Norway has a huge hydro storrage capacity for whole of Europe " ... to ... "Norways  370 hydro storage plants have a system of several reservoirs which can be upgraded to pumped-storage plants" which seems to be a little different as it considers that something would need to be done, including convincing the Norwegian people and government to rip what they currently have apart and modify it ... at what cost and who will pay ?, Norway doesn't need to change what they have, so do we pay ?. Remember, Norway has been building their existing infrastructure for over 40 years so system expansion and any modification to pumped storage coupled to a pan-European 'super-grid' would likely not even fully happen within the design life of a nuclear generating plant, let alone the construction timescales.

To paraphrase .... all we need to do is put away the rose tinted glasses and figure out the potential which unfortunately involves costs, timescales and feasibility, all you do is to fight against this.  

[GavinA]

Denmark has already been using Norway's hydro to back up it's wind capacity since the 90's, so the knowledge and capability is already in place for the existing facilities to be used in this way. All it really takes to bring this resource online is HVDC cabling and grid connection, which has a lead time of around 5-8 years, with most of the delay being the national grid's backlog of work on the UK grid.

FWIW though, I'm talking about a few GW of HVDC interconnector to Norway, and fully agree with you about the limits to norways actual generation capacity vs it's storage capacity etc.

Being as we already have a gas interconnector to norway though, and have been co-operating with them in the gas fields for decades, I really don't understand why this hasn't already been done, and would be very surprised if it wasn't either completed, or being worked on by 2020.

I also expect a HVDC line to Iceland to be in place by 2020, whether funded and owned by us, or the Icelanders, giving us access to their additional Hydro and geothermal capacity / giving them an export market for this energy resource to help sort out their economy. I understand there's some controversy in Iceland over this because there's also the potential for this hydro and geothermal to be used to power more aluminium smelting plants etc. But would be very surprised if both didn't happen, and the HVDC link would also give access to our (well, scotland's) huge wind resources, and would provide back up for any extended period of low rainfall, which would aid them in winning industrialists confidence.

Basically as I see it, there is no one magic bullet, just lots of bits of a few GW here, a few GW there, and the greater the interconnection across Europe, the greater the stability in a high renewable future.

[mikey9]

And even Alex Salmond seems to recognise the importance of a Norway Interconnector...and at least things are moving in the right direction.

http://www.norwaynews.com/en/~view.php?72Vaa54CQ84828z285Fnf844WL3889WC76IAn353Kbt8

Mr Salmond announced the signing of the agreement between a subsidiary of Scottish and Southern Energy, SSE Interconnector, and three Scandinavian utilities to study the feasibility of building an interconnector to carry power between Scandinavia and the UK. He said the north-east of Scotland was the ideal location and this makes Scotland “ideally placed” to become the green powerhouse of Europe.

The Scandinavian partners to the agreement are Swedish utility company Vattenfall and Norwegian utilities Lyse, E-CO Energi, and Agder Energi. The jointly owned development company will be known as NorthConnect. Independent, not-for-profit group The Scottish European Green Energy Centre has contributed 50,000 Euros towards the search for the best route for the cable.

Scotland and Norway both have diverse and complementary ways of producing electricity, and an interconnector would allow them to share the resources and maximize supplies of low-carbon sources of electricity. Norway has flexible hydro-electricity sources, while Scotland has wind power sources, and so Scotland could import electricity on still days and export its excess on windy days.

The high voltage, direct current (HVDC) cable between Scotland and Norway would be capable of carrying 1,200 to 2,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity, and could be in place by 2020. Initial estimates are that it would need to be between 550 and 700 km long. NorthConnect will spend the next few years analyzing the economic and technical viability of the project.

Head of Vattenfall's Asset Optimization and Trading department, Harald von Heyden, said NorthConnect would increase competition in regional areas and provide a more secure supply of energy with more stable electricity prices.

The UK is already connected to Ireland and France, and a sub-sea cable carrying 1,000 MW between the UK and the Netherlands will open in April this year. Norway has cables to Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands, and a cable to Germany is under construction.