Windfarm could cost up to £40 million

[Dirty Buggane]

Do you seriously think we would have to build our mines and find a uranium seam, and own a ship to transport nuclear fuel. There are firms that specialise in this and have the ships and infrastructure to handle the uranium.  There is also firms that take spent fuel for reprocessing, it might even be Sellafield so they could nip over in a dingy or Frank the Yank could ship it in one of the little boats in the harbour to keep the money in the local economy.

[Happier diner]

10 hours ago, Cambon said:

You are actually correct. It is not rocket science. However, rocket science is what is required, not the ranting and bleating of greenies. Large turbines are not the answer. Buying cheap green power from uk is the answer until we can rationally and scientifically find the best answer for us. It could be nuclear. It could be geothermal. It is likely to be a combination of several sources. It could even involve the Lady Isabella. But however you look at it, massive turbines are not it.

Yet again. Cheap power from the UK. That's all you say. I would agree if they was possible but it's not.

THERE IS NO CHEAP POWER FROM THE UK.

so remove that option from your arguement. Then start over with a workable option. 

 

[Happier diner]

22 minutes ago, Dirty Buggane said:

Do you seriously think we would have to build our mines and find a uranium seam, and own a ship to transport nuclear fuel. There are firms that specialise in this and have the ships and infrastructure to handle the uranium.  There is also firms that take spent fuel for reprocessing, it might even be Sellafield so they could nip over in a dingy or Frank the Yank could ship it in one of the little boats in the harbour to keep the money in the local economy.

If you read the reports you will see that at the moment nuclear power is not a feasible option. Still miles too expensive. 

[NoTail]

I would have thought a series of wind turbines on Douglas head and along Marine Drive would would work well. Good road access. Close to the power sration/grid. Good solid rock base.

[The Phantom]

10 hours ago, Cambon said:

It could even involve the Lady Isabella. But however you look at it, massive turbines are not it.

The Laxey wheel was discussed somewhere within another Thread.  Turns out that it produces a piddling amount of power.  Probably why no one else seriously uses a 19th Century waterwheel to generate electricity.

 

9 hours ago, AcousticallyChallenged said:

Where do we get the fuel from? I don't think we have any uranium mines.

How do we transport the fuel? Do we have anything certified for transporting it? Remember, it's notoriously heavy.

How do we dispose of the waste? See above.

How do we deal with the perceived proliferation risk? We'd need an equivalent to the UK's nuclear constabulary.

Sellafield isn't the answer. They've had issues for decades with contamination, crumbling infrastructure and more.

I'm very much for nuclear power, but, it isn't a simple, or cheap, thing.

As @Dirty Buggane notes, there are firms dedicated to this. 

A small modular reactor would only have a few 100 kgs of fuel up to a couple of tons of fuel max and depending on the type, need to be re-fueled every 5 - 30 years (if you put a couple of tons in). 

There is a significant amount of development and research going on right now for these small modular reactors that do about 300mw.  Enough for a small city, or Island. 

[WTF]

1 hour ago, Happier diner said:

Yet again. Cheap power from the UK. That's all you say. I would agree if they was possible but it's not.

THERE IS NO CHEAP POWER FROM THE UK.

so remove that option from your arguement. Then start over with a workable option. 

 

it doesn't need to be cheap power from the uk , just power from the uk and get rid of our local cost of creating our own electricity.

[Happier diner]

10 minutes ago, WTF said:

it doesn't need to be cheap power from the uk , just power from the uk and get rid of our local cost of creating our own electricity.

You mean by UK power at any cost? We would be firmly held by the goolies then wouldn't we?

 

[Happier diner]

20 minutes ago, The Phantom said:

The Laxey wheel was discussed somewhere within another Thread.  Turns out that it produces a piddling amount of power.  Probably why no one else seriously uses a 19th Century waterwheel to generate electricity.

 

As @Dirty Buggane notes, there are firms dedicated to this. 

A small modular reactor would only have a few 100 kgs of fuel up to a couple of tons of fuel max and depending on the type, need to be re-fueled every 5 - 30 years (if you put a couple of tons in). 

There is a significant amount of development and research going on right now for these small modular reactors that do about 300mw.  Enough for a small city, or Island. 

And far too big for us still. 

[Happier diner]

37 minutes ago, NoTail said:

I would have thought a series of wind turbines on Douglas head and along Marine Drive would would work well. Good road access. Close to the power sration/grid. Good solid rock base.

And peel hill. 

[Cambon]

42 minutes ago, The Phantom said:

The Laxey wheel was discussed somewhere within another Thread.  Turns out that it produces a piddling amount of power.  Probably why no one else seriously uses a 19th Century waterwheel to generate electricity.

 

If it was renovated to a good spec. and maintained properly, it is capable of generating approximately 200bhp 24/7. That is easily enough to drive a reasonably sized turbine. 

[The Phantom]

42 minutes ago, Cambon said:

If it was renovated to a good spec. and maintained properly, it is capable of generating approximately 200bhp 24/7. That is easily enough to drive a reasonably sized turbine. 

I'm sure it was even less than that. 

200bhp is about the power of a hot-hatch. 

Approx... 

1kw = 1.5hp

An average house needs about 10kw per day.

The entire Laxey Wheel would therefore power a total of 13 houses. 

[AcousticallyChallenged]

38 minutes ago, The Phantom said:

I'm sure it was even less than that. 

200bhp is about the power of a hot-hatch. 

Approx... 

1kw = 1.5hp

An average house needs about 10kw per day.

The entire Laxey Wheel would therefore power a total of 13 houses. 

But, it'd keep turning turning turning

[AcousticallyChallenged]

2 hours ago, The Phantom said:

As @Dirty Buggane notes, there are firms dedicated to this. 

A small modular reactor would only have a few 100 kgs of fuel up to a couple of tons of fuel max and depending on the type, need to be re-fueled every 5 - 30 years (if you put a couple of tons in). 

There is a significant amount of development and research going on right now for these small modular reactors that do about 300mw.  Enough for a small city, or Island. 

They've been pushing them for years.

On paper, it's a cracking idea, you've got something shipping container sized putting out a huge amount of safe, clean power.

But of the few in operation, the floating Russian design needs enriched uranium, which comes with obvious problems. There's a Chinese one that looks promising, but it's only been deployed as a small regular looking power station.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_modular_reactor

But, it would be years off, even if we started now.

The turbines would pay for themselves in that period, and could always come down after that.

[AcousticallyChallenged]

3 hours ago, Dirty Buggane said:

Do you seriously think we would have to build our mines and find a uranium seam, and own a ship to transport nuclear fuel. There are firms that specialise in this and have the ships and infrastructure to handle the uranium.  There is also firms that take spent fuel for reprocessing, it might even be Sellafield so they could nip over in a dingy or Frank the Yank could ship it in one of the little boats in the harbour to keep the money in the local economy.

Specialist firms mean £££.

When the technology is off-the-shelf, and we truly are at the stage where you can ship it over, plug it in, and ship it back, then it's a very different proposition.

At present, it's all hypothetical or experimental.

Maybe in a decade, it'll be where it needs to be. But, that should be a long term plan. Get people warmed up to the idea.

[The Phantom]

7 minutes ago, AcousticallyChallenged said:

They've been pushing them for years.

On paper, it's a cracking idea, you've got something shipping container sized putting out a huge amount of safe, clean power.

But of the few in operation, the floating Russian design needs enriched uranium, which comes with obvious problems. There's a Chinese one that looks promising, but it's only been deployed as a small regular looking power station.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_modular_reactor

But, it would be years off, even if we started now.

The turbines would pay for themselves in that period, and could always come down after that.

Agreed.  I think they are likely an excellent future solution but a good few years off before they are commercially viable. 

Considering many of the other harebrained schemes that are mentioned, it's weird that these haven't really been brought up before.