Alan H wrote:lewist wrote:Nick wrote:As you obviously have, please point out to me where it takes into account the costs of the energy supplies necessary for the times when the sun isn't shining and the wind isn't blowing.
Whereas I haven't read the report you are bickering over, you need to add
or the tides don't flow, Nick.
Tidal barrage is the future baseload in the system.
Not to mention biomass, geothermal, hydropower... then there's energy storage technologies and demand management...
And where is all that I the report? I don't see it even mentioned, let alone costed. If it is in the report, please point it out to me. If not, then the report is lacking, in a major, terminal way. Which is the point I was making. Certainly, it would be great to have other green technologies, but at the moment sun and wind, the two energy sources you quoted, are not viable without baseload, nor are they viable "on demand" sources (or whatever the phrase is). So other sources (probably gas, if my understanding is right) are still required. And such other "green" alternatives have not been included in the costings, so far as I can see. Tidal barrage is certainly reliable and predictable, so could act as a baseload provider of energy, but, again, as far as I can make out, because the energy is so dissipated, it is even more expensive to capture and convert to electricity (and never mind the adverse effects of destroying tidal eco-systems....) I'd be delighted if other sources of power were able to challenge polluting oil and gas, and potentially dangerous nuclear, but so far, the technology is not sufficiently advanced.