Offshore wind farms no longer interest investors

[DominicBest]

Donkey's years ago, I read an article about individual German roof-top wind turbines which produced current but very little noise. Never heard further about them though.

Wind generators have been used on yachts for decades and they have become very efficient. There is however a critical wind speed/rpm above which they need to be shut down.

[elsie]

[quote=Biloute post_id=47611 time=1703767480 user_id=220
.
The "spot price" (wholesale price of the European standard market) is today 0.02195 € / kWh
.
Note that installing 1 GW of nuclear power “only” costs €1.5 billion. Better to invest in nucs of the future which can be fueled by the waste of the old ones and maybe in fusion in the long term...
.
[/quote]

Did you read further about Orsted approving the investment in Hornsey 3, as mentioned in the article? The problem is the price governments have been willing to propose for the purchase of generated electricity.
Governments have shown more willingness in recent months to pay higher prices for offshore wind, a renewable energy source that would help them cut emissions and reach climate targets.
Orsted was last year offered a price for power production at Hornsea 3 of 37.35 pounds ($47) per megawatt hour (MWh) in inflation-indexed 2012 prices.
In response to a September auction that failed to attract any offshore bids, the British government announced it will increase the price offered at its next renewables auction, with offshore wind projects to be offered 73 pounds per MWh.
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy ... 0of%202027.

Puzzling that EDF are currently estimating the cost for Hinkley Point C (3.2GW) at £32.7bn ? And the total electricity UK agreed price is 92.5 £/MWh = 0.0925UK£/kwh
Perhaps you should understand generation is paid by guaranteed purchase agreements etc rather than spot pricing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinkley_P ... er_station

Even the 470MW Rolls Royce small modular nuclear reactors are currently estimated at £1.8 billion for the fifth when in full industrial production (which does not include lifetime running costs and decommissioning) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolls-Royce_SMR

[Biloute]

@ elsie
Thank you for these informative additions. The complicated financial manipulations around the electricity market remain very obscure to the public. It still seems obvious that wind electricity is much more expensive than nuclear electricity, not mentioning the bad side effects. Ultimately, to satisfy both environmentalists and investors, end users will have to pay much more. It has been recognized that nuclear power is as eco-friendly as windmills, if not more so. If we asked modest people, who already have to choose between eating and heating, their opinion, I'm not sure they would accept to make sacrifices to save the planet! And even less if we have the honesty to tell them that nuclear power, cheaper, fulfills this mission just as well.

[RobertArthur]

Nuclear power eco-friendly and cheaper? Short-term benefits and long-term perspectives? Dear citoyens et citoyennes, yes we can produce and consume more energy in the future. If Mother Nature allows us and, by the way another question, what to do with nuclear waste? Fifteen years ago, in the centre of Thurso, an information centre, a time-line of at least hundred years for this dismantling project. Back on the street I was quite impressed.

On which side of the economic equation do they appear? Or is it a political promise: 'Mes chers compatriotes, on va reconstruire Les Trente Glorieuses'? Don't worry, be happy?

[elsie]

Lazard’s Levelized Cost of Energy Analysis is a comprehensive calculation of the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE), a measure of the average net present cost of electricity generation for a generator over its lifetime. The first graph, the unsubsidised analysis probably gives a clear indication and shows onshore and offshore electricity LCOE is cheaper than nuclear.

(the UK agreed price of 92.5 £/MWh I mentioned earlier for Hinkley C was in 2012 pounds so the figure is now over 130 £/MWh)

[Biloute]

@RobertArthur:
In 1976, with Super Phénix, in France, we changed technology with “Fast Neutron” reactors.
The first generation generators only used a small part of
Natural Uranium: U235 representing only 0.7% of the total. The 99.3% of U238 was
therefore unused “waste”, stored as you say… The “Fast Neutron” reactor (4th generation)
“burns” all U235 + U238. In other words, for equal weight of fuel, it produces
140 times more energy (= 100/0.7)!!! Additionally, these new generators can
recycle old waste. Hopefully, 300,000 tonnes were carefully stored by EDF,
which would provide all the electricity France needs for thousands of years
without having to dig to find fresh Uranium!
But this promising new technology was stopped in 1997 by left-wing Jospin, Mitterand's prime minister. Relaunched in 2006 by right-wing President Chirac (under the name Astrid), this technology was stopped again by Macron in 2019. What a waste !