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The Other Mike[_3_] The Other Mike[_3_] is offline
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Default OT - More on generation (sigh) but what is the alternative to coal?

On Fri, 10 Feb 2012 13:06:06 +0000, Newshound
wrote:



The whole market is a mess. Caused by the free market. Ultimately
caused by that evil bitch Thatcher who hated coal so much she would do
anything, even hand the country over to the clutches of the gas man in
Russia as long as she could crush them.

I agree with much that you say, but with respect it is *not* caused by
the free market, but by IDIOTS MUCKING ABOUT WITH IT.


Give them the legislative freedom and they will exploit it for their
own ends, not those of the country.

If a simple carbon tax had been introduced twenty years ago, plus some
sort of committment to stability, we would have been building nuclear
power stations for years.


A carbon tax, in a relatively flat country, only leads to one solution
and 100% nukes won't work (or at least with AGR's or PWR's) as they
can't change output rapidly.

We need diversified generation, not too far away from we had from the
1960's to the late 80's. Coal, Oil, Nuclear, Pumped Storage, a bit
of Hydro. Tweak the mix a bit, reduce the coal and oil increase the
nukes to replace those coming to the end of their life, increase them
more to cater for time expired coal and oil plant, maybe even add some
gas but ONLY where waste heat can be used for industrial processes. A
wholesale shift from coal to gas with zero nuke new build is a
disaster waiting to happen. Just as well the economy is going tits up
because if it were booming we'd be even more ****ed.


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