On 13/08/2014 15:35, Jethro_uk wrote:
On Wed, 13 Aug 2014 15:29:06 +0100, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

On 13/08/14 13:45, A. Lurker wrote:
The Natural Philosopher wrote hastily:

Its more fairy dust mate. Forget it.

Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible.
Lord Kelvin, ca. 1895

There is not the slightest indication that [nuclear energy] will ever
be obtainable.
Albert Einstein, 1932.

"By 20202 the whole country will be running off renewable energy"

A stupid Green


Kelvin should have known better: birds which are heavier then air flying
machines already existed. However if he didn't know about the internal
combustion engine, he as in fact quite correct. Without the internal
combustion engine heavier than air flight was impossible.


There was in 1932 no indication that nuclear energy was ever obtainable
and a year or so later every reason as the world tipped towards war,
that anyone who thought otherwise be sworn to extreme secrecy.


These were of course NEW technologies. Nothing about wave or tidal poer
is new.

The record of the warmists and renewable energy aficionados is so
riddled with false claims that there isn't time to list them all.


To put it in simple terms, we know how much energy is in the waves and
tides, and we know how much of that we can reasonably extract and we
know how much area of sea is needed to get a given amount of energy, and
we can calculate a minimum cost for the structures and technologies
required to extract it.

All these give minimum costs several times greater than even solar
panels and windmills and no possibility without even further costs of
massive dimensions of solving the intermittency/dispatch problem.


I would have thought the best way to harness tidal power is to have a
reservoir fill up somehow[1] at high tide, and then use the outflowing
water to drive a turbine.

[1]I may have spotted the flaw here

Which was what was proposed for the Severn. The problem is that at high
tide what is in the reservoir cannot be higher than the outside level so
no power. Tidal flow works both ways but there is a point where the
levels are the same and, again, no power.

ISTR that there was a proposal for the Severn that required a second
(empty) basin from the barrage to somewhere near the Devon border. This
would be emptied at low tide and the main barrage filled at high tide.
That way there was always a differential in level unless you had let too
much water through too quickly. I think that the idea was that you could
generate electricity quickly.

Took and awful lot of concrete though and the poor sods on the coast had
the tide permanently out.