markg wrote:
Windmills do make sense over their lifespan, without subsidy they repay their financial investment after about fifteen years or so, however their projected lifespan isnt't necessarily much more than that. But the notion that they are a con, is a con.
Really? Wow, that's a lot of politicians lying through their teeth then. (Why I should be surprised at such a thing is anyone's guess).
Where can you get informed, unbiased info on stuff like this, do you know please mate?
Quote:
Large tidal schemes tend to have much longer periods before they repay their initial investment however with moderate maintenance there's no reason why they could not go on generating power for a century or more. But for that reason gettng these off the ground is a far trickier proposition. The government aren't terribly interested in actually getting involved, they want to leave it all to private industry but the energy companies aren't really intersted in long term invesments like that.
Yeah, it sucks - and this is where I get my 'left winger' hat on. It's stupid to think that the private sector is going to sort "big, risky stuff" like this - it's not going to happen. Therefore it is the function of
government to invest substantial CapEx money on all of our behalfs on stuff like this. I don't want to get party political here as this isn't that type of thread, but to people crying where is the money going to come from, well, I daresay that £37 billion that Labour pissed away on all of our behalfs on useless aircraft carrier(s) and plane(s) would've helped here, as well as £20 billion (min.) on the useless, immoral Trident Missile System. Is anyone seriously going to tell me that, if we'd put £60 billion up for grabs for public tender contract to the private engineering sector, we would not have a fully workable, large scale tidal power system developed, delivered and installed in the UK? With all the jobs and expertise that entails, not to mention energy security and massive green credentials too - with the technology in hand to export to others?
My God, how I awesome would that be, as compared to a bunch of white elephant, useless, borked military hardware. Oh, and how is the likes of HS2, or the Olympics, more important than stuff like this, whilst we're on the subject? That's yet another £45 billion in public money funds, right there. (Don't even get me started on bank bailouts). Politicians annoy me. They suck.
_________________
Beware of gavia articulata oculos...
Dr Lave wrote:
Of course, he's normally wrong but
interestingly wrong