4 ms·

The UAE has a lot more solar irradiance and also has cheap empty land, unlike the UK.

• Retric 10y ago
  UK already get's some electricity from France, getting it from north Africa does not ramp up costs all that much. However, wind is another option, hell double that that to 5 cents per kWh and it's still cheaper. PS: Land costs are less of an issue than you might think as solar does not take that much more land and you can generally use the space under it. Unlike the exclusion zone around nuclear power plants.
  • dreistdreist 10y ago
    Put your solar panels in the exclusion zone. Win/win.
  • jonatron 10y ago
    Currently wind seems to generate anywhere between 0 and about 5GW. Not reliable enough without vast amounts of storage. http://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/ http://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/
    • Retric 10y ago
      Hydro storage is cheap at scale if used daily. Modern wind farms are 40-50% capacity factor in good areas and even better in terms of minimum vs median output. Yes, you will end up wasting some 'extra' power, but without fuel costs that not a significant issue. PS: UK lists 24% capacity factor (av 3.4GW or 9.3% of UK electrical production), which is very usually low and may relate to fudged numbers for installed capacity. Your link also ignores 30% of UK wind production.