4 ms·

So only 125 of these mega turbines to replace one nuclear power plant? Amazing. France produces 75% of their electricity with 56 nuclear power plants, which -

by akie 5y ago

So only 125 of these mega turbines to replace one nuclear power plant? Amazing. France produces 75% of their electricity with 56 nuclear power plants, which - if the above is broadly correct - you would be able to replace with 7000 of these wind mills. That's a lot, but on the other hand, Germany has already installed 20k wind turbines so far, so it seems within reach. Obviously you still need to think about matching supply and demand, but I'm surprised by how feasible this appears.

t0mas88 5y ago
The 20k in Germany are much much smaller. The big ones require more space and can be built in less places due to how gigantic they are. On the other hand, placing them at sea is great for having more wind. And the main objection to sea based wind energy so far is the cost of construction which with a smaller number of them could decrease.
- choeger 5y ago
  Not that much smaller, actually. A typical run-of-the-mill turbine will have a capacity of 2.5MW. You can easily get up to 5MW onshore (but that's often constrained by proximity to villages or towns - renewable energy does not happen in or close to cities).
  - hutzlibu 5y ago
    Ah yes, a wind turbine in germany needs to be much further away from a village(1000m), than a coal plant with 700m or a garbage dump with 500m. Sadly, not everything is so green here, like it may sound.
- triceratops 5y ago
  Wouldn't the sea air be terrible for corrosion too?
guerby 5y ago
In France 2019 nuclear capacity factor was 68.7% with 379.5 TWh produced out of 63.1 GW installed capacity.
- Retric 5y ago
  If you only include domestic use it was even lower, they ended up exporting a lot of nuclear power for less than it cost to produce.
pjc50 5y ago
I'm not sure you need to do that, but on the other hand - how is the lifespan of France's nuclear fleet? I heard there were crack issues?
- southerntofu 5y ago
  The nuclear situation is terrible, whether in USA or France (don't know about other countries). There's plenty of unplanned incidents happening all the time, plenty of scandals around waste management and safety concerns. They're supposed to prove the supremacy of french engineering companies with the new EPR design, however all it's shown so far is the many inadequacies of any institution we've known so far to respect basic security/operating principles. There are many, many EPR-related scandals to explore if you speak french, and even more scandals relative to french engineering companies if you're curious like Lafarge, Areva, Bouygues..
- redis_mlc 5y ago
  All reactors have neutron embrittlement problems. Operators just hope it doesn't get as bad as the case in England, where they could barely move certain metal containers without them shattering.
thow-58d4e8b 5y ago
125 would be sufficient to replace one 1200MW reactor. A nuclear power plant usually consists of more than a single reactor. In addition to electricity, nuclear power plants also produce a lot of heat, which can be used for district heating purposes (called co-generation), as is done frequently in northern and eastern Europe. Heating is the dominant component of the final energy consumption, accounting for close to half of all energy use. This is apparent when driving around in an electric car - keeping the cabin warm easily accounts for ~30% of the consumption. Wind turbines obviously produce no surplus heat to extract
- lizknope 5y ago
  In the winter that is true but in the summer some of them have had to limit production because the water to cool the plant is too hot. https://www.climateforesight.eu/energy/nuclear-power-feeling-the-heat/ https://www.climateforesight.eu/energy/nuclear-power-feeling... https://www.npr.org/2018/07/27/632988813/hot-weather-spells-trouble-for-nuclear-power-plants https://www.npr.org/2018/07/27/632988813/hot-weather-spells-...
  - jeffbee 5y ago
    There was a nuclear power station that shutdown in Texas this past winter after its cooling system malfunctioned in the extreme (for Texas) cold weather. Thermal power stations face a panoply of potential malfunctions, regardless of their heat source. They are very, very complex.
- southerntofu 5y ago
  > nuclear power plants also produce a lot of heat, which can be used for district heating purposes Is that the case though? To my knowledge nuclear reactor heat is only used to produce electricity and kill biodiversity in rivers so far. Also, nuclear reactors are built far away from populous area for obvious security concerns. Are there adequate mechanisms for transporting heat over long distances? That's already a problem for electricity, which incurs huge losses (heat dissipation).
  - 5y ago

by akie 5y ago

t0mas88 5y ago

The 20k in Germany are much much smaller. The big ones require more space and can be built in less places due to how gigantic they are. On the other hand, placing them at sea is great for having more wind. And the main objection to sea based wind energy so far is the cost of construction which with a smaller number of them could decrease.

choeger 5y ago
Not that much smaller, actually. A typical run-of-the-mill turbine will have a capacity of 2.5MW. You can easily get up to 5MW onshore (but that's often constrained by proximity to villages or towns - renewable energy does not happen in or close to cities).
- hutzlibu 5y ago
  Ah yes, a wind turbine in germany needs to be much further away from a village(1000m), than a coal plant with 700m or a garbage dump with 500m. Sadly, not everything is so green here, like it may sound.
triceratops 5y ago
Wouldn't the sea air be terrible for corrosion too?

guerby 5y ago

In France 2019 nuclear capacity factor was 68.7% with 379.5 TWh produced out of 63.1 GW installed capacity.

Retric 5y ago
If you only include domestic use it was even lower, they ended up exporting a lot of nuclear power for less than it cost to produce.

pjc50 5y ago

I'm not sure you need to do that, but on the other hand - how is the lifespan of France's nuclear fleet? I heard there were crack issues?

southerntofu 5y ago
The nuclear situation is terrible, whether in USA or France (don't know about other countries). There's plenty of unplanned incidents happening all the time, plenty of scandals around waste management and safety concerns. They're supposed to prove the supremacy of french engineering companies with the new EPR design, however all it's shown so far is the many inadequacies of any institution we've known so far to respect basic security/operating principles. There are many, many EPR-related scandals to explore if you speak french, and even more scandals relative to french engineering companies if you're curious like Lafarge, Areva, Bouygues..
redis_mlc 5y ago
All reactors have neutron embrittlement problems. Operators just hope it doesn't get as bad as the case in England, where they could barely move certain metal containers without them shattering.

thow-58d4e8b 5y ago

125 would be sufficient to replace one 1200MW reactor. A nuclear power plant usually consists of more than a single reactor. In addition to electricity, nuclear power plants also produce a lot of heat, which can be used for district heating purposes (called co-generation), as is done frequently in northern and eastern Europe. Heating is the dominant component of the final energy consumption, accounting for close to half of all energy use. This is apparent when driving around in an electric car - keeping the cabin warm easily accounts for ~30% of the consumption. Wind turbines obviously produce no surplus heat to extract

lizknope 5y ago
In the winter that is true but in the summer some of them have had to limit production because the water to cool the plant is too hot. https://www.climateforesight.eu/energy/nuclear-power-feeling-the-heat/ https://www.climateforesight.eu/energy/nuclear-power-feeling... https://www.npr.org/2018/07/27/632988813/hot-weather-spells-trouble-for-nuclear-power-plants https://www.npr.org/2018/07/27/632988813/hot-weather-spells-...
- jeffbee 5y ago
  There was a nuclear power station that shutdown in Texas this past winter after its cooling system malfunctioned in the extreme (for Texas) cold weather. Thermal power stations face a panoply of potential malfunctions, regardless of their heat source. They are very, very complex.
southerntofu 5y ago
> nuclear power plants also produce a lot of heat, which can be used for district heating purposes Is that the case though? To my knowledge nuclear reactor heat is only used to produce electricity and kill biodiversity in rivers so far. Also, nuclear reactors are built far away from populous area for obvious security concerns. Are there adequate mechanisms for transporting heat over long distances? That's already a problem for electricity, which incurs huge losses (heat dissipation).
- 5y ago