Advances continue, The hardest part is getting the energy to shore.
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Wave and tidal projects fascinate me. The amount of energy in some highly accessible spots (Bay of Fundy, Firth of Forth, Severn River, Cook Strait) is staggering. And it's a grid operator's dream: consistent, predictable. Perfect baseload, dispatchable power.
ReplyDeleteBut the engineering is only part of the puzzle. What about maintenance? As soon as you put these structures in the water, plants and critters will make their homes on them and cause turbulence, drag, and premature failure. How much work is it going to be to keep these things in operating order?
All of these renewables (other than solar) require maintenance that can be quite challenging.
ReplyDeleteEven solar...a friend of ours across the river is off the grid with a solar array and a small wind turbine. He had his battery bank prematurely fail on him when he wasn't diligent enough about topping up the electrolyte levels :-(
ReplyDeleteAnd on a ridge overlooking our town is one of the best windfarms in the southern hemisphere in terms of siting and wind field consistency. About one third of the 55 1.5 MW turbines are idle because of maintenance problems. I've been trying to find out what the typical failure mode has been, but I suspect it is gearbox related due to the number of oil leaks you can see on the nacelles.
When conventional oil becomes difficult and pricey, a lot of renewable generating assets risk becoming stranded as well.
The thing is there's lots of advancements and the newer stuff is less labour intensive but it's hard to get the returns on trading in the older generation stuff.
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