Do you believe renewables are the solution?

[Lupus]

We really need to move to renewable, but our current situation does not seem to allow it.
Once our coal burning infrastructure is stable and reliable, further spending should go to the development of renewable energy

Yes nuclear, so we can get cheap, efficient power that provides a steady amount we can truly rely on.
The only renewable, unless we somehow get hydropower??

 

[Sapphiron]

Not yet.
Tech isn't there yet to provide reliable base load from renewables.

I think the tech is pretty close, maybe 10 years away, but the main limiting factor is the change in infrastructure planning required. It will require massive investment in distribution and transmission infrastructure.

Investment that is probably already required based on the load reduction issues Eskom and municipalities already has

Solving this problem is greater than just power generation.

 

[Sapphiron]

You can't discuss Hydrogen on this forum without a swarm of know-it-alls launching a laughing attack, but yes, clearly a strong possible future if enough effort is put in.

What seems most promising about hydrogen, is that despite how inefficient its creation and storage is, you can create it using the excess generation form wind and solar. And it can be produced locally and use converted infrastructure for oil and gas..

It can be used to for commercial vehicles and to run peaker plants. All of it without the OPEC mafia.

 

[Sapphiron]

Name the things in SA which work with 99.9 recurring safety and efficiency.

ANC Political immunity from prosecution

 

[Sapphiron]

You all seem to suffer under the illusion that a country just builds nuclear.
Nuclear energy is globally controlled because once you have a nuclear power plant you can create plotonium with which you can build nuclear weapons.

For example, Koeberg, and I was told this by someone who works there.
They have video cameras everywhere. Those cameras are 100% under the governance of the IAEA.
They can walk in there at any time and turn off that reactor.
That technology is leased and controlled by the super powers.

There is no way you can just go ahead and use their technology how you want.

No other power industry has that level of regulation.
Especially coal, it has no regulation, that is why countries so easily make the choice to drop their standards on it.

But not only is it stupid to drop your standards on nuclear, the owners of that technology will not let you do that.

As for Fukushima, it was a learning experience and since then, the regulations have tightened to prevent it from occuring again.
Even Koeberg had to undergo upgrades because of the outcomes of Fukushima.
Not because they wanted to, per se, because they had no choice.


Wtf. are you talking about. You need uranium. And even if you run out of uranium (Which btw. is practically impossible given the volume used vs amount on the planet), there are other heavy elements (aka unstable) which also emit a lot of energy.

Yep, Thorium reactors look extremely promising, now that investment into new nuclear tech is not being blocked by the fossil fuel lobby as well as before.

 

[konfab]

Renewables are the best stop-gap solution SA has right now to buy some time to decommission the coal stations and get a fleet of nuclear plants going.

 

[Deandbn]

Well I think that the quicker they build a couple of nuclear stations the better.. Also wave action renewable would be good.. We have very powerful waves in this part of the world.. Oh, and a whole new set of honest, reliable, educated employees would fix most of the problem with power generation.
But hey, what do I know, I'm just a regular computer geek programmer.

 

[ABCpt]

Wave power seems like a good renewable source. The sea isn't likely to stop making waves any time soon.

 

[Pak Fa Fui]

Wave power seems like a good renewable source. The see isn't likely to stop making waves any time soon.

NASA stuffed up two rocket launches to the moon due to fuel leaks, you never really know

 

[Zophos]

NASA stuffed up two rocket launches to the moon due to fuel leaks, you never really know

 

[Johand]

Why go through the complexities of hydrogen power whether it’s blue, grey or green when there are already synthetic fuels with zero emissions using the already abundant CO2
It went from £20000/l to £4000/l in 8 months, by that trajectory, in another 54 months it can go down to £2/l, now that’s worth holding thumbs for

The driver behind green hydrogen is more than just fuel for electricity. The two big ones are ammonia production (mostly for fertilizer) and green steel manufacturing. I am not sold on green hydrogen as energy storage, but we need it in any case to decarbonise these other things.