SA must go nuclear - Minister

[Jan]

South Africa has to go nuclear: Minister

South Africa simply has to go the nuclear route, according to Energy Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson.

 

[BlindMelonChitlin]

Absolutely - we've already signed a contract, we have no choice *whistle*

 

[ellyally]

Absolutely - we've already signed a contract, we have no choice *whistle*

People have already spent their tender monies

 

[Vrotappel]

“We simply have to go the nuclear route,” said Energy Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson, “because we don’t have enough freshwater. Koeberg recycles 22bn litres of seawater, while Medupi (coal-fired) power station uses 17bn litres of freshwater.”

How much water does solar use?

 

[Swa]

If we go nuclear our economy will go nuclear.

 

[CruelBreeze]

How much water does solar use?

I sort of feel like solar would use HUGE amounts of space if they were to match the current capacity with solar powered stations. They're great and everything (renewable, environment etc.) but... I don't know

 

[Swa]

I sort of feel like solar would use HUGE amounts of space if they were to match the current capacity with solar powered stations. They're great and everything (renewable, environment etc.) but... I don't know

Your roof can supply way more than what you can legitimately use. Space is really not a problem seeing how easy and safe it is to use.

 

[Bizkit87]

ill just leave this here: http://geni.org/globalenergy/library/renewable-energy-resources/world/africa/geo-africa/index.shtml

 

[itareanlnotani]

This is also worth a read - http://sessa.org.za/about-sessa/cha...m-regarding-consumer-renewables-in-the-future

My thoughts are
1) Nuclear is far too expensive.
2) Unnecessary - by the time it comes online, the end user that can afford it will have dumped Eskom anyway due to their crazy pricing.
That will leave the indigent to pay top dollar for Eskom Nuclear. Or not, as they don't pay currently...

Taxpayer base by then will also be laughable, so it will just be a huge fiasco.
I'll see you in NZ or Oz or UK at that point...

 

[backstreetboy]

I'll go solar thankyouverymuch. DC FTFW!

 

[Creag]

“The IPP programme, Mr President, is your legacy; it was started by you,” Joemat-Pettersson said.

The ANC clown show are seriously desperate to find something to praise their despicable president with. This dredges the scum off the bottom of a thousand year old pond.

 

[dunkyd]

When we do go, the arms deal stealing will seem like taking pennies from the church plate on sundays…..

 

[CruelBreeze]

Your roof can supply way more than what you can legitimately use. Space is really not a problem seeing how easy and safe it is to use.

I was talking more large scale operations similar to wind farms. Installing one in every home in the country would hardly be efficient and could take very long. Just my opinion though.

 

[itareanlnotani]

I was talking more large scale operations similar to wind farms. Installing one in every home in the country would hardly be efficient and could take very long. Just my opinion though.

Given that quite a bit of electricity is lost in transmission, you'd be surprised at how wrong that might be.
Localizing usage means no losses to transmission.

It would also likely be faster to implement. Some conducive policies to promote installing Solar, and consumers will jump at it.

 

[Swa]

I was talking more large scale operations similar to wind farms. Installing one in every home in the country would hardly be efficient and could take very long. Just my opinion though.

That's precisely what I'm talking about. Decentralised generation is in any case better for the grid. There's huge buildings and open spaces where solar can be installed because of its ease of use and relative safety. You don't need dedicated spaces for it unless you're going the molten salt route.

 

[ingeon]

The ANC clown show are seriously desperate to find something to praise their despicable president with. This dredges the scum off the bottom of a thousand year old pond.

Well technically because of eskom failure and load shedding and etc. he did sort of encourage renewable projects

 

[Arthur]

I think the minister right. The sooner the better. Just wish our pols and their cronies weren't corrupt.

 

[BlindMelonChitlin]

Your roof can supply way more than what you can legitimately use. Space is really not a problem seeing how easy and safe it is to use.

Why do I find this hard to believe?

 

[itareanlnotani]

Why do I find this hard to believe?

Because you haven't done the math?
Assume a 300W panel. Size is around 2mx1m. That single panel should generate roughly 1KW in summer or 400W in winter (rather low ball numbers, actual will be higher). In say an average small house, you'll have about 10 x 6 roof space usable - so say 60sqm up top.

30 panels would be more than sufficient (giving you 30KW+ in summer minimum, and say 12KW+ in winter), and still leave room to spare.

This doesn't take into account evenings and storage, but reducing daytime use drastically allows Eskom to power down a couple of coal stations, or run more at lower capacity, increasing existing life spans. If Eskom / muni's put some motivation into play for consumers to do this - i.e buy not actively penalizing you like they do now, you'd probably see more uptake. This would also make more excess available for the non paying consumers, as its likely it would be generated by solar.

If Eskom and Muni's don't come to the table, people will just go offgrid (eventually), as their pricing will make it too attractive not to.
That will just leave the non-payers on the table for Eskom, and really really expensive Nuclear being unaffordable for the country.

 

[access]

let us feed power back to the grid! spend the money on that instead of NewClear ways of robbing us!