Just did a quick estimate regarding nuclear power and wind turbines
The highest rated nuclear power plants tend to churn out about 1000 megawatts of power
The largest turbine that Vestas make right now, is 7 megawatts (which is actually more powerful than the first nuclear power station ever built (USSR's
Obninsk plant, 1954
)
But you'd need 150 large turbines (7mw X 150 = 1050mw), to replace one advanced gas-cooled reactor.
EDF Energy has 8 reactors in the UK with a total output of 7000mw
You would need 1000 of the largest wind turbines with ideal conditions, to meet that level of power. Yikes
I'm all for renewables, but until the technology has a major breakthrough, it isn't really feasible to depend on it right now.
Given how densely populated this country is, perhaps another idea might be to tell people to stop having kids for a few years.
But naw, I think they should open new nuclear stations, but the fast breeder variety, so we can use the waste we have stored, as fuel.
The future however, will probably be fusion power, IF they can make it work.
Source - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power
Quote:
Fusion
Fusion power advocates commonly propose the use of deuterium, or tritium, both isotopes of hydrogen, as fuel and in many current designs also lithium and boron. Assuming a fusion energy output equal to the current global output and that this does not increase in the future, then the known current lithium reserves would last 3000 years, lithium from sea water would last 60 million years, and a more complicated fusion process using only deuterium from sea water would have fuel for 150 billion years.[74] Although this process has yet to be realized, many experts believe fusion to be a promising future energy source due to the short lived radioactivity of the produced waste, its low carbon emissions, and its prospective power output.
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