Renewables unreliable? UTTER NONSENSE! Take your head out of the sand.

Fester,

"For small island states, renewables with diesel generator backup probably makes good sense." This might work for a small island resort of a few hundred people, but certainly not an island state of a hundred thousand or so. The cost of diesel generation is enormous. Even the most optimistic use of renewable power requires 30% generation by a ready back up source.

Dobber,

Feel free to mention any large scale renewable source that can be guaranteed to meet peak demand in the early evening. I don't know of any.

Sir Vivor et al, the issue of waste is over exaggerated. The entire stock pile of spent uranium from the US in 50 years is 9000 tons or in volume about 500 cubic meters, or about half the volume of a single suburban Sydney house.

If this was reprocessed, and re used this could drop to 1/10th of this, at a tiny fraction of the radioactivity.

Sir Vivor

At the outset, I am not an expert in nuclear power, so what I offer here on this opinion site, is just that. Notwithstanding, I am very much involved in ‘us’ living in a more sustainable way, particularly as it relates to our use (or misuse) of our natural resources.

You have tweaked my interest in Vanuatu and for that I thank you – are you really a dinki-di Vanuatuan?

Anyway ... as I understand from perusing Wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanuatu - my original thoughts on Vanuatu (as a ‘small island state’) acquiring nuclear power still stands. Sure, hypothetically and theoretically, Vanuatu and other SIDS could benefit from 4th generation nuclear – but it won’t happen anytime soon, for a number of reasons. Let’s take a closer look at Vanuatu:

1. It is an island archipelago consisting of approximately 82 relatively small, geologically newer islands of volcanic origin (65 of them inhabited with a total population of about 220,000), with about 1,300 km (north to south) distance between the outermost islands.

2. Total area about 12,000 square kilometres of which its (productive) land base is limited to roughly only one third of that. Most of the islands are steep, with unstable soils, and little permanent freshwater.

3. The shorelines are usually rocky with fringing reefs and no continental shelf, dropping rapidly into the ocean depths.

4. There are several active volcanoes as well as several underwater ones. Volcanic activity is common with an ever-present danger of a major eruption.

5. Vanuatu is in an active and ever present earthquake zone with the threat of resultant Tsunamis also ever present.

6. The four mainstays of the economy are agriculture, tourism, off-shore financial services, and cattle. There is substantial fishing activity but this industry doesn't bring in much foreign exchange. There is minimal industrial activity requiring high end power supply.

7. It’s currently heavily dependent on imported petroleum products, largely for transport and electricity generation. This energy supply typically accounts for more than 12 per cent of its imports.

Cont’d

Cont’d

8. Vanuatu is heavily dependent on indigenous biomass fuels for cooking and crop drying. It will continue to be heavily dependent on petroleum fuels and biomass both in the short and medium term. Unfortunately, the current uses of those fuels tend to be highly inefficient (and polluting).

9. The renewable energy resources potential for Vanuatu is encouraging. There is a substantial solar resource capacity (still not developed to its full potential). Likewise the potential for wind power generation (but is typically variable, both within and between its islands). Hydroelectric power is a possibility but only for some islands. Biomass as Fester points out is common.

10. The potential for geothermal, ocean thermal energy conversion and wave energy are also genuine viable alternative energy resources (sorry Shadow Minister) - particularly for the larger more populated islands e.g. Efate.

11. Unfortunately, several constraints to the large-scale commercial use of renewable energy resources remain, including technology development, investment costs, available indigenous skills and management capabilities.

12. The use of renewable energy resources as substantial commercial fuels by Vanuatu will be dependent on the development and commercial production of alternative technologies – if Vanuatu can’t fund solar thermal (for example), there is little chance that they can finance nuclear.

_______________

Shadow Minister (to Fester)

>> "For small island states, renewables with diesel generator backup probably makes good sense." This might work for a small island resort of a few hundred people, but certainly not an island state of a hundred thousand or so. The cost of diesel generation is enormous. Even the most optimistic use of renewable power requires 30% generation by a ready back up source. <<

As far as I understand, the largest ‘constrained’ population on Vanuatu is about 50,000 – on Efate. Are you seriously suggesting nuclear power for the whole of Efate, one-hundredth the population size of Sydney ... that doesn’t even have one-thousandth the power requirement?

Shadow, I appreciate where you are coming from but, you really do have to consider economies of scale - realities if you prefer.

Shadow Minister

"This might work for a small island resort of a few hundred people, but certainly not an island state of a hundred thousand or so."

I thought that this was the type of community Sir Vivor was referring to.

"The cost of diesel generation is enormous."

You are looking at a bit under 4 kwh per litre for the larger diesel generators (100kw or greater). But remember, we are considering the future, not the present. My speculation is that the technology to convert dry biomass to liquid fuel will develop over that time. With large amounts of feedstock available, these communities may be able to produce liquid fuel cheaply, so making diesel power generation cost effective compared to other power sources.

qanda,
No I am not a Vanuatuan, I'm Australian, and I know bugger-all about Vanuatu, so thank you for the thoughtful discussion of Vanuatu and its energy requirements.

Vanuatu was one of the two dozen states I mentioned (niggly point - French Polynesia is part of France)and it seems that some folks think nuclear electricity is inappropriate for this location.

There are 23 other pacific countries mentioned, and I am still wondering what they will do with the radwaste, even if it shrinks to 1/10 the volume, through consumption by a Gen IV reactor.

Shadow Minister, can you tell us about the delivery-boy mechanics of reprocessing and reusing radwastes in your chosen sample of the two dozen states? Also, are you going to be able to reprocess and reuse the Gen IV reactors when they reach the end of their useful lives, or will they not be radioactive by then?

Shadow minister, I am assuming that, as "an electrical engineer that has designed and built large power systems", you are interested in economies of scale, and would apply this design principle across the geographic area where radwaste is to be generated, regardless of how piffling the volumes are predicted to be, because after all, it is radioactive waste subject to international regulations.

So, Shadow Minister, are you interested in the problem, or are you happy to leave this unsolved difficulty
to the whimsy of imagination - eg

Honey, I shrunk the reactor!

(That's OK dear, we can use it to heat the bathtowels)