They're great technologies and we should be building them out. Unfortunately, they struggle with intermittency. Renewables like wind and solar would best complement base load, always-on, capacity of a nuclear generating stations.

[–] reddig33@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I’m honestly surprised the UK hasn’t invested in wave power. Plenty of crashing waves all around it. Can’t cost that much to build. I remember seeing some pilot projects with vertical turbines installed at the base of shoreside cliffs.

[–] lntl@lemmy.ml 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There's been a lot of research into this area because many people, yourself included, can see there's energy to be had. From what I remember from classes on it, the issues with capturing power from waves has most to do with ecosystem damage and scalability. Not to mention, they're build on waterways which are already being used for things like fishing and shipping.

[–] BastingChemina@slrpnk.net 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I've helped people who where working on a project of wave power.

It seemed like the biggest challenges are corrosion from sea water and the marine fouling. As soon as you put something in the sea water it will be covered by algae and organisms.

These issues make collecting energy from the sea extremely challenging.

[–] lntl@lemmy.ml 0 points 1 year ago

Thanks for chiming in with your expertise

[–] jabjoe@feddit.uk 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

But with lots of solar and wind we can store the extra to smooth over dips. We can also import/export power (as now) as it's not going to cloud and windless everywhere. Southern Europe could be big solar exporters and we can be big wind (and wave) exporters.

[–] lntl@lemmy.ml 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Then do it. Fight for it. I have trouble seeing a 100% renewable solution at the moment but that doesn't mean it can't be. Don't back down when people dont want generation in thier backyard or when you're "pretty close" to 100%. We must decarbonize energy.

I believe nuclear is a way to do that and advocate for it by writing letters to my governor and lawmakers to remove the moratorium on building new nuclear facilies in the state I live: Illinois. However complete decarbonization is done, doesn't really matter. My experience and formal training on the subject matter influences me to believe in nuclear and your a person with an equally valid opinion. Fight for what you believe.

[–] jabjoe@feddit.uk 1 points 1 year ago

I'm not anti-nuclear, it's just more expensive than wind/solar/wave/hydro + storage (and hydro can be storage). Give it a few decades and V2X is going to be common and with have a large amount distributed battery. You can make money today doing V2G with a Leaf. I'm just not sure we'll need much nuclear. I'm only against nuclear in geologically unstable places. Maybe politically unstable places...... which you never know were will destablize. Lots of crazy popularlism since 2008 crash.