Battery Electricity Storage being built in Scotland

[Spectric]

composites do not "rust"

What about the problem of osmosis that boats with composite hulls can suffer from, if land based blades only have a finite life then in the harsher conditions this lifespan can be reduced. Then we have gearbox issues,

https://www.htlgroup.com/general/why-do-turbine-gearboxes-fail/

Now maybe these could be solved if they used a fluid coupling but who knows, changing a gearbox offshore is more involved but the cost is around £500K.

Now battery storage would resolve many current problems when we have no wind but could we ever reach the point where you could run most of the uk from just batteries for say a few days until the wind picked up, we are talking of Giga watts per hour !

What we really need to do is build only energy efficient homes that require very little energy to keep warm with more than just 230 volt circuits. All the lighting could be low voltage and run directly from a low voltage circuit which would easily be achieved with solar tiles on the roof and a local battery backup, now think of the reduction in demand if a large percentage of homes did not use the grid for lighting.

 

[Hypnotic Chimera]

What about the problem of osmosis that boats with composite hulls can suffer from, if land based blades only have a finite life then in the harsher conditions this lifespan can be reduced. Then we have gearbox issues,

https://www.htlgroup.com/general/why-do-turbine-gearboxes-fail/

Now maybe these could be solved if they used a fluid coupling but who knows, changing a gearbox offshore is more involved but the cost is around £500K.

Now battery storage would resolve many current problems when we have no wind but could we ever reach the point where you could run most of the uk from just batteries for say a few days until the wind picked up, we are talking of Giga watts per hour !

What we really need to do is build only energy efficient homes that require very little energy to keep warm with more than just 230 volt circuits. All the lighting could be low voltage and run directly from a low voltage circuit which would easily be achieved with solar tiles on the roof and a local battery backup, now think of the reduction in demand if a large percentage of homes did not use the grid for lighting.

I don't disagree for one moment about the specific engineering challenges of any of this technology. But where specific challenges exist (sea-water and salty air) the most appropriate and relevant engineering solutions will be deployed.

It's a case of not allowing perfection to be the enemy of the good.

 

[Spectric]

It's a case of not allowing perfection to be the enemy of the good.

The issue we face in so many departments is that the end goal always seems to be about making money, the core infrastructure like energy and transportation should be seen as the framework of an economy and there to support it whilst not making huge profits, think of it almost as being a loss leader. Is it more important to get many people to a place of work easily to make money for a business to in turn grow the economy or to hit them with high cost and an unreliable service that makes a profit at the detriment of many other businesses.

 

[Hypnotic Chimera]

The issue we face in so many departments is that the end goal always seems to be about making money, the core infrastructure like energy and transportation should be seen as the framework of an economy and there to support it whilst not making huge profits, think of it almost as being a loss leader. Is it more important to get many people to a place of work easily to make money for a business to in turn grow the economy or to hit them with high cost and an unreliable service that makes a profit at the detriment of many other businesses.

I utterly and absolutely agree with you. Electricity ought to be Nationalised and Not for Profit. So too should Public Transport.

Absolutely everywhere I turn I see the ghoul of "profit" turning things sour.
I first became more aware in this "profit" thing over 10 years ago when there was a run of "bad news" stories about the economy. Apparently it was a really bad sign that Tesco's "profits" had fallen in one quarter, by a small percentage. There was much doom and gloom about this - what really struck my interest was that Tesco had still generated over £800million (or some such ludicrous figure), in profit. In one quarter alone. This is pure profit, after all expenditure including wages and servicing their indebtedness.
I guess my question is why is it so very important to constantly increase one's profit, when it is so very very high anyway? It's astonishing. Anyway - I have to say that profit going down in a quarter to £800 million - my heart bled.

The really, really galling thing is that there is so much pressure from the supermarkets (because big business profit is the be all and end all) that farmers cannot set fair prices on the food that they produce and have suffered huge depression of their ability to operate. It is this ghoul of big-business profit at the expense of smaller business that needs to be rebalanced.