Week 12 - The cost and security of electricity supply
What mix of generation technologies can provide secure electricity to South Australians at an acceptable cost?
What mix of generation technologies can provide secure electricity to South Australians at an acceptable cost?
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I would think it would be based in future on a mix of:
a. Nuclear – from compact fusion reactors – the short development lead time, the low capital cost, the modular nature of these plants, and the possibility of a centralised repository for a hub might make South Australia a leader in this type of power generation. I’d be looking for a cooperation agreement with Lockheed Martin on that technology, see http://www.lockheedmartin.com/us/products/compact-fusion.html
Meanwhile I suspect we are looking at exciting developments with solar PV infused in house cladding. In the meantime, South Australia has a large coal resource with associated iron ore, magnesite resources, so it wouldn’t hurt to develop further coal capacity for domestic generation, with scope for coal export in future. It should give people a lot of comfort that the trend is towards nuclear & solar. People just need to stop behaving like children, and wait for cost competitive technologies to develop. Those opportunities raised above are ‘game changing’. Anything else is just conventional ideas being advanced to serve entrenched interests.