Solar panel the country?

Solar panel the country?

Author
Discussion

ReallyReallyGood

Original Poster:

1,622 posts

131 months

Monday 15th August 2016
quotequote all
The amounts of money touted regarding building the new Hinckley Point reactor sound insane to me.

Wouldn't it be possible to use that money instead to put solar panels on all the residential (who agree to it) and office buildings? Would the electricity harvested be enough to delay the need for such a reactor? Obviously there are limitations with Solar, but if you then consider how much more cash people would have in their pockets vs the tariff they are talking about for Hinckley, is this really a crazy idea!?

ReallyReallyGood

Original Poster:

1,622 posts

131 months

Monday 15th August 2016
quotequote all
Dr Jekyll said:
Back of an envelope calculation here.

Average domestic solar installation averages about 0.5 kw (varying between zero and 5KW according to light levels) and costs around £6000. So around £12 per watt.

Hinckley C is expected to cost around £18 billion and produce 3,200,000 KW on demand> So around £6 per watt.
Interestingly, this article talks about £37Bn rather than £18Bn ( https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jul/07/hi... ). I have no idea regards anyones agenda in that article, but if that were so, it'd be about equal £/watt!

ReallyReallyGood

Original Poster:

1,622 posts

131 months

Monday 15th August 2016
quotequote all
paulrockliffe said:
Even if they cost the same, one produces it's power on demand, the other is highly variable and produces nothing at night.
Yes but I'm not talking about making the UK Solar-only, just as a replacement for Hinckley C. Burn more coal/gas at night!

Edited by ReallyReallyGood on Monday 15th August 13:13