I guess it's the same type of lifespan as any type of plant then. Given enough money, any of them could be kept running indefinitely. It all comes down to how much money the owners want to pour into them. The spent fuel storage has always been a concern though. Maybe in the future it will become economical enough to reprocess it that long term storage will become a moot point. Let's hope so anyway.
On wind and solar. We don't have any solar power generation here at all. We do have a wind farm of about 100 MW or so. Our power traders and system control center do not even consider that 100 MW, because it is so unreliable. It is a very rare occasion when more than half the turbines are available for service and wind is obviously never a constant, so it cannot be relied upon. That would change if there were a feasable method of storing electricity on a large scale. The wind turbines are extremely high maintenance, and that costs a lot. They more or less look at anything they can get from the wind farm as being a bonus. If it were not very heavily subsidized by the gov't to keep the eco-freaks appeased, it would not even be economical enough to run. As it is, the cost per MW is over 3 times what hydro is, and we have LOTS of undeveloped hydro. We actually converted our coal plants to run on natural gas, at enormous expense, partly again to appease the green people, but moreso because the power utility also owns the gas company. Still, they cost so much to run on gas that they are now shut down and only used in times of dire emergency. Make sense? In a frigid climate where the vast majority heat homes with natural gas, we burn it to produce electricity? When water is already flowing and there is little other use for coal.
Solar power makes great sense maybe in a desert where there are vast tracts of land totally useless for anything else. Definitely makes no sense in the north where we have such a short growing season and so little arable farm land that we have a tough time feeding ourselves.
On wind and solar. We don't have any solar power generation here at all. We do have a wind farm of about 100 MW or so. Our power traders and system control center do not even consider that 100 MW, because it is so unreliable. It is a very rare occasion when more than half the turbines are available for service and wind is obviously never a constant, so it cannot be relied upon. That would change if there were a feasable method of storing electricity on a large scale. The wind turbines are extremely high maintenance, and that costs a lot. They more or less look at anything they can get from the wind farm as being a bonus. If it were not very heavily subsidized by the gov't to keep the eco-freaks appeased, it would not even be economical enough to run. As it is, the cost per MW is over 3 times what hydro is, and we have LOTS of undeveloped hydro. We actually converted our coal plants to run on natural gas, at enormous expense, partly again to appease the green people, but moreso because the power utility also owns the gas company. Still, they cost so much to run on gas that they are now shut down and only used in times of dire emergency. Make sense? In a frigid climate where the vast majority heat homes with natural gas, we burn it to produce electricity? When water is already flowing and there is little other use for coal.
Solar power makes great sense maybe in a desert where there are vast tracts of land totally useless for anything else. Definitely makes no sense in the north where we have such a short growing season and so little arable farm land that we have a tough time feeding ourselves.
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