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UK's Newest Tokamak Fusion Reactor Has Created Its First Plasma (futurism.com)
After being switched on for the first time last Friday, the UK's newest fusion reactor has successfully generated a molten mass of electrically-charged gas, or plasma, inside its core. Futurism reports: Called the ST40, the reactor was constructed by Tokamak Energy, one of the leading private fusion energy companies in the world. The company was founded in 2009 with the express purpose of designing and developing small fusion reactors to introduce fusion power into the grid by 2030. Now that the ST40 is running, the company will commission and install the complete set of magnetic coils needed to reach fusion temperatures. The ST40 should be creating a plasma temperature as hot as the center of the Sun -- 15 million degrees Celsius (27 million degrees Fahrenheit) -- by Autumn 2017. By 2018, the ST40 will produce plasma temperatures of 100 million degrees Celsius (180 million degrees Fahrenheit), another record-breaker for a privately owned and funded fusion reactor. That temperature threshold is important, as it is the minimum temperature for inducing the controlled fusion reaction. Assuming the ST40 succeeds, it will prove that its novel design can produce commercially viable fusion power.
FWIW they don't plan on breaking net zero energy with this model. Their current plam is their *next* model to break even energy by 2020...
Still waiting for solar to pass its commercial viability test and I suspect wind power is a similar story. So far it only succeeds here in the UK because of government subsidies. If I pay for and install my own 5kWh solar system the returns over 20 years don't cover the cost of the initial installation, let alone a replacement inverter after 10 years or any other maintenance.
I only please one person per day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow isn't looking good either. - Scott Adams
Both already have a ROI in less than a decade and are profitable almost immediately, having zero fuel cost.
You're waiting because you refuse to stop waiting and complaining.
ALL power "only succeeds" here in the UK because of government subsidies. If you pay for or install your own coal fired power station it will never pay back. Don't even try nuke.
The U.S. isn't any better
A few numbers
http://news.energysage.com/how...
In 2017, most homeowners are paying between $2.87 and $3.85 per watt to install solar, and the average gross cost of solar panels before tax credits is $16,800. Using the U.S, average for system size at 5 kW (5000 watts), solar panel cost will range from $10,045 to $13,475 (after tax credits).
Last I looked a Dollar a watt was breakeven with net metering in place and no incentives.
The cost is no longer the panels; it's the installation. Panels are dirt cheap in bulk.
When talking about solar prices, it's important to make a distinction between home installs and grid-scale installs. The latter in the US is now averaging around $1,50 per kW, and some installs are coming in around $1 per kW. Which is crazy-cheap, even taking into account the capacity factor.
"He's a liar whose lawyer is lying about his lying lawyer's lies."
Wind turbines reached grid parity in some areas of Europe in the mid-2000s, and in the US around the same time. Falling prices continue to drive the levelized cost down and it has been suggested that it has reached general grid parity in Europe in 2010, and will reach the same point in the US around 2016 due to an expected reduction in capital costs of about 12%.[25] Nevertheless, a significant amount of the wind power resource in North America remains above grid parity due to the long transmission distances involved.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grid_parity#Wind_power
If it acquires resources on instantiation like a duck, then its a shared_ptr<Duck>
Science Journalists are often journalists that write about science. TV producers even more so. So they write what they understand. At least this talks a bit about the science and not just about the scientists -- human interest, journos understand that.
Actually there is such a thing as a nuclear battery.
Essentially it's a chunk of pure plutonium which generate power as the element decays.
It's useful for low power operations over a VERY extended period (like space probes).
Elsewhere, it's not so useful.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
Are you sure it's $1/kW, not $1/W?
It's $/W. Interestingly, though, it's under 2 now and almost to 1, and when I started looking seriously at buying panels ten years ago it was over 4.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
It's cheaper or at least competitive here in Australia to go off grid with your own solar install comparative to a new grid connection - especially if you live in rural and semi-rural areas. Utilities charge exorbitant prices to maintain the grid connection because they upgraded the networks anticipating another 40 years of coal, only to have coal fade from the scene and the new grid underutilized (costing them money, which is passed on to consumers). You'd be a moron to connect to the grid these days, unless you are in the suburbs.
Nowhere is Europe is wind producing 50% of the annual power on the grid. Not even close. Wind power cannot exist on the grid today without conventional sources to back up its intermittency.
Denmark, 49.2% of supply in 2015 (no figures for 2016 on wikipedia) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Curiously the winds are a lot stronger in the winter, so thats when they have a lot of excess power to export.
Cruachan can run for over 20 hours at peak
Dinorwig can run for 6 hours
Ffestiniog can run for four hours
No one suggested they can meet the UK electric consumption alone, but the idea that any of these stations is only good for minutes of generation is demonstrably false.
> You're missing the point.
I responded directly to your point. Don't blame me if you choose to redefine the terms "night" and "lots". And for that matter "cold", which no one in the UK should dare to define to someone who lives in Toronto!
In any event, its besides the issue anyway. As one can see on the National Grid's website:
http://www2.nationalgrid.com/uk/Industry-information/Electricity-transmission-operational-data/Data-Explorer/
There is plenty of demand during the day that PV can take. Every watt that comes from that is one that didn't come from something else, which is generally a good thing. Sure, if you keep moving the goalposts and coming up with new reasons why "it will never work" you could probably keep us going forever. But if you want to solve actual problems, PV is certainly part of that solution, as those very same CSV files demonstrate (they even have a separate column for it). Also surprising is the amount of pumped storage.
> Britain is a country with a huge number of poorly insulated homes.
I lived in Ireland for a year. One night I was getting cold on a windy night and noticed the drapes on the main window in the living room were blowing around. Ah ha, I just need to close the window!
The window was closed.