it would be nice to have a wind farm out of sight, just over the horizon from the shore.

They'd have to be really far out, especially if they're trying the size of wind turbine Meridian have in mind for the Rock and Pillars. At 150m tall, that's quite something.…

it would be nice to have a wind farm out of sight, just over the horizon from the shore

Interesting that you assume that a wind farm out of sight would not have any problems with the RMA or other pieces of legislation. There would be issues over rights to…

...the number of potential sites, for offshore wind farms, is actually quite limited...

that's a shame. with all the RMA palaver over the makara wind farm, it would be nice to have a wind farm out of sight, just over the horizon from the shore. NIMBY etc

The other major reason is related to the geomorphology of our continental shelf which tends to be steeply sloping and narrow as a consequence of which the water gets very deep very
quickly. This means that the number of potential sites, for offshore wind farms, is actually quite limited…

if you had wind turbines out in the sea, you could use the turbine base as the monolith

Am I right in thinking that NZ's coastline doesn't really lend itself to offshore windfarms? I'm trying to remember where I read that...

So cool!

RE: "as long as you've got a decent head"

Passing up the chance for a wisecrack... what does that mean?

Very noble to pass up that opportunity, Andrew...

'Head' just means "the pressure that results from a given height of water". In this case it refers to…

(as long as you've got a decent head)

Passing up the chance for a wisecrack... what does that mean?

I haven't been following the issue beyond feeling annoyed that electricity prices are rising fast and regularly. Good to hear that it's all under control then.

I wouldn't exactly describe it as under control. But we've certainly got the potential to have a very rosy energy future.…

Ta.

Direct use of wind for pumping…

Oh well, we're pretty stuffed then. Better learn how to become the world's most energy-miserly nation by a massive margin.

Dude, we're the luckiest country in the world in terms of renewable energy: hydro, wind, wave, solar, tidal, geothermal, biomass, etc. we have all in abundance. There's…

As a strictly non-serious end-of-the-day question, where does Mexico stand on this issue? Surely…

But anyway, the above conditions don't apply to every country that has nuclear power plants

No, but they are the sort of thing you think about before spending a couple of billion setting up an industry in NZ.

Related tangent: what's the longest you can run an underseas power cable?

…

I'm pretty sure nothing will be done on time though, so all the talk about new power generation is academic (not a dig at David that).

Related tangent: what's the…

They have uranium, we don't
They have places to store the waste, we don't
They use lignite to provide baseload, we don't
They have larger power demands suited to current nuclear plant, we don't

I must confess I'm not seeing…

And I'm being accused of stirring...

Fair dinkum nookolea paua

clean and green nookolea powa

Shouldn't that be nookolea paua?

Ahhh no, not an accountant, actually I'm an energy engineer...

Oops... A thousand apologies for that, Andrew.

Why do we have to align ourselves with Australia?

For the same reason, obviously, that Finland has always been so keen to align herself with Russia...

Why do we have to align ourselves with Australia?

We have to align ourselves with Australia!

Do you work as an accountant for an electricity company, by the way — this is exactly the sort of conversations I used to have with them when I was an energy engineer!

Ahhh no, not an accountant, actually I'm an energy engineer...

Juha – stop stirring!

I hope this doesn't mean clean and green nookolea powa isn't out of the question, incidentally.

Which is easier said then done...

Sure... if it was easy to do then it would have been done years ago...

Andrew Stevenson wrote:

It doesn't matter how wonderful a widget is, its got to prove itself for 10 to 20 years before serious money gets invested…

Much as you would hope for this kind of behaviour, it is more likley protesting will be done from the arm chairs

What happens if one of the large arrays break up?

Stuff gets washed up on the beach or floats around being a danger to shipping.
The investors lose money and future consenting gets more difficult – meaning expensive and risky – so the whole industry is delayed.

What happens if one of the large arrays break up?

So, yes, if you can build a cost-efficient and reliable wave energy device then it is definitely worth it.

Which is easier said then done. There are a number of broken marine energy devices around the world that just could not stand up to the rigors of the environment.
As…

... is the 100kW figure correct? That's the output of an average car engine if it's right. Expected a bit more.

Yes, that's for the first commercial-scale device that they're working on. They expect to be able to increase this to around 1 MW for later devices.…

Put on swimwear when you go to the beach. Please?

Interesting transcript – my immediate questions are... is the 100kW figure correct? That's the output of an average car engine if it's right. Expected a bit more.

Second, these seem like fairly…