Reply #10: Fairly good summary but a few problems are present.

[kristopher]

The turbines in use today are delivering an extremely high availability factor - far higher than any source other than solar. The availability factor is how much of the time the unit is offline due to unexpected mechanical failures. Gearless design may be the wave of the future, but there are a lot of factors that are going to go into the selection and, as I've shown, the down time factor you've based your conclusion on is nowhere near as significant as you have concluded.

Second is the fact that you continue to promote new nuclear - a position that simply cannot be supported on economic, environmental or social grounds. Channeling money to nuclear power has a distinct negative impact on deployment of renewables while slowing down or stopping policies oriented toward the most cost effective and rapid action we can take to address our energy problems - the promotion of enhanced energy efficiency. So, in point of fact, IF your goal is the most rapid, cost effective and sustainable solution to our energy problems, it is counterproductive to include new nuclear in the mix.

Finally, Germany is not ending their feed-in tariff program for solar, they are merely adjusting the payout downward 17% to reflect declining real costs of solar. After all, the entire point of the program is to develop the market in order to lower cost. They are expecting further cuts in 2012.

ETA Here is one reference for the FIT policy in Germany.
http://www.pv-tech.org/editors_blog/_a/german_feed-in_tariff_cut_will_be_16-17_-_confirmed/