"Green" policies are destroying this country

The Betz limit is like Carnot efficiency. Except wind is free and as you say you can simply extract more energy from a bigger volume of air by using longer blades on the same generator.

The efficiencies in wind would be mainly economic efficiencies. Economies of scale and lessons learnt.

You won't save much copper in the windings inside the generator, but running transformers at a higher frequency makes them smaller, using higher voltages means you can use less metal in the cables, aluminium can be used for cabling too etc. Reusable materials in the blades reduces decommissioning costs, coatings and edge shapes can reduce vortexes and extend lifetimes. Installation tasks that used to take days now take hours. I like idea of floating turbines built like the Flip Ship , tow them out flat , fill one end with water and it flips up to vertical.

Rare earths aren't rare. And better separation techniques are being developed that will reduce waste and costs.

Nuclear can't follow demand profiles either. Absolutely dependent on dispatchable generators to meet peak demand and cover extended outages.

And renewables on this island are already delivering electricity %'s above the nuclear % for most other countries, and we have hardly any offshore wind or solar.

For the 12 month period January 2020 to December 2020, 49.2% of total electricity consumption in Northern Ireland was generated from renewable sources located in Northern Ireland. And For the 12 month period October 2021 to September 2022, 49.3% Only France got significantly above that from Nuclear. When they get offshore wind and solar and north-south upgrades that % will only increase and it's already above nuclear power's % in most countries so nuclear isn't doing any better despite having a huge head start.

Hydrogen production accounts for ~ 3% of global final energy demand, about the same % as nuclear power. 4% of today's hydrogen comes from hydrolysis so it's at grid scale already.

Town gas was roughly 50:50 carbon monoxide and hydrogen and was in use in all major cities for a century. Dominating the Dublin skyline since 1934, the gasometer was once the tallest building in the city. - Video As Gaeilge you can see others on the site. Another site in Dublin now apartments Of course disused gas wells take up less room and have proven to be gas tight for geological times. And are dirt cheap.

Which specific aspect of using hydrogen on a grid scale are you having difficulty with ?

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Wind is providing about half our minimum demand today.

And renewables are providing a smidgen over 49% of electricity in Northern Ireland annually.

Re your claim that "these reactors are often over 50 years old"

50 years ago was 1973, France wasn't getting much nuclear power just 2.8GW

The world’s oldest turbine is Tvindkraft in Denmark, which has been in operation since 1978 so it's outlasted the oldest French plant Fessenheim which shut down 2 years ago at the age of 43.

Out of 422 reactors worldwide only 12 are over 50 years old (2.8%). And exactly none of those are in France.

Nuclear power plants getting to that age are rare and likely to be shut down for extended times or forever. France proved that. The UK's AGR while a different technology are another example of life extensions that didn't work. I CBA looking up the US's history there, but cheap gas killed off plants with high refurb and maintenance costs.

Globally are ZERO nuclear power reactors that have been producing power for 60 years, the oft-claimed life for them.

If we were getting a quarter of installed capacity from wind then we'd get full power from having 4x installed capacity ? Or we could import power if the price was right or we could use storage in future. And besides having gas running at full power for a few weeks a year is well within our emissions targets. Nuclear can't arrive in time to help with emissions.

In all of Western Europe there's only ONE new nuclear power plant due to be completed before 2030 and it's 10 years late and they've extended to completion clause to beyond 2030 and taken on an additional 14 years of financing. (technically I should say 2 because the Finish plant was finished but it's already failed and will be offline for months)

I hate to have to remind you, but the blades which are the main replaceable items cost just 5% of the overall cost. And you can get 40 year life turbines now. And repowering turbines with the latest tech can improve capacity factor and total output.