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>Everyone comes to Hacker News comment threads like this to expound that nuclear is the way, while solar and wind continue their march towards domination. Exce

by tsotha 11y ago

>Everyone comes to Hacker News comment threads like this to expound that nuclear is the way, while solar and wind continue their march towards domination. Except it's not really true. You get solar and wind power when you get it, not when you want it, so it's far less valuable. Once you add storage costs it's more expensive than nuclear.

toomuchtodo 11y ago
> Once you add storage costs it's more expensive than nuclear. With utility scale battery storage, yes, renewables are slightly more expensive than nuclear. Natural gas will carry the day until battery prices are driven down, which I expect to occur quickly considering Tesla's Gigafactory production is already sold out for its first ~2 years. "The Kauai Island Utility Cooperative (KIUC) has signed a deal with SolarCity to purchase power from what the companies claim is the first fully-dispatchable utility-scale solar facility in the U.S., according to a press release. The dispatchable solar plant has a 52 MWh battery system that will store energy generated during the day and allow it to feed up to 13 MW of electricity back onto the grid during the evening peak. Under the 20-year power contract, KIUC will pay SolarCity 14.5 cents/kWh, less than the cost of conventional generation in Hawaii, and slightly more than the cost of power from the co-op's other exisiting solar farms. KIUC CEO David Bissell said his co-op had been assessing storage options for the past two years and price has "always been the biggest challenge." He called the SolarCity project a "breakthrough ... on technology and price" that has finally made utility-scale storage cost-effective for KIUC." http://www.utilitydive.com/news/hawaii-co-op-solarcity-ink-deal-for-dispatchable-power-from-solar-storage/405408/ http://www.utilitydive.com/news/hawaii-co-op-solarcity-ink-d...

by tsotha 11y ago

toomuchtodo 11y ago

> Once you add storage costs it's more expensive than nuclear. With utility scale battery storage, yes, renewables are slightly more expensive than nuclear. Natural gas will carry the day until battery prices are driven down, which I expect to occur quickly considering Tesla's Gigafactory production is already sold out for its first ~2 years. "The Kauai Island Utility Cooperative (KIUC) has signed a deal with SolarCity to purchase power from what the companies claim is the first fully-dispatchable utility-scale solar facility in the U.S., according to a press release. The dispatchable solar plant has a 52 MWh battery system that will store energy generated during the day and allow it to feed up to 13 MW of electricity back onto the grid during the evening peak. Under the 20-year power contract, KIUC will pay SolarCity 14.5 cents/kWh, less than the cost of conventional generation in Hawaii, and slightly more than the cost of power from the co-op's other exisiting solar farms. KIUC CEO David Bissell said his co-op had been assessing storage options for the past two years and price has "always been the biggest challenge." He called the SolarCity project a "breakthrough ... on technology and price" that has finally made utility-scale storage cost-effective for KIUC." http://www.utilitydive.com/news/hawaii-co-op-solarcity-ink-deal-for-dispatchable-power-from-solar-storage/405408/ http://www.utilitydive.com/news/hawaii-co-op-solarcity-ink-d...