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Before California pats itself on the back too much here -- people should realize that the switch to natural gas has largely been driven by fracking, which has m
by nostromo 11y ago
Before California pats itself on the back too much here -- people should realize that the switch to natural gas has largely been driven by fracking, which has made natural gas more cost competitive.
- toomuchtodo 11y agoNo worries there. By the time coal is deprecated, the price of natural gas will spike, causing renewables to be deployed more quickly with utility scale battery storage. Lot of fossil fuel generation out there that's going to be left as stranded assets.
- actionwords 11y ago'renewables' made of rare earth minerals. Which are more toxic to the environment to mine, refine, and manufacture than traditional energy sources.
- intrasight 11y agoThe fuel itself (reserves in the ground) is the largest component of that "stranded asset", right?
- toomuchtodo 11y agoFor the exploration company? Yes. For utilities or independent generators, the generation asset itself is the largest component. I'm unaware of anyone vertically integrated, where they own the wells, the pipelines, and the generation facility (in the US).
- mason240 11y agoAlso, before California pats itself on the back too much here, they have been blocking nuclear and hydro for decades, both of which would have reduced their use coal.
- dmode 11y agoResistance against hydro, I still understand. I don't get why putting Nuclear energy in the middle of Mojave desert is problematic. Surely, there must be ways to work around the environmental impact as many developed nations produce nuclear energy
- vmarsy 11y agoDon't most nuclear power plants require a water source around for cooling purposes? Finding such a source in the middle of a desert might be a reason people don't build it there.
- revelation 11y agoThere is the Israeli nuclear research plant in the Negev desert, but presumably that doesn't require the kind of continuous cooling you need for a normal nuclear power plant. France has been known to throttle it's nuclear power generation (they have tons) in the summer because the water in the nearby lakes that they use for cooling gets too hot.
- yongjik 11y agoI think most commercial nuclear reactors require craptons of cooling water because they aren't that efficient in fact. (When you use water to regulate fission, the temperature can't get much higher than ~100C.) So, putting them in the middle of a desert might be problematic. I wonder if there's any current commercial ones that are more efficient? Theoretically we can greatly improve efficiency by using high-temperature designs, but good luck building an unproven new design of reactor these days...
- dredmorbius 11y agoJust how much undeveloped hydro potential do you figure for California? The state's not water-rich to start with. Dams have significant impacts, and virtually all major waterways are already heavily managed. Nuclear faces safety, fuel, and disposal challenges. The latter for the nex million years. Fuel availability is ~80 years at present usage, 6 if the world relied solely on uranium-based fission. Systemic risks of nuclear are distinctly non-negligible, and are not technologically addressable: they concern management, organisation, politics, war, economic stability, and far more. Solar and wind fare far better on all counts.