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One of the biggest advantages renewable energy has over both nuclear and mega-dams is that the size of project required to achieve the commonly quoted LCOE (lev
by eigenvector 7y ago
One of the biggest advantages renewable energy has over both nuclear and mega-dams is that the size of project required to achieve the commonly quoted LCOE (levelized cost of energy) is much, much smaller. 50 MW or perhaps less per site, versus 1000+ MW.
This means:
1. no mega projects that attract similarly sized public opposition
2. 1-2 year construction timelines instead of 10+
3. much, much less financial and regulatory risk
4. if an individual project goes off the rails because of bad management, it just gets cancelled instead of being pushed forward with endless public dollars because of sunk cost fallacies
The private sector is well able to stomach the risk level of wind and solar and finance and build it on their own, whereas nuclear and mega hydro essentially require government financial backing, which again contributes to the agency problem.
We know we can build 1,000s of MW of wind and solar per year in a safe and cost-effective way because we're already doing that. Every single nuclear or dam project in North America right now is a delayed, over-budget financial and project management boondoggle.
- danmaz74 7y agoDams produce renewable energy.
- DoreenMichele 7y agoThere are a lot of problems with large scale dams. They interfere with fish migration. For some species, this means disrupting their reproductive cycle. They gradually accumulate sediment, so their reservoir slowly fills up and turns into land. This is one of the issues with the Aswan Dam, which is projected to have a much shorter lifespan than was initially projected due to high sediment accumulation. The Aswan met all of its goals, but it's a disaster. The sediment rapidly accumulating behind the dam used to provide free fertilizer for farmers. Use of commercial fertilizer skyrocketed. It's also the cause of a serious health crisis. Schistosomiasis cases have also skyrocketed. The annual floods used to keep snail populations in check. The snails are the vector for this gruesome parasitic infection.
- pgeorgi 7y agoThe problem is the "mega project" part of it, not the means of production. Unlike coal or nuclear, renewables are easily scaled down without creating a huge risk: for coal, you want to go large for efficiency reasons and to ensure that the right set of filters are installed and maintained. For nuclear, there were ideas of building a nuclear power plant in every basement, but given how the power plants we have look like military bases, that seems rather unfeasible. Once you go big, you have the issues mentioned elsewhere in the thread (sunk cost fallacy, NIMBY, ...) but also corruption and that these big sites become single points of failure. Dams are in the same space: NIMBY, once started you can't stop, large scale construction (which is rife with corruption). Create financially reasonable basement/rooftop level nuclear or coal systems that can be safely installed by any random electrician and operated by the home owner and the entire discussion may shift.
- ftr45 7y ago>Unlike coal or nuclear, renewables are easily scaled down beacuse they stop working
- ftr45 7y agoso the only problems with solar are only caused by idiots who oppose it and regulations