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Agreed. I think one way of looking at it is that building factories does not scale in the same way as building plants. You can build a plant that produces 1GW
by baking 7y ago
Agreed. I think one way of looking at it is that building factories does not scale in the same way as building plants. You can build a plant that produces 1GW base and it can start generating when you turn it on. An equivalent factory making 250MWp of solar PV cells will take 20 years of production to build up to an equivalent installed base (when it can start producing cells to replace retired 20 year-old cells.)
If you try to scale up factories for faster growth you will have to start shutting them down when you hit an oversupply after 5-10 years and then where will your replacement cells come from?
- pfdietz 7y agoI think it's just a speed bump due to running into limits on new capacity. In the US, for example, demand for electrical energy is nearly flat. Once the price of renewables falls enough the existing plant (much of which is only there because the capital cost is sunk) will start being replaced before its EoL. BTW, the argument being made here against renewables would apply equally well against nuclear. Hail Mary Reactors will also require scaling up of factories to make them.
- baking 7y agoTrue, but maybe with slightly better margins. ;)