3 ms·
To qualify your statement I'll claim that nuclear is the only low-carbon energy source we know that can run 24/7 in a wide variety of locations. Hydro can run a
by acidburnNSA 7y ago
To qualify your statement I'll claim that nuclear is the only low-carbon energy source we know that can run 24/7 in a wide variety of locations. Hydro can run all night too, but is geographically limited.
This matters because filling in gaps of intermittency requires the production and maintenance of "nonproductive" equipment (like batteries) which takes energy to make, install, maintain, recycle at a scale that may challenge the energy return on investment in many renewable situations.
- TheCoreh 7y agoOn the scale of a large solar power plant, pumped water storage has superior durability and much easier maintainability than batteries. Besides, the water that's pumped up hill can actually be "productive", e.g. suppling water to a city or to farms
- acidburnNSA 7y agoYes, but pumped storage requires a certain geography, takes up vast amounts of land, and may cause serious biogenic methane emissions. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5023102/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5023102/
- oceanplexian 7y agoHydro also destroys ecosystems since it requires damming rivers and creating a reservoir. It's also quite risky, since when poorly maintained a structural collapse can kill thousands of people downstream. This has happened in China and California came really close to creating a man-made disaster only a few years ago.
- djrogers 7y agoHydro also creates ecosystems, and is capable of supporting existing ones - see California, millions of feet of water were used from reservoirs to ensure sturgeon spawning grounds weren’t dry during a drought.