3 ms·
Why not both ? With cogeneration you raise the efficiency from only electric generation from 40% to 80% with heat, but in summer you can still generate electric
by hokkos 7y ago
Why not both ?
With cogeneration you raise the efficiency from only electric generation from 40% to 80% with heat, but in summer you can still generate electricity only.
And SMR are better positioned than classic reactor because the smaller size and inherent passive security from surface to volume problem (heat raise with volume in power of 3 and cooling only with surface in power of 2) make them easier to build them near populated cities.
- radicalbyte 7y agoI should have been more nuanced: we shouldn't be building out the current design of fission power in order to decarbonize our electricity production. The biggest reason is that it just takes far too long to build: we're talking 15-20 years. Wind and solar can scale far more quickly than that. Closing existing nuclear power plants like they're doing in Germany is absolute lunacy. For heat that timeline is acceptable given that it can be "decarbonized" by switching to burning biomass to cover the transition. If we could build safe nuclear electric plants within a reasonable timeframe and cost then we should absolutely do it (this would make so much sense in huge countries like the US or China because you can have the reactors located well away from large populations).