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> You can NOT replace nuclear with wind and solar. Because you can't choose when the sun shines and when the wind blows. That's what grid energy storage is for
by cure 6y ago
> You can NOT replace nuclear with wind and solar. Because you can't choose when the sun shines and when the wind blows.
That's what grid energy storage is for. Traditionally this is often implemented with hydro (sometimes even by pumping water up to a high-altitude reservoir during periods of excess power generation). There are many more exotic methods as well - e.g. the crane that stacks concrete blocks, or the train with concrete that goes up and down the hill.
More recently, grid-scale batteries are being installed at increasing scale (e.g. Tesla's Megapack), and the cost efficiency of that solution seems to be improving rapidly.
- steeve 6y agoIf you run the numbers, you’ll see that we are several orders of magnitude away from having anything close to the scale of energy storage needed unfortunately
- funcDropShadow 6y agoExtending the grid transport capacity, allows you to transport the energy from the place where is currently blowing to the place where it is neaded. That, reduces the need to store power.
- steeve 6y agoThis has been demonstrated to be false at the Europe scale, unfortunately. See https://youtu.be/1aCHN6dytVY https://youtu.be/1aCHN6dytVY (in french though) In a nutshell, either there's wind everywhere, or not.