15 ms·
Compare vs renewables not coal.
by dv_dt 6y ago
Compare vs renewables not coal.
- necheffa 6y agoRenewables are not a silver bullet either. There are plenty of nasty things that go into building batteries and solar panels with no where near the attention to safely disposing them. Plus, renewables just can't handle baseload and load follow the way fossil or nuclear can.
- dv_dt 6y agoBattery storage follows load much faster than fossil, and nuclear can't follow at all.
- VBprogrammer 6y agoWrong on nuclear. They operate in load following in France just fine.
- dv_dt 6y agoUntil it gets too hot and they have to ironically shut down the plants during heat waves.
- VBprogrammer 6y agoThe same would be true of any thermoelectric power station. They all need cooling of the condenser.
- dv_dt 6y agoBut not true of photovoltaic or wind power stations...
- Lazare 6y agoWe're still building coal power plants right now. See, eg, "Japan Races to Build New Coal-Burning Power Plants" from Feb of this year (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/03/climate/japan-coal-fukushima.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/03/climate/japan-coal-fukush...). In many places, what replaced nuclear power plants we decommission or choose not to build is not renewables, so that's by no means the only relevant comparison.