4 ms·

I wonder which is easier? Large scale battery deployment or scaling nuclear. I think there are good reasons to be bullish about battery storage. It is alread

by 7952 6y ago

I wonder which is easier? Large scale battery deployment or scaling nuclear. I think there are good reasons to be bullish about battery storage. It is already an area of massive research. It is something we need to scale anyway due to electric cars. And it is very easy to deploy to the existing grid. You just need a concrete pad, some power gear, and a substation. Being optimistic about nuclear does not mean we cannot be optimistic about batter storage.

jnxx 6y ago
> I think there are good reasons to be bullish about battery storage. I only need to look at how long my laptop lasts compared to 15 years ago.
manfredo 6y ago
The US currently has less than 10 seconds of battery storage relative to it's 11.5 TWh average daily electricity consumption. The scale required relative to the scale we're capable of providing presents a staggering difference. We're talking about a 1,000x to 10,000x difference between current battery storage and required battery storage.
godelski 6y ago
> I think there are good reasons to be bullish about battery storage. That's not my issue. My issue is that we currently have working nuclear technology. That we can build and deploy now. Bullish means we're relying on future inventions. With the potential catastrophe we have ahead of us I don't think it is a good idea to put all our eggs in one basket. It may not pan out. It may not pan out in the timeframe we need it to. Nuclear is a relatively cheap risk reduction strategy. Be bullish on battery, but have a backup because in the mean time we're still using coal/oil/gas.
- 7952 6y ago
  The UK already has around 1GW deployed and has 10GW+ in the pipeline. All of Which should be built before Sizewell C starts to generate. I dont doubt that we can build nuclear plants. But right now the number of nations that can actually pull it off is small. Changing that would require new tech, modularisation, mass production etc. That is great and we should do that. But will it happen quickly?
  - godelski 6y ago
    We're concerned about storage in this part of the conversation. Since we're talking about being bullish on batteries. But sure, we can move the target.

by 7952 6y ago

jnxx 6y ago

> I think there are good reasons to be bullish about battery storage. I only need to look at how long my laptop lasts compared to 15 years ago.

manfredo 6y ago

The US currently has less than 10 seconds of battery storage relative to it's 11.5 TWh average daily electricity consumption. The scale required relative to the scale we're capable of providing presents a staggering difference. We're talking about a 1,000x to 10,000x difference between current battery storage and required battery storage.

godelski 6y ago

> I think there are good reasons to be bullish about battery storage. That's not my issue. My issue is that we currently have working nuclear technology. That we can build and deploy now. Bullish means we're relying on future inventions. With the potential catastrophe we have ahead of us I don't think it is a good idea to put all our eggs in one basket. It may not pan out. It may not pan out in the timeframe we need it to. Nuclear is a relatively cheap risk reduction strategy. Be bullish on battery, but have a backup because in the mean time we're still using coal/oil/gas.

7952 6y ago
The UK already has around 1GW deployed and has 10GW+ in the pipeline. All of Which should be built before Sizewell C starts to generate. I dont doubt that we can build nuclear plants. But right now the number of nations that can actually pull it off is small. Changing that would require new tech, modularisation, mass production etc. That is great and we should do that. But will it happen quickly?
- godelski 6y ago
  We're concerned about storage in this part of the conversation. Since we're talking about being bullish on batteries. But sure, we can move the target.