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> This is where I did a spit take. I was really underestimating the capacity for these "mini" reactors. Being able to power so many homes (and being more centra

• stubish 5y ago
  > This is not only untrue, it is the opposite of true. Centralized power sources mean you can build generation facility close to places with energy demand (usually population centers). People keep touting decentralized grids as some sort of advantage over centralized grids. It's the complete opposite. A decentralized grid needs more transmission infrastructure to connect large areas often far away from where energy is actually consumed. Renewable projects are often blocked because transmission infrastructure can't support them. This all seems backwards. Decentralized power generation means building the power sources where there is energy demand. Centralized power generation means building them somewhere and needing to use the grid to send the power everywhere else. Centralized power generation usually means large power plants generating power for entire cities, usually built a long way from those cities due to economics, logistics or pollution concern. Decentralized power generation usually means solar or wind farms built near enough to the population centers that residents protest against the perceived eyesore. Decentralized power generation in some cases means no grid at all in the cases dealing with remote locations (often served with diesel generators, the traditional decentralized power generation tech). Renewables change this somewhat, as you do need a grid connecting it all to deal with intermittent power generation, but it is the same capacity as needed to transmit the same power from some centralized power source 250km away.
  • Manuel_D 5y ago
    > Decentralized power generation means building the power sources where there is energy demand. Centralized power generation means building them somewhere and needing to use the grid to send the power everywhere else. You've got this backwards. Most energy demand is centralized in population centers. Thus, it's easiest to centralize power production next to those centers of energy demand. Centralized power production means generating the energy close to the locations with large energy demand. Decentralized production means generating that power across a large area and transporting it to the population centers with large energy demand. The problem is that wind and solar have to be distributed because they're depending on using large amounts of land, as well as having the right weather. If you're delivering power to a city you can pick and choose where you build a gas or nuclear plant. You can't choose where the wind blows or which parts of the country get the most sunlight.
    • stubish 5y ago
      The largest power plant in Australia, Loy Yang, and a few others, are all located about 190km from Melbourne (pop 4.9 million). The power plants were built there not because they are close to a population center, but because that is where the coal mines are and because it is far enough away from the population centers for pollution to not be a problem. Similarly Gas plants get built near the ports, to minimize transport costs. Compare this with rooftop solar, which has very high uptake across all of Australia, including the regions like Melbourne in the darker southern latitudes. Or the wind farms, which are able to be built all over the place with no need to be stuck near some resource like coal. Turns out that wind is everywhere, and by spreading generation out you get more consistency of generation. You can build wind as close to population centers as the population allows, and people are literally building solar on their own roofs.
      • Manuel_D 5y ago
        Cherry picking one specific plant does little to address the fundamental differences between geographically dependent and independent sources of energy. If you look at a map of gas or nuclear plants you'll see them located right next to population centers more often than not. Centralized energy production matching the centralized energy demand. By comparison wind has to be built out in windy areas, which are often far away. Wind blows in many places, but it's only economical to build wind turbines where it blows particularly strong. Similarly with solar power [1]. Rooftop solar is a trivial amount of energy. Realistic projections of a mostly solar grid have us transporting huge amounts of energy thousands of miles from sunny arid places to urban centers where that energy is in demand. 1. https://www.researchgate.net/figure/World-solar-potential_fig1_335224175/amp https://www.researchgate.net/figure/World-solar-potential_fi...
• Terry_Roll 5y ago
  You perhaps dont see the export potential for these mini reactors? The UK gave the world the industrial revolution, and the pollution, so this will be its answer to help clean up the planet. There is enough surveillance on the planet now to track and predict virtually everyone's next move when coupled with US tech firms, so what would remote villages in the Amazon think if they can get online and connected with the rest of the world, or parts of Africa getting reliable electricity? Electric cars's are still in the infancy, but battery tech is always improving and if the planet is to decarbonise then nuclear is the way to go. We havent even started mining Helium13 from the moon (massive amount on the moon little on Earth), but that has virtually no radioactive waste. Who wouldnt want decent electricity at Everest Base camp's? The US Embassy in London is supposed to have its own mini nuclear reactor which uses the Thames for cooling and generates enough to power local residence in the event of a power outage. Its probably like what you find on a nuclear powered submarine, which is what I would imagine these Rolls Royce mini reactors will be like or could be like.