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> If electricity is cheaper to generate when the sun is shining, the retail price of electricity should reflect that. This would be amazing. It would quickly t
by tomp 5y ago
> If electricity is cheaper to generate when the sun is shining, the retail price of electricity should reflect that.
This would be amazing. It would quickly turn the population off further investment in solar and other unreliable, unpredictable sources of energy and prove that nuclear is the only viable green power.
- pydry 5y agoExcept in the UK where it's called octopus and electric car drivers love it.
- WalterBright 5y agoWe pay variable prices for gasoline every day, mainly due to unpredictable supply. Society hasn't collapsed.
- DocTomoe 5y agoAnd we would happily change to another system if it provided long-term price stability.
- WalterBright 5y agoYou'd be happy, but that happiness would fade after not too long. It was tried in the US in the 1970s, and produced long gas lines, shortages, and gluts. It's what always happens when the government engages in price fixing and supply fixing.
- DocTomoe 5y agoYou mean like OPEC? Also, I did not even mention price or supply fixing: prices can be stable for reasons outside governmental and/or monopolistic-evildoer's direct control.
- WalterBright 5y agoI meant Nixon's price and allocation controls he imposed on gas. The proof that the lines were not OPEC's doing is the moment Reagan repealed those controls, the gas lines disappeared and never came back. And I mean the moment. Gas lines one day, gone the next.
- pjc50 5y agoThe French "gilets jaune" riots demanded, among other things, reductions in the prices of diesel. Plenty of countries subsidise fuel or electricity in order to maintain society. While the US tolerates small price fluctuations, I guarantee you that if people in the US woke up to $10/USgal gasoline there would be armed mobs heading to the statehouse. https://edition.cnn.com/2022/04/09/business/food-fuel-prices-political-instability/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2022/04/09/business/food-fuel-prices...
- duckmysick 5y agoIsn't the price of diesel in France higher now than at the time of the protests in late 2018? At one point this year it even passed 2 euros per liter. How come they aren't rioting now?
- pjc50 5y agoRioting is tiring and there's an election happening right now through which they can express their preferences? Also these things tend to be "edge triggered rather than level triggered" - by a rise, rather than any absolute level.
- duckmysick 5y agoThere's a good chance France will reelect the president that was vilified during the riots. I guess four years ago the cause of the price hike was different. But overall the situation seems worse to me now. I don't think the yellow vests accomplished much in the long term.
- VaxWithSex 5y agoThat comment is so funny, because my home runs on solar/pv plus battery storage and my car too, saving me a ton of money :)
- adrianN 5y agoWe can predict the weather reasonably well. As the penetration of renewables increases, eventually storage will start to make more economic sense. It is likely that renewables with storage will be cheaper than nuclear. It is virtually certain that we can build renewables and storage much faster than nuclear.